Rai also asserted that the Congress will win the upcoming Assembly elections in all five states.
Electorally, the yatra seems to have paid dividends in the south, but the march does not seem to be helping the Congress in stopping the BJP's surge in the Hindi-heartland states.
The counting of votes in Mizoram will take place on December 4, a day after it was originally scheduled, the Election Commission said on Friday.
Dantewada recorded lowest turnout with 49 per cent voting.
The sources said the Congress is the binding force for the opposition bloc and the stronger the Congress emerges the better for the alliance.
Among the free symbols are walking stick, baby walker, air conditioner, balloon, bangles, wheel barrow, whistle, window, wool and needle, water melon, walnut, wallet, violin, vacuum cleaner and trumpet.
Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases across all 90 seats. The first phase on November 12 will cover 18 constituencies spread over in 8 Left Wing Extremism affected districts (Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Sukma, Kondagaon, Kanker, Narayanpur and Rajnandgaon). The remaining 72 seats in north Chhattisgarh will go to polls in the second phase on November 20. As the state goes to the polls in its first stage on Monday, here's an easy guide to the 1st phase of polling.
Chouhan's fate will be determined by the BJP central command's assessment of the implications of such a move ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party scored big wins in three assembly polls, talk within the party shifted to the likely chief ministerial picks in these states, with senior leaders holding discussions on Monday.
The party was trounced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is now left with only Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.
Rahul Gandhi's focus will be on his Nyay Yatra, rather than the INDIA bloc's election campaign, leading to speculation among allies that the Congress leader is already looking at the Opposition's fight beyond May 2024.
Baghel led from the front to take on the BJP, led by Raman Singh, after being entrusted the task to revive the Congress' fortunes in Chhattisgarh following the third consecutive defeat in the 2013 assembly polls.
There are concerns within the Congress with respect to the articulation of the party's demand for the caste census, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently accusing the grand old party of attempting to divide Hindus through its push for the Other Backward Classes.
Seizures in poll-bound states see sharp rise since implementation of Model Code of Conduct.
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said like other states, the BJP started the game of using money power, power of the government and muscle power to destabilise the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh but has failed.
Youth unemployment (ages 15 to 29) is higher than the national average of 12.4 per cent in Telangana (14.2 per cent) and Rajasthan (13 per cent), followed by Chhattisgarh (6.7 per cent) and MP (6 per cent).
The Election Commission of India has set up more than 200 polling stations within housing societies in the urban areas of Uttar Pradesh to increase the voter turnout in the politically crucial state.
Sources said while the Congress units of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will hold separate discussions on May 26 on their preparations and actions to be taken, the party will also hold strategy meets on Chhattisgarh on May 27.
'There was a 77 per cent chance that electorates in India voted for the same party for both the state and Centre when elections were held simultaneously.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power in Rajasthan on Sunday, winning 115 seats out of the 199 where assembly elections were held last week.
Key states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana would go for polls this year, besides states from the North-East.
The Tamil Nadu assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution urging the Centre to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 to protect and ensure unity and communal harmony and uphold the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution.
The scam-ridden Congress government in Chhattisgarh has become a model of misrule and people have decided to root it out in the upcoming assembly elections, he said.
The Election Commission on Wednesday changed the date of polling for the Rajasthan assembly elections from November 23 to November 25 in view of demands for a change given "large-scale" weddings in the state that day.
Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency to political funding.
A group photo taken at the Bharatiya Janata Party office in Jaipur ahead of Tuesday's legislature party meeting showed Bhajan Lal Sharma in the very last row.
'Episodes of targeted attacks on Muslims established that for a section of people and, sadly, even officials of the State, the election results conveyed no lessons.' 'Opposition parties must not be hesitant in speaking out whenever the mob with tacit State support targets Muslims,' asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
BJP national president Amit Shah asserted that the last 15 years rule of the BJP is a model of an ideal state. "Raman Singh government has successfully tried to contain the Naxal and made the state an education hub. This manifesto is for Naya Chhattisgarh.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
If the corruption issue doesn't claim Mr Baghel, the Congress's chances in the assembly election later this year are good, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot submitted his resignation to Governor Kalraj Mishra Sunday evening after his Congress party was defeated in the assembly polls.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday picked first-time MLA Bhajan Lal Sharma as Rajasthan's new chief minister, ending days of speculation that followed its victory in the assembly polls.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a fourth straight term in the tribal-dominated state as the opposition Congress seeks to return to power after 15 years.
Replying to claims that Naxal activities gained momentum in Chhattisgarh during BJP's rule, the chief minister, without naming Congress, said Naxalism began spreading its tentacles from 70s and everyone knows who ruled the country from 70s to 2003.
The gunbattle took place at a forest in Kistaram area bordering Telangana
'The Congress is trying to reinvent itself -- the caste census demand, OBC emphasis, the anti-corporate thrust, especially on Adani etc -- all this is not standard Congress strategy.'
The audio tape suggested financial inducement behind the Congress candidate withdrawing from fray in an assembly bypoll last year.
Banking on the tribal population in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the P A Sangma-led Nationalist People's Party on Friday said it would contest in the assembly elections of the two states to be held later this year.
Of the 34 SC reserved seats that went to the polls, the BJP won 22 and the Congress 11.
Former Union minister Prakash Javadekar and another senior party leader Om Prakash Mathur was made poll in-charge for Telangana and Chhattisgarh respectively, a party statement said.
