The Congress is now gearing up to take on the BJP over alleged corruption, jobs and issues tied to tribals, farmers and women.
A fierce competition among parties to offer freebies and guarantees, a scramble for tribal, OBC, women votes and a touch of Hindutva -- all have combined to make the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls a high-stakes battle with main rivals BJP and the Congress pulling out all the stops to gain power.
The much-awaited Ram temple consecration will be held in Ayodhya on Monday in a grand ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the rituals, following which the shrine will be opened for the public a day later.
The MP ATS arrested 11 persons, including a gym trainer, software engineer and teacher, and booked them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and other relevant provisions of the IPC, an official said.
The BJP won 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Congress was able to hold on to just one seat -- Chhindwara.
As Madhya Pradesh goes to polls, all eyes will be on 29 key assembly seats, out of the total 230, where the contest will be keenly watched.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said his party would pull off a spectacular victory in the state assembly elections, but evaded a direct reply to a question whether he would be the chief minister for the fifth time, as he just said 'Bharatiya Janata Party Zindabad'.
'The concept of an MP IPL team is the brainchild of Kamal Nath.' 'If the Congress government comes to power in the state, he will assemble an IPL team for MP with the assistance of his business contacts.'
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has ridiculed the move as 'hypocrisy' saying Congress leaders had termed Lord Ram as an imaginary character.
Behind its high-decibel campaign, powered by well-organised party machinery, the BJP also appears to have made a slight departure from its 'next generation' approach to stay ahead of an aggressive Congress and enhance its prospects of securing a majority of seats.
Counting of votes will be held on Sunday in assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana in what is seen as a semi-final contest ahead of the general elections in less than six months.
In the video, Nath was talking to Raghuvanshi's supporters when he made the remarks about former CM Digvijaya Singh and his son.
On Monday, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly said, The day, the people of Chhindwara wish that I should retire from politics, I will call it quits."
He said the people of the state took a historic decision in 2003 by removing the government of "Mr Bantadhar", apparently referring to senior Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh.
These include key constituencies held by Opposition parties such as Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi, Congress) and Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP); Maharashtra's Baramati (Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party); West Bengal's Jadhavpur (Mimi Chakraborty, TMC); Telangana's Mahabubnagar (Srinivas Reddy, TRS) and Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara (Nakul Nath, Congress).
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In both of these Hindi heartland states, the straight contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress.
The figure, mentioned in his affidavit filed along with the nomination papers, is over five times the assets of his parents, which as per MP CM Nath's affidavit stood at over Rs 124 crore.
Congress had won won in the assembly polls barely five months ago in the same three states -- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC) has expanded its pilot to 15 more cities. This comes at a time when it plans to begin operations next month. Snapdeal has also signed the onboarding agreement with the network and will debut on it next month. On Monday, ONDC expanded to Noida, Faridabad, Lucknow, Bijnor, Bhopal, Chhindwara, Kolkata, Pune, Chennai, Kannur, Thrissur, Udipi, Kanchipura, Pollachi, Mannar and Ramnathpuram.
Petrol and diesel prices on Sunday were hiked for the fourth straight day by 35 paise per litre each, pushing pump rates to new record high across the country with states with high incidence of local taxes such as Madhya Pradesh having the costliest fuel. The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of Rs 109.34 a litre and Rs 115.15 per litre in Mumbai, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Diesel now costs Rs 98.07 a litre in Delhi and Rs 106.23 in Mumbai.
The CM has announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of those killed.
Sanjay Singh Masani said the state needs Congress's chief Kamal Nath not Chouhan as the CM.
The company stated that it was taking steps for cost rationalisation across all businesses to maintain liquidity and due to a prolonged slowdown it had to take a few tough measures.
It is clear that Kamal Nath is gearing up for the 2023 assembly polls, reports Sandeep Kumar.
A village in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district has claimed to have become free of open defecation due to efforts made by the locals in collaboration with authorities under the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.
Separate teams led by Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Virendra Singh raided the houses of AEN Ramlakhan in Indore and Chhindwara following complaints of possessing huge property, land plots and hard cash, officials of Special Establishment of Lokayukta said in Indore.
A Jodhpur court, on April 25, 2018, had sentenced Asaram to life in prison after finding him guilty of raping a teenage girl in his ashram in 2013.
"Nathji should take the moral responsibility for the defeat as he is chief minister and mostly importantly the state party chief as well," a Congress leader said.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
Controversial self-styled godman Asaram Bapu's son Narayan Sai on Wednesday said the girl, who had levelled charges of sexual abuse against his father, as "mentally unstable".
Petrol and diesel prices on Tuesday were hiked for the sixth time this month, propelling prices to cross the Rs 100-a-litre-mark in places from Nanded in Maharashtra to Rewa in Madhya Pradesh to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. Petrol price was hiked by 27 paise a litre and diesel by 30 paise per litre, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers. The increase took petrol and diesel prices to their highest-ever level across the country. In Delhi, petrol now comes for Rs 91.80 per litre and diesel is priced at Rs 82.36.
The post of Chhattisgarh governor was under the additional charge of Madhya Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel since August after the demise of Balram Das Tandon.
Speaking to reporters for the first time after arriving in Bengaluru and sending in their resignations, the 22 MLAs said they were ready to face any consequences.
Nath said the silver bricks were bought from contributions made by members of the Congress. "We will send 11 silver bricks for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya on the behalf of citizens of Madhya Pradesh," the former chief minister told reporters.
The HC granted relief to Sanchita Gupta alias Shilpi who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a trial court.
Prosecution on Wednesday opposed the bail plea of Asaram Bapu, accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl, in a court in Jodhpur saying investigations in the case will be affected if bail is granted.
The Bhopal seat is currently held by Alok Sanjar of the BJP.
Apprehending threat to the life of family members, father of the child rape-victim has moved the Supreme Court on Thursday opposing the bail plea of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu.
Gandhi has been repeatedly using the "chowkidaar" jibe to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
