'Do not conspire against us, don't betray us. They should tell us straight that they don't need Samajwadis'
The youth -- their dreams of government jobs unfulfilled -- are voicing their frustration.
The SP chief said, "If the Congress behaves like this, who will stand with them."
Saturday's voting will mark the end to the marathon polling process that began on April 19 month and has already covered 486 Lok Sabha seats in 28 states and Union territories.
The gangster-politician was booked in 65 criminal cases ranging from murder to extortion and was elected an MLA five times on the tickets of different political parties.
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dubbed the electoral bonds as the 'world's biggest extortion scheme' and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 'champion of corruption'.
To counter PM Narendra Modi's aggression, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will hold a joint road show on March 4 in PM's constituency, reports Amit Agnihotri.
The Congress and the Left parties have not only extended support to the Samajwadi Party candidate but are also campaigning for him, in accordance with the spirit of the new opposition togetherness ahead of next year's general election.
The roadshow will begin from Kachahari at 12 noon after party leaders garland the statue of BR Ambedkar and will cover a distance of around eight kilometers in three hours.
Modi polled 5,16,593 votes -- about half of the total votes -- while the Congress's Ajay Rai, and candidates of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party now run the risk of forfeiting their deposits.
From music to politics. The family of late shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan has been dragged into the political battleground after Bismillah's grandson was approached to become a proposer for Bharatiya Janata Party nominee Narendra Modi when he files his nomination for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat on April 24.
The Allahabad high court on Friday issued a notice to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a petition challenging his election from the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
As voting got underway in this high-profile Lok Sabha constituency, AAP candidate Arvind Kejriwal said his direct fight was with Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi and Congress' Ajay Rai was nowhere in the contest.
Take a look at the famous faces who exercised their democratic right.
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
With this, the ruling BJP has so far declared candidates for 136 seats. Earlier, the BJP had announced 79 candidates, including two lists of 39 each, and another list of one nominee.
Counting's underway and the fate of the candidates is awaited. As we wait for the results with bated breath, here's how your heavyweights are faring for now.
Election authorities have rejected nomination papers of 34 candidates out of 78 contestants in this high-profile Lok Sabha seat, leaving 44 persons in the fray including BJP's Narendra Modi and AAP's Arvind Kejriwal.
It was a manic Monday in Varanasi. The voting day lived up to the hype created by the campaigning here. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Yogi Adityanath, who has been declared BJP candidate from Gorakhpur will be the second leader to contest from the district as a chief minister after Tribhuvan Narayan Singh, who lost in 1971.
The Congress on Sunday said it will give a "good fight" to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi on Varanasi seat and did not rule out fielding an outsider.
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
The AAP has declared candidates on six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
Almost all prominent leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as members of the National Democratic Alliance and North-East Democratic Alliance accompanied Modi.
Congress's UP chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit and Ghulam Babi Azad will also be present in the roadshow.
One of Modi's foremost critics will contest if he is the common candidate of a united Opposition, but fielded by the Congress.
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
Terms of the two dozen seats had expired last year though elections were deferred because of a delay in Panchayat polls which could not be held in time on account of the COVID 19 pandemic.
As the dust finally settles on the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and Bharatiya Janata Party along with its NDA allies emerges as the clear winner, here is a list of who won in each of the 7 phases of elections.
As Lok Sabha polls draw closer in this temple town, Narendra Modi's presence on party posters and banners on Wednesday surprisingly came down drastically -- apparently due to "technical" reasons related to election expense limits.
"No material has been placed on record to make the petition triable," the judge said.
The Congress wants the 28 seats it won in 2012 plus 20 seats where the party was runner-up plus 57 seats where it was ahead of the SP in 2012.
The turnout for these seats was 57.92 per cent in the last assembly polls in 2012.
Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
She has been appointed general secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East), while Jyotiraditya Scindia holds charge of UP West.
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com records a heated discussion on NaMo at one of Varanasi's best-known locations.
Escalating his attack on the Election Commission, Narendra Modi questioned the poll body's neutrality over denial of permission for a public meeting at a venue of his choice in Varanasi even as appealed to party workers to maintain peace while protesting the move.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was defeated by Aam Aadmi Party's first-timer and an eye surgeon from Bhadaur and Chamkaur Sahib seats, respectively.
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