While the responses of the candidates were predictable, depending on which side they belonged to, an interesting point slipped through when Rahul Shewale cited the Dharavi Redevelopment Project as a scheme that would add to Mumbai's importance. No big infrastructural project in Mumbai, he said, could be successful without the Centre's nod.
A Gujarat high court judge on Wednesday recused herself from hearing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's appeal challenging the order of the Surat sessions court that declined to stay his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.
The MLA appeared before the court of additional sessions judge RP Mogera and filed a 30-page objection to the former Congress president's plea for staying his conviction, his lawyer Ketan Reshamwala said.
Six Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including a sitting MLA and four former legislators have filed nominations as independents after being denied tickets by the party for the next month's Gujarat Assembly elections.
While the BJP says it is confident Dalits will vote for it in the state assembly polls due this year-end, the Congress says it is paying attention to seats with 10 per cent or more Dalit population.
I should not stay in a party where I am being insulted, ignored and betrayed, Alpesh said.
Apart from these leaders, the Congress also hinted at forging a pre-poll alliance with Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and bringing on board Chhotu Vasava, the lone Janata Dal-United MLA from the state.
A region-wise analysis of the Gujarat assembly results shows that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept Saurashtra region, winning 40 of 48 seats, regaining its hold over a region where the Congress held sway in 2017 polls.
A court in Surat in Gujarat on Thursday sentenced Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his "Modi surname" remarks.
The Congress legislator, who is a COVID-19 patient, was the last one to cast his ballot wearing a PPE suit. He came to the assembly complex in an ambulance, the official said.
In a written reply to a question asked by Congress MLA from Lathi, Bavku Unghad, Minister of State for Forest and Environment Govind Patel told the state assembly recently that nine lions died of accidents, including by falling in open wells.
Venugopal said not just the Congress but the entire nation has "condemned this erroneous conviction and disqualification, and resolved to stand by Rahul in this noble fight".
Incumbent MLA Kandhal Jadeja of Samajwadi Party on Thursday retained the Kutiyana assembly seat
The ex-CM said he had the honesty to face the protesters. He said the government should hold a dialogue with locals before coming up with any project.
The Congress had sent the 44 legislators to the resort to fend off 'poaching' attempts by BJP.
Gujarat BJP leaders on Friday said if the physician-turned-politician, once a member of the powerful Narendra Modi ministry in the state and rising star in politics, wants to return to active politics, the saffron party will definitely assign work to her.
Shivakumar also claimed that the BJP wanted to call for elections in Karnataka soon after the 2022 Gujarat poll results were out but backtracked on the move.
BJP MLA Purnesh Modi, complainant in the defamation case against Rahul Gandhi, has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court seeking that he be heard if the Congress leader moves a plea challenging the high court verdict refusing to stay his conviction in the Modi surname remark case.
In its second list of 46 candidates, the grand old party has also named four Muslim candidates.
The Rampur assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh which fell vacant following the disqualification of SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan is one of the five seats going for the bypolls.
The 22-year-old leader will stay at a house owned by former Congress member of legislative assembly and local Patel leader Pushkarlal Patel in Udaipur for the period.
Ravindra Jadeja and his wife Rivaba Jadeja cast their vote in Gujarat's Jamnagar district during the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.
The resignation of Balwantsinh Rajput (who was also the chief whip), Tejashreeben Patel and Prahlad Patel reduced the Congress's tally to 54 in the 182-seat assembly.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will appear before a court in Gujarat's Surat city on Thursday when it is expected to deliver its verdict in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his 'Modi surname' remarks, party leaders said on Wednesday.
'Can you imagine that Surat's voters won't have any say now in exercising their fundamental right to choose a candidate of their own choice? This is what the BJP has reduced India's democracy to.' 'With this ugly act, in one stroke, the BJP has disenfranchised the voters of Surat.'
The name of the Maharashtra chief minister will be announced on Wednesday, a day ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the Mahayuti government, after the Bharatiya Janata Party elects its legislature party leader, a senior functionary said on Monday.
Political analysts say the Congress appears on the backfoot this time after one of its senior tribal leaders from the region joined the BJP, which has a stronghold in urban areas where civic bodies, leaders and the network required to win the election are firmly with the saffron party.
After much flip-flop, the Congress decided to form an alliance with the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) and the two parties fielded their joint candidate -- Rajkumar Roat. However, the Congress candidate, Arvind Damor, whose name was announced before the stitching of the alliance, has refused to withdraw his nomination.
A total of 788 candidates are in the fray in the first phase of the elections on 89 seats spread across 19 districts of South Gujarat and Kutch-Saurashtra regions.
The Gujarat Assembly on Friday passed a resolution requesting the Centre to take strict action against BBC for tarnishing the image and popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with its documentary on the 2002 riots in the state.
"He [Vajpayee] did not do anything effective. I had sent him letters. I had talked to him directly," Narayanan said in a freewheeling interview to Congress MLA P T Thomas carried in a recent issue of Malayalam magazine Manava Samskriti.
'Muslims know they cannot defeat the BJP, why then come in its firing range?' 'And they know, ultimately it is the BJP MLA who is going to get elected and only he or she can do their work.' 'The BJP may do a different kind of politics for Muslims, but when they sit in the chair they work for Muslims too.'
The shifting of MLAs to Congress-ruled Rajasthan will allow the party to focus on drawing up its strategy for the crucial Rajya Sabha elections for which it has fielded two candidates, the source said.
As many as 833 candidates are in the fray across 93 constituencies which will go to polls on December 5. Votes will be counted on December 8.
That AAP managed a sizeable vote share in Gujarat is creditable. The BJP can no longer ignore AAP's growing presence in its strongest bastion, explains Ramesh Menon, long-time observer of Gujarat politics.
Over 20 leaders would be sworn in as ministers which may make way for young ministers, the sources said.
The BJP MLAs, who had staged a demonstration outside the assembly during the first half and marched to the Raj Bhavan during the lunch hour, were summoned by the speaker when the House reassembled at 2 pm.
A win for SP could provide some consolation for Akhilesh Yadav after the defeat in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early this year and the loss of Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in June bypolls.
Teary-eyed Congress leader D K Shivakumar on Saturday briefly belied the combative force he is for the Congress party, not just in the just concluded 2023 assembly polls, but on several crucial occasions in the past when his party needed him.
The bench said, "It is not an issue which can be taken up through an election petition and therefore, requires to be heard."
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