'Can we force somebody to contest and fight an election when they don't want to contest an election?'
AAP's presence in both states has complicated the contests for the BJP and its Congress rival.
'The BJP is using administrative machinery to fight elections'
Sunita Kejriwal is slowly emerging out of the shadows to assume a bigger role to give a fillip to the AAP's campaigning which has been affected by the chief minister's arrest in a money laundering case in March.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday asserted that Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will not be restored even if Congress stalwart and late PM Indira Gandhi comes down from heaven.
Gujarat will go to polls in two phases on December 1 and 5 with the counting of votes on December 8 along with that of Himachal Pradesh, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced.
Despite the upbeat statement, the party is expected to reflect on what caused the sharp fall in its numbers. It is expected to win about 240 seats against the 303 it had won in 2019.
As the 240-seater prime minister attempts to moderate his image of hardline hero, he has made room for others to elbow in and that is what is happening. And that it what will continue to happen from inside the BJP, notes Aakar Patel.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers of some BJP-ruled states were among those present at the Raj Bhavan ceremony.
The Congress had won 77 seats in the 2017 assembly elections. Of these 77 legislators, as many as 20 resigned during the past five years, with three quitting in the last two days alone.
An OBC leader, Thakor, who has good oratory skills, will have to take along all factions in the state unit while taking on the well-organised BJP which has been in power in the state from 1998.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
'Not just Maharashtra, the Congress has not fielded even one Muslim candidate from Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.'
The 77-year-old former Congress president is set to enter the Upper House for the first time from Rajasthan.
The 1977-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer took oath in English after which he greeted the Chairman and other members present in the House.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday appointed election in-charges and co-in-charges for 23 states and Union territories in view of the Lok Sabha polls this year.
Patel also said that although he had taken up the issue of his harassment with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi many times, no action has been taken to address his grievances.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh, where assembly polls are due by 2023-end, are not attaching much importance to the presence of the AAP and the AIMIM citing the largely bipolar politics of the state.
AAP leader and party's Surat Lok Sabha president Rajnikant Vaghani demanded that either Kumbhani be booked on the charges of forgery or his proposers be booked for giving false declaration on oath.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister R P N Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi -- the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's unexpected announcement to resign after two days kicked up a strong buzz on Sunday over the names of his wife Sunita and his ministers Atishi and Gopal Rai as his possible replacement.
Nearly half of the MPs elected in the 2019 general elections in India were first-timers.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal mounted a blazing campaign in the hot summer after he was released from the Tihar jail on interim bail on May 10, drawing huge crowds at rallies and roadshows, but it proved insufficient to propel his Aam Aadmi Party past the Bharartiya Janata Party challenge in the national capital.
The Congress on Tuesday alleged that its candidates in both Surat and Indore were threatened, intimidated and bulldozed into withdrawing their nominations, and asked why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'so nervous' and 'afraid' even in traditional Bharatiya Janata Party bastions.
Prashant Kishor expressed the view that the recent 'chintan shivir' could not achieve "anything meaningful".
Rahul Gandhi may also contest from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli, a seat which was previously held by Sonia Gandhi.
Voting will be held on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state where 788 candidates are in the fray.
As per norms, a minister who is not a member of Parliament has to be elected to either House within six months of his or her swearing in.
Modi claimed the Congress, when in power at the Centre, had drawn up plans to allocate 15 percent of the total budget to minorities.
'The people of Gujarat understood this a long time ago and has since been rejecting the party and its programmes.'
Modi was born on September 17, 1950 in a small town in Gujarat.
A special investigation team (SIT) on Wednesday submitted a charge sheet against activist Teesta Setalvad, retired director general of police R B Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots cases.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Seeking to ensure a level-playing field in the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission on Monday ordered the removal of home secretaries of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, sources said.
While Ranaut will contest on a ticket for the BJP from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi constituency, her birthplace, Govil has been fielded by the party from the Meerut Lok Sabha seat.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after a thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
This is Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya's maiden Lok Sabha election, but political experts and voters feel he can easily win Porbandar seat in his home state Gujarat, despite the electorate facing some key issues like unemployment.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
Sharing his experience of the yatra so far, the Congress leader said he felt sad while talking to farmers, youth, and tribals.
Once people throw out the Congress, they do not let it come back. They put 'no entry' boards for the Congress, he said. It always thought power was its birthright but it has now been exposed, the prime minister said
