It is in power on its own only in three states -- Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana -- with a big question mark on whether it can even stake claim to be head of the INDIA bloc.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a scathing attack on the BJP in her maiden Lok Sabha speech, accusing the government of trying to weaken the Constitution and prioritizing the interests of one individual over the people. She criticized the BJP's alleged attempts to change the Constitution, the growing monopoly of the Adani Group, atrocities on women, and the demand for a nationwide caste census. She also challenged the BJP to hold elections using ballot paper, saying it would expose the reality.
The opposition, which had earlier accepted defeat, is again jumping around today, the UP CM said.
Cricketer Yusuf Pathan will contest from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, whereas Kirti Aazd will fight from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
Waiting to be reinstated as a member of Parliament after his disqualification following conviction in a criminal case, Nationalist Congress Party leader Mohammed Faizal on Friday said the Lok Sabha secretariat was very quick to disqualify, as in his and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's case, but very slow to reinstate.
'Arithmetic could decide the Haryana election given the presence of multi-cornered contests.'
According to the Election Commission data, 30 out of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats went to the BJP-led coalition in the latest elections, a sharp drop compared with 39 in 2019 and lower than the tallies of 2014 (31) and 2009 (32).
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).
Acharya will contest from Saran while Bharti will try her luck in the Patliputra LS constituency.
The junior Abdullah would be banking heavily on Shia support as the constituency has many Shia dominated areas that include Budgam, Beerwah, Pattan, Sonawari and Bandipora, among other pockets.
The Congress and the AAP fought the Lok Sabha polls together in Delhi while they had contested separately in Punjab.
Neglect of older dedicated workers who worked without the urge for recognition by the new age social media-aided selfie powered activists was also evident in the poll results, it said.
Out of the 20 candidates announced by the BJD for the 21 Lok Sabha seats, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's party has nominated at least seven leaders who came from either the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Congress.
The BJP may emerge as the single largest party post parliamentary elections and will have to seek support of allies, he said.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi are facing multiple problems in Lok Sabha seats like Sangli, Madha and Satara in western Maharashtra due to political dynasties, old rivalries and one-upmanship, prompting a flurry of meetings before five phase polls begin in the state on April 19.
With many of his close associates leaving his side, it is virtually a lone battle for Congress stalwart Kamal Nath to help his parliamentarian son Nakul Nath win from Chhindwara for a second time amid the Bharatiya Janata Party's aggressive push to wrest the seat.
Even as KPs lined up across special polling stations in Jammu amid tight security, several of them had to return without casting their vote.
'BJP was always there in my blood, but due to some reasons I had gone out, but today I feel I have come back to my mother's lap. Looking at my brothers here, I don't feel like I'm coming back to the BJP office after 13 years'
Discordant voices emerged on Sunday from the Mahayuti even as the alliance continued to remain in the throes of government formation more than week after it swept the Maharashtra assembly polls.
Assembly elections will be held in four states with the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, which will start from April 19, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced on Saturday.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was given a rousing welcome by thousands of people, including United Democratic Front leaders and workers, at Kalpetta in Wayanad on Wednesday as she prepares to make her electoral debut by filing nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha bypoll.
Thackeray said there was no certainty that people will vote for the ruling alliance even after schemes like the Ladki Bahin Yojana.
'The BJP alliance needs to handle the Maratha quota issue skilfully and address its root cause, which is agrarian distress. Then there is stalled industrialisation. If these issues are addressed, caste fault lines would wither away. But, this is next to impossible in a short span of three-four months.'
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 Bharatiya Janata Party's first list of 24 candidates for Lok Sabha from Madhya Pradesh featured former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, while Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur was replaced by another candidate.
Counting began at 8 am under multi-tier security cover. At first, postal ballots will be counted and then EVMs opened.
MARD has lost deposits on all seats it has contested so far since it was formed in 2018 but its leaders say they are undeterred by elections losses.
Among the major parties, out of the 25 BJP candidates, four, or 15 percent, have criminal cases against them, with two facing serious charges, as per the data of ADR.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
The EC said polling percentage in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir is the highest in 40 years.
An approximate voter turnout of 59.06 per cent was recorded in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday in 58 constituencies across six states and two Union territories with the polling percentage in the Jangal Mahal region of West Bengal touching 78.19.
Widespread violence between supporters of the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party over alleged electoral malpractices in strife-torn Sandeshkhali marred the final phase of Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal on Saturday, resulting in injuries to a number of people.
Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mukesh Dalal was on Monday elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat after all other nominees withdrew from the fray, a poll official said.
The rout of Sharad Pawar-led faction has raised questions over his political future with a potential risk of a further slide in the party flock in future.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
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.
Congress, the main Opposition party in the BJP-ruled state, had left the Khajuraho seat for SP as per the seat-sharing arrangement within the INDIA bloc.
Fadnavis' announcement comes at a time when a section of Bharatiya Janata Party in Kalyan has expressed reservations against fielding Shrikant Shinde, the sitting MP from Shiv Sena.
The Aam Aadmi Party has fielded Karamjit Anmol, while the BJP has named North West Delhi MP Hans Raj Hans from Faridkot, a reserved parliamentary constituency.
According to party sources, the Congress leadership has been making efforts to convince some ministers and lawmakers to contest, as they have faced problems in identifying winnable candidates in several segments.
