Bharatiya Janata Party Supremo and Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi is embraced by a 103-year-old supporter in Dahod.
The incident came to light on Monday when some television reporters recorded the gardener, Halke Ram, collecting swabs of people for testing at the hospital in Sanchi, a world heritage site located 50 km away from Bhopal.
Bharatiya Janashakti Party president Uma Bharti on Tuesday charged the BJP with using money power in a big way and misusing the administration to ensure its victory in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.
Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti, who made a vengeful effort to defeat the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, herself suffered ignominy losing from her home turf Tikamgarh. Her Bharatiya Janshakti party won just five of the 213 seats it contested. Bharti lost to Congress' Yadvendra Singh by 9,828 votes.
Dalit votes could play a decisive role in 28-30 constituencies in the 230-member assembly.
After publication and broadcast of the news, the district administration constituted a committee of revenue and health officials for an inquiry into the news report, the FIR said.
Seen by political watchers as the favourite to retain power for a third straight term, the Bharatiya Janata Party has set itself an ambitious target of winning 370 Lok Sabha seats, a goal aimed as much at projecting its strength as at diminishing the opposition in popular imagination.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and chief ministers of Congress-ruled states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Chhattisgarh are among those named by the party as its star campaigners in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress may stand a better chance in the assembly polls if it followed the 'Himachal model', suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
Rahul said that although Modi repeatedly attacked him, his father Rajiv Gandhi, grandmother Indira Gandhi and great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, he gave him a hug.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Sunday ended his sit-in protest outside Khajuraho police station in Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh against the death of a party worker during assembly polls held on November 17.
With this, 26 MLAs have quit the Congress in the state since March this year. "Lodhi has resigned and his resignation was accepted today," MP Assembly's pro tem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma said.
Rahul Gandhi's focus will be on his Nyay Yatra, rather than the INDIA bloc's election campaign, leading to speculation among allies that the Congress leader is already looking at the Opposition's fight beyond May 2024.
For the first time, non-upper castes are in a majority in the board, as the party continues with its outreach to traditionally weaker and backward sections of society.
'Who has given how much money to which party, the people of India must know this fact.'
That he hasn't done so yet, has continued to be active on the political street, in public debate and on social media, signals an important change. It will give his party hope. Maybe the achievement of reducing Mr Modi well below the majority mark will now motivate him to stay committed, observes Shekhar Gupta
Nath had said in Bhopal, "Lot of industries are set up in which people from other states, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, come to work. I do not want to criticise them, but the youth of Madhya Pradesh are deprived (of jobs)."
He was addressing the Madhya Pradesh Assembly while marking the start of its golden jubilee celebrations.\n
The development comes after the Supreme Court decided to strike down the recent 27 percent reservation in favour of OBCs in local bodies made by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh governments.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has set its sights on winning an 'unprecedented majority' in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking key organisational leaders to work towards boosting the party's vote share by 10 per cent, sources said.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama expressed his pleasure at being introduced as the "son of India" saying he took pride in this status.
Most exit polls have forecast gains for Congress in at least four states including a clear majority in Rajasthan.
'100 per cent, the BJP will form the government in Madhya Pradesh and Shivraj Singh Chouhanji will be once again chief minister.'
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
The development came against the backdrop of the ruling party accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to poach its MLAs to topple the Kamal Nath-led government, which enjoys a wafer thin majority in the House, and imminent expansion of the state Cabinet.
He is not experienced enough to run a state and ultimately "Lalu would have been at the helm" of Bihar, Bharti said.
With the strategy working in its favour, the BJP could be encouraged to undertake similar steps in states, including Karnataka, where elections are due next year, to counter factors that might work against it.
Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, all former BJP presidents, besides RSS joint general secretary Arun Kumar met at the residence of incumbent party chief JP Nadda.
The Congress will begin the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from the violence-hit Manipur on Sunday, in what is being seen as the party's bid to set the narrative in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls and put the spotlight on issues such as unemployment, price rise and social justice.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot submitted his resignation to Governor Kalraj Mishra Sunday evening after his Congress party was defeated in the assembly polls.
The counsel appearing for the poll panel told a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde that Nath's petition has become infructuous as the campaigning has ended and the voting is on Tuesday.
Modi wants the BJP to gets an additional 10% of the vote share from what it won in 2019. Plans are afoot to get new faces to replace MPs with poor chances of winning. Sources say more than 100 MPs are like to be axed, notes Modi biographer Ramesh Menon.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Nath has been reprimanded for repeated violations of the model code while campaigning for the bypolls in 28 assembly constituencies in the state.
It is for the first time that the 82-year-old BJP veteran will be skipping the meet.
Gandhi said Modi had "claimed that he wants to be a 'chowkidar' (watchman of the country) but he actually proved to be a 'chowkidar' of Anil Ambani, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi and has been working for them since last four years."
What are the political equations, the challenges, and the threats?
A Congress leader, who was denied party ticket from the district's Agar constituency for the November 25 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, allegedly committed suicide on Thursday, the police said.
Lok Sabha constituencies that sprung a surprise in the 2024 polls.
An unusual Congress protest against rising LPG prices.