'The current Election Commission functions more like a government department than an autonomous body.'
The BJP has fielded 18 MPs, including four Union ministers, for the latest round of assembly polls so far -- seven each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and four in Chhattisgarh.
Welcoming them into the BJP fold, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav cryptically said many people are feeling anxious and they will eventually join the saffron party in the coming days.
At an election rally in Rajasthan on Tuesday, Gandhi said, "PM means Panauti Modi", insinuating the prime minister's presence at the Ahmedabad stadium during the India-Australia Cricket World Cup final brought bad luck to the home side, which lost the decider.
According to a party statement, besides Singh, party leaders Saroj Pandey and Vinod Tawde are also being sent to Rajasthan as central observers.
A group of people, allegedly led by the son of a BJP MLA, forcibly entered the Mata Tekri temple in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, after it had closed for the night and assaulted the priest who refused to let them in. Police have registered an FIR and are investigating the incident.
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Digvijaya claimed any machine with a chip can be hacked and also said he has opposed voting by EVMs since 2003.
Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.
This negated the gain of more than a dozen seats in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ramniwas Rawat on Monday took oath as a cabinet minister in Madhya Pradesh, as Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expanded his ministry nearly seven months after assuming office.
Asked if he is joining the BJP, Nath said, "If there would be any such thing, I would inform you first."
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave Modi's aggressive campaign ahead of the assembly election for the party's performance.
Eighteen people were killed and five others injured after a firecracker warehouse exploded and collapsed in Gujarat's Banaskantha district on Tuesday. The incident occurred in an industrial area near Deesa town around 9:45 a.m., killing workers from Madhya Pradesh and their family members. The warehouse was used to store firecrackers, but there is no evidence that firecrackers were being manufactured there. The Gujarat government has announced financial assistance for the victims' families.
The invitation cards for the 79th Independence Day celebration also carry the Operation Sindoor logo, and the water mark of Chenab bridge to exemplify the rise of 'Naya Bharat'. Floral decorations at the venue will also be based on 'Operation Sindoor'.
It also includes Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, BJP leader Manoj Tiwari and MP home minister Narottam Mishra.
The Congress has promised to introduce the 'Mahalaxmi Scheme' in the poll manifesto which will provide Rs 1 lakh annually to the poor to alleviate poverty.
Hours after, however, firing from the Pakistani side was reported in Akhnoor sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Drones were also seen in the Pir Panjal area.
Though different voices are emerging from within the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh over the issue, several saffron party MLAs, including senior leaders, appeared worried about a possible repeat of the 'Gujarat formula' to overcome anti-incumbency in the central state, where Assembly elections are due in end-2023.
'Mr Modi has the power and pre-eminence in the BJP-RSS to choose how long he wants to serve, and he is definitely going to want to contest in 2029.' 'He will only be 79, as old as Donald Trump now, and fitter,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
The party's decision to announce the first list of candidates so early underlines the significance it has attached to five state elections, the last round of assembly contest before the all-important Lok Sabha polls.
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.
Polling in Indore, where the Congress is out of race after its candidate withdrew his nomination, is scheduled on May 13.
Rahul Gandhi said that the ongoing Lok Sabha election is aimed at saving the country's Constitution.
Rai also asserted that the Congress will win the upcoming Assembly elections in all five states.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Those involved in the incident targeted a motorcycle, two cars, one religious structure and a bakery, and indulged in arson. The police had to lob tear gas shells and lathi-charge to disperse the mob, the official said.
An Indian delegation led by the BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad will tour key European capitals to expose Pakistan's role in cross-border terrorism and State-sponsored extremism.
Chouhan's fate will be determined by the BJP central command's assessment of the implications of such a move ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Ahead of the Madhya Pradesh elections, Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra have arrived in Bhopal as part of the ruling party's programme wherein every legislator will be allotted one assembly seat each that they are supposed to visit to take stock of the ground situation, party leaders said.
A Congress councillor and a trader were arrested in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, after a video surfaced showing people raising "Pakistan Zindabad" slogans during a protest against the Pahalgam terror attack. The councillor claims the video is fake and that BJP leaders also participated in the protest.
The Congress' strength in the 230-member MP assembly came down to 65 after Shah's exit.
With the party fielding three Union ministers, besides four other MPs, as candidates in the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, it may continue with the strategy in Rajasthan.
Congress general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said there is no truth in the speculation of senior party leader Kamal Nath joining the Bharatiya Janata Party and claimed such talks were a creation of the media and the saffron party.
The 10 who put in their papers include nine Lok Sabha MPs, including Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel, and the one Rajya Sabha member, officials said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in India has declared that cash and gold worth approximately Rs 52 crore, seized from an abandoned SUV in Madhya Pradesh last year, belonged to former state transport department constable Saurabh Sharma. The ED's statement ends months of speculation about the ownership of the seized assets and comes as part of an ongoing investigation into corruption charges against Sharma. The agency has also attached assets worth Rs 92.07 crore belonging to Sharma and his associates, alleging they were acquired through illegal means.
The SP MP said when the mentality is bad, then instead of telling about the achievements of the army, people start talking about their own achievements.
On the day of polling in the high-profile Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, the city's mayor Vikram Ahake, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, urged people to vote for Congress' Nakul Nath.
With the assembly election results throwing up surprises, most exit polls got the outcome in Chhattisgarh and the scale of the Bharatiya Janata Party's win in Madhya Pradesh wrong.
He said the people of the state took a historic decision in 2003 by removing the government of "Mr Bantadhar", apparently referring to senior Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh.
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