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.
It also includes Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, BJP leader Manoj Tiwari and MP home minister Narottam Mishra.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has accused the Election Commission of India of engaging in "vote chori" (vote theft) to benefit the BJP, claiming his party possesses substantial evidence of electoral irregularities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Rai also asserted that the Congress will win the upcoming Assembly elections in all five states.
'The current Election Commission functions more like a government department than an autonomous body.'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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 Congress' strength in the 230-member MP assembly came down to 65 after Shah's exit.
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.
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 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'.
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.
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.
'Elections in Madhya Pradesh have so far largely avoided freebies.' 'But this time both the Congress and BJP are making such announcements.'
Scinida quit the Congress on Tuesday. He is an influential leader of Madhya Pradesh where 22 Congress MLAs, most of whom loyal to him, have resigned from the assembly in a bid to topple the Kamal Nath-led government.
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.
The BJP has often highlighted the global recognition of his leadership and India's enhanced stature at the international level in its political discourse, an issue which is likely to rise in salience following the G20 meeting.
Outgoing Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said he will 'rather die' than asking something for himself from his party.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
'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 poll results show that the BJP has increased its base among the SC, ST communities in the state. However, the party's prominent tribal face and Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste lost the election.
These leaders joined the BJP in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, state BJP president V D Sharma and former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan at the party's state headquarters on Saturday morning.
Asked why Nath was not himself putting forth his side, Patwari said that the MP chief minister would speak at the right time. "What I said was on his behalf," he claimed.
The Congress on Tuesday said it welcomes displaying the portrait of the Father of the Constitution in the House, but it could have been placed along with the photos of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru.
'Bringing in Dr Mohan Yadav as the Yadav-OBC face from Ujjain as chief minister, and a scheduled tribe leader Jagdish Devda from Mandsaur district, and a Brahmin face Rajendra Shukla from Rewa, the BJP is making an attempt to put in place a new caste equation in the state keeping an eye on the general elections next year.'
Of these, 200 are fielded by the BJP, 196 by the Congress and the rest belong to other political parties.
In Telangana, the K Chandrashekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi has been in power since 10 years and in Mizoram, the MNF is in government.
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.
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