20-25 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft are flying political heavyweights for the assembly elections in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, reports Sahil Makkar
If the BJP fails to retain power in Madhya Pradesh it will not only scuttle Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's political career, it will also put a question mark on the capability of Narendra Modi, says N D Sharma.
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Even as both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh have been making claims of bringing forward women in politics, the parties have allotted few tickets to them for the November 25 assembly elections.
Even as both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh have been making claims of bringing forward women in politics, the parties have allotted few tickets to them for the November 25 assembly elections.
Celebs and commoners cast their votes in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election on Friday, April 26, 2024
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj will court arrest in Bhopal as part of Bharatiya Janata Party's nationwide 'jail bharo' agitation against hike in petrol prices and overall inflation on June 22, it was announced on Tuesday.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
The police on Wednesday arrested Pravesh Shukla, accused of urinating on the victim, Dashmat Rawat, who belongs to a tribal community.
Dismissing reports that the former Congress leader tried to reach out to Sonia Gandhi and him before leaving the party but was not given time, Rahul told media: "He was the only chap in the Congress who could walk into my house anytime."
'If a person wanted to contest from such a difficult seat, then it is meaningless to say that he is afraid of losing elections'
Accusing the BJP of working to 'divide India and spread hate and violence', he asserted that a fight of ideologies is going on in India.
Sources said while the Congress units of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will hold separate discussions on May 26 on their preparations and actions to be taken, the party will also hold strategy meets on Chhattisgarh on May 27.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko on Wednesday criticised the Centre as well as Bharatiya Janata Party-led Madhya Pradesh government for inviting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to a function in Sanchi near Bhopal.
Union minister and the BJP's election in-charge for Rajasthan Pralhad Joshi, co-in-charge Nitin Patel, the party's in-charge for Rajasthan Arun Singh, state president C P Joshi, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kailash Chaudhary, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Rajendra Rathore, Deputy Leader of Opposition and former state president Satish Poonia and other leaders were present at the meeting, which is likely to continue till late, the sources said.
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
The Congress on Tuesday announced its second list of 43 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, fielding Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath once again from Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara and Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot from Rajasthan's Jalore.
Patel will replace Om Prakash Kohli, who, besides being Gujarat Governor, was also given the additional charge of Madhya Pradesh.
"We have got more votes, but we will respect the mandate. We haven't got the required seats to form the government. We will not stake claim to form the government and I am submitting my resignation soon to the governor," Chouhan told reporters.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Madhya Pradesh has brought in a stringent law against cow slaughter which has raised the jail term from the current three years to seven years for violators.
'The Commission under Article 324 of the Constitution of India and all other powers enabling in this behalf, also bars Imarti Devi, from holding, anywhere in Madhya Pradesh, any public meetings, public processions, public rallies, road shows and interviews, public utterances in media (electronic, print, social media) , in connection with ongoing elections for one day on 1 November,' the EC order said.
This comes a day after he targeted the saffron party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, asking why they were not chanting 'Jai Siyaram' and 'Hey Ram'.
The minister also hit out at Khurshid over the book on the Ayodhya verdict, titled Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times, which was released on Wednesday.
A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party scored big wins in three assembly polls, talk within the party shifted to the likely chief ministerial picks in these states, with senior leaders holding discussions on Monday.
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.
Modi is on a two-day visit to his constituency, which began on Monday with the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.
After Chouhan passed the floor test, the House was adjourned till March 27.
Key states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana would go for polls this year, besides states from the North-East.
He held two massive roadshows in Rajasthan and one in Madhya Pradesh and his entries in many of rally venues were marked by a drive through cheering supporters.
The results mark a defining turn in the fortunes of several regional satraps, especially in the BJP, around whom politics in their states have revolved for decades.
Modi and Chouhan have visited Mahakoshal multiple times and reached out to tribals to shore up support for the BJP.
The meeting is being held purportedly to discuss ways and means of raising the issues of Hinduism and the Ram Temple at Ayodhya in the coming weeks.
He is not experienced enough to run a state and ultimately "Lalu would have been at the helm" of Bihar, Bharti said.
Bharti has been demanding appropriate amendments in liquor policy, which the state government releases every year, and incorporating more controls to promote de-addiction.
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.
RJD-JD-U leaders believe Dhirendra Krishna Shastri's visit is part of the BJP's 2024 poll strategy.
'The BJP is doing politics 24x365, but the Congress revs up only during elections.'
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.
The 77-year-old former Congress president is set to enter the Upper House for the first time from Rajasthan.
Modi is the first prime minister to visit the birthplace of Azad.
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