A handsome victory for the BJP in UP would act as confirmation of its recent political choices. The UP chief minister would be cemented in the popular mind as Mr Modi's chosen heir within the Hindutva fold, and presumably as his successor in New Delhi, observes Mihir S Sharma.
Two years after the Centre's flagship village electrification scheme Saubhagya concluded with the government claiming 99.9 per cent success, several states have added close to 1.1 million rural households that remain to be connected to the electricity grid. This new list includes earlier unwilling households that have now agreed to have a metered connection and also those built or discovered in the states' surveys since 2019. Assam and Uttar Pradesh are the states that have the majority of such new additions.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday night announced the 47 remaining candidates for Haryana assembly elections who include Union Minister Sushma Swaraj's younger sister Vandana Sharma and two former Congress MPs and a former minister in B S Hooda government in the state.
Over 56 per cent turnout was recorded on Monday in 54 assembly seats, including in Varanasi, in the seventh and last phase of Uttar Pradesh polls, marking the end of the voting process spread over two months in the crucial state.
Vinesh, a world championship medallist and Olympian, also claimed that several coaches at the national camp in Lucknow have also exploited women wrestlers, adding that there are a few women at the camp who approach wresters at the behest of the WFI President.
Only 18 Bharatiya Janata Party legislators switched parties to contest the polls in this period
The counting will begin at 8 am, and as per the Election Commission's COVID-19 guidelines, a candidate, his poll agent and counting agent can remain present in the counting hall, officials said, adding various measures have been taken to ensure social distancing and avoid crowding.
To beat BJP, you either deny them a critical mass of Hindu vote or build a regional leader and party strong enough to protect their turf, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The win in UP is especially significant because UP assembly members carry the maximum value of votes in a Presidential election, given the fact that the state is India's most populous.
Riding an anti-incumbency wave, the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh dislodging Mayawati while the ruling the Akali Dal-BJP combine sprang a surprise retaining power in Punjab and creating a history in the state by breaking a 46-year jinx.
'I am hopeful of getting all six seats from Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, either for the BJP or with our allies.' 'The same is true about Meghalaya.' 'We will have to work hard in Mizoram and in Tripura.' 'In Assam, we won seven seats. In 2019 election, we will add to this number.'
'I don't think there will be any problem for Hindus to accept Adityanath as the leader, since they have already chosen Modi.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday evening released its first list of 54 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
There will be no second term for President Kovind and no elevation for Vice President Naidu.
The nodal officer for EVMs in Varanasi, a returning officer (RO) in Sonbhadra district and an additional election officer in Bareilly district have been pulled out from election duties, a day ahead of the counting of votes in UP.
Informing about his decision, Maurya said in a tweet in Hindi, 'Due to the attitude of gross neglect towards Dalits, backwards, farmers, unemployed youth and small and medium-sized traders, I am resigning from the council of ministers of Yogi (Adityanath) of UP.'
Illegal weapons proliferation through the porous India-Myanmar border in the north-east has been a boon for the Maoists operating in the rest of the country. It has been disclosed by the Bharatiya Janata Party's national security cell convenor P Chandrasekhar following his situation review meeting with convenors of state BJP security cells in the north-east.
Kumaraswamy made the stunning claim that the BJP offered the MLAs of his party Rs 100 crore and ministerial berths.
'If the Citizenship Bill passes, then the very principle of Indian citizenship, which is called jus soli (right of birthplace) will convert to principle of jus sanguinis (right of blood) on the basis of religion.' 'Citizenship is being given on the basis of religion and it is against the Constitution.'
The Election Commission is confident of holding the five assembly polls due early next year, including in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, on time as the poll panel has gained a lot of experience from the electoral exercise in Bihar, West Bengal and four other assemblies amid the coronavirus pandemic, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra has asserted.
The saffron party which has a lot at stake in the last two phases of polling scheduled for March 4 and 8 has moved its war room to Varanasi, entrusting Union ministers and senior leaders with the task of strengthening the campaign with the prime minister in the vanguard.
There is no record of Hridaynath Mangeshkar being sacked by the AIR, Raut said.
The Lok Sabha was remained disrupted on Tuesday as the Congress moved an adjournment motion in the House.
The curtain came down on rumbustious electioneering over the last two months when assembly polls were also held in four other states - Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held deliberations with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda amid speculation about a reshuffle in the Union cabinet, an exercise Modi has not undertaken since forming the government for a second time in May 2019.
The election in this seat is also important for Union minister and local MP Mahesh Sharma who has considerable influence the area.
'There are too many competent people better suited and poised to take on Modi. The Gandhis are not among them,' argues Harishchandra.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narayan Rane, all of whom are being seen as probables for induction as ministers in the Modi government, arrived in the national capital on Tuesday amid indications that the Union Council of Ministers is likely to be expanded on Wednesday.
Digital canvassing is expected to benefit from political money looking for alternative blow horns.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said efforts are on to remove AFSPA completely from the northeast region.
The Congress Working Committee, the party's top-decision making body, would soon meet to deliberate further on the Chintan Shivir plans, the sources said.
Every time we look at the Congress, its future, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, we find the situation more hopeless than even a few months earlier, observes Shekhar Gupta.
If 'development' and jobs and such things are less important to many than identity, then the BJP can dominate the discourse by stressing the largest marker of identity, which is religious nationalism, observes Aakar Patel.
With two cabinet ministers and three ministers of state, the Northeastern region was on Wednesday handsomely rewarded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first reshuffle of his ministry in the second tenure.
About 20 Punjab Congress leaders met in Ludhiana on Tuesday, with some of them batting for a key role for Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former state party unit chief who was among the participants.
'Even if the government does not implement an all-India NRC before 2024, it will be part of the party's long-term project.'
Any defeat for the BJP now would imply that anti-incumbency against Modi has set in, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Wait for more action the day after (the Friday meeting).'
Bharatiya Janata Party veterans like Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and V K Malhotra may be accommodated as governors as their names are doing the rounds for appointment in gubernatorial posts in key states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana.
A three-member delegation of the party -- Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu, Nirmala Sitharaman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi -- met EC officials and submitted their memorandum.
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