The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
Senior BJP leader and Patnagarh MLA KV Singh Deo and debutant from Nimapara assembly segment Pravati Parida took oath as deputy chief ministers.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat lost both seats he contested.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Nationalist Democratic Alliance-ruled states and prominent personalities from industry and Bollywood on Thursday attended the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister in Mumbai.
Accusing the Centre of meting out "step-motherly" treatment to Uttarakhand in granting financial assistance, opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday staged a walkout in the Uttarakhand Assembly.
The legislature party meeting will be held on Friday in the presence of the central observers and party in-charge of Uttarakhand affairs Shyam Jaju.
While the Aam Aadmi Party is contesting on four seats, the Congress has fielded candidates for the remaining three seats.
Describing Khanduri as "able and efficient' administrator, Singh said under his leadership the government would be able to live up to the expectations of the people.
In its election manifesto -- 'Sankalp Patra' -- the Bharatiya Janata Party has vowed to implement the Union Civil Code (UCC), maintain peace in the Northeast, among other key poll promises.
Six persons were travelling to Punjab from Hemkund Sahib Yatra in a vehicle which was intercepted by Uttarakhand STF and local police following a tip-off.
Dhami and his eight ministers were administered the oath by Uttarakhand Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (retd).
States like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had on Friday announced similar incentives.
It rejected the government's contention that there are no provisions to declare tragedies as a national calamity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
A US military aircraft carrying 112 Indian deportees landed at the Amritsar airport late on Sunday night, marking the third such flight in recent weeks. The deportees, who hail from various states across India, will be allowed to return home after completing necessary immigration procedures. The deportations are part of a crackdown by the Donald Trump administration against illegal immigrants.
Amit Shah wants to increase the party's nationwide vote share by at least 10 per cent from the 37.7 per cent it secured five years ago and ensure above 50 per cent vote share in the states where it came close to that benchmark, but couldn't cross it.
The meeting, which began around 10:30 pm on Thursday, lasted for more than four hours and was held at the party's headquarters in New Delhi.
Once implemented, Uttarakhand will be the second state after Goa in the country to implement it .
An average voter turnout of 20 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday amid an incident of stone pelting in a village in UP's Meerapur and allegations of police personnel deterring voters from casting their ballot.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat were among the early voters to exercise their franchise as polling was underway on Wednesday for the state assembly elections.
BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra in a grand ceremony at Azad Maidan in Mumbai.
The Supreme Court on Monday imposed an interim stay on directives passed by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments that eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route must display names of owners.
The Congress on Tuesday accused Home Minister Amit Shah of harboring "hatred" towards B.R. Ambedkar, demanding an apology from him for his remarks in the Rajya Sabha. Congress leaders pointed out that Shah's comments, which criticized the frequent invocation of Ambedkar's name by the opposition, demonstrate a deep-seated animosity towards the architect of India's Constitution. The allegations sparked outrage among Congress members, who accused the BJP and RSS of having a history of disdain for Ambedkar. The incident has fueled political tensions, with the Congress vowing to hold Shah accountable for his remarks.
rivals Congress, JMM and TMC and Samajwadi Party.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
'People want to do business in the name of the Kedarnath temple.'
Political parties have fielded sons, wives and daughters-in-law of legislators who quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.
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.
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.
Amid war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party over reports that Narendra Modi had rescued 15,000 Gujaratis from Uttarakhand, BJP chief Rajnath Singh said the Gujarat chief minister never gave such a statement.
'Not even a single rupee from the electoral bonds should be allowed to be used in the election.' 'If it is used in the election, it will taint India's electoral process itself.'
Dhami is often regarded as a protg of Maharashtra Governor and former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari, whom he served as an Officer on Special Duty and an adviser.
The party has fielded Parvati Das for the by-election to the Bageshwar assembly seat in Uttarakhand and Lijinlal G for the Puthuppally assembly seat in Kerala.
Koshyari said he decided to resign as he could not keep pace with the daily schedule as the governor of the country's largest state due to his health.
Hours before the ceremony, Saini visited the Valmiki Bhawan and offered prayers at a gurdwara and the Mansa Devi temple in Panchkula.
The BJP holds 28 of the 59 Rajya Sabha seats that will soon face election.
Her election to the post was a foregone conclusion as the main opposition Congress chose to stay out of contest.
At least half a dozen names have begun doing the rounds as Dhami's likely replacement, including Chaubattakhal MLA Satpal Maharaj, Srinagar Garhwal MLA Dhan Singh Rawat, former chief minister Triveda Singh Rawat, who did not contest the polls this time, and Didihat legislator Bishan Singh Chufal.
The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
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