The Congress had governments in eight states in 2014, but now, the number might come down to five.
The crisis in the ruling Uttarakhand Congress persisted as 17 of the 32 party members of Legislative Assembly supporting Union Minister Harish Rawat, abstained from taking oath in Uttarakhand assembly on Thursday.
Congress members trooped into the Well of the House, raising slogans against the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Leader of the House and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said no discussion other than on proclamation of President's Rule in Uttarakhand can take place.
Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Indira Hridayesh passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest in New Delhi on Sunday.
Uttarakhand Speaker has issued notices to nine rebel Congress MLAs asking them why they should not be disqualified from the House for aligning with the opposition BJP.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the appeal before a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh, which asked him to approach the Registry for listing it for hearing on Friday itself.
The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
Voting for by-elections to seven assembly constituencies of six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, started on Tuesday at 7 am.
The CBI has found the sting CD genuine, the sources said.
Voting was underway on Friday in 102 Lok Sabha seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the world's largest electoral exercise, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging voters to exercise their franchise in record numbers.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri won the trust vote in the state Assembly on Wednesday.
A total of 70 Assembly seats are up for grabs in the ensuing elections.
Shiv Sena on Wednesday came out strongly against its ally, Bharatiya Janata Party over imposition of President's rule in Uttarakhand
"The voting percentage is likely to go upwards when reports from all polling stations are obtained as polling is scheduled till 6 pm in many constituencies. Final figures will be known on Saturday after the scrutiny of form 17A," the EC said.
Despite falling short of majority, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttarakhand on Wednesday began efforts to form the government with its senior leaders trying to establish contact with Independent members of Legislative Assembly and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal.
In the brief history of the hill state of Uttarakhand, there has not been a single instance where a chief minister has lost a by-election, reports Shishir Prashant.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is on his way out, according to Congress sources, and Union Minister Harish Rawat and state minister Pritam Singh are emerging as the frontrunners for the top job in the hill state.
Atishi claimed that in recent times, many events have happened that indicate the possibility of the imposition of the President's Rule in the national capital.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister R P N Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi -- the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
He was brought dead at Max Hospital in Saket in south Delhi, the hospital said.
The issue of imposition of President's Rule in Uttarakhand echoed in Parliament on Monday with Congress members in both Houses storming the Well and party leader Mallikarjun Kharge staging a dharna in the Lok Sabha.
Congress on Tuesday night appeared on course to form government in Uttarakhand after it took a wafer-thin one seat advantage over ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in a cliff-hanger of a contest in state assembly polls.
Political observers lauded the SP's choices in fielding several non-Yadav and Scheduled Caste candidates, the party's alliance with the Congress, and Rahul Gandhi's campaign around the danger to the Constitution if the BJP won a big majority.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
The BJP won in 34 of the 69 constituencies where elections were held, while Congress bagged only 21 seats.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Describing the passing of Lokayukta Bill in Uttarakhand as a "revolution" in governance, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Wednesday said their campaign in Hisar bypolls has paid dividends though some of them had to face "bitter" experiences due to it.
The BJP and the Congress have been oscillating the power in the state since its creation in 2000,
The BJP, which rules the Centre, is in power in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and is all set to get Madhya Pradesh back and snatch Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress after today's vote count.
B C Khanduri, a former army general, was Sunday sworn in as chief minister of Uttarakhand replacing Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, in an apparent bid by Bharatiya Janata Party to lift its sagging image following corruption charges and intra-party feuds in the state ahead of assembly polls.
Among the five states going to polls, Manipur earns the distinction for having the highest number of sittings in its legislative assembly.
In Uttarkhand, 71 per cent of the MLAs (50 of 70 analysed) are graduates and have higher qualification and 27 per cent have criminal records, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms.
Uttarakhand was on Sunday brought under President's rule by the Centre on grounds of "breakdown of governance" in a controversial decision.
Three independent MLAs were non-committal on their support to the saffron party.
In a tweet in Hindi, Rawat said, 'Isn't it strange that the organisational structure at most places, instead of extending a helping hand, is standing with its head turned away or playing a negative role at a time when I have to swim across the ocean of elections.'
Elections are scheduled in five states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab.
For renomination to the Rajya Sabha, Nadda will have to look for a seat outside his home state of Himachal Pradesh as the Congress is in power there.
Political parties may campaign against corruption and criminality, but it's the selection of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls that tells the real story.
Political parties may campaign against corruption and criminality, but it's the selection of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls that tells the real story.
While Chouhan has emerged as a favourite to remain at the helm in MP despite the presence of some challengers, the leadership race is wide open in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, two states where the BJP has snatched power from the Congress.
