Sources in various parties suggest that two lakh votes of the Patel community, locally known as OBC kurmi, for which mother-daughter led Apna Dal (S) and Apna Dal (K) are competing and over one lakh of OBC Rajbhars would be crucial in deciding the outcome of the assembly seats in Varanasi.
Campaigning for the fifth phase ended on Friday evening, and all necessary arrangements have been completed, state Chief Election Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said in Lucknow on Saturday.
Initiating the debate on the bill from the opposition's side, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said that any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be "gross injustice" to Indian women.
Those meeting Modi included BJP's Narayan Rane, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Bhatt, Bhupender Yadav, Shobha Karandlaje, Pritam Munde and Meenakshi Lekhi, Lok Janshakti Party's Pashupati Paras and Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel, sources said.
A day after meeting Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday held talks with AAP leader Sanjay Singh and Apna Dal (K) chief Krishna Patel in the run-up to the 2022 assembly polls.
'It is not just about numbers. Sometimes coalitions and alliances have symbolic value.'
During a cabinet meeting earlier in the day, Modi lauded both Naqvi and Singh for their contributions to the country during their ministerial tenure, sources said.
"I congratulate all the colleagues who have taken an oath today and wish them the very best for their ministerial tenure. We will continue working to fulfill the aspirations of the people and build a strong and prosperous India," the PM posted on Twitter.
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
'In the long run, I don't foresee major ramifications [about Trudeau's allegations].' 'There's just enough hypocrisy among Western nations for India to douse the outrage.'
The interim free trade agreement between India and Australia will come into force on Thursday, providing duty-free access to thousands of domestic goods such as textiles, and leather in the Australian market. The agreement will help almost double the bilateral commerce to $45-50 billion in around five years, according to exporters and industry players. The Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which was signed on April 2, would provide duty-free access to Indian exporters of over 6,000 broad sectors, including textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery and machinery in the Australian market.
Glimpses from all the action from the campaign trail.
"I will always strive to enhance democratic values of country," Dhankhar said after filing his nomination.
As the winter session of Parliament ends on Friday, images of our MPs you haven't seen before!
All MPs of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, are entitled to vote in the vice presidential election.
Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, J P Nadda and Prakash Javadekar were among the key leaders from the BJP at the meeting.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday met senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, and is also likely to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief J P Nadda during his two-day visit, sources said.
Addressing party workers at the state headquarters after the poll results and trends showed a clear BJP majority, he said the 'misleading' campaign run by the Opposition over the past 2-3 days have been set aside by the people who reposed faith in the good governance of the BJP.
"We small parties, like the Apna Dal-S, want some respect to be shown to us. We, our leaders and workers feel hurt if due importance is not given to us," Ashish Patel told mediapersons
The last two phases of the elections will be held on March 3 and 7.
Stressing that the Apna Dal-S stands for social justice, Union minister Anupriya Patel on Monday dissociated her party from "Hindutva and all those issues" and said it is ideologically different from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Amid Covid-19 protocols, here's how the monsoon session looks like.
Chevening Scholarships offer full financial support for one year to candidates applying for a master's degree at any UK university.
Voting for the seventh and final round will be held on March 7 for Varanasi and its eight adjoining districts.
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.
'My God, what do I say? It's shocking!' 'They had 27 MLAs in 2012. And now they have just seven.' 'My party (the Apna Dal-S) contested 11 seats and won in nine.'
Ahead of the Union Cabinet expansion on Wednesday, several Union Ministers, including Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar resigned from their posts.
While Yadav began to tour different constituencies and address public meetings to mobilise the SP rank and file, he has concurrently started the tedious process of cobbling up an alliance of smaller outfits representing a mlange of castes and sub-castes, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, for whom the temple town sharpened its Hindutva plank, is facing a challenge particularly from the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing state polls.
Tuesday's exercise underlines Bharatiya Janata Party's attempts at wooing Dalits and OBCs, whose votes would be crucial to its fortunes in key states like UP and Gujarat.
The two leaders also discussed the special category status promised to the southern state.
The BJP stalwart continues to be in the intensive care unit of the Cardio-thoracic Centre at the hospital.
In the event of a triangular contest the winning party will need about 40 per cent of the votes polled. And it is here that the votes of the numerically smaller communities will come into play.
At the meeting attended by 33 parties, the prime minister said suggestions from public representatives, especially from the Opposition, are valuable as they make the discussion rich.
This is the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019.
Politically, women have been making their presence felt in voter turnouts. According to the Election Commission, the female voter turnout was higher than male turnout in 16 states and Union territories.
Joining hands with smaller parties with a political base in different castes was a part of the BJP strategy as it won big in Uttar Pradesh in the 2017 assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
UP now has 16 ministers, the maximum from any state, in an apparent bid to keep the Dalit and other backward class votebank content.
In the backdrop of the ongoing farm protests, back into public consciousness in the aftermath of the recent Lakhimpur Kheri episode, smaller parties are expected to not only enliven the election theatre, but also queer the pitch for the Opposition.
Singh was among the many MPs who attended a breakfast meeting hosted by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 18 as well as a Parliamentary panel meeting on transport, tourism and culture attended by around 20 MPs on Wednesday. Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said in a tweet, 'This government is putting us all at risk. The PM says self-isolate yourself but Parliament is on.'
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