Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said his party would pull off a spectacular victory in the state assembly elections, but evaded a direct reply to a question whether he would be the chief minister for the fifth time, as he just said 'Bharatiya Janata Party Zindabad'.
The protesters who had gathered under the banner of the Joint Forum for Restoration of Old Pension Scheme and National Joint Council of Action said they were worried about their post-retirement future.
Ten ministers were inducted into the Mann-led cabinet on Saturday.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won the mayoral elections in 10 of the 17 municipal corporations in Uttar Pradesh, results for which were announced on Saturday, virtually adding a third engine to its "double-engine" government.
The Congress also fielded former Patiala mayor Vishnu Sharma from the Patiala assembly seats against its former leader Amarinder Singh.
Under Election Commission guidelines, campaigning has to end 48 hours before the close of polls for each phase.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress is likely to declare its chief ministerial face for Punjab on February 6 when former party chief Rahul Gandhi will visit the poll-bound state, party sources said.
'You are one of the drops that make that ocean, but when you leave it makes no difference to the ocean.'
The 36-year-old businessman had died after being allegedly assaulted by the police at a Gorakhpur hotel which they had raided on Monday night.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari's alleged aide Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva was shot dead on Lucknow court premises on Wednesday, the police said.
The ruling Congress, voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition, and the Bharatiya Janata Party are the main contenders for power in the state, where the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and some regional outfits are also in the fray.
Targeting the Congress, the PM said those who ruled Madhya Pradesh for a long time did nothing else other than corruption and crime.
In its exit poll released after the voting on May 10, India Today-Axis My India predicted a clear majority for the Congress with 122-140 seats and gave the BJP 62-80 seats. It gave 20-25 seats to the JD-S.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday claimed the Muslims made a "huge mistake" by voting for the Samajwadi Party, which she accused of being "complicit with the Bharatiya Janata Party in giving communal colour" to the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
A total of seven candidates have filed papers for the elections, for which the date for filing nominations ended on Friday.
Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dhotre were among those who missed casting their votes in the presidential poll on Monday.
'Nobody is speaking up for Muslims today.' 'Secular parties too have calmed down because they feel this will hurt the Hindu vote (bank).' 'In this scenario, where does a Muslim go?'
The Punjab assembly on Monday "unanimously" passed the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on September 27, even as Congress members staged a walkout.
A total of 2,021 candidates filed their nomination papers for the December 4 polls on all the wards.
Amid the raging Israel-Hamas war, a group of opposition leaders, including MP Danish Ali and former parliamentarians Mani Shankar Aiyar and K C Tyagi, visited the Palestine Embassy in New Delhi on Monday to express solidarity with Palestinians.
The police and administration officials were present in large numbers as the demolition progressed.
Sacked Rajasthan minister Rajendra Gudha on Wednesday made public three pages of the purported "red diary" which he has claimed contains the details of financial misdeeds of the Congress government and cited their contents to allege corruption in Rajasthan Cricket Association election.
They said members of Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party urged committee chairman Jual Oram to allow a discussion on the Agnipath scheme, arguing it has huge implications and required parliamentary scrutiny, but were denied from doing so.
'The tragedy with Indian Muslims is that they do politics from the heart, not from the head.'
In the recent past, Adityanath and the RSS seem to have come closer. The warmth is more on the part of the RSS. And even now, not all requests from the RSS are accommodated by the UP government, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Since 1993, when the BJP came to power after a stint of President's rule, the state has alternated between the Congress and the BJP.
The meeting of opposition parties has been called by Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar to chalk out a joint strategy to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"We don't agree with the ideology of the Congress. But we will support it to keep the BJP out of power," Mayawati said.
Sticking with the Brahmin-OBC combination for deputy chief ministers, Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya took oath on Friday as deputies of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in this round of voting being held in Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur districts.
Congress in charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that the one who does not follow the ideology of the Congress has no place in the party and the decision to sack Gudha was a collective decision.
Counting of votes will be held on Thursday for the Gujarat assembly elections which were held in two phases on December 1 and 5 across 33 districts of the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state.
Addressing an election meeting on what once was the home turf of slain gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday appeared to invoke nature as a great leveller -- a force that delivers justice.
Polling in 70 constituencies began at 8 am and will conclude at 5 pm, except in nine polling booths in the Maoist-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Gariaband district, where voting began at 7 for security reasons, a poll official said.
Her official Twitter handle is @SushriMayawati.
When asked from where Akhilesh Yadav will contest, the source said that the party has not yet disclosed the seat.
Modi and Chouhan have visited Mahakoshal multiple times and reached out to tribals to shore up support for the BJP.
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