BJP derided Gandhi saying he "always talks trash" and claimed that unemployment was at its lowest in the last six years.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday stepped up its protest against Rahul Gandhi for his 'panauti' jibe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged the Election Commission to take action against the Congress leader.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday named former TV anchor and journalist Isudan Gadhvi as its chief ministerial candidate for next month's assembly elections in Gujarat.
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.
BJP candidate and minister Kunvarji Bavaliya defeated his nearest rival Congress nominee Avsar Nakiya by a margin of 19,979 votes, officials said.
During the procession that lasted for more than three-and-half hours, he passed through 14 assembly constituencies.
The Congress on Friday promised that if the party is voted to power in Gujarat, where assembly elections are due by the yearend, it would waive farm loans of up to Rs 3 lakh and provide free electricity for 10 hours daily to farmers in the state.
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Terming the charges against him a "BJP conspiracy", Siddaramaiah said he would wage a legal fight.
Mann said that the results in Gujarat, where the party exerted all its efforts to make inroads, will be "surprising".
Addressing the 'parivartan sankalp rally' in Ahmedabad, Gandhi made a host of promises to people of Gujarat, where the assembly polls are due later this year, including creation of 10 lakh new jobs, building 3,000 English medium schools and free education to girls.
'They sent a message that I will not be given the ticket and ordered me to issue a statement -- Gujarat style -- that with immediate effect I was retiring from politics.' 'They were treating me like a political novice who would be pushed around on the order of vested interests.' 'This rude behaviour hurt a lot. It was then I spontaneously decided that I will challenge this dictatorial order and expose all those who want to hurt Lingayat pride in Karnataka.'
Months after exiting the decades-long association with the Congress party, Azad said that he was not against its policy of secularism, but its weak party system.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of hatching a conspiracy to assassinate Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, fearing poll defeats in Gujarat and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and alleged Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari's involvement in it.
'The 2024 general elections proved that UP is not Gujarat.'
Kejriwal's new jobs promise comes days after he assured free electricity up to 300 units per month if voted to power in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state where polls are due by the year-end.
After the Karnataka porngate, a similar scandal has hit the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat assembly where two of its MLAs have come under the scanner for allegedly watching obscene pictures, prompting the speaker to seize their tablets and order a probe.
Better living conditions must be an integral part of all political campaigns. But this will only happen if the public pressures the political class to understand the irreversibility of climate change and make the environment a crucial part of their manifestos.
If the Anandiben Patel administration was shaken by the Patidar agitation, the Vijay Rupani government would have to deal with the Jignesh Mevani-led Dalit movement.
Of the 10 MLAs, eight including Vaghela and his son, who had voted for the BJP candidates in the Rajya Sabha poll, were expelled by the Congress on Wednesday.
An immediate solution to stem mounting dissidence within the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat appeared unlikely as party chief Rajnath Singh held a key meeting with a senior state leader opposed to Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
NCP's Kandhal Jadeja was the only MLA to win from the party.
The independents also scored big in some seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday cast his vote at a polling station in Ahmedabad during the second phase of the assembly elections in Gujarat and said the state's people listen to everybody, but it is their nature to accept what is true.
Gujarat has registered a voter turnout of 64.33 per cent for the recently-concluded elections to 182 assembly seats, a drop of more than 4 per cent as compared to the turnout registered in the 2017 polls.
Now, every state election -- first up, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year, then Delhi in January and Bihar in September next year -- will be seen by his followers for evidence of his recovery, and by rivals of sharpening decline, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Party sources said the issue of Rupani's successor will be discussed in the legislature party meeting likely to be held on Sunday.
The Patidar leader also urged the Congress to raise the issue of EVM tampering.
Once people throw out the Congress, they do not let it come back. They put 'no entry' boards for the Congress, he said. It always thought power was its birthright but it has now been exposed, the prime minister said
As the new year arrives, what is clear is that the BJP's stars continue to shine the brightest while its rivals' search for a way to dim their glow go on.
A court in Surat in Gujarat on Thursday sentenced Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail in a 2019 criminal defamation case filed against him over his "Modi surname" remarks.
BJP veterans whom K Annamalai has reportedly sidelined are upset over his 'immature' way of handling allies, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The BJP's problem is what rabbit can it pull out of the conjurer's hat?'
'Everyone knows there is no point in contesting elections from Gujarat as a Congress candidate because they know they will be wiped out.'
The Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday passed the Uniform Civil Code Bill, which may serve as a template for other Bharatiya Janata Party-run states to enact similar legislation.
Exuding confidence, Kejriwal said, "Our government will be formed in Gujarat in 2027."
On the other hand, Congress' vote share has risen to about 41.4 per cent this time
Godhra is one of the 14 seats which the AIMIM is contesting in the next month's elections to the 182-member Gujarat assembly.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said its prominent leaders from Bihar will campaign in poll-bound Gujarat, rejecting reports that Chief Minister Narendra Modi had asked party leaders from the eastern state to stay away from electioneering there.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and chief ministers of some BJP-ruled states were among those present at the Raj Bhavan ceremony.
