Behind its high-decibel campaign, powered by well-organised party machinery, the BJP also appears to have made a slight departure from its 'next generation' approach to stay ahead of an aggressive Congress and enhance its prospects of securing a majority of seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is Trinamool Congress's Bhabanipur bypoll candidate, of violating the model code of conduct (MCC) by participating in a programme where the West Bengal government announced a grant of Rs 50,000 to each Durga puja organising committee ahead of the state's biggest festival.
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.
Talking to reporters in Pune after his expulsion, Shivtare said the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is the 'real' Shiv Sena.
Modi also lauded party workers in the state, saying each of them is a champion
The former Union minister also said the people in Maharashtra are looking for a change.
The timeline of the Shiv Sena-centric political crisis in Maharashtra.
The BJP on Wednesday also named its in-charges for assembly bypolls to four seats in Tripura.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's debacle at this week's bypoll in Uttar Pradesh has once again prompted Union Minister Maneka Gandhi to bat for her son Varun, the party member of Parliament from Sultanpur, who was sidelined by party president Amit Shah soon after the latter rode on to the party's helm of affairs.
The seat had fallen vacant following the death of Lok Janshakti Party founder and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
The Shinde faction, which is now named as 'Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena', will be able to use the symbol for the Andheri East assembly bypoll, should it decide to contest the election scheduled for November 3.
His remarks came a day after the Samajwadi Party wrote to Rajbhar and Shivpal Singh Yadav that they are free to go wherever they feel they can get more respect.
Amid speculations of Operation Hasta' going on in Karnataka to woo Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to join the Congress, former BJP minister B C Patil and ex-MLA Narasimha Naik met Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar during the birthday party of noted Kannada film actor Sudeep Sanjeev, who is popularly known as Sudeep.
Dev, who was one of the national spokespersons of the grand-old party and its women's wing chief, switched over to the Mamata Banerjee-led camp last month.
Justice Hemant Prachchhak of the high court took up the criminal revision application filed by Gandhi challenging the April 20 order of the sessions court.
The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party on Wednesday termed the list of candidates released by its alliance partner Samajwadi Party for the Uttar Pradesh legislative council elections as "disappointing".
The Congress has pinned its hopes on many of the old-timers and also given representation to some new faces in its first list of candidates announced for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls scheduled next month.
Vast experience in running the government and mass appeal across the state have favoured Siddaramaiah in the tightly contested race for Karnataka chief minister.
According to the budget document, Rs 1,891.78 crore has been allocated for purchase of EVMs by the poll panel.
"Given the constitutional crisis, I felt it was right for me to resign," Rawat said.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 15 of 20 seats up for grabs in the politically crucial province of Punjab on Sunday, dealing a major blow to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his 13-party alliance led by the ruling PML-N.
'The agenda in politics should be service-oriented. But in Telangana the mandate of those who got mandate -- their entire focus is to abuse Modi'
The Communist Party of India-Marxist said that it will field a candidate as those opposed to the TMC and BJP needed an alternative.
The brothers were booked under the UP Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of the then BJP MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanad Rai, on November 29, 2005 and the kidnapping-murder of Varanasi-based trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997.
The announcement came days after party president Akhilesh Yadav met Khan at a Delhi hospital, where according to sources they discussed the bypolls to the Rampur seat.
"Since the elections started in West Bengal, central government hatched conspiracies to remove us (from power). I was hurt in my feet so that I don't contest the polls," she said.
Notably, CM Shinde on Monday said no claim will be laid on any party property post the Election Commission's decision on the real Shiv Sena as "we are heirs of Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology and have no temptations".
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said he has clarified his stand on the Election Commission's decision to recognise Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real 'Shiv Sena' and allocation of the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol to it, and will not get involved in the controversy over it.
The Election Commission had on July 16 said that bypoll to the Rajya Sabha seat from West Bengal vacated by Dinesh Trivedi earlier this year will be held on August 9.
