Political parties have fielded sons, wives and daughters-in-law of legislators who quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.
Tensions flared in Madhya Pradesh's Mhow town and Gandhinagar district of Gujarat amid celebrations of the Indian cricket team's victory in the ICC Champions Trophy, resulting in unrest and multiple arrests across the two states.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Former Union Minister Sharad Pawar has refuted claims made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the BJP's victory in the Maharashtra assembly polls ended the politics of betrayal and treachery started by Pawar in 1978. Pawar stated that he was the Chief Minister in 1978 and was unaware of Shah's whereabouts at the time. He also criticized the lack of communication between current political leaders and called for a return to respectful dialogue. He also highlighted Shah's past legal issues, including being externed from Gujarat. In response to speculation about the future of the MVA coalition, Pawar said discussions will take place within the next 10 days to address key issues. An editorial in the Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' also criticized Shah's remarks, calling them 'arrogant' and questioning the BJP's actions in relation to Pawar and Balasaheb Thackeray.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the people of Gujarat have given an unprecedented mandate to the party by rejecting those who do politics of hollow promises, freebies and appeasement.
The Congress-AAP alliance this time aims to give a tough fight and stop the division of anti-BJP votes.
The Maharashtra government plans to introduce a stringent anti-conversion law in the winter session of the legislature, with provisions stricter than those in other states.
'Who will answer for these lives crushed under their neglect?'
The term of the Gujarat Assembly ends on February 18 next year while that of Himachal Pradesh on January 8, 2023.
Katara is the third Congress MLA to resign in the last two days, after Mohansinh Rathwa and Bhagwan Barad.
'The quality of justice is directly linked to the quality of judges -- if that suffers, justice delivery suffers.'
In another jolt to the opposition Congress for the second day in a row ahead of the Gujarat assembly polls, senior MLA Bhagwan Barad on Wednesday resigned as a legislator and primary member and is set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In a bid to nullify anti-incumbency sentiment, the ruling party dropped 45 MLAs including former chief minister Vijay Rupani.
'It showed me that this man had courage. He makes his own decisions, but he also trusted me enough in that moment to walk with me into the crowd,' Modi tells Lex Fridman on his podcast.
Addressing a massive Martyrs' Day rally in Kolkata, Banerjee gave a clarion call to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2026 assembly elections and eventually oust it from power at the Centre, declaring, "If this linguistic profiling doesn't stop, our resistance movement will reach New Delhi."
'The people of Gujarat are more religious than people of other states, this gives the BJP an advantage.'
As counting of votes for the Gujarat assembly polls is underway, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Hardik Patel predicted that his party will win over 130 seats, the most by the party till date in the Gujarat, and expressed optimism that the BJP will undoubtedly form the government for the seventh time in the state.
'Modi's charisma may have weakened as last year's Lok Sabha poll results showed but in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar, it has not waned.' 'Minus a strong BJP government at the Centre for another decade and more, there is apprehension that an anti-Hindutva government could reverse many of the ideological gains that the Modi dispensation has achieved through its three terms,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Citing convention followed in 2017, the poll panel had not announced the Gujarat poll schedule when it came out with Himachal Pradesh election dates earlier this month.
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.
Now it's all jibes about his chameleon-like politics and fading grip on the administration. But there was a time Nitish had the BJP trembling in the state, points out Aditi Phadnis.
During the procession that lasted for more than three-and-half hours, he passed through 14 assembly constituencies.
Check out the scenes of triumph!
New Delhi looks to be testing Omar's endurance with unconcealed glee, never feeling shy to bite whenever a moment comes its way. After all, ruling the country's only Muslim-majority UT/state has been the BJP's burning desire, points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'The Election Commission's involvement in the avoidable SIR controversy has carried a message down to the last voter -- who just does not like it,' observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A total 2.51 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise for the second phase of elections, including 1.29 crore men and 1.22 crore women.
'Often people outside paint a wrong picture of us of Kashmiris. We are not like that. We are cool and bindaas,' said the lady, a teacher, caressing my cheeks in the pressing crowds.
Beniwal was admitted to the hospital after a brief illness. One of her family members said the funeral will be held on Thursday.
NCP's Kandhal Jadeja was the only MLA to win from the party.
The Sena-UBT pointed out that the Congress only spoke about itself in the Ahmedabad meet, and INDIA or Bharat was nowhere in the discussion.
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.
Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal will announce on Friday the name of the party's chief ministerial candidate for the next month's Gujarat Assembly elections, party office-bearers said.
'It is something like traditional Indian families.' 'The family might be run by younger people, but if the patriarch says that you should consider someone for some task, it is very difficult for the others to ignore it.'
A total of 19 legislators from the opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party were suspended from the Gujarat assembly for a day on Wednesday after they shouted slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party government before walking out of the House over the issue of a fake trainee PSI found undergoing training at a state-run police training academy.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray alleges the state government's three-language formula is a precursor to separating Mumbai from Maharashtra, speaking at a rally with Uddhav Thackeray.
Except for Anant Patel, the rest 16 MLAs of Congress were present in the House on Monday.
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.
The Congress's second AICC session in Gujarat post-Independence is being held on the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's party presidency and the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Gujarat will go to polls in two phases on December 1 and 5, with the counting of votes on December 8.
Congress workers stormed into the Gujarat party headquarters in Ahmedabad on Monday and burnt posters of senior leader Bharatsinh Solanki to protest against the party's decision to give a ticket to sitting MLA Imran Khedawala from his Jamalpur-Khadia seat in the city.
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