The high-octane campaign for the first phase of the crucial Gujarat elections, viewed as a prestige battle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a litmus test for the leadership of soon-to-be Congress president Rahul Gandhi, will come to an end on Thursday. Here's everything you need to know about the polls -- from candidates to the constituencies.
In Gujarat, Amit Shah's tactic of spiriting away Congress leaders and MLAs is jocularly called 'shop-and-buy votes'. Although haemorrhaging the Congress is a vital aspect of his election blueprint, an aide said, "Amitbhai wants to win on our strengths and not by weakening the Congress."
Vaghela said the front 'Jan Vikalp' was floated by some city-based "professionals", who approached him to provide an alternative to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress in Gujarat, and claimed a number of people wanted to see him as the chief minister.
Influential Patidar leader Naresh Patel, who heads the Shree Khodaldham Temple Trust, on Wednesday claimed that though the older generation is against him joining politics, youth and women want him to take the route.
The police baton-charged the suspected attackers arrested in the case by holding them against an electric pole in the village square in full public view.
The party's prime mover in West Bengal and the state Pradesh Congress president was stunned by Trinamool Congress's star candidate and cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan who comprehensively defeated Chowdhury by a margin of over 85,000 votes.
The proportion of postal votes polled in the general elections has gradually risen since 2009.
'In all likelihood, the Congress will fall short in Gujarat.' 'The Modi-Amit A Shah duo will hold on to the state for the BJP,' predicts Sudhir Bisht.
Of the 137 candidates having criminal records, 78 candidates are facing serious cases such as murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and rape.
If Tamil Nadu voters preferred the DMK combine, it owed to the Modi-Annamalai combo's ideological battle which often crossed the line of political decency and also challenged 'Tamil pride', argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
"I like Rahul Gandhi at a personal level, but I do not consider him as a leader because he is not my leader," Patel also said at an event.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister R P N Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi -- the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
Influential Patel community leader Parshottam Rupala, minister in the first Narendra Modi government Mansukh Mandaviya and three-time MP Darshana Jardosh, all from Gujarat, were among those inducted in the Union cabinet on Wednesday.
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.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
The transformation of the Modi-Shah baiting Hardik Patel into saffron poster boy.
There are 763 registered voters among around a thousand residents of this remote village in Alirajpur assembly constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, but no candidate has bothered to visit the place, locals said on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejigged his team only once, in July 2021, in his second term, unlike in his first stint, when he reshuffled and expanded his council three times.
The Kolkata Police has booked actor Paresh Rawal under different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on a complaint filed by Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Md Salim, who alleged that he delivered 'hate speech' against the Bengali community during an election rally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar supremo Sharad Pawar were among the famous faces who queued up at the polling booths on Tuesday to caste their votes in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath to 10 cabinet ministers and 14 ministers of state, including five ministers of state with independent charge.
The Gujarat elections will be held on December 9 and 14.
Kejriwal also targeted the BJP over its state president C R Paatil, and claimed there cannot be a bigger insult of the state's people than the ruling party appointing 'a man from Maharashtra' as its chief.
If the Congress is contesting fewer seats than ever before, the BJP is set to contest its highest-ever number of Lok Sabha seats.
The results are expected to have a bearing on the 2019 parliamentary polls.
'AAP is more acceptable to sections of the middle class because it has pragmatically tried to accommodate Hindu sensibilities.'
Over 100 Indian institutions offer semiconductor design curricula, but hardly any of them focuses on manufacturing and process technology, a top official from global memory and storage major Micron Technology said on Thursday. There is significant global demand for such chip engineers, its president and chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra said at the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Gandhinagar. "While more than 100 Indian institutions provide a semiconductor design curriculum, hardly any focus on semiconductor manufacturing and process technology.
'Kejriwal tries to project that his party is not Hindu virodhi.'
The GMC poll was being seen as a litmus test for the BJP in the backdrop of its sudden and surprising decision to change the state's chief minister and the entire cabinet recently, ahead of the state Assembly polls due next year.
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.
'The Congress is solely responsible for the situation that has arisen in Surat'
During a hearing on the case on Monday, MP/MLA court judge Yogesh Yadav summoned Gandhi on December 16, advocate Santosh Pandey said.
The exclusive club that dominates the global semiconductor fab scenario is about to get a new member. Taiwan, South Korea, and China control nearly 70 per cent of the global capacity. SEMI, the global industry body for semiconductor and electronics design and manufacturing, projects all fabs collectively will churn out 30 million wafers a month this year.
The meeting, which began around 10:30 pm on Thursday, lasted for more than four hours and was held at the party's headquarters in New Delhi.
'The biggest problem that faces the Opposition in Gujarat is just a day or two before voting is scheduled, Modiji goes on a spree of emotional appeals.' 'That process has been set in motion much earlier this time in Gujarat.'
The BJP demanded an apology from Gehlot.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
Like other cities of Gujarat, voters of this bustling urban centre have been standing firmly behind the saffron party since the early 90s.
The BJP is far more prepared than the Congress as their pool of prospective candidates is much bigger, reports Prakash Bhandari.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances