The Bahujan Samaj Party will not enter into any alliance for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly polls, party chief Mayawati said.
Amid a tussle with the Aam Aadmi Party government, Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that he has summoned the assembly for the budget session on March 3, even as the top court told both sides that constitutional discourse has to be conducted with a sense of decorum and mature statesmanship.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari attributed the stunning victory of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh to polarisation of votes
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
The Congress and the AAP fought the Lok Sabha polls together in Delhi while they had contested separately in Punjab.
No final decision has been taken on the alliance with the Congress for the October 5 Haryana assembly polls yet, sources in Aam Aadmi Party said on Sunday. The last date to file nominations is September 12.
In a swipe at his Punjab counterpart, Kejriwal said Charanjit Singh Channi has been having nightmares about him and is unable to sleep these days.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that he would resign after two days and sought early polls in the national capital while vowing not to sit in the chief minister's chair till people give him a 'certificate of honesty'.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced that independent candidates, a majority of them supported by the PTI secured 101 seats, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 75 seats, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) getting 54 seats, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) bagging 17 seats.
But it would be unwise on the government's part not to heed the suggestions made by the experts group, set up by the Supreme Court, in particular the one on involving the states and giving them the flexibility in designing and implementing the farm laws, observes A K Bhattacharya.
Expressing concerns over another round of crisis in the Punjab unit of Congress, Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari said that he is 'extremely distressed' after Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation as party's state unit chief and claimed that the only people who are happy with what is going on in the border state is the 'deep state of Pakistan.'
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance released its manifesto for the February 20 Punjab polls on Saturday, promising a slew of sops for various sections, including 75 per cent reservation in all government jobs for youngsters from the state, an unemployment allowance, 35 per cent reservation for women in government jobs and massive infrastructure development.
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.
JMM leader Hemant Soren was sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand in a grand ceremony in Ranchi, amid the presence of a galaxy of INDIA bloc leaders. This is Soren's fourth stint as chief minister. The JMM-led alliance won a majority in the recent assembly polls, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly.
After the party's drubbing in the just-concluded assembly polls in five states, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked its state unit chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur to put in their papers.
Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party will not only return to power in Gujarat but also perform better in the recently-concluded elections than what has been projected by various exit polls, says a senior party leader.
Kenya and Azerbaijan have detained one suspect each in connection with the sensational killing of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala and India is in touch with authorities concerned in the two countries on the case.
'It will impact the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.'
Seeking to make inroads in Chhattisgarh, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced 10 'guarantees' for the upcoming assembly polls in the Congress-ruled state including free electricity, monthly 'samman rashi' for women and Rs 3,000 monthly allowance for the unemployed.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
Modi, in his rally just days ahead of the last phase of the Lok Sabha election, also said that "well-wishers of Naveen babu are worried over his deteriorating health condition."
According to the party leadership, it does not want to create a Punjab-like situation where it had been postponed till the last moment.
The move of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party has further reduced the possibility of the INDIA bloc alliance working in the MP elections.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday declared its second list comprising 81 candidates for Uttar Pradesh, along with candidates for 48 seats of Uttarakhand and 20 seats of Punjab for the forthcoming assembly elections in these states.
The overall voting percentage in the bypolls to 51 assembly seats was nearly 56.84 per cent, the Election Commission said while releasing data available till 7 pm, adding that the polling passed off peacefully.
Following the party's sweep of assembly elections in three Hindi heartland states against the odds, the BJP's brain trust is now busy game-planning as to how it can improve on its 2019 Lok Sabha election tally of 303 seats.
Elections are scheduled in five states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab.
Singh (80) had floated the Punjab Lok Congress last year after quitting the Congress.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's unexpected announcement on Sunday that he will resign after two days drew mixed reactions from parties, with some saying it was a compulsion due to bail restrictions on his functioning and others hailing it as a right call to go back to the people.
Modi has been established by this election as the "clear and favourite winner" for the 2019 elections.
The Punjab chief minister said he was asked by Kejriwal to visit different places for campaigning for INDIA bloc candidates.
I watched from my balcony and found that during the next eight hours up to 5.30 pm, not one prospective voter was seen to go to the Congress table, notes Rashme Sehgal. The rush was all around the BJP table.
While members from Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland and Tripura are retiring on April 2, five members from Punjab are retiring on April 9.
In both the states, the Congress has conceded defeat, admitting that price rise may have been one of the major reasons for the drubbing.
Navjot Singh Sidhu quit as the Punjab PCC chief, triggering other resignations and plunging the party into a fresh crisis just months ahead of the assembly elections.
Clearly, her father hopes that a successful tenure in Lahore will give Maryam the ballast to be prime minister after the next general election.
Sidhu in his affidavit, filed along with the nomination papers, declared total assets worth Rs 44.63 crore.
The results will be seen as a virtual referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity after his demonetisation decision.
A Bharatiya Janata Party MLA in Punjab was allegedly thrashed and his clothes torn by a group of farmers at Malout in Muktsar district on Saturday, police said.
Jain, 57, is the minister for health, power, home, PWD, industries, urban development, flood, irrigation and water in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.
