Polling in 31 district panchayats, 231 taluka panchayats and 81 municipalities of Gujarat and by-elections of 23 municipalities and 3 taluka panchayats were held on Sunday.
Bharatiya Janata Party vice president Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday dismissed speculation over any change of leadership in Uttar Pradesh and called the state government's handling of the Covid pandemic "unparalleled". Singh and BJP's national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh are on a three-day visit to Lucknow, meeting party leaders on "preparations to fight Covid" and what participants called "organisational" issues.
She hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda as her leaders.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will announce the quantum of seat sharing, Patil told reporters.
Indicating that India was in "safe hands" with the BJP, he said "You can protect the country if you accept the BJP's ideology."
Champion's three-month suspension has now been extended for an indefinite period, Uttarakhand BJP media incharge Devendra Bhasin said in a tweet.
TMC has denied the charge and the police has arrested eight persons in connection with the incident that occurred on Saturday afternoon in Khanakul area of the district.
A BJP victory in the high-octane West Bengal election could have turned the fortunes in rival Kailash Vijayvargiya favour, reports Sandeep Kumar.
The task for RS Rawat to enter the assembly might not be easy, especially with the ongoing situation arising out of Covid-19, lack of vaccines and allegations of poor hospital facilities, reports Shishir Prashant.
She said the prime minister neither asked how West Bengal is handling the COVID situation and nor did he enquire about the stock of vaccines or oxygen.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mukul Roy's return to the Trinamool Congress evoked mixed reactions in the saffron camp on Friday, with its state unit president Dilip Ghosh asserting that the move will have no impact on his organisation, and former MP Anupam Hazra claiming that 'lobby politics at play is adversely affecting the party'.
Having emerged as the face of opposition resistance to the Narendra Modi juggernaut after the TMC's triumph in the assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is locked in an unequal battle as she squares off with "lightweight" rivals in her own lair--Bhabanipur.
Among the ministers in the new cabinet are 8 Lingayats, 7 Vokkaligas, 7 OBCs, 3 SCs, 2 Brahmins, 1 ST and 1 Reddy, and a woman.
Banerjee also criticised Dhankhar over his recent visit to North Bengal, claiming a conspiracy was being hatched to divide the region.
BJP president Amit Shah will not attend the meeting of the newly-elected BJP MLAs to pick the legislature party leader.
Scindia said he joined the BJP "by leaving everything" and came with only a full heart. He said his aim is "not politics but doing public service" and told the BJP leaders: "We had fought against each other in 2018, but today we are one."
Not only Mumbai, Pune and Thane, but several cities and towns in Maharashtra, including Vidarbha and Marathwada regions, have been witnessing spike in cases. Lockdown or restrictions have been imposed in several cities or districts in the state in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.
Former Aligarh Muslim University student Sharjeel Usmani, accused of hurting religious sentiments with his comments at last week's Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune, will be arrested from whichever state he is in, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Wednesday.
The reunion of the two parties, which comes after a separation of three years due to what they termed "communication gap," may alter the political scenario in the state, where the local body elections are round the corner.
Demanding cancellation of the paper, MP Congress spokesperson Neelabh Shukla in a statement said, "It is highly objectionable that DAVV coloured the examination of important faculty like journalism in BJP's hues. The students of this subject should be taught party neutrality in a higher education institute."
'It is true that Nitish Kumar had shown reluctance to continue as chief minister after the assembly polls and said the BJP should stake claim for the top post'
The legislators will be staying at a luxury resort there and likely to visit the Somnath temple, sources said.
An officer on Friday said that the police registered suo motu first information reports also against state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, national secretary Arvind Mennon and MPs Arjun Singh and Locket Chatterjee. They were charged with unlawful assembly, rioting, destruction of public property, criminal obstruction and assault on government servant and breaching the disaster management act, he said.
"The death knell of Mamata Banerjee's regime has rung. We will form the next government in Bengal with a two-third majority," he added.
For now, the BJP's strategy for Khushbu seems to be one of denial -- denying the rival Congress in the state and also at the national-level a Muslim voice acceptable to Hindu audiences and TV news-watchers. This is much less than the induction of DMK veterans like Duraiswamy and Selvam, who still have a greater chances of winning assembly seats,, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'For the convenience of Modiji this inauspicious muhurat was fixed'
The BJP which stormed into Mamata Banerjee's fortress earlier this year by bagging 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats faced immense flak when the final NRC in Assam left out Bengali Hindus in large numbers.
State BJP president Chandrakant Patil blamed "insensitive and lackadaisical" approach of the administration for the incident.
The BJP announced its list of 148 candidates for the last four phases of assembly election in West Bengal, rewarding around 20 turncoats and fielding party heavyweights Mukul Roy and Rahul Sinha.
Shah said Banerjee will not be in a position to oppose the implementation of the CAA as she will cease to be the chief minister after the assembly polls likely in April-May this year.
'The EC's role in this is questionable. What is the reason for this delay? Are they waiting for instructions?'
If pandemic (mis)management threatened to dominate Goa's electoral discourse, the BJP is up against a deeper structural issue in its organisation, created by the fact that a majority of the legislature party and the ministerial council is made up of Congress defectors, disparagingly referred to by the Opposition as "imports". Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
'After meeting the prime minister and Amit Shah, Yogi has come out with his position secure till the assembly election.'
Nitin Gadkari has a message as much for his party as much purportedly it is for the Opposition. Listening to him, whatever be his reasons and motives, will help, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sources from both parties said back channel talks are on between the two old but often-feuding Hindutva allies and a breakthrough is expected.
Lodhi, who represented the Bada Malhera assembly seat in Chhatarpur district, joined the BJP at the ruling party's state headquarters in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Instead of the special session earlier, the cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, decided to recommend to the Governor to convene the 21st session of the 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly on December 31 to discuss the farmers' issue.
A 50-year-old man was allegedly shot dead in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district by an accused out on bail in a case of molestation lodged in 2018 against the victim's daughter, police said.
The body of Debendra Nath Ray, in his 60s, was found hanging from the ceiling of a verandah outside a shuttered shop near his home in Bindal village in Hemtabad area of the district, police said. Ray had won the Hemtabad (reserved) seat on a Communist Party of India-Marxist ticket in 2016 but later joined the BJP. He had, however, not quit his assembly seat.
Addressing a press conference barely a few hours before the campaign for the final phase of the elections came to a close, Paswan reiterated that the LJP will do well despite having gone solo in the elections and asserted, "We will help the BJP form the next government."
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