Lok Sabha elections updates | Congress likely to release poll manifesto on April 5

The Congress is likely to release its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections on April 5 in the presence of top leaders, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former party presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, sources said on March 29. 

They also said that Mr. Kharge and the Gandhis are likely to address public rallies in Jaipur and Hyderabad on April 6 where they will also highlight the key elements of the Congress manifesto. 

According to the sources, the party leadership would launch the poll manifesto on April 5 at the All India Congress Committee headquarters. 

The Congress’ manifesto will lay emphasis on ‘Paanch Nyay’ or five pillars of justice, including ‘Yuva Nyay’, ‘Naari Nyay’, ‘Kisaan Nyay’, ‘Shramik Nyay’ and ‘Hissedari Nyay’ as well as the guarantees made by it to the people as part of its poll promises for 2024 Lok Sabha elections. 

The Congress will launch its ‘Ghar Ghar Guarantee’ campaign on April 3 under which party leaders will reach out to more than eight crore households across the country.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP-led Centre on March 29 of misusing institutions like the income-tax department, ED and CBI to subvert democracy and belittle the Constitution, and asked why is the I-T department being used as a weapon to harass the principal Opposition party. 

He asserted that such actions would not deter the Congress from contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and vowed that his party will free the country’s institutions from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “dictatorship”. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also hit out at the BJP, accusing it of indulging in “tax terrorism”. 

“When the government changes, action will definitely be taken against those who have ‘disrobed democracy’. And such exemplary action will be taken that no one will dare to do all this again. This is my guarantee,” Mr. Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X. 

He also tagged a previous video of his and used the hashtag “#BJPTaxTerrorism” with his post. -- PTI

The nomination papers of all 14 candidates in the lone Lok Sabha seat in Sikkim were found valid during scrutiny on Friday, officials said. 

Among these 14 candidates are incumbent MP Indra Hang Subba of SKM, opposition SDF’s PD Rai, Congress’s Gopal Chettri, CAP’s Bharat Basnett, and DC Nepal of BJP, they said. 

The last date for the withdrawal of candidature is March 30, following which the list of contesting candidates in Form 7 (A) will be published, they added. 

The polling for the constituency will be held along with the assembly elections in the state on April 19. -- PTI

The Congress on Friday released its list of star campaigners in Rajasthan for the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls. 

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot feature in the list that has 40 names. 

The names of Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Sachin Pilot and Kanhaiya Kumar are also there in the list. 

According to the list available on the chief electoral officer’s website, the star campaigners of the Congress include the party’s state in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra, Leader of Opposition Tikaram Jully, former Assembly speaker C P Joshi and senior leaders Mohan Prakash, Hemaram Chaudhary, Raghu Sharma and Harish Chaudhary. 

The names of several legislators, including Suratgarh MLA Dungarram, also feature in the list. 

The Congress has said it will release its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls at a public meeting here on April 6. 

The Lok Sabha polls in Rajasthan will be held in two phases on April 19 and April 26. In the first phase, voting will be held for the 12 seats of Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur. 

In the second phase, voting will be held for the 13 seats of Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran. Besides, bypoll for the Bagidora Assembly seat falling under the Banswara Lok Sabha segment will also be held in the second phase on April 26. -- PTI

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s proposed visit to Gautam Buddh Nagar on Saturday has been deferred and he is now likely to come to the constituency on April 1, a local BJP leader said. 

BJP’s Gautam Buddh Nagar unit president Gajendra Mavi said the chief minister was scheduled to hold a ‘Prabuddh Sammelan’ in Greater Noida on Saturday but the programme has now been deferred. 

“Chief Minister Adityanath is now scheduled to visit Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency on April 1 for the programme to be held at Greater Noida,” Mr. Mavi added. 

A senior police officer also confirmed to PTI that the chief minister’s Saturday visit stands cancelled. 

The UP CM is among the listed ‘star campaigners’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the state. 

Adityanath kicked off the election campaign on March 26 with public rallies in Mathura, Meerut, and Ghaziabad on the same day. He has back-to-back canvassing programmes scheduled across Uttar Pradesh in the coming weeks. 

Mahesh Sharma is once again BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate from Gautam Buddh Nagar, which goes to polls on April 26 in the second leg of the seven-phased elections. Sharma won from the seat in 2014 and 2019 as well. 

This time Sharma is pitted against Samajwadi Party’s Mahendra Singh Nagar and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Rajendra Singh Solanki, among others, in the constituency which has over 26 lakh registered voters. -- PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 29 interacted with BJP workers through the Namo App and discussed field work at the booth level for the Lok Sabha polls with them. 

Referring to the government’s focus on women-led development, Mr. Modi sought to know from a party worker the schemes that have been the most liked and talked about by women. The Prime Minister expressed happiness that the party worker has been working at the grassroots level. 

A woman participant from Tiruvarur spoke specifically about schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) and Jal Jeevan Mission. She said she and others from the area are farm workers and that these schemes have helped them carry on their work with ease. -- PTI

Kamlesh Shah, Congress MLA from Amarwara in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district, joined BJP on March 29, 2024

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the ED as the Narendra Modi government wants to weaken the opposition, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari said on March 29. 

Speaking to PTI, he also exuded confidence the Congress will win at least 15 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP, where polling will take place in four phases between April 19 and May 13. 

“Kejriwal’s arrest is an attempt to weaken the opposition and wipe out the democratic system in the country. While Kejriwal was arrested, they have spared others who joined hands with the BJP. Of the 154 persons against whom there were ED and CBI probes, 121 joined the BJP and investigation stopped. But propaganda against opposition leaders (on such probes) continues,” he said. 

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has double standards when it comes to this issue (of probes against persons by ED and CBI) and every attempt was being made to weaken the opposition. 

“They (government through IT department) have frozen the accounts of the Congress just ahead of polls. It means they want to cripple the opposition financially and arrest leaders to terrorise democracy,” he said. 

“The BJP is forcing local level leaders from other parties to join by threatening no-confidence motion etc. Those who have business interests in sand mining, crushers, transport etc are being harassed so that they join the BJP,” Patwari added. 

Asked if former Union minister Suresh Pachouri joined the BJP out of “fear”, Patwari said the Congress had given him a lot, but added he would not like to speak ill of him. 

Asked about former MLA from Indore Sanjay Shukla joining the BJP, Patwari said he had read in the media that royalty of Rs 141 crore was pending against him. 

The MP Congress chief also said those joining the BJP in Chhindwara, the only seat the opposition party had won in 2019, were persons with business interests and “contractor types”. 

Some 25-30 of these persons came to him and said they are joining due to severe business related problems, Patwari claimed, adding many of them will return when the BJP loses power. 

Asked if Congress leader Rahul Gandhi contesting from north India will help the party in a major way, Patwari said the former had done so earlier but added “he can’t leave those (Wayanad voters) who made him victorious”. 

Whatever the party does is well thought out and there is no bar from anyone contesting from anywhere in the country, he added. 

Asked if he wanted Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest from Raebareli Lok Sabha seat, which is represented by Sonia Gandhi currently, Patwari said,” It is not a question of what I wish. What the party wants is more important and moreover what Priyanka Gandhi wants. The party will take appropriate decisions in the interest of the organization.” Patwari said he was confident the Congress would win 15 seats in MP based on the party’s performance in the 2023 Assembly polls. -- PTI

Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer Madhup Vyas has held a meeting with poll officials to discuss strategy to ensure high voter turnout in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the State, an official statement said. 

The CEO expressed his concern over “lower voter turnout in Lok Sabha polls as compared to state assembly elections” in the past, it said. 

Mizoram registered one of the highest voter turnouts in India in the assembly polls, held in November last year, while the polling percentage in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2019 was “even lower than the national average of 67 per cent”, the statement said. 

The State recorded a 63.13 per cent voter turnout in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which was much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout registered in the state assembly elections last year. 

Elections to the lone Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe, will be held on April 19. 

Various issues related to voter education were discussed during Thursday’s meeting, the statement said. 

It stressed on the need to focus on youth participation, especially first-time voters, and to undertake awareness campaigns at the micro-level. 

The departments of school, higher and technical education, sports and youth services will be roped in for the task, it added. -- PTI

The three main contenders of the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency in Jammu and Kashmir going to the polls on April 19 are crorepatis, according to their election affidavits submitted to the Election Commission. 

Choudhary Lal Singh, who recently rejoined the Congress and is contesting his fourth Lok Sabha election from the seat, has recorded a multi-fold increase in his wealth over the past one-and-a-half decades, according to his poll affidavits. 

He and his wife, former legislator Kanta Andotra, have shown movable and immovable properties worth ₹1.79 crore and ₹1.76 crore respectively in their affidavit in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, as compared to their properties worth ₹7.27 lakh and ₹10.62 lakh in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls respectively, data in their affidavits revealed. 

Choudhary Lal Singh, 65, who is being probed in a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), filed his nomination papers, including the mandatory affidavit, from the Udhampur-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency on Wednesday. 

He won the Udhampur seat twice on Congress ticket in 2004 and 2009, besides being a three-time former MLA. He switched from the Congress to the BJP in 2014 and was also a minister in the previous PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir that collapsed in June 2018 after the national party pulled out of the alliance. 

Several months before the government’s fall, Choudhary Lal Singh resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and floated his own outfit following an uproar over his participation in a rally in support of the accused in a rape-and-murder case of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January 2018. 

According to the latest affidavit, the income tax returns of Choudhary Lal Singh filed for the last five financial years are pegged at ₹4,55,870 in 2022-23, ₹1,50,000 in 2021-22, ₹4,75,000 in 2020-21, ₹3,47,500 in 2019-20 and ₹20,91,486 in 2018-19. His wife has also filed her income tax returns ranging between ₹6 lakh and ₹27 lakh during the same period. 

Besides him, there are two more crorepatis, including Union minister Jitendra Singh of the BJP and G M Saroori of the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) in the fray. 

Jitendra Singh, who won from the Udhampur seat in the 2014 and 2019 polls, has put the value of his movable assets at ₹3.33 crore and immovable assets at ₹3.71 crore. His wife Manju Singh’s movable assets are pegged at ₹88.88 lakh and immovable assets at ₹66 lakh. 

Saroori of DPAP has movable assets worth ₹4,446,542 and ₹1,11,560 in cash. He does not have any jewellery. 

His wife has movable assets worth ₹2,828,247, including 500 grams of gold amounting to ₹2,671,000 and ₹151,500 cash. Saroori has immovable assets worth ₹51,924,450, while his wife has immovable assets of Rs 8,407,755. 

The nominations of 12 candidates, including independents, have been found valid. -- PTI

The Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO), demanding a separate administration for six districts of Nagaland, has rejected an appeal by a legislators’ union to not boycott the Lok Sabha elections on April 19. 

Nagaland has one parliamentary constituency. 

At a coordination meeting in Tuensang on March 28, the ENPO upheld its February 23 decision to boycott the parliamentary polls in protest against the Centre’s failure to create the Frontier Nagaland Territory. The Eastern Nagaland Legislators’ Union had asked the organisation to reconsider its decision. 

The Union has 20 MLAs who represent as many Assembly constituencies covering eastern Nagaland comprising the Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator, and Tuensang districts. S. Phangnon Konyak, the State’s lone Rajya Sabha member was pressent at the meeting. 

“We have not wavered from our decision to not participate in the Lok Sabha polls,” ENPO president, R. Tsapikiu Sangtam said, adding the state of ‘public emergency’ in the eastern part of Nagaland will continue. -- Rahul Karmakar

Former Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader from Pune, Vasant More, on Friday met Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar in Mumbai to discuss the possibility of contesting the Lok Sabha elections.

“I met Ambedkarji today. This is our first meeting and it was positive. Polls for the Pune parliamentary constituency will take place in the fourth stage (of polling)...The next course of action will be decided in the next three to four days,” Mr. More told reporters in Mumbai.

Asked if he would be the VBA’s candidate in Pune, More said the decision regarding it would be taken by Ambedkar. “He will declare his stand,” he added. - PTI

Assam’s Nalbari district administration helmed by women officials is conducting a drive to increase voter turnout of female electors in the general elections.

Targeted awareness campaigns are being conducted in areas where women voter turnout was less in the previous Lok Sabha elections, Nalbari District Commissioner Varnali Deka told PTI on Friday. 

“The overall voter turnout in the district was over 80% in the last Lok Sabha polls, but there was a gap of 2% between male and female turnouts, which we looking to bridge this year,” she said.

The TDP on Friday announced its final list of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in Andhra Pradesh, which included a YSR Congress MP, who joined the party recently.Former minister Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao was fielded from Cheepururpalli to fight Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana of the YSR Congress. Another former minister, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, will be contesting from Bhimili.

TDP fielded M. Srinivasulu Reddy from Ongole, who recently quit the ruling YSRCP. 

He was elected to the Lok Sabha from the same constituency on a YSRCP ticket in 2019.

The opposition party also announced the candidature of K. Appalanaidu from Vizianagaram, A. Lakshminarayana from Anantapur and C. Bhupesh Reddy from Kadapa. - PTI

BJP Tamil Nadu unit chief K. Annamalai on Friday said the election campaign of the ruling DMK appeared to be one for State-level polls and that of the main Opposition AIADMK looked like an election for civil polls.

While the Centre is implementing a string of welfare schemes, including the Mudra initiative, he said, the DMK regime has increased taxes, including property taxes and also hiked electricity tariff, ₹2 lakh crore is the disbursal to Tamil Nadu under the Centre’s Mudra scheme, he said in his campaign at the industrial hub of Sriperumbudur near Chennai.

Referring to the campaign of the two major Dravidian parties, he said: “I am seeing the campaign of the DMK and AIADMK. The DMK is going on with its campaign as if this is a State (assembly) election. If you look at the AIADMK, they are campaigning as if this is a councillors’ election (civic polls). Both of them have forgotten that this is Lok Sabha polls, general election.”

The general election is all about who should be the Prime Minister, he suggested, and plans for a roadmap to ensure growth. “People should realise this,” he said. The DMK, he said, is still speaking about debates of the 1980 such as “Sanskrit and Hindi”. The AIADMK people go from town-to-town and seek votes as though this is an election to pick councillors for local bodies. - PTI

The TDP on March 29 announced its final list of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in Andhra Pradesh, which included a YSR Congress MP, who joined the party recently. 

TDP fielded M Srinivasulu Reddy from Ongole, who recently quit the ruling YSRCP. 

He was elected to the Lok Sabha from the same constituency on a YSRCP ticket in 2019. 

The opposition party also announced the candidature of K Appalanaidu from Vizianagaram, A Lakshminarayana from Anantapur and C Bhupesh Reddy from Kadapa. 

TDP had finalised the candidates list after taking public opinion. 

With the announcement of four names, TDP completed the process of choosing candidates for 17 Lok Sabha seats, it has been allotted as part of the NDA in the state. 

Besides 17 Lok Sabha seats, TDP was allocated 144 constituencies in the Assembly elections in the state to be held simultaneously on May 13. 

Under the deal, actor-politician Pawan Kalyan’s Janasena will contest two Lok Sabha and 21 Assembly seats. 

Andhra Pradesh has a total of 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats. -- PTI

Actor Kangana Ranaut began her Lok Sabha election campaign in Mandi constituency on March 29 with a roadshow, hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with “Jai Shri Ram” and asserting that the BJP’s main agenda is development.

Ms. Ranaut started the roadshow in her home town with “Modi Ji ko Jai Shri Ram”. She hailed other BJP leaders with similar slogans.

“Development is BJP’s main agenda and we will spare no effort to win the elections under the guidance of Prime Minister Modi,” she said, adding that the “people of Mandi will tell what is in their hearts”.

Amid speculations that the Congress may choose a candidate who does not belong to any faction in Kolar district for Lok Sabha polls, senior party leader and Minister K. H. Muniyappa on Friday warned that such plans will not be result-oriented.

He urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister and State Congress President D.K. Shivakumar to unite factions led by him and former Legislative Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar, to ensure Congress’ victory in the Kolar Lok Sabha segment. 

Five Congress legislators including a Minister on Wednesday threatened to resign if the Lok Sabha ticket is given to Muniyappa’s son-in-law Chikka Peddanna to contest from Kolar, bringing into open the divisions in the outfit. - PTI

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday compared Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife to former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, and said she is perhaps preparing to hold the post of her husband.

“The madam your are naming is perhaps preparing to hold the post like Rabri Devi did in Bihar,” the senior BJP leader told reporters here at the inauguration of the Delhi BJP’s election office.

The Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs was responding to a question about AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita.

-PTI

Unaccounted cash, illicit liquor and other items worth more than Rs 25 crore have been seized by authorities in Chhattisgarh since the model code of conduct came into force on March 16 for the Lok Sabha elections, an official said on Friday.

Various law enforcement agencies, comprising personnel from the excise, police and income tax departments, have been keeping a close watch on illegal transportation and storage of liquor, cash and other items during polls, the official associated with poll duty said.

The unaccounted cash, illicit liquor and other items worth over Rs 25.08 crore were seized from different places in the state till March 28. The recovered items include cash worth Rs 5.28 crore, 17,311 litres of illegal liquor worth Rs 41 lakh, 23 kg ornaments worth Rs 94 lakh and narcotics worth Rs 1.48 crore, he said.

- PTI

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday said its C-Vigil mobile application has become an effective tool in the hands of people for flagging poll code violations and since the announcement of the Lok Sabha election, more than 79,000 complaints have been received.

More than 99% of the complaints have been resolved and close to 89% of those were resolved within 100 minutes, the poll panel said. 

More than 58,500 complaints (73% of the total number of complaints) received were against illegal hoardings and banners, the EC said, adding that over 1,400 complaints received pertained to money, gifts and liquor distribution. - PTI

For Congress President M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who calls himself “Bhoomi Putra” of Karnataka, the coming Lok Sabha elections in the State is another prestigious battle of sorts in less than a year.

With the Congress winning only one seat in the 2019 general elections in Karnataka, his task is now cut out.

A strong show by the Congress in his home State is bound to boost the veteran leader’s stock not just in his party but in the opposition INDIA bloc as well, according to a political analyst.

Days before the Assembly elections in Karnataka in May last year, the octogenarian leader had sought to strike an emotional chord with voters, exhorting them to take pride in the fact that he, as a “Bhoomi Putra” of Karnataka, had been made the AICC president. - PTI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit Tripura for two days from April 7 and will address a rally and hold a roadshow the next day as part of the BJP’s campaign for its candidates in the two Lok Sabha seats in the northeastern state, a party leader said on Friday.

“Amit Shah ji, who is scheduled to address a rally in Mizoram on April 7, is likely to arrive in Tripura on the same day. He will hold an organisational meeting, address a rally in Gumati district’s Udaipur and a roadshow in Agartala,” BJP state general secretary Amit Rakshit told PTI.

During his proposed visit, Mr. Shah is also expected to chair an organisational meeting of party leaders, he said.

BJP’s Basirhat candidate Rekha Patra, who had highlighted the plight of women in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali, has lodged a complaint with the National Commission for Women against TMC nominee Debangshu Bhattacharyya for alleged violation of her privacy.

She also shot off a letter to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, alleging that Mr. Bhattacharyya, the TMC nominee from Tamluk Lok Sabha seat and head of the party’s social media cell, made the details of her personal information and bank accounts public.

“Recently, through a post on Debangshu Bhattacharyya’s Facebook account, the TMC candidate from Tamluk has shared the private details of my client, such as phone number, bank account details, Swasthya Sathi scheme details, as well as the Duare Sarkar scheme details, which is a clear violation of my client’s right to privacy and an outrage to her modesty by making her personal details public,” Ms. Patra’s lawyer said in the letter. - PTI

Despite its dominance in the last three Lok Sabha elections in Jharkhand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is poised for a tough battle this time due to internal rumblings, resentment among the rank and file of the party over ticket distribution and tribal opposition in pockets, party leaders said.

The BJP is contesting from 13 constituencies as per a seat-sharing pact with ally AJSU Party which will field its candidate from Giridih Lok Sabha seat.

“Barring three, the BJP has given tickets to those who have come to the party either ahead of the Lok Sabha polls or earlier. This has sent a bad signal to the old-timers. What comes as a shock to us is the nomination of Baghmara MLA Dulu Mahto for the Dhanbad constituency. The party dropped sitting MP Pashupati Nath Singh. This has triggered a revolt among a section of our workers and upper caste voters,” a BJP activist said.

Candidates in Punjab’s Jalandhar can spend ₹15 for a cup of tea and the same price for a samosa they offer to people during public meetings and campaign trails in the Lok Sabha elections.

However, those in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla can spend ₹7 for a cup of tea and another ₹7.50 for a piece of samosa, considered a staple snack in many parts of the country.

The candidates will have to manage their expenditure within the prescribed limit. These rate cards often become a subject of “meme-fest” on social media about the prices not being in sync with the current inflation level.

- PTI

Fourteen candidates are in the fray for the two Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh, which will go to polls on April 19, an official said on Friday, March 29,2024. Eight candidates will contest in the Arunachal West Lok Sabha constituency from where Union Earth Sciences minister Kiren Rijiju and Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Nabam Tuki are trying their luck. 

The total number of candidates, contesting in the Arunachal East parliamentary constituency, is six after the nomination of Techi Rana, an independent candidate, was found invalid during scrutiny on Thursday, the official said.Eight independent candidates are fighting the Lok Sabha polls from the two constituencies.- PTI

The Enforcement Directorate is working as BJP’s political weapon and it wants to get details of AAP’s Lok Sabha election strategy by accessing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s phone, senior AAP leader Atishi alleged on Friday. 

Kejriwal, who is the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was arrested by the central probe agency on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case and is in its custody till April 1. The insistence of the ED to look into Mr. Kejriwal’s mobile-phone, which is a few months old and did not exist when the policy was formed and implemented, proves that the agency is working as a “political weapon” of the BJP, Atishi alleged at a press conference here. The AAP leader, who is a Minister in the Kejriwal government, said that “actually it is the BJP and not the ED that wants to know what is there on Kejriwal’s phone”. 

“They want it because they will find in it details of AAP’s Lok Sabha poll strategy, campaign plans, talks with INDIA bloc leaders and information regarding media and social media strategy,” she said.- PTI

The AIMIM had said it had “full sympathy” for Hina Shahab, the widow of dreaded gangster-turned-politician Mohd Shahabuddin, and would support her if she contested Lok Sabha polls “as an Independent or on a like-minded party’s ticket”.

The announcement was made here by AIMIM’s lone Bihar MLA Akhtarul Iman, who also heads the party’s state unit. Hina Shahab had contested the last couple of Lok Sabha polls as RJD candidate from Siwan, a seat her late husband had won for the party four times.

“We have full sympathy for the widow of the late Shahabuddin. If she chooses to contest the polls as an Independent candidate or on a like-minded party’s ticket, the AIMIM will provide her with all support and even help her in campaigning,” Iman said at a press conference. - PTI

It is no exaggeration to say that the Mavelikara (SC reserved) Lok Sabha constituency is in for an engrossing poll battle. The Parliament segment is spread across three districts of Alappuzha, Kollam and Kottayam and covers seven Assembly constituencies from low-lying Kuttanad to Pathanapuram.

The key question is whether the electorate votes for continuity or change in the upcoming polls. While the Congress-led UDF is hoping to maintain its dominance, the CPI(M)-led LDF is keen on wresting the seat, which it last won in 2004. The BJP-led NDA, which fared reasonably well in 2019, is a force to reckon with in Mavelikara. Read more

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) State coordinator and former DGP J. Purnachandra Rao said it is unfortunate that North Andhra region is dominated by people from other regions of the State.

Mr. Purnachandra Rao called upon people of other unrepresented castes to stand united and support local candidates to pave the way to overcome the political domination of outsiders in future elections. He said of the 35 Assembly seats in North Andhra, almost all were outsiders. These outsiders were not interested in the problems of the region and the issues like operationalisation of railway zone or preventing the privatisation of the public sector Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP). He alleged that the ruling YSRCP, the Opposition TDP and JSP had done nothing to stop the privatisation of VSP. Read more

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was supposed to have ‘emptied’ the Congress of its leaders as per the master political strategy, but in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the party did the hit job on BRS.

A majority of the candidates for the 17 LS constituencies in Telangana hail from BRS and among them, there are those who got tickets within days of joining the party and there are cases of tickets being announced before even the ‘defections’ had happened. Read more

Accusing the Congress government in Karnataka of “communalising the State’s secular fabric through anti-Hindu agenda”, BJP election in charge for the State Radha Mohan Das Agarwal has predicted that the Congress government in Karnataka will face “serious internal conflict” soon after the declaration of the Lok Sabha election results.

In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Agarwal, who is the party’s national general secretary, said the internal conflict had already begun in the government and that it would grow bigger soon after the Lok Sabha election. Read more

The Election Commission (EC) has issued a notice to the State government on the Chief Minister’s public announcement to withdraw the cases booked in connection with the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests in Kerala.

The commission issued a notice to the State government through the Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala, on Wednesday. The Chief Secretary has been asked to furnish a reply immediately. The State is expected to file its reply on March 30 when the government offices resume work after the holidays, according to sources.

The anti-CAA protests and the booking of criminal cases against those involved in them had emerged as a socially and communally sensitive issue. Various Muslim organisations had repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of cases, which saw a large number of Muslims being arraigned as accused. Read more

Usually, comic books and graphic novels are aimed for entertainment, fun and especially target children. But in the 2024 election season, it is being harnessed for a different purpose.

Author Shantanu Gupta has brought out a graphic novel targeted at voters. The book titled 101 reasons, Why I Will Vote for Modi is published by Itihasa Academy, New Delhi. Read more

Srinivas (Nani), a TDP veteran who represented the Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency, joined the YSRCP after the TDP decided to field his brother Kesineni Shivnath (Chinni) instead of renominating him.

Six-time Lok Sabha member and Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, former two-time Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP from Berhampur Sidhant Mohapatra and well-known litterateur of Santali language Padma Shri Damayanti Beshra joined the Bharatiya Janata Party at its party headquarters in New Delhi on March 28. Read more

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut reiterated his party’s determination to contest the Sangli Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra, stating the importance of not inadvertently aiding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This stance follows concerns expressed by their alliance partner, the Congress, regarding Sena (UBT)’s recent candidate announcement for Sangli and Mumbai South-Central constituencies. ​Read more​

The last-minute entry of Choudhary Lal Singh, who is being hounded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), into the Congress has set the stage for a nip and tuck contest in the Udhampur seat in Jammu and Kashmir between him and Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh.

Firebrand Mr. Singh, a Dogra Rajput who founded the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) in 2018 to protect Jammu’s indigenous identity, has been a two-time Member of Parliament (MP) from Udhampur on Congress tickets in the past. ​Read more​