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Campaigning for Lok Sabha election will continue in full swing on Monday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing rallies in Bagalkot of Karnataka and three – Solapur, Satara and Pune of Maharashtra.
Bagalkot, Satara and Solapur will go to polls on May 7 in the third phase while Pune will vote on May 13 in the fourth phase. Incidentally, in Solapur the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) candidate Rahul Gaikwad withdrew his nomination citing a split in anti-BJP votes and subsequently joined the Congress, which has fielded former Union minister Shushil Kumar Shinde’s daughter Praniti from the seat.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address rallies in Madhubani and Begusarai of Bihar and hold a roadshow in Assam’s Guwahati. While Begusarai votes in the third phase, Madhubani votes on May 20 in the fifth phase.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said Shah is set to hold a roadshow in Guwahati between the Cycle factory-Lal Ganesh area of the city. “A detailed plan has been chalked out to make it grand and peaceful without disrupting traffic,” Sarma said. Gauhati votes in the third phase of the polls.
BJP national president J P Nadda will camp in Telangana where he will address rallies in Kothagudem, Mahabubabad and Malkajgiri. Etala Rajender, former BJP MLA, is the party’s nominee from Malkajgiri, a seat which was vacated by Telangana CM after his election as an MLA from Kodangal. All 17 seats of Telangana go to the polls in the third phase.
Rahul in Patan and Bilaspur
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will campaign in Gujarat’s Patan and Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur on April 29.
In Gujarat, the Congress, while hoping for a revival in electoral fortunes, is pinning hopes on the anger of the Rajput community against BJP leader and Union Minister Parshottam Rupala after his controversial remarks. Rupala is the BJP’s nominee from the Rajkot seat.
“The polling in Chhattisgarh has been good. The voters are angry with the BJP. Rahul’s rally will boost our campaign,” sources said.
SC to hear Kejriwal plea challenging arrest by ED
The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a plea by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam.
In context: Kejriwal had earlier told the apex court that his “illegal arrest” in the case constitutes an unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy based on “free and fair elections” and “federalism”.
The Delhi CM had claimed it is a “classical case” of how the Centre has misused the ED and its wide powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to “crush” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders.
The ED arrested Kejriwal on March 21 after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal anti-money laundering agency. He is currently lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody.
On April 15, the top court issued a notice to the ED and sought its response to Kejriwal’s plea.
The high court had on April 9 upheld Kejriwal’s arrest in the money laundering case, saying there was no illegality about it and that the ED was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.
