Mamata Banerjee with Akhilesh Yadav (file photo)2022 Assembly Elections Highlights January 18: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will campaign for Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll and her party – the Trinamool Congress will not contest the election in that state, SP vice-president Kiranmay Nanda said on Tuesday. According to news agency PTI, Nanda, who returned from poll bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday, held an hour-long meeting with Banerjee at her residence on the issue. At the same time, Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad said that his party will fight the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on its own and would not enter into an alliance with the Samajwadi Party.
Meanwhile, Congress on Tuesday released the third list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Goa. Michael Lobo, former state minister who recently quit BJP to join the party, will contest from Calangute.
AAP’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal announced Bhagwant Mann as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the Punjab Assembly polls to be held next month. Kejriwal said that the AAP received more than 21 lakh responses from people during its campaign to elect its CM face. He added 93 per cent of the respondents, apart from those naming him, chose Mann. At the same time, Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday said that the ED raids on premises linked to his nephew were a way to pressurise him and the Congress before the polls. He added such tactics were also used to target Mamata Banerjee’s relatives during the West Bengal elections. The ED has conducted searches at 10 places in the state linked to Channi’s nephew, Bhupinder Singh, and others in connection with an illegal sand mining case.
Days after issuing a notice to the Samajwadi Party for violating Covid-19 norms at its office premises in Lucknow, the Election Commission on Tuesday advised it not to violate health guidelines and to be careful in future.
Considering that it is the first reported violation during the current round of elections on the part of the Samajwadi Party, the Commission advises it to be careful in future and to follow all the extant guidelines diligently, according to an order. The poll panel also asked the party to instruct its members to adhere to Covid-19 guidelines during the period of elections "without fail".
The Election Commission had on Saturday issued a notice to the Samajwadi Party for organising a public gathering "in the name of virtual rally" at its Lucknow office in violation of Covid-19 norms. (PTI)
A day after the Congress put out a brief video on its official Twitter handle, virtually projecting Charanjit Singh Channi as its chief minister face in Punjab, the party today said he was the most popular leader in the state and argued that the raids at the premises of his relative was an attack on Punjab and Punjabiyat.
The party argued Channi is not Captain Amarinder Singh who could be suppressed by the BJP. It alleged that the raids on the kin of Channi, the only Dalit chief minister in the country, reveals the BJP’s anti-dalit mindset. Read More
We are fighting on all 40 seats in Goa; will form a majority government with at least 22 seats. I have been the Chief Minister for 3 years and a lot of development has been done for the people in Goa and everyone is willing to get BJP back to power: Goa CM Pramod Sawant.
The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Tuesday suspended party MLA Kh Joykishan Singh on disciplinary grounds.
MPCC general secretary (administration) Hareshwar Goshwami said that under Article XXVII(h) of the party constitution, a member can be suspended if s/he failed to attend party meetings thrice in a row. Read More
It took barely 10 years for Bhagwant Mann to undertake his remarkable journey from being a professional comedian to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections.
Widely known for having played many comic roles in his satirical shows on various ills besetting the society, Mann has been popular in Punjab for one of his such characters, “Jugnu”, and for his earliest audio pieces like “Kulfi garma garam”. Read More
Continuing the spate of transfers in Punjab Police, Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday transferred seven Inspector Generals of Police (IGsP) and three other senior police officers in Punjab.
Giving details, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Punjab S Karuna Raju said that the ECI has transferred IGP Gurinder Singh Dhillon, IGP Jaskaran Singh and IGP Mukhwinder Singh Chinna to Punjab Police Headquarters. While, Arun Pal Singh has been posted as IGP Jalandhar Range, Shive Kumar Verma as IGP Bathinda Range, Rakesh Agrawal as IGP Patiala Range and Pardeep Kumar Yadav as IGP Faridkot Range, he said.
Similarly, Surjit Singh has been posted as DIG Vigilance Bureau and Kuljit Singh as AIG Bureau of Investigation Punjab. While, Jugraj Singh has been posted as Assistant Commandant 75th Battalion PAP Jalandhar.
Raju informed that ECI has also transferred 19 DSP rank officers in Punjab. (ENS)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will campaign for Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll and her party – the Trinamool Congress will not contest the election in that state, SP vice-president Kiranmay Nanda said on Tuesday. According to news agency PTI, Nanda, who returned from poll bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday, held an hour-long meeting with Banerjee at her residence on the issue.
Ahead of Punjab Assembly Elections, Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday transferred two Deputy Commissioners-cum-District Election Officers (DEOs) and eight Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) in Punjab.
Giving details, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Punjab S Karuna Raju said that the ECI has appointed Girish Dayalan as DC-cum-DEO Ferozepur, while Vineet Kumar will be the new DC-cum-DEO Bathinda.
Similarly, the ECI has appointed Harjeet Singh as SSP SAS Nagar, Dhruman H Nimbale as SSP Hoshiarpur, Patil Ketan Baliram as SSP Ludhiana Rural, Deepak Hilori as SSP Amritsar Rural, Gulneet Singh Khurana as SSP Tarn Taran, Amneet Kondal as SSP Bathinda, Sandeep Kumar Malik as SSP Sri Muktsar Sahib and Sartaj Singh Chahal as SSP Fatehgarh Sahib, the CEO said. (ENS)
BJP on Tuesday released two more names - Chhatrapal Gangwar to contest from Baheri and Bahoranlal Maurya from Bhojipura in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
As the NCP seeks to make fresh inroads in Goa, a verbal duel has broken out between the Sharad Pawar-led party and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Fadnavis, who is in charge of the BJP's affairs in Goa, had mocked Pawar's attempts to cobble up an alliance with the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the coastal state, which will go to polls on February 14. "A party does not acquire a national footprint by merely including 'nationalist' in its name. Though it is called the Nationalist Congress Party, in reality, the party is limited to western Maharashtra," he had told reporters.
NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule and Nawab Malik hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and asked him to exercise restraint while speaking about Sharad Pawar. NCP chief spokesperson Malik reminded Fadnavis how the veteran leader had prevented him from returning as the chief minister after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls. "If he continues to speak in the same vein, Sharad Pawar will not hesitate to show him the ghats of Kashi," he wrote on Twitter, in an apparent hint at ending the political career of the BJP leader. (PTI)
BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Tuesday said if her son is seeking the party's ticket to fight Uttar Pradesh assembly election, then it was his right to do so but maintained that she is not lobbying for his candidature.
Joshi, the Lok Sabha MP from Allahabad, was in Delhi where she met Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan. According to PTI, she described the meeting as a "courtesy call" and one to discuss party issues.
Speculation is rife that Joshi's son Mayank Joshi is trying hard to get the BJP's ticket to fight the assembly election from Lucknow Cantt, the seat his mother had won in the 2017 state polls but vacated in 2019 after she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Allahabad.
Aam Aadmi Party national convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal will announce the party's chief minister candidate for Goa Assembly polls during a press conference in Panaji on January 19, news agency ANI reported.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has said that its Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann received a thumping majority in the phone-in poll to choose the party’s chief ministerial candidate, with 93 per cent of the 21 lakh responses going in his favour. His strong social media presence proved to be a boon for the comedian-turned-politician. During the election season, Mann has been popular on social media even when he is seen as less active.
Punjabi University’s Dr Gurpreet Kaur, who studied the effectiveness of hypermedia in political communication during the 2017 Assembly elections in the state, found that Mann had 17 lakh followers on Facebook during the 2017 polls, compared to Captain Amarinder Singh’s 10 lakh followers. The latter then went on to become the state’s chief minister. Though his party ended up in the third place, SAD’s Sukhbir Badal had much more followers at 24 lakh. Read More
Union Ministers Amit Shah, Dharmendra Pradhan, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, BJP national president JP Nadda and other BJP leaders have arrived for the BJP core committee meeting at party headquarters in Delhi.
In another spoof video released, AAP asks "Punjab mai kaun aane wala hai?"
Shortly after declaring Bhagwant Mann as its chief ministerial candidate for Punjab polls, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has released spoof video titled “Punjab's next CM is in the house”.
Congress on Tuesday released the third list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Goa. Michael Lobo, former state minister who recently quit BJP to join the party, will contest from Calangute.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday said the Congress government only laid foundation stones of projects and left them at that while the BJP government was completing the ones it had started. Taking a dig at Congress leaders for often trying to grab credit for development works done over the past five years of the BJP rule in the state, Dhami said that is the difference between the two parties.
"You (Congress) only laid the foundation stones of projects during your time and left them at that while we begin and complete them," Dhami said. "Work is underway on a war footing on all the projects that the BJP took up after taking over whether it is Kedarnath reconstruction, Chardham all weather road or the much awaited Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail line. The Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sanctioned projects worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore for Uttarakhand over the past five years out of which work on many has already begun," Dhami was quoted as saying by PTI.
The BJP's Lok Sabha MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Tuesday said she is ready to resign from her present seat, if her son, Mayank Joshi, gets a ticket given that the party has decided to nominate only one person from a family.
"He (Mayank Joshi) has been working since 2009 and has applied for it a ticket from Lucknow Cantt, rightfully," the MP was quoted as saying by ANI.
"I wrote this proposal to BJP president JP Nadda and will always continue working for the BJP anyway. The party can choose to accept or not accept my proposal. I had already declared that I won't contest elections, many years ago," she added.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday carried out searches at 10 places in Ludhiana, Mohali and Pathankot districts in connection with an illegal sand mining case. Among the places searched was the Mohali residence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew.
The ED is probing a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on an FIR registered in 2018 by the Punjab police against Kudrat Deep Singh, the main accused, who owns a quarry in Nawanshahr, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district.
It is learnt that Kudrat Deep Singh had formed two companies. The directors of the companies were Bhupinder Singh Honey, the nephew of Channi, and Sandeep Singh. Read more