Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge was tutored to compare him with Ravana.
The Chief Minister's roadshow is being held when polling for the first phase in 89 of the 182 constituencies is underway in the state
PM Narendra Modi ruled Gujarat for over a decade before moving to the national stage in 2014
This road show by PM Modi is expected to pass through 16 assembly constituencies that go into polls in the second phase of the Gujarat election on December 5
Polling began at 8 am on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 out of the total 182 seats across 19 districts of Saurashtra-Kutch region and southern parts of the state to decide the fate of 788 candidates. The voting is being held across 14,382 polling stations, of which 3,311 are in the urban and 11,071 in rural areas, the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said. Live webcasting is being done from 13,065 polling stations to keep a close eye on the process, it said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has ruled Gujarat for 27 years, is trying to retain power in the state for the seventh term in a row. If it succeeds, it will equal the record of the Left Front government which won the West Bengal elections for seven consecutive terms till 2011. This time, the BJP faces competition not just from its traditional rival Congress but also the new poll entrant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has tried to position itself as the main challenger
The campaigning for the first phase of elections in 89 out of the total 182 seats in Gujarat will end on Tuesday. Elections for the first phase will be held on December 1. Voting for the remaining 93 seats will be held on December 5. Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda and Union minister Smriti Irani will on Tuesday campaign in Bhavnagar and Gandhidham (Kutch district), respectively, for the BJP candidates contesting in the first phase. Among notable candidates in the first phase is Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) chief ministerial face Isudan Gadhvi, who is contesting from Khambhalia seat in Devbhumi Dwarka district. Former Gujarat minister Parshottam Solanki, six-time MLA Kunwarji Bavaliya, Morbi 'hero' Kantilal Amrutiya, Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja's wife Rivaba and Gujarat AAP president Gopal Italia are also among the prominent candidates in the fray for the first phase of the state Assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Nadda and
The contest in Khambhalia has emerged as one to watch out for after the Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi decided to contest from the seat where he is locked in a keen triangular fight with incumbent Congress MLA Vikram Madam and BJP's Mulubhai Bera. A popular Gujarati news anchor before entering politics by joining the AAP, Gadhvi enjoys a good image and has emerged as his party's main campaigner in the state but social equations in the constituency pose a challenge to him, poll watchers say. Both Madam, a seasoned politician and also a former Lok Sabha MP, and Bera, a former state government minister, come from the Ahir community, which is the largest caste in the seat where Muslim votes are also significant. Poll watchers say caste will play an important role in deciding voting preference and the AAP leader, whose community Gadhvi is numerically much less, has a disadvantage and Muslims may prefer the Congress. However, Gadhvi has projected himself as t
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, more commonly known as GIFT City, occupies 886 acres between Gujarat's capital, Gandhinagar, and Ahmedabad, its biggest city
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got Rs 163.54 crore, or nearly 94 per cent of corporate donations received by four political parties in Gujarat in the five years from FY 2016 to FY 2021, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said. Total corporate donations declared by political parties from Gujarat between fiscal 2016-17 to 2020-21 stood at Rs 174.06 crore from 1,571 donors, out of which the BJP received Rs 163.54 crore from 1,519 donors, said the report released on Sunday. The four political parties are the BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, and Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the report informed. Congress stood a distant second getting Rs 10.46 crore from 47 donors, stated the report. "Of the total corporate donations (Rs 4014.58 crore) received by political parties in the five-year period, 4.34 per cent or Rs 174.06 crore worth of corporate donations came from Gujarat. This is based on the data analysed from the contribution reports submitted by the political
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Ahead of Gujarat assembly polls, PM Modi is set to address four public meetings in the state
The national security paradigm is another device to herd voters behind the BJP, which is projected as the last line of defence between a secure India and its perceived enemies
The BJP is confident of maintaining its winning streak in Kutch district in Gujarat Assembly polls even as the Congress is carrying out a silent campaign in rural areas and the Aam Aadmi Party is setting the stage for a three-cornered fight by throwing its hat in the ring. The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is contesting in two minority-dominated seats. Kutch, which goes to polls in the first phase on December 1, has six Assembly constituencies - Abdasa, Bhuj, Rapar- all bordering Pakistan, and Mandvi, Anjar and Gandhidham. The district has around 16 lakh voters spread across the six constituencies, out of which male and female voters are equally proportionate. Muslims comprise around 19 per cent of the total electorate, whereas the Dalits comprise around 12 per cent, and the Patels, including the Leuvas and Kadvas, constitute about 10.5 per cent. The Kshatriya and the Koli communities comprise around 6.5 per cent and 5.2 per cent of the electorate, ...
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday told textile traders of Surat the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will make the city a "garment hub" of the country with an export-oriented integrated textile park and creation of thousands of jobs. Interacting with the city's textile traders as part of his campaign for the next month's Gujarat Assembly polls, the AAP national convener said, if voted to power, the AAP government will bring a special law to protect them against cases of cheating in payment of dues. Asserting his party would remove "raid raj and fear", he said, "AAP will make Surat the garment hub of not just Gujarat but the entire country. A new integrated textile park will be created which will be completely export-oriented. You will get tax breaks, incentives and other facilities." "Textile units will get basic infrastructure and the rates of electricity will be lowered. The AAP government will provide all the facilities for the creation of thousands of jobs and high exports. We
The average assets per candidate contesting the Gujarat Assembly elections in Phase I is Rs 2.88 crore
As 89 Gujarat Assembly seats go to the polls later this week, Radhika Ramaseshan travels to Saurashtra to gauge what voters are thinking
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Two decades after a devastating earthquake struck Bhuj in Gujarat, the Kutch district might have witnessed unprecedented industrial growth, but environmentalists and town veterans are apprehensive about whether Bhuj has learnt its lessons and prepared to face such a natural disaster. In January 2001, a massive earthquake struck the town of Bhuj and Kutch district, killing more than 20,000 people, destroying thousands of homes, and rendering lakhs of people homeless. Post-earthquake, the Gujarat government announced a major reconstruction and rehabilitation policy, under which the district witnessed unprecedented industrial growth in the last two decades. Scientists and environmentalists feel that with Kutch being one of the active seismic zones of the country, the administration should be extra careful while carrying out developmental activities such as industrialisation and town planning. As the election approaches, the earthquake survivors and the scientists urge political partie
Two jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed and two others were injured after their colleague opened fire over some issue in a village near Porbandar in Gujarat on Saturday evening, officials said. These jawans belong to a CRPF battalion from Manipur. They were sent here by the Election Commission ahead of the next month's Gujarat Assembly elections, said Porbandar Collector and District Election Officer, AM Sharma. Voting in the Porbandar district will be held on December 1 in the first phase. They were staying inside a cyclone centre in Tukda Gosa village, about 25 km from Porbandar. "A jawan opened fire from his assault rifle on his colleagues over some unknown issue on Saturday evening. While two jawans died on the spot, two others were injured. They were shifted to a hospital in Jamnagar. One of them received a bullet injury in his stomach and the other was hit on his leg," Sharma said, adding that further investigation will be carried out by the police.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asserted on Saturday that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will record a "historic victory" in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls and become a "national" political party. Congratulating the party workers on the 10th anniversary of the AAP's foundation day, Kejriwal said the party has created "many histories" in Indian politics since it came into existence on November 26, 2012 and become "a new hope" for the people of the country. "The Aam Aadmi Party was formed 10 years ago on this day. In these 10 years, the party created many histories in Indian politics with the immense love of the public and the hard work of the workers," Kejriwal, the national convenor of the party, said in a series of tweets. The AAP has offered a new hope to the people of the country and gained their trust, he said. "With yet another historic victory, the AAP is going to become a national party very soon," he said. Riding high on its stupendous victory in the Punjab Assembly p