Page 77 - Lok Sabha

SDF releases Sikkim's LS, state polls list; fields Bhaichung Bhutia

Former Sikkim Chief Minister and SDF supremo Pawan Kumar Chamling will seek election from Poklok-Kamrang seat in Namchi district while former India footballer Bhaichung Bhutia will contest from Barfung constituency for the state Assembly election, the party announced on Monday. The opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) announced the names of 30 candidates for the state assembly election and for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the Himalayan state. Chamling, a five-term former chief minister shifted to the Poklok-Kamrang seat from his sitting Namchi-Singhithang seat to avoid a contest with Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang's wife Krishna Kumari Rai who has entered the fray from there. Former India footballer Bhaichung Bhutia will contest from the Barfung (BL-Reserved) seat, while MG Bhutia has been given ticket for Yuksom-Tashiding (BL-Reserved) seat. Elections to the 32-member Sikkim Assembly and the lone Lok Sabha seat in the Himalayan state will be held simultaneously on April ...

LS polls: BJP's Narayana Gowda is in touch with Cong, says cabinet minister

Amid reports of some disgruntlement within BJP over ceding Mandya Lok Sabha seat to alliance partner JD(S), Karnataka Agriculture Minister N Cheluvarayaswamy on Monday claimed BJP leader and former Minister K C Narayana Gowda is in touch with the Congress. As part of the seat-sharing deal with the BJP, JD(S) will be contesting Kolar, Hassan and Mandya seats. Sumalatha Ambareesh, an independent backed by BJP, won the 2019 general elections in Mandya. "Yes, we have spoken to Narayana Gowda, he is in touch with us. At the earliest he along with several supporters of veteran leader from K R Pete -- late Krishna, who were earlier with the Congress and due to various reasons had gone along with Narayana Gowda together, are likely to join us," Cheluvarayaswamy, who is in-charge Minister of Mandya district, said. Speaking to reporters here, he said they may come into the Congress fold without any conditions and accepting the party's ideology and, after joining, the party will decide on who

Lok Sabha elections: Naveen Jindal, Kangana Ranaut on BJP's latest list

Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi has been replaced by Uttar Pradesh minister Jitin Prasada. However, Maneka Gandhi has been fielded again from Sultanpur

Lok Sabha elections: Parties line up merchandise, but demand is muted

Political parties are lining up merchandise ahead of the Lok Sabha polls but demand is muted

Lok Sabha elections: Meet the sons and daughters of political families

Karnataka has become a hotbed for political dynasties, with the Congress fielding five candidates who are either sons or daughters of current ministers in the Congress-led Karnataka government

Report card: BJP's campaign mantra for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections

The party campaigning over the past 10 years has been themed around Brand Modi. But the messaging has changed. Nivedita Mookerji explains

LS polls: BJP names 18 candidates for Odisha seats, drops 4 sitting MPs

The BJP on Sunday announced the names of its candidates for 18 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, while dropping four sitting MPs from the list. The nominees for Cuttack, Jajpur and Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituencies are yet to be named by the party. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will be contesting from Sambalpur seat. The party has fielded four women - Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar), Sangeeta Kumari Deo (Bolangir), Malvika Keshari Deo (Kalahandi) and Anita Subhadarshini (Aska). The sitting MPs who were denied BJP tickets this time are Suresh Pujari (Bargarh), Union Minister Bisheswar Tudu (Mayrbhanj), Nitish Gang Deb (Sambalpur) and Basant Panda (Kalahandi). The party has nominated Pradeep Purohit in place of Pujari while Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan replaced Nitish Gang Deb in Sambalpur. Rairangpur MLA Naba Charan Majhi has replaced Bisheswar Tudu in Mayurbhaj seat. Malvika Keshari Deo is made the new candidate in place of Basant Kumar Panda in .

Chirag Paswan's party to declare LS poll candidates immediately after Holi

NDA ally Chirag Paswan on Sunday said his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will declare its candidates for the Lok Sabha polls "immediately after Holi". Paswan, whose party has got five of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, also asserted he was "ready for any challenge" that came from his estranged uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras. "We will announce all our candidates in a few days... immediately after Holi, said Paswan, but evaded a direct reply to the question whether he would accommodate Veena Devi and Mehboob Ali Kaiser, sitting MPs from Vaishali and Khagaria, respectively. Both the seats, contested by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party in 2019, have been assigned to the young leader's party this time. The MPs had rallied behind Paras when he split the LJP in 2021, but of late have been repenting that decision and swearing by their loyalty towards the late party founder's son. Paswan was also asked about the threat by Paras, who has resigned from his Union cabinet .

Lok Sabha elections: BSP names 25 candidates; JD(U) lists all 16 in Bihar

The Janata Dal (United), on the other hand, announced all its 16 candidates from Bihar, where the Opposition 'grand alliance' is seeing some friction between the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal

Pallavi Dempo first woman to contest Lok Sabha polls on BJP ticket in Goa

Dempo Industries executive director Pallavi Dempo is the first woman candidate in BJP's poll history in Goa who will contest Lok Sabha elections on the party ticket. The BJP on Sunday declared Dempo's candidature from South Goa in its latest list of 111 candidates for general elections. A Goan entrepreneur and educationist, Dempo holds a graduate degree in chemistry and a postgraduate degree in business management (MBA) from MIT, Pune. The 49-year-old entrepreneur oversees the media and real estate arm of Dempo Industries as its executive director. The South Goa seat is currently represented by Congress leader Francisco Sardinha. The BJP had won this constituency only twice since 1962. South Goa constituency, spread across 20 assembly segments, had changed hands among the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party, United Goans Party, and Indian National Congress. The BJP won this seat in the 1999 and 2014 elections but couldn't retain it. Dempo's husband Shrinivas Dempo is a noted industri

Naveen Jindal joins BJP, says wants to contribute to 'Viksit Bharat'

Industrialist and former MP Naveen Jindal quit the Congress and joined the BJP on Sunday, saying he wants to contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of 'Viksit Bharat'. He joined the BJP in the presence of its general secretary Vinod Tawde, who said Jindal's presence in the party will help the government's agenda of boosting the country's economy and prosperity. Tawde noted that the Jindal Steel chairperson has a keen interest in sports and education as well. Jindal represented Kurukshetra constituency in Lok Sabha between 2004-14.

BJP fields Kangana Ranaut, Arun Govil: See full 5th LS candidate list

The party has dropped its Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi and replaced him with ex-Congress MP Jitin Prasada

'INDIA' intact, will cross 272, PM's corruption pitch hollow: Jairam Ramesh

The INDIA bloc is intact despite Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's "somersault" and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee deciding to be Mamata Banerjee, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has said, rejecting as "hollow" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pitch against the opposition on corruption. In an interaction with PTI editors at the news agency's headquarters here, Ramesh also said the opposition will unitedly cross the halfway mark of 272 in the elections and oust the BJP from power. He spoke on a range of issues including electoral bonds, the arrests of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and JMM leader Hemant Soren, who resigned as Jharkhand CM, and also addressed speculations around Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra potentially contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Amethi and Raebareli, respectively. "Look at the way the electoral bonds scheme has worked. Rs 4,000-crore of bonds are directly linked with Rs 4-lakh crore of contracts. There is a clear correlation between the ...

LS elections 2024: BSP releases list of 16 candidates for 80 seats in UP

The BSP on Sunday formally declared its list of candidates for 16 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls. The party in-charges in some districts had earlier declared candidates at district level. The Mayawati-led party has fielded Majid Ali from Saharanpur, Shripal Singh from Kairana, Dara Singh Prajapati from Muzaffarnagar, Vijyendra Singh from Bijnor, Surendra Pal Singh from Nagina (SC seat) and Mohammad Irfan Saifi from Moradabad. From Rampur it has given ticket to Zishan Khan, Shaulat Ali from Sambhal, Mozahid Hussain from Amroha, Devvrat Tyagi from Meerut and Praveen Bansal from Baghpat, it said. From Gautam Buddha Nagar, Rajendra Singh Solanki will be the party candidate, while Girish Chandra Jatav will be in fray from Bulandshahr (SC seat), Abid Ali from Aonla, Anis Ahmad Khan alias Phool Babu from Pilibhit and Dodaram Verma from Shahjahanpur (SC), it added. Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases beginning April 19.

Maratha community should select LS candidates before Mar 30: Jarange

Quota activist Manoj Jarange on Sunday appealed to the Maratha community to choose candidates for contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as independents before March 30. The Maratha community holds sway over 17-18 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra, he claimed. With their influence, they can garner the support of not only Muslims and Dalit communities but also wider section of the society, Jarange said addressing a meeting of the Maratha community members, who had come from across the state, at his native Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district. Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20 and votes will be counted on June 4. "I don't know politics and am not interested in it," Jarange said. He said the Maratha community members such choose candidates, irrespective of caste and religion and those not belonging to any political party, before March 30. A decision on fielding them as independe

JD(U) releases candidate list; drops two sitting MPs, fields two turncoats

The JD(U), headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Sunday announced candidates for all the 16 Lok Sabha seats it is contesting in the state, dropping two sitting MPs and fielding two turncoats. The announcement was made here by the party's national vice president Vashishth Narayan Singh in the presence of several other senior JD(U) leaders. The seats where sitting MPs have been dropped are Sitamarhi, where legislative council chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur will be the JD(U) candidate, and Siwan, where Vijay Laxmi Kushwaha got the ticket just a day after she joined the party along with husband Ramesh Singh Kushwaha who was the state president of Rashtriya Lok Morcha, an NDA ally. Another turncoat to have got the party ticket is Lovely Anand, who had quit the RJD to join the JD(U) earlier this month. She will be contesting the polls from Sheohar.

Congress releases 4th list for LS polls; fields Ajay Rai against PM Modi

The Congress on Saturday released its fourth list of 45 candidates for the Lok Sabha election, fielding its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai from Varanasi to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The party has left the Nagaur parliamentary constituency in Rajasthan for the Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party. The Congress fielded its veteran leader Digvijaya Singh from Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh and newly-inducted leader Lal Singh from Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur. In Tamil Nadu, the party has fielded Karti Chidambaram from Sivaganga, Manickam Tagore from Virudhnagar and S Jothimani from Karur. For Uttar Pradesh, where the party is in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and is contesting on 17 seats, the Congress announced candidates for nine seats. These include Rai from Varanasi, Danish Ali from Amroha, Imran Masood from Saharanpur and Alok Mishra from Kanpur. With this, the Congress has now declared a total of 183 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

PM Modi, other BJP leaders meet in Delhi to pick candidates for LS polls

The BJP's Central Election Committee met here on Saturday to finalise the party's candidates in several states for the Lok Sabha polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president J P Nadda were joined by other CEC members as they went over the list of probables to take a final call. The states for which candidates were tipped to be discussed include Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The CEC has met twice earlier and has named candidates for 291 Lok Sabha seats so far, including in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Telangana among others. The BJP is yet to announces candidates for many seats in some of these states. At least three of the declared candidates, including Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh, have withdrawn from the fray after their names drew some controversy or other. The names of the leading figures of the party, including Modi, Shah, Rajn

Union minister Pramanik has 14 criminal cases against him: Affidavit

Union minister Nisith Pramanik, who has been renominated by the BJP in Cooch Behar seat for the Lok Sabha elections, has 14 criminal cases pending against him, according to an affidavit filed by him along with his nomination paper. Of the 14 cases pending against the Union Minister of State for Home, nine were registered between 2018 and 2020. The other cases were filed between 2009 and 2014, as per the affidavit. He joined the BJP in 2019 after he was expelled from the Trinamool Congress in 2018 over allegedly putting up several independents in that year's panchayat polls in the state against party-nominated contestants in Cooch Behar district. Claiming that the criminal cases were politically motivated, a district functionary of the BJP said that most of the FIRs against Pramanik were registered after he cut off ties with the ruling TMC in West Bengal and thereafter joined the saffron party. The cases registered against the Union minister range from attempt to murder and rioting

Cong like well-established firm with fluctuating mcap; BJP startup: Jairam

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh likened his party to a "well-established company" whose market capitalisation keeps fluctuating and asserted that it will stage a comeback. In an interaction at the PTI office here, Ramesh also dismissed suggestions that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charisma that was responsible for the BJP's electoral performance and stressed on the importance of organisational strength. The idea of a charismatic leader was a "dangerous concept" to believe in as one doing so, automatically believes in a "demagogue", the Congress general secretary in charge communications asserted. Talking about the need for bringing in new faces, Ramesh, however, noted that this was difficult in the Congress because people have been in the party for long. "It's easier for the BJP. Because, you know, the BJP is a startup in many states. You look upon the BJP as a startup. The Congress is not a startup. The Congress is a well-established ...