Page 81 - Lok Sabha

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 ...

BJP MP, Vadodara LS seat candidate Ranjan Bhatt pulls out of poll race

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Lok Sabha member from Vadodara, Ranjan Bhatt, who was renominated by the party from the same seat for the upcoming parliamentary elections, on Saturday pulled out of the poll race citing personal reasons. "I, Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt, am unwilling to contest the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 due to my personal reasons," she announced on X. Her move comes days after banners criticising the BJP's decision to renominate her from the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat came up at different spots in the city. Some local BJP leaders had also expressed their displeasure over Bhatt's nomination. BJP national women's wing vice president Jyotiben Pandya resigned from the party and all posts after Bhatt's name was announced as a candidate for the third time from Vadodara. Bhatt had won the 2014 by-election after Prime Minister Narendra Modi vacated the seat. She also won the Lok Sabha election in 2019, and was announced as BJP's candidate for the upcoming poll.

Electoral bond disclosures: Jalan group bonds well with political parties

Financial records of two group companies show that the donations gave are disproportionately high compared to the of the firms, at least in the years they purchased the bonds

LS polls: BJD announces to go solo in Odisha polls after BJP breaks ties

Earlier in the day, Odisha BJP chief Manmohan Samal categorically stated that his party will be contesting in all the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the state alone

History of 2004 will repeat itself: Cong leader Jairam Ramesh on LS polls

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday rejected the BJP's claims that the 2024 poll results are a foregone conclusion, saying "tiger mein abhi bahut jaan hai" and the opposition bloc will repeat the history of 2004 when the saffron party was unseated from power despite its 'shining India' campaign. The Congress general secretary in-charge communications also said his party is going into the Lok Sabha polls with its "five nyays" and "25 guarantees", and has full confidence that the opposition INDIA bloc will get a clear mandate. In an interaction at the PTI office here, Ramesh also said the Congress' guarantee is not of one person but of the party and its "ghoshna patra (manifesto)" will be called the "nyay patra" which will focus on Yuva Nyay, Nari Nyay, Shramik Nyay, Kisaan Nyay and Hissedari Nyay and the 25 guarantees under these. Asked if the polls will be about "Modi ki Guarantee" versus the Congress' "nyay" guarantees, he said, "Our guarantee is not of one person. We ar

LS elections 2024: TN CM Stalin to launch campaign from Trichy on Friday

DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will launch his party's campaign for the April 19 Lok Sabha polls, from this central district on Friday. Stalin, a key leader of the opposition INDIA bloc, will canvass votes for the party-led bloc's Tiruchirappalli candidate, MDMK leader Durai Vaiko and the DMK's Arun Nehru in nearby Perambalur, according to the tour schedule of the ruling party chief. The DMK leads the multi-party Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), which had swept the 2019 elections. It had won 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu then, besides the neighbouring Puducherry segment. Durai is the son of MDMK founder Vaiko and the Tiruchirappalli constituency has been allotted to the party by the DMK as part of the poll pact. Congress' Su Thirunavukkarasar represents the segment in the outgoing House. After launching his poll campaign from here, Stalin will embark on a state-wide tour, covering all 39 LS seats in the state, besides Puducherry, in the comin

BJP scared of Oppn, acting out of panic: Cong on Kejriwal's arrest

Soon after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest by the ED on Thursday, the Congress alleged that the BJP is scared of the outcome of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and creating all kinds of problems for the opposition out of panic. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the "arrogant" Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making false claims of an electoral victory every day and trying to weaken the opposition by indulging in "illegal means" ahead of the polls. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that a "scared dictator" wants to create a dead democracy and the INDIA bloc will give a befitting reply to such designs. "A scared dictator wants to create a dead democracy," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X. "While capturing all the institutions, including the media, breaking up parties, extorting money from companies, freezing the accounts of the main opposition party were not enough for the 'devilish power', now the arrest of elected chief ministers has also become a .

LS polls: BJP releases third list, former Telangana guv among candidates

The BJP plans to contest 20 of Tamil Nadu's 39 seats. Its allies such as GK Vasan's Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar), is likely to contest three seats, the Pattali Makkal Katchi will contest 10 seats

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress announces new list of candidates

The Congress on Thursday announced five more candidates from Rajasthan, including AICC secretary Kuldeep Indora from Ganganagar and former minister Pramod Jain Bhaya's wife Urmila Jain from Jhalwar-Baran seat, for the Lok Sabha elections. The party has left the Sikar parliamentary seat for the Communist Party of India (Marxist). All five Congress candidates are fresh faces and will be contesting the Lok Sabha elections for the first time. Apart from Indora and Urmila Jain, the other candidates include Congress leader and chairman of a private university Sunil Sharma from Jaipur city, Sangeeta Beniwal from Pali and Umeda Ram Beniwal from Barmer. Umeda Ram Beniwal had earlier contested the assembly election on a Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) ticket and had recently joined the Congress. Sangeeta Beniwal was the chairperson of the Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The party on March 12 announced the names of 10 candidates from Rajasthan while the BJP has ..

How Delhi CM Kejriwal's arrest may dent AAP's prospects in Lok Sabha polls

The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday night could not have come at a worse time for the Aam Aadmi Party, which is already grappling with the absence of its top leadership from action. The party is eyeing at expanding its footprint across the country and has tied up with the Congress to contest the Lok Sabha polls against the BJP in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat. Kejriwal is the fulcrum of the party's Lok Sabha campaign and its star campaigner. The party is already feeling the pinch of the absence of its senior leaders like Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Sanjay Singh. Now the arrest of Kejriwal has landed the ruling party of Delhi in the doldrums. On earlier occasions, whenever this question rose, the party maintained a tough stance saying it will fight it out, but there is no denying the fact that AAP's think tank won't find it easy to wriggle out of this problem. The party's campaign in Delhi, where it is contesting on four seats and in Gujarat, where it ha

Congress to finalise Himachal LS list soon, options open for rebels: Kimta

The Congress leader further said, "We have implemented the Old Pension Scheme and provided an honorarium of 1500 rupees to the women

Lok Sabha polls: How GenAI is rewriting political campaigning strategies

GenAI is being widely employed by political parties and candidates for a personalised approach to voters