Curated By: Asmita Ravi Shankar
News18.com
Last Updated: March 27, 2024, 23:26 IST
New Delhi, India
Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Highlights: The Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting is set to take place at the party’s headquarters in Delhi on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) announced all 17 candidates in Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) also declared nine candidates, indicating that it will not be an ally of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the state.
Madhya Pradesh Congress President Jitu Patwari said that the party will declare all its candidates from the state on Wednesday. “…500 MLAs have been bought, 17 governments have fallen, more than 200 MPs have switched sides… Congress liberated the country, developed the country, and now Congress will protect the country,” Patwari had said.
The political storm over Congress leader Supriya Shrinate’s remark against BJP’s Mandi candidate Kangana Ranaut continued. The actor met with the saffron camp’s national president JP Nadda on Tuesday night amid the tense situation.
In Tamil Nadu, BJP state president K Annamalai filed his nomination for the general elections from Coimbatore. Earlier, he had expressed confidence that the NDA would bring in surprises this time in the state.
Congress Party releases its eight list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Congress Party releases its eight list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. pic.twitter.com/ZVoDrT7P8L
— ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2024
The BJP on Wednesday appointed its Lok Sabha poll in-charges and co-incharges for several states and union territories, drafting in quite a few leaders who did not get tickets to fight the elections. Bihar MLA Nitin Nabin will be in-charge for Chhattisgarh and Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Sharma for Maharashtra, a party statement said.
Bihar MLA Sanjeev Chaurasia, Ramesh Bidhuri and Sanjay Bhatia were named as co-incharges for Uttar Pradesh. Both Bidhuri and Bhatia are MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha but were not renominated by the party for the polls. BJP vice president Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda is the poll in-charge for Uttar Pradesh but is likely to be busy in campaigning after he was named the party’s candidate for Kendrapara constituency in Odisha.
Haryana leaders O P Dhankar and Captain Abhimanyu have been made in-charges for Delhi and Assam respectively. Former Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel, who was not renominated for the Lok Sabha polls contest, will be co-incharge for Kerala. Former Union minister Prakash Javadekar was appointed in-charge for the state earlier.
BJP vice president M Chuba Ao, MP Ajit Gopchade, Bihar MLC Devesh Kumar, spokesperson Nalin Kohli, Karnataka MLA Abhay Patil and Avinash Rai Khanna have been made in-charges for Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Telangana and Tripura respectively.
With just weeks to the Lok Sabha election 2024, the Congress is keeping the suspense going over its candidates for Rae Bareli and Amethi parliamentary seats, even as the party announced nine of the 17 candidates from Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to the media earlier today, Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai said the names of candidates for six other seats have been finalised but no discussion took place on Amethi and Rae Bareli.
Amethi and Rae Bareli seats were once bastions of the Nehru-Gandhi family. However, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, who represented Amethi in Parliament from 2002, lost the seat to BJP’s Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. READ MORE
Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal Wednesday appealed to people to support their own regional party which was taking on all Delhi-based parties by contesting the Lok Sabha elections on principles to safeguard the interests of Punjab. The SAD chief made the appeal while touring the Mansa and Budhlada assembly constituencies as part of Punjab Bachao Yatra. He was accompanied by Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
Asserting that the SAD is the only regional party in the fray, Sukhbir Badal said, “We are fighting against the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party which have no agenda for Punjab. “Only the SAD can protect your rights,” he said.
He also highlighted how both the Congress and AAP governments had taken Punjab back by decades, and claimed that Punjab had suffered during the last seven years.
With the Lok Sabha Election 2024 just around the corner, a massive revolt has erupted in the Karnataka unit of Congress over poll ticket for the Kolar constituency. At least five party legislatures– three MLAs and two MLCs– have threatened to resign if Congress decides to field Chikkapeddanna, the son-in-law of state’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa, from the Lok Sabha seat.
Muniyappa has sought the Kolar ticket for his son-in-law by pointing out that the Congress has already given tickets to the children of his Cabinet colleagues. However, his rival faction is reportedly pushing for former Rajya Sabha member L Hanumanthaiah’s candidature.
Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Pratibha Singh has left the decision on contesting the Lok Sabha polls to the party high command, the grand old party’s in-charge for the hill state, Rajeev Shukla, said on Wednesday. Singh, the member of Parliament from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, had recently said she had decided not to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as the situation on the ground was “not favourable” and the party workers were disheartened.
Shukla was talking to reporters after a six-member committee formed by the Congress to ensure better coordination between its Himachal Pradesh government and party organisation in the hill state met in Chandigarh.
Asked about her earlier statement on not contesting the Lok Sabha polls, Singh said, “I have conveyed it to the high command. Now let us see what decision it takes.” Besides Singh, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and other Congress leaders were present at the meeting chaired by Shukla.
The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala on Wednesday made a scathing attack against the BJP and the Congress over the electoral bonds issue, saying that it has become one of the most “notorious corruption” cases the country has ever seen. The Left party said that the BJP would never have thought that the details of those who bought their electoral bonds would come out and accused them of accepting funds from black money holders and looters in the name of bonds.
Addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram, party state secretary M V Govindan hailed the strong stand taken by the Supreme Court that the people of the country have the right to know who bought the electoral bonds of political parties. He alleged that the whopping Rs 8,251 crore, received by the BJP via electoral bonds, was amassed by threatening people and institutions using the power of the party-led government at the Centre.
BJP releases its seventh list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Navneet Rana has been fielded from Amravati constituency in Maharashtra.
BJP releases its seventh list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Navneet Rana fielded from Amravati constituency in Maharashtra. pic.twitter.com/rfdLYckZUl
— ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2024
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said she declined the offer of the BJP to contest elections pleading that she did not have the ‘kind of funds’ required for fighting the Lok Sabha polls. The minister said that the BJP President (J P Nadda) gave her the option to contest either from Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu.
“After thinking over a week or ten days, I just went back to say… maybe not. I do not have that kind of money to contest. I also have a problem whether it is Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. It’s also going to be a question of various other winnability criteria that they use…Are you from this community or are you from that religion? Are you from this? I said no, I do not think I am going to able to do it,” she said. Sitharaman was speaking at the TIMES NOW Summit 2024 here.
“I am very grateful that they accepted my argument…So I am not contesting,” she added. When asked why even the finance minister of the country does not have enough funds to fight Lok Sabha elections, she said that the Consolidated Fund of India does not belong to her.
Amidst unrelenting attacks from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over dynasty politics in the opposition INDIA bloc, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor staunchly defended it, claiming that it is ingrained within India’s cultural fabric and its prevalence was not only within the grand old party but also within the BJP.
In an interview with PTI, Tharoor stood by dynasty politics in parties in the country, saying it’s part of India’s culture and suggested it’s a common practice, not something unusual.
“It’s a relatively common thing that in India, much more than in the West, a father expects his son to follow his profession, and so it tends to go. So it’s not at all surprising that there is a certain level of ‘parivar vaad’ in all parties,” Tharoor said.
DMK MP Kanimozhi, who has been re-nominated by the party for April 19 Lok Sabha polls from this south Tamil Nadu constituency, has declared total assets of over Rs 57 crore.
According to the election affidavit submitted by the DMK deputy general secretary, Kanimozhi’s total liabilities stand at Rs 60,60,187.
Her movable assets are Rs 38,77,79,117 and she owns three cars, including a BMW XS, valued at a little over Rs 84.11 lakh, the affidavit stated. Her immovable assets, including residential property in Chennai, were valued at Rs 18,54,42,000. She has Rs 13,500 cash on hand.
iju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday declared the first list of nine candidates for the Lok Sabha and 72 for the Odisha Assembly elections.
Odisha has 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 Assembly constituencies. Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly elections will be held simultaneously in four phases May 13, 20, 25 and June 1.
Patnaik himself will contest from the Hinjili Assembly segment in Ganjam district. Of the 72 Assembly candidates, 13 were new faces and 12 were women candidates.
People in Mathura will be voting for a combination of Narendra Modi and Hema Malini, says the actor-dancer who has stepped into the heat and dust of campaigning for a third successive term as Lok Sabha MP and doesn’t consider herself a seasoned politician just yet.
Describing herself as a Krishna devotee whose dream for her constituency, which includes Vrindavan, is still incomplete, she said she asked the BJP for a ticket so she could finish the work that remains pending.
“I am not a seasoned politician but being in this position I can do the things I want. I am a devotee of Lord Krishna and I would not have contested if it was not Mathura. I am here because Lord Krishna wants me to do some seva. I did not want to jump into politics but I think it is divine intervention,” the 75-year-old told PTI in an exclusive interview. READ MORE
Confusion prevailed in Rampur and Morababad Lok Sabha constituencies over the authorised Samajwadi Party candidates as two of them, each from both the seats, filed their nominations on Wednesday claiming themselves to be the original party candidate.
In Rampur, Asim Raja, who had contested the 2022 Lok Sabha byelection as an SP candidate, filed his nomination papers claiming himself to be the party candidate. Mohibulla Nadvi, who is the imam of a mosque in Delhi, also filed his nominations making similar claims.
While both the candidates claimed themselves to be the real party candidate, the SP has not said anything about them.
Similarly in Moradabad, SP leader Ruchi Veera filed the nomination papers as an SP candidate on Wednesday while sitting MP S T Hasan had filed them on Tuesday.
On April 18, a team of polling officials will trek nearly 40 kilometres on foot through treacherous terrain to set up a voting booth in a remote corner of Arunachal Pradesh near the China border — all for the sake of Malogam village’s lone voter, a 44-year-old woman, Sokela Tayang.
“It is not always about numbers but it is to ensure that every citizen gets his or her voice heard. Sokela Tayang’s vote is a testament to our commitment to inclusivity and equality,” said Chief Electoral Officer Pawan Kumar Sain.
According to election officials, very few families reside in Malogam, and all but Tayang are registered voters in other polling booths. But she is not willing to shift to any other polling booth.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s MP and lone Lok Sabha member Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the BJP on Wednesday along with party MLA Sheetal Angural, dealing a blow to the party already facing a crisis following the arrest of its leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Rinku, the MP from Jalandhar in Punjab, and Angural, who was elected to the state Assembly from Jalandhar West, joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and its national general secretary Vinod Tawde. READ MORE
More than 58,000 voters in Rajasthan have so far opted for home voting in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, an official said on Wednesday.
For the first phase of the general election, 35,542 people, including 26,371 senior citizens and 9,171 persons with disabilities, have registered for home voting, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said.
Registration for home voting in the first phase of the polls will be completed Wednesday, he said. Returning officers will share the list of registered home voters with all recognised political parties and candidates by April 1.
As the 2024 Lok Sabha elections approach and polling is scheduled to commence on April 19, the nation will vote in seven phases, coinciding with simultaneous elections for four State Assemblies — Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. The counting of votes is slated for June 4.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had assured voters of leveraging technology to ensure a fair and transparent election process. In line with this, the commission has rolled out the Voter Help App (VHA), offering features such as checking voter registration status. READ MORE
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice Congress Supriya Shrinate for “insulting, offensive and derogatory remarks against honour and dignity of women”.
The notice came a day after BJP approached ECI over the Congress leader’s alleged derogatory remark against actress and BJP’s mandi candidate Kangana Ranaut.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said the Maha Vikas Aghadi waited for the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi till the last moment and is still waiting after the latter announced that he will not ally with the opposition camp for the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra.
Talking to reporters, Raut said his party was still of the opinion that talks could be held with the VBA.
“We waited for the VBA till the last moment and are still waiting. We had offered the VBA five seats including Akola. We still are of the opinion that talks can be held with him. This can go beyond five,” Raut said.
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