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News18.com
Last Updated: March 31, 2024, 23:07 IST
New Delhi, India
Lok Sabha Election 2024 Updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll campaign for Lok Sabha Election 2024 in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut today (March 31). While addressing a rally there, PM Modi said the BJP government made the impossible possible by building Ram Temple and scrapping Article 370. The prime minister also added that the coming 5 years will be dedicated to the empowerment of women if the BJP is voted to power.
Prime Minister Modi also lashed out at the Congress over the controversial Katchatheevu island that was handed over to Sri Lanka by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1974.
ALSO READ: How Katchatheevu Issue is Taking Spotlight Ahead of LS Polls; Why Indira Gandhi Ceded Island to Sri Lanka
This is the first occasion when PM Modi and RLD Chief Jayant Chaudhary shared the stage, a decade after BJP decimated RLD in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. RLD joined the BJP-led NDA in February after the PM announced the Bharat Ratna for former Prime Minister and Jayant’s grandfather Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Meanwhile, Congress on Sunday released a list of its star campaigners for the Lok Sabha Elections. Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Ajay Rai are among its star poll campaigners.
Top leaders of the INDIA bloc on Sunday exhorted the people to defeat the BJP to save democracy and the Constitution and alleged that the opposition has been deprived of a level playing field in the Lok Sabha elections due to the government’s “dictatorial” actions.
Coming together at the ‘Loktantra Bachao’ (Save Democracy) rally at Ramlila Maidan in the national capital, the first such show of strength by the opposition after the announcement of Lok Sabha polls, the leaders of 18 major parties slammed the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and gave a fervent call to the alliance partners to unite in national interest.
Members of the BJP core committee in Maharashtra on Sunday held a meeting with in-charges of clusters to take stock of all 48 constituencies in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections. Notably, the BJP-led NDA has set the target of winning more than 45 seats in the state. The BJP has divided all 48 Lok Sabha constituencies into 16 clusters and entrusted senior leaders with the responsibility of managing them. They are tasked with focusing on unique issues and identifying challenges in each constituency.
BJP’s Maharashtra in-charge and Rajya Sabha member Dinesh Sharma, who is a former deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, also attended the meeting at the party office in south Mumbai.
Former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday took a jibe at Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda over his remarks that last time both he and his son Deepender lost the Lok Sabha polls as both had entered the poll arena. Khattar said Hooda’s worry is that if he enters the contest this time too then his son will lose as he will not get the required support from him.
He expressed confidence of the BJP winning all the 10 Lok Sabha seats from the state this time too like in 2019. When asked why he does not want to fight the Lok Sabha polls, Hooda had told reporters here on Friday that his son Deepender will be contesting and the party is deciding on his candidature from Rohtak.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the INDIA bloc leaders have nothing to offer besides corruption, nepotism, and appeasement. The opposition leaders attack him when people reject them, Modi said during a virtual interaction with party workers from his home constituency of Varanasi via the ‘NaMo’ app.
During the ‘Tiffin Baithak’ programme, Modi once again attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his “fight against Shakti” remark. “The INDI alliance relies on worn-out clichs. They lack both logic and facts. These individuals have nothing else to offer besides corruption, nepotism, and appeasement. That’s all they know,” Modi said.
Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Sunday declared its second list of 11 candidates from Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. With this, the VBA has so far declared 20 candidates.
The 11 constituencies include Hingoli, Latur, Solapur, Madha, Satara, Dhule, Hatkanangale, Raver, Jalna, Mumbai North Central, and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.
Congress on Sunday slammed the Left government over the recent acquittal of three RSS activists in a case relating to the murder of a madrassa teacher inside a mosque seven years ago. Accusing the police and the prosecution of handling the case poorly, the opposition party sought to know if they were released as part of a “secret agreement” between the RSS and CPI(M) for the Lok Sabha polls.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly V D Satheesan and KPCC acting president M M Hassan urged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who handles the Home portfolio, to explain the circumstances that led to the acquittal of the RSS activists.The government, however, made it clear that they would approach the High Court against the verdict pronounced by the Principal Sessions Court in Kasaragod yesterday.
Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president and Rajya Sabha MP Jayant Chaudhary shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday and showered praises on him. He said that former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh would not have received the Bharat Ratna had Modi not been the country’s prime minister.
Prime Minister Modi launched the Lok Sabha elections campaign by addressing a rally in Meerut along with the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in which the RLD chief also participated.
Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) on Sunday formally broke away from the opposition INDIA bloc and tied up with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM to launch a joint front ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
The two opposition parties floated the PDM Nyay Morcha, calling it a front to bring justice to Pichda (backwards), Dalits and Muslims. This is similar to PDA — an acronym for Pichda, Dalit and Alpasankhyak (minorities) — coined by the former Apna Dal (K) ally Samajwadi Party.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M K Stalin on Sunday said it is only through unity that the opposition can defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and oust the “fascist” BJP to form a federal India. In his message at the INDIA bloc’s rally, he said the arrest of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal shows the BJP’s “growing desperation in the face of imminent defeat”.
His message was read out by DMK leader in Rajya Sabha Tiruchi Siva, who represented the party at the rally. Siva expressed hope that the national flag would be unfurled by the leaders of the INDIA bloc at the Red Fort on this year’s Independence Day.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sound the poll bugle in Bihar on April 4 with a rally in Jamui, where voting will be held in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The announcement was made by Chirag Paswan, BJP’s junior alliance partner, a second-term MP from Jamui who has now shifted base, passing over the mantle to brother-in-law Arun Bharti.
In a post on X, Paswan, who heads the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), said: “It is a matter of immense pride for our workers that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching his Lok Sabha campaign in Bihar from Jamui”. Paswan, who will contest from Hajipur, his late father Ram Vilas Paswan’s pocket borough, also shared a poster with the PM’s image printed alongside that of Bharti, who is making his electoral debut.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday conducted a massive road show in Sikar Lok Sabha constituency, campaigning for the BJP candidate from the seat. Shah was accompanied by Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma and party candidate and two-time MP Swami Sumedhanand.
Shah reached Jaipur and held a meeting of party leaders from five Lok Sabha constituencies of Dausa, Karauli-Dholpur, Nagaur, Churu and Jhunjhunu before going to Sikar for the road show.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday said the ruling BJP was trying to break up the country into several pieces and urged people to not be swayed by the party’s “new jumlas” during the Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing an INDIA bloc rally at the Ramlila Maidan, Mann said the BJP does not want the opposition parties to unite. “These people do not want that we should sit together. Let’s come together,” Mann said.
Mann said the country belongs to all its 140 crore people and is no one’s “property”.
Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday met BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Mandi Kangana Ranaut at her home in Bhambla to discuss the election strategy.
Ranaut, a popular Hindi film actor, welcomed Thakur by presenting him with a cap at her Mandi house. Sarkaghat MLA Dilip Singh Thakur and other local BJP office bearers were also present on the occasion. Kangana kick-started her election campaign on Friday with a road show and a rally.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to do “match-fixing” in the Lok Sabha polls and asserted that if the BJP wins the election through this endeavour and changes the Constitution, then the whole country would be “finished”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has lived in poverty and “that is why Modi understands very well the sorrow of every poor, the pain of every poor, the suffering of every poor”.
“So I made schemes to address every concern of the poor. We have not only empowered the poor, but we have also given them back their self-respect,” Modi said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the people have only seen a “trailer” of development and his government was preparing the roadmap for the next five years.
“Our government has already started preparations for the third term. We are making a roadmap for the coming five years. Work is going on rapidly on what major decisions we have to take in the first 100 days. In the last 10 years, you have seen only a trailer of development, now we have to take the country much further,” he said.
The Indian National Congress (INC) on Sunday released a list of its star campaigners. Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Ajay Rai are among its star poll campaigners.
BJP leader Agnimitra Paul on Sunday slammed RS MP Sagarika Ghose’s statements supporting Arvind Kejriwal at the INDIA alliance rally.
“Sagarika Ghose was a journalist and once said that she wouldn’t leave her profession to join politics but she is a TMC leader and MP now. It’s a rule in her party that after joining them one has to support corrupts and criminals,” she said.
On RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s statement at the INDIA Alliance ‘maha rally,’ Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai says, “Tejashwi Yadav has become a symbol of corruption and he is not even getting tired doing scams and corruption. CBI, ED and these types of institutions are independent institutions.”
“He (Tejashwi Yadav) has been in a big position and he is also a leader of RJD, does it mean that he can keep committing corruption, scams, and injustice? keep shielding culprits and the law should not reach out to him? No, the nation’s law does not spare anyone,” Rai said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing an election rally in UP’s Meert said, “I am not just probing the corrupt. I guarantee that whoever has looted the people of my country, I am returning the stolen wealth of my people to them.”
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