When Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Gujarat to cast his vote in the urban body polls, learnt of the poor voter, instead of heading home he went to the Motera stadium, organised a control room, and was on the phone with practically everybody assigned duty on the ground: MPs, MLAs and BJP office-bearers. His single commandment was to check the voter list and phone or personally get people to the booths, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
Since the formation of the CPI-M, following a split in the Communist Party of India in 1964, the party never drew a blank in the state in Lok Sabha elections.
Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the Left Democratic Front were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.
Before filing her nomination papers at the Collectorate Rae Bareli, the UPA chairperson held a roadshow and offered puja at the Congress central office.
Prior to filing his nomination, Rahul Gandhi held a road show during which he was accompanied by Priyanka Gandhi and her husband Robert Vadra alongwith their children Raihan and Miraya.
The party also announced that Kamal Nath will contest the bypoll for the Chhindwara assembly constituency.
"I am totally humbled by what he has said. But Mr Pawar has categorically, very humbly told the prime minister that it is not possible," Sule told PTI.
A quick look at the 66-year-old leader's political journey in the mid-1970s shows how injuries and physical assaults have shaped her political career over the years.
However, Bajpai ruled out any possibility of an epic battle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections between Sonia Gandhi and Arun Jaitley.
Assembly elections in Gujarat will be held in two phases on December 9 and 14.
The MNF returned to power in Mizoram by bagging 26 seats of the 40-member state legislature after a decade which saw the crumbling of the last Congress bastion in the north east.
However, as the region with the state's highest concentration of Muslims readies for polls on November 7 in the last phase of the elections, it is the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Left alliance that draws considerable support from the community amid sporadic voices in Owaisi's support as they weigh their choices.
'There is no future for the Shiv Sena under Uddhavji's leadership.'
The main fight during the three-day Indian Cricketers' Association election will be between former cricketers Kirti Azad and Anshuman Gaekwad to become the male representative nominee to the BCCI Apex Council.
Both Hassan and Mandya, where the BJP's strength is negligible, are currently held by JD-S, which Congress too is eyeing this time.
Pawar was the deputy CM twice in the 15-year regime of Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra during 1999-2014.
What the election demonstrated is that the BJP has a stranglehold on most of the Hindu votes in the Union territory, observes David Devadas.
The marital dispute between Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav and Aishwarya Rai, a daughter of Chandrika Roy, has its shadow in the poll battle on this seat which votes on November 3.
Modi will address a rally to boost BJP candidate Smriti Irani's chances.
Asked if the fear of possible defeat made him rethink of contesting from Madha, Pawar said, "I have successfully faced 14 elections. Do you think a 15th will deter me?"
There are very few people in the world who qualify to be called a living legend. Astad Deboo is one of them.
After his party lost power in Haryana in the 2014 polls, the 72-year-old satrap had nothing going in his favour.
'Victory and defeat are an integral part of life. Today's results will further our resolve to serve people and work even harder for the development of India,' Modi said.
"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its implementation got delayed. But as the situation is slowly improving, the work has started. The rules are now being framed and CAA will be implemented very soon. Under this act all the eligible people will definitely get Indian citizenship," Nadda told the social groups, who included Dalits, Gorkhas, Rajbanshis and other tribes.
Meet Manju Devi, porter number 15, who overcame all odds to stand tall and become one of the 112 women achievers of the nation.
A tough administrator and an immensely popular face in his largely rural assembly segment Baramti in Pune district, Ajit is also a maverick leader who doesn't shy from being on a different page from his party.
Governments in most of the world saw their approval ratings dip as they struggled to contain the raging virus, which hit economy hard everywhere, but Indian politics followed a different script, with the outgoing year marking further shrinking of a rudderless Congress while the ruling BJP soared riding on Modi's enduring appeal.
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
Till now, some water from the Nira Deoghar dam in Pune was being diverted to Baramati and Indapur (a part of Baramati Lok Sabha constituency).
The third phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for Tuesday will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in a single phase -- 117 across 15 states and Union Territories. It will also be a test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which will aim to defend the maximum number of seats at 62. This time the BJP will be tested in its bastion Gujarat -- where polling will be held for all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state -- apart from Karanataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had done well in 2014. Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Tuesday.
Given that Bebe grew up in a orphanage and recalls playing youth football matches without eating, it is easy to see why he identifies with the proud yet humble club.
'If Rahul Gandhi disappears, Modi has to talk about his own policies and why they failed'
With political equations changing in bastions of Left unionism, stiff challenges await the soldiers of strikes and bandhs.
Bhushan said as an officer of court he believes as a duty to speak up when he believe there is a deviation from its sterling record.
Among the other prominent faces for the ruling BJP who tasted defeat in the elections was its state president Subhash Barala.
Nothing has been done for Dalits in the last four years, Nagina MP Yashwant Singh wrote in a letter to the PM.
'A hugely dangerous game which she thought she had mastered has now found a stronger opponent,' points out Payal Mohanka.
BJP now governs 35% of country's landmass as against 71% in 2017. 43% of country's population is now governed by the BJP or allies in the states as against over 69 per cent two years ago. In all 3 state polls since its Lok Sabha win, BJP's vote share has fallen by big margins.
'At this moment, the Trinamool has an edge.'
On Sunday, after 13 years of war, over 500 deaths and over 20 billion, United Kingdom withdrew from Afghanistan. In a touching ceremony, the Union Jack flag was lowered at Camp Bastion, which has been the center of UK operations in Afghanistan since 2006. British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed that Britain will 'never forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice' and Labour leader Ed Miliband said the handover was a "time to remember those who have served Britain so courageously in Afghanistan over the last decade".
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