CHANDIGARH:  It is season of roadshows in Himachal Pradesh where Assembly elections are due later this year. While the ruling BJP is eying yet another term in power, the Aam Aadmi Party is trying to 
replace the opposition Congress as the alternative political force in the hill state. With poll fervour already in the air, the saffron party is planning a show of strength on April 22, which will be followed by the AAP’s roadshow on April 23. Notably, the Congress is missing from action.

BJP national president JP Nadda is scheduled to hold the roadshow from Kangra to Nagrota Bagwan followed by a rally at Gandhi Ground in Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra on April 22. Later in the day, he is likely to meet senior party leader and former chief minister Shanta Kumar. The BJP chief may also visit Brajeshwari Mata Mandir in Kangra. This would be the BJP chief’s second visit to his home state in recent months.

A day after Nadda’s rally, AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to hold a roadshow and address a rally in Shahpur constituency of Kangra district. The district is politically strategic as it has maximum number of Assembly seats. Of the total 68 constituencies in Himachal Pradesh, 15 are in Kangra.

In the last Assembly election, 11 of these were won by the BJP, which had formed government after winning a total 44 seats. Congress had won three seats in the district. Kejriwal’s rally comes in the aftermath of AAP’s state president and general secretary joining the saffron camp.

AAP leader Rakesh Chaudhary said Kejriwal’s rally in Kangra would be an “eye-opener” for the ruling BJP. Stating that AAP is already making an impact in the state, Chaudhary claimed the BJP government announcing 125 units of free power and free water to people in the rural areas is a proof for this.
Sources claimed some congress leaders may join the AAP at the rally. Himachal BJP president Suresh Kashyap, however, claimed that AAP would not have any impact in the state.

KOLKATA/RAJNANDGAON/MUZZAFARPUR: Trinamool Congress candidates have taken the lead over their rivals in both the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency and the Ballygunge assembly segment, after initial rounds of counting for by-polls to the two seats, election officials said Saturday.

In Ballygunge, Babul Supriyo is ahead of CPI(M)’s Saira Shah Halim by 4,676 votes, after three rounds of counting at David Hare Training College here, they said.

Former Union minister and popular yesteryear actor Shatrughan Sinha is also leading by 10,989 votes over BJP’s Agnimitra Paul, the official said.

The by-polls, which took place on April 12, were necessitated as Supriyo resigned as the MP of Asansol after switching over to the TMC from the BJP, while state minister Subrata Mukherjee, who represented Ballygunge, died last year.

The counting exercise began at 8 am amid tight security.

Congress leading in bypoll to Chhattisgarh’s Khairagarh Assembly seat 

Counting of votes for the bypoll to Khairagarh Assembly seat in Chhattisgarh began on Saturday morning and as per the early trends, the Congress candidate is leading by a margin of 1,242 votes, officials said.

Both the ruling Congress and opposition BJP in the state are eyeing to win the seat that falls in the Naxal-hit Rajnandgaon district, where by-election was necessitated after Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) MLA Devvrat Singh died in November last year.

“The counting of votes in the bypoll held on April 12 in Khairagarh seat began at 8 am at the godwon of state seeds development corporation here,” a poll official said.

As per the early trends, Yashoda Verma of the Congress was leading by a margin of 1,242 votes against his nearest rival Komal Janghel of the BJP after three rounds of counting, he said.

Verma secured 4,436 votes, while Janghel bagged 3,194 votes after the initial rounds of counting.

JCC (J) candidate Narendra Soni has secured 49 votes, he said.

The voter turnout in the bypoll for the seat located in state’s Naxal-affected Rajnandgaon district, was 77.88 per cent.

Postal ballots were first taken up for counting followed by votes cast in the EVMs, the official said, adding that the entire process will be done in 21 rounds.

A total of 10 contestants were in the fray, but political experts feel that this time the fight is virtually between the ruling Congress and opposition BJP as the JCC (J) has lost its appeal after the demise of Ajit Jogi in 2020.

Devvrat Singh, who belonged to the erstwhile royal family of Khairagarh, quit Congress in 2017 and joined former JCC (J) the next year.

He contested the 2018 Assembly polls on the JCC(J) ticket from Khairagarh.

He defeated BJP candidate Komal Janghel by a thin margin of 870 votes.

This time, the BJP has once again fielded Komal Janghel, a former MLA, for the bypoll, while Yashoda Verma, the Khairagarh block unit chief of Congress, is the ruling party’s nominee.

Janghel and Verma both belong to the Lodhi caste, a numerically powerful OBC community in the Khairagarh area.

However, stakes are high for the ruling Congress, as it is fighting to retain this seat, which was once considered as its bastion.

Congress has promised the people to make Khairagarh a district if it wins the seat.

In the 2018 assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, the Congress registered a landslide victory winning 68 seats in the 90-member House decimating the BJP to 15.

The JCC (J) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had bagged 5 and 2 seats respectively.

Subsequently, the state witnessed bypolls to three assembly seats which were won by Congress, improving its tally to 70 in the assembly.

RJD candidate leads by 11,620 votes in Bihar’s Bochahan 

Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Amar Kumar Paswan was on Saturday leading by over 11,620 votes over his nearest rival Baby Kumari of the BJP in the bypoll to Bihar’s Bochahan assembly constituency, an Election Commission official said.

Paswan secured 26,623 votes, while Kumari got 15,003 after the eighth round of counting, he said.

Vikassheel Insaan Party’s Geeta Kumari was in the third position with 13,512 votes.

The counting of votes for the assembly constituency in Muzaffarpur district is underway.

By-poll to the seat was necessitated by the death of MLA Musafir Paswan, who had won on the ticket of the Vikassheel Insaan Party.

Around 59.20 per cent of 2,90,544 voters had exercised their franchise in the by-election to the assembly segment on April 12.

CHANDIGARH: Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday said he has resigned as the party’s Punjab chief.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had on Tuesday asked its state unit chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur to put in their papers after the party’s drubbing in the recently held Assembly polls in these states.

The cricketer-turned-politician shared information about his resignation on his twitter handle. “As desired by the Congress President I have sent my resignation….,” his tweet read. In his resignation letter written to Sonia Gandhi, Sidhu wrote, “I hereby resign as President (PPCC)

The Congress faced a humiliating defeat in Punjab, winning only 18 seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party romped home with 92 seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly. Sidhu himself lost to the Aam Aadmi Party’s Jeevanjot Kaur from the Amritsar East Assembly seat by 6,750 votes.

He had taken over as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president in July last year. Several Punjab Congress candidates on Tuesday had blamed indiscipline and infighting among the state unit leaders for the party’s crushing defeat.

NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday congratulated Chief Minister-designate of Punjab Bhagwant Mann ahead of his oath-taking ceremony and hoped that the state will flourish under his leadership.

Over three lakh people are expected to attend Mann’s oath-taking ceremony. The Chief Minister-designate of Punjab had invited people of the state to attend his oath-taking ceremony, saying 3 crore people of Punjab will also take the oath along with him.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal left for Punjab to attend Mann’s swearing-in ceremony.

“It’s a big day for Punjab today. In this golden morning of new hope, the entire Punjab will today come together and take a pledge to make it a prosperous Punjab. To witness that historic moment, I have also left for Khatkar Kalan, the native village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh,” Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi.

CHANDIGARH: Ahead of being sworn-in as Punjab chief minister on Wednesday, AAP leader Bhagwant Mann said people of the state will take oath with him to fulfil the dreams of Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb Ambedkar.

All arrangements are in place for the swearing-in ceremony of Mann at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in Punjab’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar district.

Mann in a tweet in Punjabi said, “The golden rays of sun have brought a new dawn today. To fulfil the dreams of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Babasaheb (BR Ambedkar), entire Punjab will take oath today at Khatkar Kalan.”

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other senior party leaders will also take part in the ceremony.

In a tweet, Kejriwal said he had left for Khatkar Kalan to witness a “historic moment”. “It’s a big day for Punjab today. In this golden morning of new hope, the entire Punjab will today come together and take a pledge to make it a prosperous Punjab. To witness the historic moment, I have also left for Khatkar Kalan, the native village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

AAP leader and party’s Punjab affairs co-in-charge Raghav Chadha tweeted, “Today marks an important day in the history of Punjab as 3 crore Punjabis will together be sworn in as Chief Minister along with @BhagwantMann.”

“Oath to change this corrupt system & to fulfill dreams of Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh & Babasaheb Ambedkar Ajj ton har Punjabi CM houga (from today onwards, every Punjabi will be CM),” he said in the tweet.

Chadha also shared his photo in a yellow turban on his twitter handle. Newly-elected MLA from Anandpur Sahib Harjot Bains said, “Today marks the beginning of a new dawn in Punjab. Together, we will fulfil ‘Shaheed-E-Azam’ Bhagat Singh’ dreams which will be the real tribute to our shaheeds.”

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party supporters from across the state began reaching Khatkar Kalan in large numbers on Wednesday morning to attend the oath-taking ceremony. The men were wearing yellow turbans while women were draped in a yellow ‘dupatta’. “We want to congratulate Bhagwant Mann and the entire Punjab,” said a party supporter from Shutrana.

Another supporter, who came from Mann’s Satoj village in Sangrur said, “We have high expectations from him and he will definitely live up to them. The way Kejriwal did good work in Delhi, Mann will also do the same in Punjab.”

When Mann was leaving for Khatkar Kalan from Mohali, a few of his supporters showered flower petals on his vehicle and congratulated him. “I am very happy that my brother (Mann) is going to be the CM. We are very happy about it,” said a woman supporter in Mohali.

The 48-year-old Mann had invited the people of the state to attend his swearing-in ceremony, saying the three crore people of Punjab will also take oath with him. Foolproof security arrangements have been made for the ceremony and several senior officials, including inspector general and senior superintendents of police, have been deputed for the event.

Around 8,000 to 10,000 security personnel have been deployed for the event, said the officials. The AAP romped home winning 92 seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly, decimating the Congress and the SAD-BSP combine.

PANAJI: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday resigned from the post to pave the way for the formation of a new government in the state, two days after his party – BJP – emerged as the single largest force by winning 20 seats in the 40-member assembly.

Talking to reporters later, Sawant said he has been asked to continue as a caretaker chief minister till the new government is formed.

“The governor has given me an appointment letter to be the caretaker chief minister of the state,” he said.

Sawant said the date of staking claim to form the new government is yet to be decided by the party.

“The party’s central observers will visit Goa and other three states (where the BJP has retained power), after which the dates of swearing-in in the respective states would be announced,” he said.

He refused to divulge when the observers will arrive.

He said the procedure to stake claim to form the new government has already begun with the state cabinet on Friday deciding to recommend the dissolution of the House on Monday.

NEW DELHI: The electoral drubbing has left Congress leaders worried in poll-bound Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh with a looming fear that the results will have a bearing especially in the western state where the AAP is planning big.

The recent change of guard in the Gujarat unit seems to have further increased trouble. The two states will go to polls by the end of this year.

Several state leaders said that the results in the five states would impact the party’s electoral fortune in Gujarat as several leaders, including sitting MLAs who were upset with organizational change, might join the AAP or the BJP.  The AAP is preparing to contest the polls with the launch of a Tiranga Yatra from April.

‘‘If the top leadership cannot ensure even one win in Gandhi bastions of Raebareli and Amethi, what do we expect from them? Apna ghar to bacha nahi paye! (They failed to save their own house),” said a senior Gujarat leader.

A former Gujarat MLA said the party should allow the state unit to manage the election rather than parachuting central leaders.

“In 2017, Krishna Allavaru was in charge of Gujarat elections and we lost due to poor management. He was sent to Punjab and look at the results.” 

In Himachal Pradesh last year, the Congress scored a major upset by winning all three assembly seats of Arki, Jubbal-Kotkhai and Fatehpur in bypoll.

The party had touted it as the sentiment of the people, but the faction-riddled state unit could impact the party’s performance.  

LUCKNOW:  Traversing through different phases of age and earning distinctions of being the youngest parliamentarian at 27 in 2000 and UP’s youngest CM at 38 in 2012, Samajawadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav seems to have finally come of age despite a series of electoral defeats since 2014.

The results of 2022 might not have led Akhilesh to the throne of UP, but he fought to accomplish the mission which always was considered to be herculean. He exhibited political maturity to beat the mighty BJP in its own game by cobbling up strategic alliances with smaller caste-based parties.

Akhilesh left no stone unturned to shrugg off the tag of being a ‘one family party’ and denied tickets to family members.

He tried to discipline partymen to shed the baggage of hooliganism, which his party is still carrying, and it reflected in the polls. He drew massive crowds in rallies, but convert that into votes.

He reached out to party veterans personally, projecting inclusiveness.

Akhilesh even mended the discordant notes in the family by shaking hands with uncle Shivpal Yadav and making him contest the polls on SP ticket.

After crushing defeats in 2017 followed by 2019 Lok Sabha elections, went back to the drawing board and drafted the roadmap for 2022.

He replicated the BJP caste calculus and struck tie-ups with smaller caste-based parties rather than going with Congress and BSP.

However, the strategy to induct big leaders from BJP ahead of the polls flopped. Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini lost.

Neither did the alliances bring dividends in the form of non-Yadav OBC votes.

Even the farm protests did not hit BJP as much as expected. The saving grace for Akhilesh, fighting his first Assembly election, was that he won by more than 60,000 votes from the Karhal seat in Mainpuri.

RLD gracious in defeat

NOIDA: Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Jayant Chuadhary said he respects the people mandate. His party had formed an alliance with SP.

The RLD had fielded candidates in 33 seats in western UP and eight of them won.

“I respect public opinion. Congratulations to all the winning MLAs! It is expected that they will work according to the trust of the people. Our workers have worked hard, and the struggle will continue!”

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena bagged less votes than the ones which went to NOTA in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur, Election Commission data shows.

In Goa, the Sena had fielded candidates in 10 seats.

All of them lost deposit.

Sena candidates got less than 100 votes in Cortalim (55 votes), Quepem (66), Vasco-Da-Gama (71) and Sanquelim (99).

`None of the Above’ or NOTA option secured 1.12 per cent of total votes polled in Goa, while the Sena bagged a mere 0.18 per cent votes.

In Manipur, the Shiv Sena contested six seats.

The NOTA secured 0.54 per cent votes in the northeastern state while the Sena bagged 0.34 per cent.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Sena had bagged 0.03 per cent votes as of Thursday evening, while NOTA has amassed 0.69 per cent votes.

About its dismal performance, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said his party received less votes than NOTA because it fell “short of (currency) notes”.

“The Sena received less votes than NOTA because we could not manage `notes’ used by the BJP. Still we contested in Goa and Uttar Pradesh. Our fight will continue. Victory or defeat is not the end, it is the start. We will continue to work,” the Sena MP said.

The party had deployed a battery of leaders including Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray for campaigning.

Aaditya Thackeray campaigned in Goa and Uttar Pradesh.

Sanjay Raut, Vinayak Raut, Arvind Sawant and Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar also campaigned in Goa.

But the party failed to make a foray in the neighbouring state even though Goa has a sizable Marathi-speaking population.

Maharashtra Minister and Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday said results of the just held assembly polls, where the BJP emerged victorious in four of the five states that voted, will not impact the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state.

Unfazed by the Shiv Sena’s poor performance in states, where the party had fielded candidates, he said it was just the beginning of an electoral journey for the Maharashtra-based outfit.

The Shiv Sena bagged less votes than the ones which went to NOTA (none of the above) in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur, Election Commission data showed.

The Sena, which is in power in Maharashtra in alliance with the NCP and the Congress, had contested Assembly elections in these three states but drew a blank.

Talking to reporters here, Thackeray said the Shiv Sena will contest elections from the gram panchayat level to Parliament in quest to expand its organizational base.

“This is just a beginning,” he said, adding “the Shiv Sena will win one day.”

The Sena minister had campaigned for party candidates in Goa and Uttar Pradesh.

NEW DELHI:  The BJP broke a decades-old jinx to retain power in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, even as Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party pulled off a stunning victory in Punjab to become the only regional party to rule in two states. And the Congress faced severe drubbing in all the five states that went to polls. The BJP is also set to form governments in Manipur with a simple majority, and in Goa where it stopped short of getting a full majority.

The BJP’s exuberance is not misplaced as it has proved wrong all the political pundits who had predicted the party’s rout in the Jat-dominated western Uttar Pradesh which was the epicentre of farmers’ agitation. As results started pouring in, it became evident that western UP had voted resoundingly in favour of the BJP. The party’s strike rate in western UP was better than the main rival — the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal combine.

The BJP performed equally well in all other regions of the state. The social coalition cobbled together by the party and the welfare schemes, including free ration to the poor, paid rich dividends. The party swept most of the constituencies having a large Dalit population indicating a huge shift of Dalits towards the BJP.

This shift of the Dalit vote dealt a deadly blow to Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party whose tally fell to a single digit for the first time since it started contesting elections in UP.

Mayawati has suffered huge setbacks in the last five elections in UP and her party’s vote share has continued to shrink over the last 10 years. She has, however, retained the support of a large chunk of Jatavs, the caste she belongs to, and a few other numerically smaller castes.

This seems to be the only vote left with her. But whether she would be able to bounce back from here is a million-dollar question.

The other big story of this election is the stunning victory pulled off by AAP which is poised to win over 90 out of 117 assembly seats. Buoyed by the success, Kejriwal laid bare his national ambition by exhorting people across the country to join AAP “to change the system”.  

Congress biggest loser, questions over Gandhi

Kejriwal said it was time the common man picked up the reins of power to decide his own future and the future of the country.

“Who is the person who has defeated Charanjeet Singh Channi? Labh Singh Ugoke runs a regular mobile phone repair shop. Who is the person who has defeated both Bikram Singh Majithia and Navjot Singh Sidhu? She is an ordinary AAP volunteer.”

The AAP landslide was so strong in Punjab that it swept away all the top leaders belonging to Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal, the two parties that have been ruling the state alternatively for decades.

Among the giants who were made to bite dust were Charanjeet Singh Channi, Prakash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Badal, Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu. For the first time in decades, there will not be a single Badal in the Punjab assembly. Congress became the biggest loser in these elections.

The party not only lost power in Punjab, but failed to perform well in Uttarakhand where it was widely believed to have been on a comeback trail. But the biggest humiliation for the party came in Uttar Pradesh where Priyanka Gandhi was leading the campaign.

The party saw a dramatic fall in its vote share and managed to win just two out of 403 seats. This has been the Congress’ worst performance in India’s largest state in decades.

The main opposition to the BJP in UP, the Samajwadi Party, had put together a rainbow alliance of castes to take on the BJP.

The SP’s attempt to shed the image of being a Yadav party succeeded to an extent but was not good enough to beat the BJP. The SP alliance stopped well short of the majority mark in spite of increasing its tally by almost 80 seats compared to its score in the last election.

In the last three elections, the SP has allied with three parties.

It fought the 2017 assembly election in alliance with the Congress, the 2019 election with BSP and the latest one with RLD. Nothing seems to be working for the young Akhilesh Yadav, who has come out of the shadow of his father and uncles but has so far failed to register a win of his own.

Modi imprint, says world media

New Delhi: The international media commented that the BJP’s record electoral gains in UP and elsewhere once again reinforce the dominance of PM Modi in Indian politics for the foreseeable future.

A report by the Washington Post said, “The results make Modi’s BJP the favourite to win the next national election in 2024.” Daily Telegraph said the election is expected to be a barometer for the national political mood.