Chandra Shekhar Aazad

Noida: Prominent Dalit face Chandra Shekhar Aazad will fight the Uttar Pradesh assembly election from Gorakhpur Sadar seat, his Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) announced on Thursday.

Gorakhpur Sadar is the seat from where the BJP has fielded UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Taking forward the ideology of Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Kanshiram sahib for ‘Bahujan Hitaay – Bahujan Sukhaay’, the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) announced Chandra Shekhar Aazad as candidate from Gorakhpur Sadar (322) seat, the party said in a statement on social media.

ASP (K)’s national core committee member Mohammad Aqib confirmed the development to PTI. He said the registered name of the party is Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram).

The 35-year-old lawyer-turned-activist had co-founded the Dalit rights outfit Bhim Army and he is its national president. He launched the ASP (K) in March 2020 and is the party president.

Gorakhpur Sadar goes to polls on March 3 during the sixth phase of elections in UP. The results will be declared on March 10.

Aazad was until recently in talks with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party for a tie-up to contest the polls but was offered only two seats by it.

Feeling thus shortchanged, Aazad had on Tuesday said his party would no longer approach the SP for alliance as it was a matter of self respect , but added he was open to finding new allies for the polls.

The flamboyant leader has often said his fight is against the ideology of the BJP and the RSS.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will campaign for Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll and her party – the Trinamool Congress will not contest the election in that state, SP vice-president Kiranmay Nanda said on Tuesday.

Nanda, who returned from poll bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday, held an hour-long meeting with Banerjee at her residence on the issue.

“The Trinamool Congress will not contest in Uttar Pradesh and will support Samajwadi Party in the fight against the BJP. Mamata Banerjee will hold virtual campaigns along with SP president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and Varanasi. She will be in Lucknow on February 8 and attend a virtual campaign. She will then will hold a joint press conference with Akhileshji,” Nanda told reporters after the meeting.

Banerjee will also visit Varanasi later in February but the date is yet to be fixed, he said.

“She will visit Varanasi for a virtual meeting,” Nanda said and noted that most of the campaigns are being held virtually due to COVID restrictions.

The election to all 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.

Mamata Banerjee is a strong leader and the way she fought against the BJP and defeated it in the West Bengal Assembly Election in 2021 is a lesson for the entire opposition. Her fight was unprecedented. The entire nation saw the fight she had put up against BJP’s juggernaut,” he said.

During the high octane West Bengal assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party had decided against contesting in the state and extended its support to the ruling TMC.

Akhilesh Yadav shares a very cordial relationship with Mamata Banerjee and had even attended the grand opposition meeting hosted by the TMC supremo in January 2019.

One of the longest-serving fisheries ministers of West Bengal during the erstwhile Left Front regime, Nanda had merged his party, the West Bengal Socialist Party with Samajwadi Party in 2010.

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Monday decided to hold the single-phase assembly polls in Punjab on February 20 instead of February 14 in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti.

Several political parties had approached the EC to postpone the polls in the state in view of Ravidas Jayanti on February 16.

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, BJP and its allies, and the BSP had urged the poll panel to postpone the date of voting as lakhs of followers of Guru Ravidas travel to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to celebrate the day.

In a statement, the Commission said polls would now be held on February 20. It coincides with the third phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh.

The parties had said that several followers of Guru Ravidas would not be able to exercise their franchise on February 14 as they would be travelling.

Panaji: Weeks after he walked out of the Congress fold, joined the Trinamool Congress and quit it a day before without assigning any reason, former Goa Congress working president Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco on Monday hinted at rejoining his parent party.

He has apologised to his supporters and well-wishers for committing the “mistake” of joining the Mamata Banerjee-led party ahead of the next month’s Assembly polls.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji on Monday, Lourenco said he had to face severe backlash after deciding to join the TMC, which he said had promised a “new dawn”.

He said his supporters were apprehensive that joining TMC would invite the outside party” to Goa which will split votes.

Lourenco had resigned as the MLA from Curtorim and also as a member of Congress last December to join the TMC. He was then working president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee.

On Sunday, he resigned from TMC without assigning any reason in the letter that he sent to Banerjee informing her about his decision to leave TMC.

On Monday, he said that his decision to join the Mamata Banerjee-led party was a mistake and that he now wanted to be the same person whom people trust.

I have hurt many friends and also my near and dear supporters (by crossing over to TMC). I also hurt my family members and those who stood with me in thick and thin, he told reporters.

Lourenco said that he had decided to join the TMC in the interest of people because he was promised a new dawn.

I have fought for the people. I had raised their issues in the Legislative Assembly. I have worked for the people with my heart and mind, he said.

Speaking about his future political course, Lourenco said that his supporters have asked him to rejoin the Congress party.

Congress leader Michael Lobo has asked me to rejoin the Congress party. I will listen to what my people say, he said.

Goa is going to polls on February 14.

Chandigarh: The BJP on Saturday swept the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation mayoral polls and its municipal councillor Sarabjit Kaur became the new mayor.

The saffron party also bagged the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the Chandigarh MC. The mayor’s post was reserved for a woman candidate this year.

However, the AAP called the poll results a “murder of democracy”.

BJP’s Sarabjit Kaur defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s Anju Katyal by one vote in a direct contest.

Out of the total 36 votes, 28 were polled, while seven Congress councillors and the lone Shiromani Akali Dal councillor abstained.

Kaur bagged 14 votes and Katyal got 13, officials said, adding that one was declared invalid.

The Aam Aadmi Party was contesting the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls for the first time.

After the result was declared, AAP councillors created a ruckus in the House, with some of them reaching near the mayor’s chair and holding a protest.

Crying foul play, they tried to stop the new mayor from addressing the House. First, marshals were called in and later police were called to remove the protesting councillors who were standing near the mayor’s chair.

BJP’s Dalip Sharma became the senior deputy mayor after he trounced AAP’s Prem Lata by a margin of two votes. Sharma polled 15 and Lata got 13 votes, indicating that one AAP councillor cross voted.

BJP’s Arun Gupta won the post of deputy mayor as he defeated AAP’s Ram Chander Yadav. There was a tie as both the candidates got 14 votes each. Then after a draw of lots, BJP’s Gupta was declared deputy mayor.

BJP councillor Mahesh Inder Singh Sidhu was the presiding officer and Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh chaired the election process.

The results of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls which were declared on December 27, threw up a hung House, with the AAP winning 14 of the 35 wards and the BJP 12.

The Congress had bagged eight seats and the Shiromani Akali Dal got one.

Days after the polls results were declared, municipal councillor from the Congress Harpreet Kaur Babla joined the BJP.

Besides 35 councillors, the Chandigarh MP, who is an ex-officio member in the municipal corporation, also has a voting right.

Later, Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab and Chandigarh affairs in-charge Jarnail Singh accused the BJP of “murdering democracy” in the mayoral election of Chandigarh.

He said that in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections, the residents of the city had voted the Aam Aadmi Party to the most number of seats at 14.

AAP’s victory in the mayor’s election was certain, but the BJP deliberately got an AAP vote “cancelled” by insulting the ‘fatwa’ of the public and declared its mayor forcibly, he alleged.

Singh said the elections for the mayor of Chandigarh clearly showed that there was “a clandestine understanding between the BJP and the Congress” to defeat the AAP in the mayoral elections.

Somehow BJP’s vote figure reached 14, equalling AAP, by including the vote of a member of Parliament, but the party flouted all rules and regulations, and got its candidate appointed as the mayor, he alleged.

Singh also accused officials of Chandigarh of helping the BJP and said that in order to maintain fairness of the election, votes should be re-counted and the mayor should be re-elected, failing which the AAP will resort to a legal action.

New Delhi: Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Election Commission on Saturday banned election rallies, roadshows and corner meetings till January 15 in the five poll-bound states.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said the poll authority will review the COVID-19 situation on January 15 and take a further call on allowing public rallies.

The Commission will not hesitate to bar parties from further rallies if COVID protocol is not followed, Chandra said. The Commission also set out stringent COVID guidelines, restricting the number of persons allowed for door-to-door campaigns to five.

Political parties have been asked to provide masks, hand sanitisers to people attending rallies, if they are allowed, Chandra said.

The Commission has also banned victory celebrations and only two persons will be allowed to accompany the candidate to collect the winning certificate.

New Delhi: Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa will be held between February 10 and March 7 in seven phases, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.

The counting of votes will be held on March 10.

With the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolding, the commission has set new protocols to ensure “Covid safe” elections to 690 assembly seats across the five states, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra told reporters here.

He was flanked by election commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey. In Uttar Pradesh, elections will be held in 403 assembly seats in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.

Elections in 60 constituencies of Manipur will held in two phases on February 27 and March 3, while polling in Goa (40 seats), Punjab (117 seats) and Uttarakhand (70 seats) will be held on February 14.

The Model Code of Conduct has come into effect in the five states with the announcement of elections.

NEW DELHI:  Unlike elections in the recent past in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is sensing that the party may face multiple rivals as ‘Mahagathbandhan (the grand alliance)’ may not take shape in the next year’s Assembly elections, with the likelihood of the Opposition parties looking at the post-poll realignment. 

With the UP polls likely to set up the backdrop for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition outfits are expected to size up their strengths in the state by contesting maximum number of seats, while drawing lessons from the past experiments of ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in which only the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) had gained, leaving the Samajwadi Party and the Congress marginalised.

“There’s least likelihood of the grand alliance taking shape for the UP polls among the Opposition constituents. The SP on the basis of the past experiences will not cede the space for the Congress, which will insist to contest at not less than 50 Assembly seats. The SP and BSP have tried tie ups in the past, and they now know that it doesn’t work in their favour in UP,” Anil Jain, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP from UP and the former general secretary of the party, told this newspaper.    

Anil Jain, however, stated that the BJP is preparing for the UP Assembly elections with target to poll over 50 per cent vote share in Assembly constituencies.  

CHANDIGARH: BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh on Thursday slammed the Congress for allegedly creating disorder and instability in Punjab close to the Assembly elections.

He said the ugly infighting in the Punjab Congress has not only paralysed governance in the state but also exposed it to national security risks.

He said the frequent attack on the newly-appointed Punjab DGP by a section of the Congress leaders has demoralised the state police.

“This is a very dangerous situation for Punjab which has generated a sense of insecurity among people”, he said.

Chugh alleged the organisational crisis within the Congress has made Punjab a “drifting state” and it is time that the people decisively show the door to the party.

“In the state cabinet, tainted ministers have been inducted to persist with the mafia raj in Punjab and yet on the other hand some ministers have resigned even as their offices and departments are left god-forsaken,” he said.

Hours after the resignation of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief on Tuesday, Razia Sultana had stepped down as cabinet minister of the state in solidarity with the party’s senior leader.

Sidhu’s abrupt resignation triggered a fresh turmoil in the party’s Punjab unit.

Earlier, the Congress had picked Charanjit Singh Channi as the leader of the state’s Congress Legislative Party.

He was sworn in as the chief minister on September 20.

Amarinder Singh had resigned as the chief minister on September 18, after being locked in a bitter power tussle with Sidhu.