NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) finally ended suspense over its chief ministerial face with comedian-turned-politician Bhagwant Mann being named by the party. The day also saw the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carrying out raids on a relative of Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
In Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Party MLA Nahid Hasan, who was arrested under gangsters act, failed to get bail. Meanwhile, the SP and ruling BJP sparred on the issue of criminals being fielded in elections.
Here is a look at the key developments in the five states that go to polls next month.
Punjab
The AAP on Tuesday named Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann as the party’s chief ministerial face for Punjab. Party leader Arvind Kejriwal said an overwhelming majority of the respondents who gave their feedback named Mann as their choice. Kejriwal and Mann hugged each other while Mann could also be seen wiping a tear from his eye.
Rival Congress, meanwhile, clashed with the BJP as the Enforcement Directorate carried out raids on a relative of chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP government is insulting a Dalit who was made the chief minister of Punjab and the Dalits and backward classes would not forgive the party for this.
He also accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of working in cahoots with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal was one of the first to attack Channi over the raids.
Surjewala alleged that the ED has turned into the “election department” of the BJP.
Uttar Pradesh
In Uttar Pradesh, a special court in Kairana rejected the bail plea of Samajwadi Party MLA Nahid Hasan, arrested last week in a case under the stringent Gangsters Act. Hasan, who was arrested on January 15, has filed his nomination from the Kairana assembly constituency on a Samajwadi Party ticket for the February 10 election. MP/MLA special court judge Subodh Singh said there was no case for bail and rejected Hasan’s plea.
Hasan’s lawyer said they would move the high court soon seeking his bail.
According to government lawyer Ashok Pundhir, the legislator was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court in
Under attack over fielding candidates with a criminal background in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that his party leaders were being framed in false cases by the ruling BJP.
Uttarakhand
In Uttarakhand, chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami attacked the Congress claiming its government earlier only laid foundation stones of projects and left them at that while the BJP government was completing the ones it had started. Taking a dig at Congress leaders for often trying to grab credit for development works done over the past five years of the BJP rule in the state, Dhami said that is the difference between the two parties.
Meanwhile, speculation also continued over the next move of former minister Harak Singh Rawat who was expelled from the BJP.
Goa
The Congress released its third list of nine more party candidates for the Goa assembly elections. The party fielded Michael Lobo from Calangute, Aman Lotikar from Tivim and Meghashyam Raut from Bicholim assembly seat. It also fielded Vikas Prabhudeassai from Porvorim and Antony L Fernandes from St Andre and Dharmesh Saglani from Sanquelim.
Meanwhile, the BJP and NCP entered into a war of words over the latter’s planned foray in Goa. Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Fadnavis, who is in charge of the BJP’s affairs in Goa, had mocked Sharad Pawar’s attempts to cobble up an alliance with the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the coastal state.
“A party does not acquire a national footprint by merely including ‘nationalist’ in its name. Though it is called the Nationalist Congress Party, in reality, the party is limited to western Maharashtra,” he had told reporters.
NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule and Nawab Malik hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and asked him to exercise restraint while speaking about Sharad Pawar.
Manipur
Meanwhile, the All Manipur Christian Organisation (AMCO) urged the Election Commission to reschedule the first phase of Assembly polls on February 27 as the day being a Sunday is the prayer day of the community.
Expressing its resentment, the AMCO requested the Election Commission to conduct the polling of the first phase on any day of the week other than Sundays. “We earnestly appeal to the Election Commission to reschedule the first phase polling date to show solidarity and respect to the religious sentiment of the Christians,” it said in a statement.
The elections to the 60-member Manipur Assembly would be held in two phases on February 27 and March 3. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. Christian population constitute 41.29 per cent of Manipur’s three million people, of which 41.39 per cent are Hindu and 8.40 per cent people belong to Muslim community.
(With agency inputs.)
In Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Party MLA Nahid Hasan, who was arrested under gangsters act, failed to get bail. Meanwhile, the SP and ruling BJP sparred on the issue of criminals being fielded in elections.
Here is a look at the key developments in the five states that go to polls next month.
Punjab
The AAP on Tuesday named Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann as the party’s chief ministerial face for Punjab. Party leader Arvind Kejriwal said an overwhelming majority of the respondents who gave their feedback named Mann as their choice. Kejriwal and Mann hugged each other while Mann could also be seen wiping a tear from his eye.
Rival Congress, meanwhile, clashed with the BJP as the Enforcement Directorate carried out raids on a relative of chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP government is insulting a Dalit who was made the chief minister of Punjab and the Dalits and backward classes would not forgive the party for this.
He also accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of working in cahoots with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal was one of the first to attack Channi over the raids.
Surjewala alleged that the ED has turned into the “election department” of the BJP.
Uttar Pradesh
In Uttar Pradesh, a special court in Kairana rejected the bail plea of Samajwadi Party MLA Nahid Hasan, arrested last week in a case under the stringent Gangsters Act. Hasan, who was arrested on January 15, has filed his nomination from the Kairana assembly constituency on a Samajwadi Party ticket for the February 10 election. MP/MLA special court judge Subodh Singh said there was no case for bail and rejected Hasan’s plea.
Hasan’s lawyer said they would move the high court soon seeking his bail.
According to government lawyer Ashok Pundhir, the legislator was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court in
Under attack over fielding candidates with a criminal background in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that his party leaders were being framed in false cases by the ruling BJP.
Uttarakhand
In Uttarakhand, chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami attacked the Congress claiming its government earlier only laid foundation stones of projects and left them at that while the BJP government was completing the ones it had started. Taking a dig at Congress leaders for often trying to grab credit for development works done over the past five years of the BJP rule in the state, Dhami said that is the difference between the two parties.
Meanwhile, speculation also continued over the next move of former minister Harak Singh Rawat who was expelled from the BJP.
Goa
The Congress released its third list of nine more party candidates for the Goa assembly elections. The party fielded Michael Lobo from Calangute, Aman Lotikar from Tivim and Meghashyam Raut from Bicholim assembly seat. It also fielded Vikas Prabhudeassai from Porvorim and Antony L Fernandes from St Andre and Dharmesh Saglani from Sanquelim.
Meanwhile, the BJP and NCP entered into a war of words over the latter’s planned foray in Goa. Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Fadnavis, who is in charge of the BJP’s affairs in Goa, had mocked Sharad Pawar’s attempts to cobble up an alliance with the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the coastal state.
“A party does not acquire a national footprint by merely including ‘nationalist’ in its name. Though it is called the Nationalist Congress Party, in reality, the party is limited to western Maharashtra,” he had told reporters.
NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule and Nawab Malik hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and asked him to exercise restraint while speaking about Sharad Pawar.
Manipur
Meanwhile, the All Manipur Christian Organisation (AMCO) urged the Election Commission to reschedule the first phase of Assembly polls on February 27 as the day being a Sunday is the prayer day of the community.
Expressing its resentment, the AMCO requested the Election Commission to conduct the polling of the first phase on any day of the week other than Sundays. “We earnestly appeal to the Election Commission to reschedule the first phase polling date to show solidarity and respect to the religious sentiment of the Christians,” it said in a statement.
The elections to the 60-member Manipur Assembly would be held in two phases on February 27 and March 3. The counting of votes will take place on March 10. Christian population constitute 41.29 per cent of Manipur’s three million people, of which 41.39 per cent are Hindu and 8.40 per cent people belong to Muslim community.
(With agency inputs.)
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’, ‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’); fbq(‘init’, ‘593671331875494’); fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
More News
Polling begins in 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala; 5.62% turnout after first hour’s voting | India News – Times of India
Have Taken Up The Matter With Tehran: MEA On Pakistan-Iran Joint Statement Mentioning Kashmir
For Nitish, a lot at stake as 5 seats vote | India News – Times of India