The Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were leading in two and four Assembly constituencies respectively….reports Asian Lite News
The ruling BJP was leading in 248 seats and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) was ahead in 112 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission trends on Thursday showed.
Trends were available for 399 seats of 403 till 12 noon. The Apna Dal (Sonelal) was leading in 12 Assembly seats and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) was leading in eight seats.
The Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were leading in two and four Assembly constituencies respectively.
Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal is leading in five Assembly seats. The Jansatta Dal Loktantrik is leading in two seats, Janata Dal (United) in one, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik in two and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party in three.
Early vote share percentages showed — BJP has 42.38 per cent of votes counted, SP 31.64 per cent, RLD 3.37 per cent, BSP 12.77 per cent and Congress 2.47 per cent.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was leading from Gorakhpur Urban seat and deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya was trailing from Sirathu.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was leading from the Karhal Assembly constituency. Minister in Uttar Pradesh government Srikant Sharma was leading from Mathura.
Swami Prasad Maurya, who joined the SP before the elections, was trailing from Fazilnagar.
In Varanasi South in which Kashi Vishwanath Temple is situated, SP’s Kameshwar alias Kishan Dixit was trailing and minister in Yogi government Dr. Neelkanth Tiwari was leading.
Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar was leading from Zahoorabad.
As per the early trends in Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party was leading on 155 seats while Samajwadi Party was ahead on 97. …reports Asian Lite News
As the counting of the votes began on Thursday morning, the Bharatiya Janata Party was seen leading in the early trends in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur while the Aam Aadmi Party made an early headway in Punjab.
As per the early trends in Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party was leading on 155 seats while Samajwadi Party was ahead on 97. The Bahujan Samaj Party didn’t seem to woo the voters, as it was leading on only 6 seats. The Congress party continued to show its dismal performance and was leading on only 4 seats.
The Assembly polls for 403 seats spread over 75 districts were held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7. More than 3.75 lakh voters exercised their franchise using ballot papers. The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said that 84 counting centres had been set up across Uttar Pradesh.
In Goa, the exit polls had tipped a keen contest between the ruling BJP and the Congress and Goa Forward alliance, with neither being able to reach the magic figure of 21 in a 40-member state Assembly. However, the trends showed the grand-old party — Congress — ahead of its arch-rival BJP while the much-hyped AAP, as per the early trends, didn’t seem to impress the electorate at all as it was not leading on any seat.
Nearly 79 per cent voters cast ballots in the February 14 polls in Goa.
In Punjab, the multi-cornered electoral battle is probably heading for a comfortable victory for the AAP as the early trends gave an edge to the Bhagwant Mann-led party over the ruling Congress. The Shiromani Akali Dal was coming as the third party.
The exit polls had predicted a landslide victory for the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab. A total of 1,304 candidates, including 93 women and two transgenders, are in the fray. The state recorded a voter turnout of 71.95 per cent, the lowest percentage compared to the voting percentage in three previous Assembly polls.
In Manipur, as per the early trends, the saffron party is heading for a landslide victory. According to the election officials, around 89.3 per cent of the 20,48,169-strong electorate cast their votes in the two-phase election to the 60-member Manipur Assembly on February 28 and March 5. This year’s voting percentage was higher than the 2017 and 2012 Assembly elections, when 86.4 per cent and 79.5 per cent electorate had exercised their franchise respectively.
In Uttarakhand, even as the BJP is leading in the early trends, it is still hard to predict the results as the Congress party is not much behind. The new-entrant AAP, like Goa, has failed to make any impact on the voters so far.
In Pratapgarh, an ugly battle is being fought between independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh a.k.a. Raja Bhaiyya and his acolyte Gulshan Yadav….reports Asian Lite News
They were close as peas in a pod. They were friends, mentors and even followers. But today, politics has driven a wedge in their relationship and they are pitted against each other in the electoral battle.
In the Dhampur seat in Bijnor, Moolchand Chauhan is pitted against his disciple Naeem-ul-Hasan.
Naeem is contesting on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket and Moolchand is the BSP candidate.
“This is politics and one has to contest elections. I did not like contesting against my mentor, but certain things are inevitable,” says Naeem.
In Pratapgarh, an ugly battle is being fought between independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh a.k.a. Raja Bhaiyya and his acolyte Gulshan Yadav.
Gulshan Yadav has been fielded by the Samajwadi Party while Raja Bhaiyya is contesting on his Jansatta Dal ticket.
Raja Bhaiyya has been winning the Kunda seat since 1993 and the battle is largely one-sided but Gulshan Yadav has made it ugly by hurling expletives by his one-time mentor and this is not going down well with the voters.
Raja Bhaiyya dismisses Gulshan Yadav’s campaign against him with a wave of his hand and says, “Let us talk about other things.”
Gulshan, on the other hand, says, “There is a wave in favour of Samajwadi Party and I will create history by winning this seat.”
In Firozabad, Saifur-Rehman is the SP candidate and his rival is his friend Azeem Bhai’s wife Shazia who is the BSP candidate.
Saifur-Rehman, at one time, used to campaign for Azeem Bhai and the two were known to be inseparable but politics has now placed them in opposite ranks.
In Lalitpur, Ram Ratan Kushwaha is the BJP candidate while his first cousin, Ramesh Kushwaha is the SP candidate.
Not so long ago, Ramesh used to campaign for his cousin but now their ways have parted.
Brijlal Khabri is the Congress candidate from Mehroni in Lalitpur while his wife Urmila Khabri is contesting from Orai on a Congress ticket.
His relative, Shri Pal is contesting the Orai seat against Urmila Khabri on a BSP ticket.
Their relatives have cautiously kept away from their campaigns.
“We do not wish to become a party in the family in these elections. What has happened is unfortunate and we hope that the differences melt away after the polls are over,” said a relative who did not wish to be named.
BJP rebels are contesting against party’s official candidates in Kotdwar, Dhanaulti, Rudrapur, Doiwala, Bhimtal, Lalkua, Ghansali and Dharampur….reports Asian Lite News
Despite expressing confidence of forming the next government in Uttarakhand with a huge majority, the BJP is now assessing the damage caused by party rebel candidates. Voting for the 70 member Uttarakhand Assembly elections was held on Monday and BJP is now calculating actual damage caused by these rebels.
A senior Uttarakhand BJP leader said that as the polling has ended now the party is calculating the damage caused by the rebels. “We are collecting the feedback from cadres to find out damage caused to our official candidates by the rebels. Actual damage can be known to everyone after declaration of election result on March 10 but before that through various means we are trying to get the sense,” he said.
Another party functionary mentioned that there are two categories of rebels, one are real strongmen in the constituencies and the second those aspirants who are contesting the polls after being denied ticket. “Rebels like Rajkumar Thukral, sitting MLA from Rudrapur, are a major concern for the party as they have real capacity to damage chances of our official candidates. It might be possible in some seats, they will be the reason for the defeat of BJP candidates,” he said.
BJP rebels are contesting against party’s official candidates in Kotdwar, Dhanaulti, Rudrapur, Doiwala, Bhimtal, Lalkua, Ghansali and Dharampur. Even before the polls, rebels were a major concern for the BJP. On Monday, BJP national general secretary and Uttarakhand in-charge, Dushyant Gautam had told IANS that the way people voluntarily came out to vote clearly shows that their blessing is with the BJP.
“The trend and feedback received till late afternoon clearly shows that the BJP will form the next government in Uttarakhand with a huge majority,” Gautam had said.
Polling for the 70 member Uttarakhand assembly was held on February 14 and counting of votes will be held on March 10.
The ruling BJP left no stone unturned to retain power in the state. The BJP has set a target of winning over 60 seats in next assembly polls in Uttarakhand. In the last assembly polls in 2017, the BJP had won 57 seats
Of the total 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, voting for 58 seats of the phase I of the seven-phase elections is being held on Thursday….reports Asian Lite News
The first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on Thursday saw 35.03 per cent voting till 1.00 p.m., according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“Phase I has seen 35.03 per cent polling till 1.00 p.m.,” the ECI statement said along with a disclaimer that these are approximate figures as data from some polling stations takes time to be incorporated.
Agra saw 37.02 per cent, Aligarh 32.06 per cent, Baghpat 38.03 per cent, Bulandshahar 37.05 per cent, Gautam Buddha Nagar 28.66 saw per cent voting, Ghaziabad 31.84 per cent, Hapur 40.12 per cent, Mathura 35.92 per cent, Meerut 34.37 per cent, Muzaffarnagar 35.55 per cent and Shamli saw 41.13 per cent, the EC statistics showed.
Of the total 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh Assembly, voting for 58 seats of the phase I of the seven-phase elections is being held on Thursday.
There are a total of 634 candidates in fray, 73 of them women. As many as 2.28 crore voters (1.04 of them female) will exercise their franchise at 26,027 polling booths across 10,853 polling stations in 11 districts.
The PLC’s share in seat allocation for the Majha region currently stands at seven, while the Doaba region accounts for four seats….reports Asian Lite News
Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday announced the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) candidates from 22 constituencies for the February 20 polls, with clear focus on winnability while ensuring due representation across regions and various sections of society.
He himself is in fray from his home constituency of Patiala (Urban). Four of the 22 candidates belong to the Scheduled Castes (SC) community, three to Other Backward Class (OBC) community, while five are Hindu faces (three Pandits and two Aggarwals).
The PLC has currently got 37 of the 117 seats in the state as part of its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and SAD (Sanyukt), with discussions still in progress on possibly another five seats for the party.
Of the 37 seats in the PLC kitty, the maximum of 26 are from Malwa region, which Capt Amarinder had single-handedly transformed into a game-changer for the Congress in the 2007 polls with his ground-breaking Water Termination Act of 2004 as well as the introduction of BT cotton.
More recently, it was Capt Amarinder’s strong and unequivocal support to the agitating farmers in the region, which was the epicentre of their protest before it shifted to the Delhi borders, that played a decisive role in the final outcome to the issue.
The former Chief Minister’s hand is being seen in the eventual revocation of the farm laws by the Centre. Also Capt Amarinder has strong family ties with the region, which used to be part of the erstwhile royal estate of Patiala.
The PLC’s share in seat allocation for the Majha region currently stands at seven, while the Doaba region accounts for four seats.
Releasing the first list of nominees, the PLC leader said all these candidates have strong political credentials and are well known faces in their respective constituencies.
There is one woman in this first list. Farzana Alam Khan, a former SAD MLA and wife of late DGP Izhar Alam Khan, will contest from Malerkotla in the Malwa region.
Besides Capt Amarinder, who had on Saturday itself announced his decision to fight from his home constituency of Patiala (Urban), there are eight other Jat Sikhs in the well balanced first list.
In addition to Capt Amarinder and Farzana Alam, another key candidate from Malwa region is the current Mayor of Municipal Corporation Patiala, Sanjeev Sharma, who was President of District Youth Congress for a number of years. Sharma will contest the Patiala (Rural) seat.
Kamaldeep Saini, former PPCC secretary, has been finalised as the candidate from Kharar, while Jagmohan Sharma, who was President of District Congress Committee, Ludhiana and is currently the PLC district president, has been selected for Ludhiana (East).
The Ludhiana (South) seat will be represented in the PLC by Satinderpal Singh Tajpuri, the son of a former Cooperation Minister in the previous Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government.
Prem Mittal, an SAD ex-MLA from Mansa and former Senior Deputy Mayor of Ludhiana, will contest from Atamnagar, while Damanjeet Singh Mohi, an active Youth Congress functionary who has formerly been Sarpanch, Zila Parishad member and Chairman of Market Committee Mullanpur, will fight from Dakha.
[Live] from the release of 1st list of Punjab Lok Congress candidates. https://t.co/FzzDUpKB2o
A popular Dalit face and a retired PPS officer, Mukhtiar Singh has been nominated for the party ticket from the reserved constituency of Nihalsingh Wala.
The Dharamkot seat ticket has gone to Ravinder Singh Garewal, an advocate, agriculturist and businessman. Amarjeet Sharma, a medical practitioner who has been working at the grassroots for over a decade, has been pitched from Rampura Phul.
An established businessman, transporter and agriculturist, Raj Nambardar is a prominent Hindu face from Bathinda and will contest the polls from Bathinda (Urban).
Incidentally, his father Dev Raj Nambardar also contested from Bathinda in 1985. Bathinda (Rural), a reserved constituency, will be contested by Sawera Singh, son of late MLA Makhan Singh and currently Vice Chairman, Punjab Water Resources Management Corporation.
The PLC candidate from another reserved seat, Budhalada, is Subedar Bhola Singh Hasanpur, who served the Indian Army for 28 years and was unanimously elected Sarpanch of his village.
Three-time Municipal Councillor and former member Improvement Trust, Barnala as well as ex-President SC Wing of SAD, Dharam Singh Fauji has been selected as the PLC candidate from Bhadaur (SC).
The Sanaur seat will be contested by business and youth social activist Bikramjit Inder Singh Chahal, son of Capt Amarinder Singh’s advisor B.I.S. Chahal, with the Samana candidature going to Surinder Singh Kherki, former Member of Panchayat Samiti.
In the Majha region, Tejinder Singh Randhawa is the candidate for Fatehgarh Churrian, while ex-MLA and former Chairman of Forests Corporation Harjinder Singh Thekedar will fight Amrtisar (South).
The first list of candidates from Doaba region includes Amandeep Singh, former Punjab Congress spokesperson, for Bholath, and former Indian Hockey Team captain, Ajitpal Singh, for Nakodar.
Three individuals who have emerged as symbols of victimisation in the Yogi Adityanath regime may dent BJP’s fortunes, writes Amita Verma
A Bajpai, a Dubey and a Tiwari will decide the mood of Brahmins who are presently dejected and also undecided in Uttar Pradesh.
These three are individuals but have emerged as symbols of victimisation in the Yogi Adityanath regime.
Laxmikant Bajpai, former state president of BJP, has emerged as a major factor among the BJP sympathisers.
Bajpai, who led the party to a stupendous victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with 71 seats, has won elections in 1989, 1996, 2002, and 2012.
He has been denied a ticket this time.
Moreover, the party has not accommodated the veteran leader in either the Rajya Sabha or the Vidhan Parishad whereas new entrants like Jitin Prasada have been adequately rewarded.
“The party talks of Brahmin pride but insults our own leaders. Laxmikant Bajpai is now one of the tallest Brahmin leaders in the party but his humiliation is there for all to see. Brahmins within the party are upset but no one is speaking for obvious reasons. This will definitely impact the elections,” said a Brahmin legislator.
Bajpai himself has withdrawn from party activities and does not answer questions in this regard but his supporters in western UP, in particular, are angry.
The BJP is trying to promote Uttar Pradesh Minister Brijesh Pathak as a Brahmin leader but he lacks the stature of Bajpai.
In central Uttar Pradesh, it is a Dubey who is making Brahmins restive.
The Dubey in question is Khushi Dubey, the minor widow of the Bikru incident.
Khushi Dubey had been married for just three days when the Bikru incident — in which eight policemen were killed — took place.
Her husband Amar Dubey, an aide of the main accused Vikas Dubey, was killed in an encounter and Khushi was arrested for her complicity in the crime.
It has been a year and a half since Khushi is languishing in jail.
BSP MP Satish Chandra Mishra was the first politician to raise the issue. He claimed that the minor widow has been targeted only because she happened to be a Brahmin.
“She is an example of the manner in which Brahmins are being targeted by the Yogi Adityanath government,” he said and even offered her legal help.
As Mishra raised the issue in meeting after meeting, the other Dubey — Vikas Dubey –also was touted as a ‘victim’.
“We do not say that Vikas Dubey was innocent but the police should have allowed the law to decide his fate. He was killed in cold blood. All his five associates were also shot dead by the police which had the same script for every encounter. One of them was a high school student. If this was not a massacre, then what was it?” asks Shubham Tiwari, a young graduate in Kanpur.
In eastern UP, the biggest factor for Brahmins, meanwhile, is a Tiwari — Hari Shankar Tiwari of Gorakhpur.
Hari Shankar Tiwari, a mafia don and politician, is the most respected Brahmin leader of eastern Uttar Pradesh where the Thakur-Brahmin hostilities have acquired legendary proportions since decades.
Soon after Yogi Adityanath took over as the chief minister, raids were conducted at the residence and offices of Tiwari in Gorakhpur. The police said that they were looking for an accused in a loot case.
His son and now a former BSP MLA , Vinay Shankar Tiwari, says, “The police entered my house without a search warrant. It was a clear attempt to malign the image of my 84-year-old father.”
Hari Shankar Tiwari’s sons, Vinay Shankar Tiwari and Bhisham Shankar Tiwari, have now joined the Samajwadi Party ‘with the blessings of our father’.
Brahmins in eastern UP complain of police high-handedness and insist it is deliberate.
“The police very promptly catch a petty criminal if he happens to be a Dubey, Mishra or Tiwari but turn a blind eye to a dreaded criminal who belongs to the Thakur community. This kind of discrimination was not seen even when Veer Bahadur Singh was chief minister and the Hari Shankar Tiwari-Virendra Shahi (another mafia don) war was at its peak,” said Pradyumn Narain Mishra, a retired government employee in Maharajganj.
Senior political analyst, Samiratmaj Mishra, who has toured almost the entire state, said, “There is no denying the fact that Brahmins are disillusioned and upset with the BJP government. The Laxmikant Bajpai factor is visible within the party — more so because Brahmins believe that they had a major role to play in the formation of the BJP government in 2017 after 15 years of political exile. The targeting of Hari Shankar Tiwari has added insult to the injury.”
He said that the manner in which the government portrayed Brahmins as a community of criminals after the Vikas Dubey case, has also upset the community.
Mishra further explained that the Brahmin voters are still searching for options and only a fraction of the community would go with the BJP.
“Brahmins are being wooed by the Samajwadi Party, but I feel that there will be tactical voting and Brahmins will vote for a candidate of their community first because they feel that it is important to ensure maximum representation of Brahmins in the Assembly,” he said.
Ravi Kishan, in a rap song released on Saturday, made an attempt to woo voters ahead of the Assembly elections….reports Asian Lite News
BJP MP and actor Ravi Kishan’s famous dialogue, “Zindagi jhand ba, phir bhi ghamand ba” (life is terrible, but still, you are arrogant), is now being used to counter his party campaign by another Bhojpuri singer Neha Singh Rathore.
Ravi Kishan, in a rap song released on Saturday, made an attempt to woo voters ahead of the Assembly elections.
In the number, he says: “Yogi ke sarkar ba, vikas ke bahaar ba, sadakan ke jaal ba, kaam bemisal ba, apradhi ke jel ba, bijli relam rel ba, Corona gayil har ba, UP mein sab ba.”
Roughly translated, the song says: “This is Yogi’s government, there is development, roads, criminals in jail, no Covid, electricity everywhere – UP has everything.”
A day later, on Sunday, Bhojpuri singer Neha Singh Rathore released a song titled ‘UP Mei Ka Ba’ (What is there in UP).
In her rap song, she criticises the Yogi Adityanath government over issues such as handling of the pandemic, Lakhimpur Kheri violence and the Hathras incident.
Responding to Ravi Kishan’s praise for the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, she says in her song: “Corona se lakhan mar gayil le, laashan se Ganga bhar gayil be, kaafan nochat kukur bilar ba, ae baba, UP mein ka ba? (Covid killed lakhs, the Ganga was filled with corpses, dog were snatching shrouds – what is there in UP?)”
Referring to the Lakhimpur incident in which a Minister’s son allegedly mowed down four farmers with his SUV, she raps: “Mantri ke betuva badi rangdar ba, kisanan ke chhati pe rondat motor car ba, ae chaukidar, bolo ke zimmedar ba? (The minister’s son has an attitude, he runs over farmers in his car. ‘Chaukidar’, who’s responsible for this?”
She ends her song with the famous dialogue Ravi Kishan is known for — “Zindagi jhand ba, phir bhi ghamand ba”.
