New Delhi:
The BJP will compete for 65 seats in next month’s elections in Punjab, while former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s new party, Punjab Lok Congress, will get 37 and their third alliance partner Shiromani Akali Dal (Samyukt) will get 15.
The seat-sharing pact was announced at a press conference in Delhi by Captain Singh and BJP chief JP Nadda and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) chief Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
Mr Nadda praised Punjab as a “leader”, especially in the defense and food security of the country, saying: “Today Punjab needs special attention, it needs a government with two engines and better coordination between the center and the state.”
Captain Singh had announced his party’s first list of candidates from 22 constituencies for the February 20 state election for the 117-member assembly on Sunday, with ex-Indian hockey team captain Ajit Pal Singh among the prominent names.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav said on Monday that the polls in favor of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh ahead of next month’s elections were “opium polls, not opinion polls”. He also called UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath the “biggest liar”.
“These are not opinion polls. These are opium polls. We don’t know what drugged state they’re showing such numbers and data in,” Akhilesh Yadav told DailyExpertNews in an exclusive interview, defending his demand for the polls shown to be banned. on some TV channels in the run-up to the UP polls next month.
Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand will vote on seven stages from February 10, and the vote counting is scheduled for March 10.
A total of 690 constituencies will vote in the next two months, with the maximum in UP (403 seats), followed by Punjab (117), Uttarakhand (70), Manipur (60) and Goa (40).
Here are the LIVE updates on the 2022 parliamentary elections:
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Ahead of the parliamentary elections, the Punjab Congress released a new video on social media, which portrays Prime Minister Charanjit Singh Channi as superhero ‘Thor’ with the accompanying hashtag ‘Congress hello ayegi.”
The video was taken from a scene from ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, a Hollywood movie based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Avengers. Faces of Charanjit Singh Channi, along with congressional leaders Rahul Gandhi and Navjot Singh Sidhu have been placed over the faces of characters from ‘Thor’, ‘Bruce Banner’ and ‘Captain America’.
It also shows the faces of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Delhi and the leader of the Aam Aadmi party, Arvind Kejriwal, superimposed on the faces of the ‘aliens’ characters.
Congress on Monday released its second list of 11 candidates for parliamentary elections in Uttarakhand, drawing up former Prime Minister Harish Rawat from Ramnagar constituency.
Harish Rawat, the party’s campaign head in the state, had unsuccessfully contested the Haridwar-Rural and Kichcha elections in 2017 polls.
Congress also brought Anukriti Gusain Rawat from the Lansdowne assembly chair. She is the daughter-in-law of Harak Singh Rawat, who returned to Congress from the BJP on Friday.
The party has not yet decided on Harak Singh Rawat’s candidacy and has yet to announce candidates for six additional seats.
Ahead of the Assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned to hold 10 meetings at every booth in Uttarakhand.
According to sources in the party, the progress of the party will be discussed in these meetings. The party has set itself the goal of 10 meetings per booth, so that the preparation of each booth until the election date and a good coordination with the voters of that booth can be made.
Uttarakhand has more than 10,000 booths.
The BJP candidates in the state have been asked to cooperate with the state president and ‘panna pramukh’.
A ‘panna pramukh’ or person in charge of a page of the electoral roll is the first point of contact for voters in the BJP’s election management machinery.
The candidates have also been asked to give the benefits of state and center schemes to the common people.
The party has so far announced the names of 59 candidates, with 11 names yet to be announced.
The party has already prepared to hold virtual rallies amid COVID-19 restrictions, with the party planning to deploy an IT expert at each meeting.