Samajwadi leader Akhilesh Yadav is likely to contest next month's UP election from the Karhal seat in Mainpuri, which is in the Yadav family's stronghold, party sources said Thursday evening.
Karhal has voted for a Samajwadi candidate in every election since 1993, except for five years between 2002 and 2007, when the BJP flipped the seat.
Manohar Parrikar's son Utpal Parrikar is missing from the BJP's list of candidates in Goa, which will vote next month.
The BJP has chosen to give Manohar Parrikar's Panaji seat to Atanasio "Babush" Monserrate instead of his son, who had openly asked for it.
Utpal Parrikar, sensing that the party would not pick him, had said recently: "I will clear my stand soon."
Manohar Parrikar, a three-time Goa Chief Minister and the BJP's top leader in the seaside state, died in office in 2019. He held the Panaji constituency for 25 years.
Meanwhile, the first candidate to be declared against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur is Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad.
The Dalit leader had said earlier he would contest against Yogi Adityanath in the February-March election. Today, his party formally announced it, days after the BJP declared that Yogi Adityanath would contest the UP election from Gorakhpur Sadar.
Yogi Adityanath is running for MLA for the first time. But his main rival will be the Samajwadi Party candidate, not announced yet.
This will also be Chandrashekhar Azad's first election.
Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur, Punjab, and Uttarakhand will vote over seven phases starting February 10, with counting of votes scheduled for March 10.
A total of 690 Assembly constituencies will vote over 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 Highlights on Assembly Elections 2022:
Making an important announcement, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said if his party comes to power in Uttar Pradesh, it will restore the old pension scheme, benefitting lakhs of state government employees who have been agitating for the same for long, as well as the Yash Bharti awards, reported PTI.
With another relative of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav joining the BJP after Aparna Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav took a swipe at the ruling party, thanking it for ending "parivarvaad" (dynastic politics) in his party.
Former BJP MLA Carlose Almeida and former AAP Goa convener Elvis Gomes featured in Congress' latest list of five candidates for the Goa Assembly elections, reported PTI.
So far the party has announced candidates for 29 out of 40 seats for the February 14 elections.
Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik on Thursday announced the list for Panaji, Shiroda, Vasco, Benaulim and Curchorem.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot said on Thursday that the Congress will form the government in the upcoming assembly elections in Uttarakhand and Punjab, reported PTI.
He also said the Congress is emerging as a better option for voters in Uttar Pradesh.
With less than a month to go for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda will visit Agra and Bareilly and hold a door-to-door campaign tomorrow.
Notably, this is the first visit of the BJP national president after the announcement of dates for the assembly polls by the Election Commission of India.
According to a press release by the party, Mr Nadda will hold various organisational meetings during his visit to both the cities of Uttar Pradesh.
Four out of 34 candidates announced by the ruling BJP on Thursday for the Goa Assembly elections have criminal cases registered against them, reported PTI.
Atanasio Monserratte, the current MLA from Panaji, was accused of 'buying' a minor girl and raping her in 2016. The case is still pending, police sources said.
The First Information Report in the case was registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act and IPC for alleged rape, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.
A Congress delegation met Chief Election Commissioner of India Sushil Chandra on Thursday to register a complaint against the "politically motivated" raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate on relatives of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi ahead of Assembly polls in the state, reported ANI.
"Politically motivated raids by enforcement directorate on a relative of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Charanjit Singh Channi solely with a view to malign and defame the Chief Minister and incumbent Congress Government," reads the memorandum submitted by Congress party to CEC.
Congress has also sought the intervention of the Election Commission as it claims that these raids are a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
The Samajwadi Party on Thursday moved the Election Commission of India seeking transfer of the Gonda district magistrate, accusing him of working in favour of the BJP.
In his complaint to the poll panel, SP state president Naresh Uttam Patel alleged that Gonda DM Markandey Shahi has been working on directions of BJP's Kaiserganj MP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and his son Prateek Bhushan Singh, the Gonda Sadar MLA.
Accordingly, he should be removed from his post, Mr Patel demanded.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday released a list of 14 candidates for the February 20 Punjab assembly polls, reported PTI.
The Mayawati-led party has tied up with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the Punjab assembly elections.
According to the seat-sharing arrangement between the two parties, the BSP will field candidates in 20 of the 117 Assembly seats in Punjab, while the rest will be contested by the SAD.
According to the list of candidates released by the party, Punjab BSP chief Jasvir Singh Garhi will contest from Phagwara seat.
- Karhal is seen to be one of the safest options for Akhilesh Yadav; he can concentrate on his campaign across the state without being tied to one seat.
- Karhal is one of the five assembly segments in Mainpuri, the constituency that Akhilesh Yadav's father and Samajwadi patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav represented in parliament five times.
Goa appears set for a multi-cornered contest where a fractured opposition is attempting to overthrow the BJP, which has been in power in the coastal state for the past 10 years.
Congress has been insisting that it is the key challenger to the BJP and other parties - Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-Shiv Sena - contesting after failed talks for an alliance could only end up muddying its chances.
A look at the previous election results shows that the BJP had polled the maximum votes - 32.48 per cent - to emerge victorious on 13 seats in the 40-member assembly, while the Congress had garnered 28.35 per cent votes and won 17 seats.
Seema Kushwaha, a Supreme Court lawyer and who fought for the victim in the '2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case in Delhi, joined Bahujan Samaj Party on Thursday.
Ms Kushwaha joined the BSP in the presence of the party's national general secretary Satish Chandra Misra here today.
Earlier today, she had said that she is joining the party to ensure justice to the weaker section of the society.
For Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's first-ever state election next month, the first rival was declared today - Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, also a debutant. Unlike Yogi Adityanath, who is a five-time MP, Chandrashekhar Azad has never fought elections before.
The Dalit leader had declared back in November that he would challenge Yogi Adityanath. Today, his Azad Samaj Party formally announced it, just days after the BJP revealed Yogi Adityanath would contest from Gorakhpur Sadar.
Yogi Adityanath's main rival will be the Samajwadi Party candidate, not announced yet. Azad said he wants to fight the Chief Minister anyway, no matter how many opposition candidates there are.
Shortly after the BJP denied Utpal Parrikar, late former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's son, a ticket to contest in next month's Assembly election, state minister Vishwajit Rane told NDTV the party would not back candidates "just because you are someone's son".
"My personal advice would be that his father built the BJP. Don't rebel against the party," he said.
The state's Health Minister, Mr Rane acknowledged that Manohar Parrikar - a three-time former Chief Minister who died in office in 2019 - had been the ruling BJP's biggest leader in Goa, but declared his son Utpal "should work with the BJP and grow and learn first".
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced the names of candidates for 59 out of 70 seats in Uttarakhand for the upcoming assembly polls.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami will contest the upcoming elections from Khatima. Mr Dhami is two-time MLA from Khatima constituency.
In the first list issued by the party, there are six women candidates. There are 14 Brahmin candidates, 22 Rajput candidates, 13 SC candidates while one candidate is from the ST community.
Days after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s tele-vote, a Twitter poll on who should be the Congress's Chief Ministerial candidate in Punjab has started a buzz.
The poll was started by Rahul Gandhi's close aide Nikhil Alva. It asks who should be Chief Minister face of the Congress in Punjab and gives four options - incumbent Charanjit Singh Channi, state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, senior leader Sunil Singh Jakhar and the fourth option is that no choice should be announced.
The poll comes against the backdrop of main challenger Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declaring Bhagwant Mann as its choice for the top post.
The BJP today announced its first lot of candidates for Goa with a big omission - Utpal Parrikar, the son of former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. The party has rejected Utpal Parrikar for his father's seat Panaji and chosen Congress alum Atanasio "Babush" Monserrate instead.
Utpal Parrikar is reportedly firm on contesting from Panaji and has refused the BJP's offer of two other seats. "I will clear my stand soon," he told reporters.
