Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal with Himanta Biswa Sarma. (Photo: Twitter/@himantabiswa)
Assembly Elections 2021 Live Updates: Ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, the ruling AIADMK allotted 20 seats as well as the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat to its ally BJP after several rounds of negotiations. In a statement, signed by AIADMK leaders O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami, the party pledged full support to the candidates of the BJP in the polls.
Following a complaint by the Trinamool Congress earlier this week, the Election Commission has directed the Union Government to stop using images of PM Narendra Modi on Covid-19 vaccination certificates in poll-bound states.
Sources said the EC wrote to the Health Ministry on Friday reiterating its standing instructions against promoting the party in power through government means when the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was in force.
Meanwhile, amid a high-pitch campaign in West Bengal, Prime Minister Modi has directed state BJP leaders to ensure the party does not indulge in name-calling or abuses and keep the campaigning positive, according to sources.
In Tamil Nadu, the deadlock in seat-sharing negotiations between the Congress and DMK appears to be clearing. According to sources from both parties, there were signs of progress on Thursday. Congress leaders, however, said a final understanding is expected to be reached following a telephonic conversation between DMK chief M K Stalin and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The BJP in Kerala has made a U-Turn since it announced E Sreedharan, the Metro Man, as its CM candidate ahead of the Assembly polls. On Friday, state BJP chief K Surendran said that “the central leadership would decide (on the CM candidate) after deliberations”.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
To make new women voters aware of how to take part in the voting process, the Cachar district administration in south Assam is taking various steps to attract all electors, especially young voters, to cast their ballot in the upcoming Assembly hustings. Under this effort, a mock polling centre 'Poll Express' has been put into motion, said a district administration release on Friday.
Cachar Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli, DIG Southern range Devajyoti Mukherjee and Superintendent of Police Bhanwar Lal Mina inaugurated the 'Poll Express' which will mainly travel to the border areas and rural areas of the district.
Demos of the voting process will be shown to the general public through the vehicle with new voters encouraged to cast their votes under the SVEEP initiative in Cachar district. (PTI)
Discontent is brewing in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after it dropped 27 MLAs, including ministers Amit Mitra, Purnendu Basu and Rabindranath Bhattacharya, from the list and introduced 114 new faces.
After Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee released the list of 291 candidates, many leaders criticised the party for sidelining them, and protests broke out at various places.
Sensing rebellion, Banerjee at a press conference on Friday said the leaders who were dropped because of age or other reasons would be accommodated in the proposed Legislative Council or given organisational work.
Some of the veteran TMC leaders who could not find their names in the list included finance minister Mitra; ministers Basu and Bhattacharya; former deputy Assembly speaker Sonali Guha; and veteran MLAs Braja Majumder, Jatu Lahiri and Manish Gupta.
Bhattacharya’s Singur seat, closely associated with the TMC’s rise to power, has gone to state minister Becharam Manna. Read our report here.
The ruling AIADMK has allotted 20 Assembly constituencies and the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat to its ally BJP for the April 6 Assembly elections, after several rounds of negotiations.
Following up with the release of its first list of six candidates for the polls on Friday, the AIADMK firmed up the electoral agreement with the Saffron party late Friday night. An AIADMK release pledged its full support to the candidates of the BJP in the polls and the pact was signed by O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami from the ruling party side and the saffron party's national general secretary, C T Ravi and state unit chief L Murugan.
Days ago, the AIADMK concluded seat-sharing with the Pattali Makkal Katchi and allotted it 23 seats. Out of the 234 assembly seats, the AIADMK is keen to contest from at least 170 seats including 134 it won during the 2016 polls, sources said. The negotiations on seat-sharing, initated in a meeting between BJP top leader Amit Shah and AIADMK's Palaniswami and Panneerselvam here was taken forward by Ravi, and poll in charge for Tamil Nadu, G Kishan Reddy with the leadership of the state's ruling party. (PTI)
The reason behind expelled AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala’s decision to withdraw from politics is a mystery. However, her move has left her nephew T T V Dhinakaran and his party, the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), in a spot of bother ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu.
In 2018, Dhinakaran had launched the AMMK as a result of Sasikala’s ouster in order to recapture the AIADMK from its current leadership, and Sasikala, after her recent release from prison, had no second thoughts in declaring her decision to campaign for the polls.
However, ever since Sasikala announced on Wednesday her decision to withdraw from politics, Dhinakaran hasn’t done much political work, sources close to the AMMK leader said.
“He was neither talking to other parties nor to senior faces in his own camp,” said a source. “It is a fact that AMMK received over 1,300 applications from people to contest in the upcoming elections. But all of them made those applications before Sasikala made her announcement to withdraw from politics. And Dhinakaran himself seems to have no plans right now. If he has to go ahead on his own, it is going to be a lone battle as there are no alliance parties left for him.” Read the report here.
The deadlock in the seat-sharing negotiations between the DMK and Congress for the Tamil Nadu Assembly polls appeared to be clearing and there were signs of progress on Thursday, said sources in both parties.
Congress leaders, however, said a final understanding is expected to be reached following a telephonic conversation between DMK chief M K Stalin and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
According to the sources, both sides appear to be softening their stand. Earlier, the Congress had been demanding 34 seats and DMK was not willing to offer more than 18, but the former is now asking for 30 and the DMK is ready to offer 20, said the sources.
“We assume that a critical point has been crossed and hope that there will be an agreement soon with at least 24 seats for the Congress,” said a Congress leader. Read the report here.
The Election Commission (EC) has asked the Union government to stop using Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s picture on Covid-19 vaccination certificates in states headed to Assembly elections. The EC’s order came on a complaint by the Trinamool Congress this week.
Sources said the EC wrote to the Health Ministry on Friday reiterating its standing instructions gainst promoting the party in power through government means when the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was in force.
The Ministry was instructed to implement the instructions with regard to the vaccination certificates being distributed in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry.
The EC’s decision came after the Health Ministry, in its reply to the panel, said the vaccination drive was an ongoing government initiative that had started much before the MCC came into force a week ago. Read the report here.
Hello and welcome back to our election blog. We bring you all the latest updates on the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry here. Stay tuned!
Amid the high-pitched campaign in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked his party colleagues to see to it that the BJP does not indulge in name-calling or abuses and keep the campaigning positive, according to sources.
Modi, who collected “the real picture at the ground” with one-to-one meetings with leaders on Thursday evening at party headquarters, urged them to ensure that the narrative in the party’s campaign is not vitiated, sources added. Read More
An alliance deal was signed between the DMK chief MK Stalin and CPI state secretary Mutharasan for the upcomimg Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. the CPI has been given six seats in the alliance. So far, the DMK has allotted 17 seats to its allies.
Speaking on the development, Mutharasan said his party has settled for lesser seats as they believe ideology is more important than getting more seats.
Rejecting allegations of the Trinamool Congress that Deputy Election Commissioner in-charge of West Bengal Sudeep Jain is “biased”, the Election Commission on Friday said it has “full faith in the integrity and fairness” of the senior official.
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal had on Thursday demanded the removal of Jain, accusing him of being biased against it and breaking norms of the federal structure. Read More
The alliance of the Left Front, Congress and the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) on Friday announced the names of constituencies from where each party will contest for the first two phases of the assembly election in West Bengal.
The Left Front also announced the candidates for the seats allotted to it. However, LF chairman Biman Bose said that consensus on some seats is yet to be arrived at by the alliance partners.
Kerala BJP chief K Surendran on Friday said he had not made any announcement on party's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
He added that what he expressed was that people and party workers wanted E Sreedharan to "lead" them. Read More
Releasing the list of Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday said she would be contesting the polls from Nandigram constituency and vacate her seat of Bhawanipore in Kolkata. With this announcement, it is likely that the BJP would pit former TMC leader and state minister Suvendu Adhikari against her in Nandigram. Read More
Amid exodus of a number of public representatives and workers, another Trinamool Congress MLA Samir Chakraborty said on Friday that he would not like to contest the West Bengal assembly elections.
The TMC leadership said that they will talk to Chakraborty on the issue. "I have informed party supremo (Mamata Banerjee) that I don't want to contest the elections but will campaign for the party," Chakraborty said in a Facebook post.
Chakraborty, a first time MLA from Taldangra constituency in Bankura district, is a familiar face in vernacular television news channel talk shows representing the TMC's views on various issues. (PTI)
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Friday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswamy will contest the polls from Edapaddi, while his deputy, O Panneerselvam is standing from Bodinayakanur.
D Jayakumar will contest from Royapuram, C V Shanmugam from Villupuram, S P Shanmuganathan from Srivaikuntam, and S Thenmozhi from Nilakottai (SC).The party's list is the first of six that will be released ahead of the one-phase election on April 6.
THE MALANKARA Orthodox Syrian Church on Thursday urged its followers to vote for BJP leader R Balashankar, whose intervention saved a 1,000-year-old church in Kerala’s Alappuzha district from demolition to widen a national highway.
Acknowledging the timely intervention of Balashankar, co-convener, BJP national training programme, in preventing the demolition of St George Orthodox Church at Cheppad, spokesperson for the Orthodox Church, Fr Johns Abraham Konat, said Church head Baselios Marthoma Paulose II wanted the faithful to keep away partisan political interests to vote for Balashankar.
“If Balashankar is not voted to victory, it would be ungratefulness. The Prime Minister had intervened in the issue of the Cheppad church, which was subsequently handed over to the Archaeology department and thus froze the decision to demolish the church. It was Balashankar who gave courageous leadership in this effort to protect the historical church,” Fr Konat said. Read the full report here.