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Elections 2021 News Highlights: Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Puducherry will be heading for assembly elections over the next few weeks. Polling will happen in a single phase in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on April 6. While voters in Assam will cast their ballots in three phases, polling in Bengal will happen across eight phases. Counting of votes in all states will happen on May 2. With less than three days to go before the first phase of voting, the election campaign and canvassing is gathering steam. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to retain power in Assam even as it faces ‘Mahajot’, the joint opposition alliance comprising the Congress, AIUDF and other regional parties. In Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is fighting to keep BJP’s surge at bay. The saffron party has shown a dramatic electoral rise in the state over the last few years. Congress and the Left Front, which are allies in West Bengal, are competing for power in Kerala. The Congress-led UDF and the ruling LDF have been winning alternate elections since the early 1980s. Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK has continued its alliance with the BJP amid a challenge from MK Stalin-led DMK and its alliance partners. However, one of the key things to watch out for in the southern state is how some of the smaller parties – including that of actor Kamal Haasan and TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK – may impact the poll outcome. With their government having collapsed due to defections weeks before the election, V Narayanasamy-led Congress is battling the BJP-NR Congress alliance in Puducherry.
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Altogether 946 candidates are in the fray for the election to the 126-memberAssam Legislative Assembly, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said on Wednesday.The Assam Assembly election will be held in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6.
There are 264 candidates contesting in 47 constituencies going to polls in the first phase, an official release said.For 39 seats in the second phase, 345 contestants are in the fray, while 337 will try their luck in 40 constituencies during the third phase of voting, it added.The CEO office further said there are 2,33,74,087 electors across the 126 constituencies in the state. (PTI)
Ahead of assembly polls, Twitter on Wednesday resolved to crack down on content that 'manipulates or interferes with elections' or contains 'misleading information', as the micro-blogging platform outlined a slew of election integrity measures.
In a blogpost, Twitter said it is implementing 'significant' product, policy, and enforcement updates that have been drawn based on learning from previous elections, both globally and in India. The measures are aimed at tackling poll-related misinformation. (PTI)
The VIP security cover of BJP leader Mukul Roy has been upgraded to ''z'' category during the polls process in West Bengal, official sources said on Wednesday. Roy, 66, was till now being covered under the ''y+'' category cover of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Official sources said Roy, the national vice president of the party and also a party candidate from the Krishnanagar assembly seat in Nadia district, will now enjoy a ''z'' category cover during his movement in the state. The Union Home Ministry has directed the VIP security unit of the CRPF to undertake the upgrade, they said. (PTI)
A video of BJP state president Dilip Ghosh apparently suggesting West Bengal Chief Minister should wear bermuda shorts to display her injured leg has triggered controversy with the ruling TMC slamming it as a "distasteful comment" and women expressing outrage over the remark in social media.
While no one was named in the purported speech by Ghosh, known for his controversial comments in the past, most commentators took the comments to be directed at Banerjee. In the video, veracity of which could not be confirmed by PTI, Ghosh was seen stating at an election meeting in Purulia on Monday that after the cast was taken off and the foot was bandaged, she is displaying the leg to everyone.
"....she is wearing saree with one leg covered but kept another kept open for viewing. Haven''t seen anyone draping a saree in such a way.
"If she has to display her leg for viewing, she can very well wear bermuda shorts. That will help to have a better view," the BJP MP was purportedly heard stating.
Sharply reacting to the purported comment by the BJP leader, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said in a twitter post in Bengali, "We can expect such distasteful comments only from Dilip Ghosh. "His deplorable comments about a woman chief minister proves Bengal BJP leaders don''t know how to show respect to women.
"Mothers and sisters of Bengal will give a befitting reply to such insults to Mamata Banerjee on May 2."
PTI
Priyada Gogoi is 84 years old and has many ailments, but she is walking the narrow lanes on a campaign trail amidst all the hullabaloo of Assembly polls in Assam for the last 10 days only to free her son -- Akhil Gogoi.
Moved by her determination, social activists Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey have also joined her from Wednesday to campaign for the jailed anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act leader, who is contesting from the Sivasagar constituency.
Priyada Gogoi, who hails from Selenghat in neighbouring Jorhat district, has been camping in Sivasagar district for the last seven days and leading the campaigning of Raijor Dal, the newly floated political outfit of her son.
"I am campaigning only for my son. I want to see my son free. I know that only the people can free my son from jail. Winning this election will be the first step for him to come out of the caged life," she said.
PTI
A local BJP leader was on Wednesday found hanging in the groundfloor corridor of a veterinary hospital here triggering protests across Coochbehar district in poll-bound West Bengal, police said.
BJP Dinhata Town mandal president Amit Sarkar did not return to his home on Tuesday night and his body was found hanging outside the balcony of Dinhata Animal Hospital on Wednesday morning, the police said. The local BJP claimed that TMC was behind the killing.
The BJP workers staged agitations by burning tyres, blocking roads and vandalizing a number of TMC party offices in the area. When the police tried to disperse the agitators and take the body for post mortem, there was a clash with the saffron party workers. The police resorted to baton charge to disperse the mob, who brickbatted the force.
PTI
"We were informed of a general observer's inappropriate behaviour. He was removed on March 22. We've also decided to suspend him anda charge sheet will be filed. Even observers are being observed closely,"news agencyANIquoted Chief Election CommissionerSunil Arora as saying.
"Even after decades of governance of Congress, only three major bridges could be built in Assam. But during the six years of NDA governance here several bridges, including Dhola Sadiya, Bogibeel, Saraighat have started functioning,"Prime Minister NarendraModi said, while campaigning in Sipajhar.
Amid speculations that the BJP wants former India captain Sourav Ganguly to drive its fortunes in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections, his former teammate and the saffron party''s nominee from Moyna seat, Ashok Dinda, feels that the BCCI president would "clean bowl" the ruling TMC if he makes the much-anticipated move of joining the BJP.
Though Ganguly has been reportedly linked with the BJP since he became the BCCI president in October 2019, the most popular sports figure from West Bengal has not yet made any political commitments. Well aware of Ganguly''s leadership acumen, former West Bengal pace spearhead Dinda, who is fighting from the Moyna constituency in Purba Medinipur district, said the BJP desperately wants ''Dada'' to join the party.
"Clean bowled hoe jabe (TMC will be clean bowled)... If he (Ganguly) joins, we are not looking at just crossing the 200-mark; even (full seats of) 294 is possible," Dinda, who has played 13 ODIs and nine T20Is, told PTI in an interview. "Of course, we want Dada to join the BJP, because if he comes, it will be a landslide victory for us," he said.
West Bengal''s second-highest wicket-taker after Utpal Chatterjee, Dinda was inducted into the BJP on February 24, almost three weeks after he called it quits having played for Goa in his last domestic appearance. Dinda will fight Trinamool Congress''s Sangram Kumar Dolai, a sitting legislator since 2016. Battling on a new pitch, Dinda said he wants ''Dada'' to remain by his side even during his new innings.
PTI
The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) on March 24 released the election manifesto for Kerala. "Our manifesto focuses on Kerala's holistic development with provisions for jobs, terror andhunger-free state, law on Sabarimala and'love jihad'," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, who released the party's manifesto, said.
While Congress could not even increase tea workers' wages to Rs 100, NDA increased their wages by two times in 5 years. The same Congress is now spreading lies. Soon after we form government, decisions will be implemented to make tea workers' lives better.
“Today there's development in Assam, it's free from infiltrators. Congress has joined hands with people whose aim is to destroy Assam's identity. Do you want Assam's traditions to be ruined? Congress is taking help from a group that promotes infiltrators.
