Politics

Political analysts say that Hardik Patel’s plans to contest from Jamnagar is surprising but only time will tell whether he got his poll arithmetic right or wrong.

AAP leader Gopal Rai said his party is not in talks with the Congress for an alliance in Delhi and it will contest all seven seats in the elections on its own.

The NCP chief also indicated that Parth, son of his nephew and senior party leader Ajit Pawar, may be fielded from Maval LS constituency in Pune district.

Speculation of Sabyasachi Dutta defection to the BJP erupted following his meeting with Mukul Roy at his residence on Friday evening. Dutta also failed to turn up for TMC's core committee meeting on Monday.

Election Tracker LIVE: Rahul Gandhi Asks Congress Workers to Ensure Win in Delhi's 7 Seats; No Tie-up With AAP

The 2019 polls is being seen as an important election for Patnaik especially after the anti-incumbency sentiment unseated BJP rule in three states last year — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The special observers will send their inputs to the poll panel, following which a decision will be taken on the matter.

The polling will be held between April 11 and May 19 for 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country in which nearly 90 crore voters would be eligible to vote, said Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 22 out of the 40 seats, followed by Lok Janshakti Party which won 6.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 11 and the results will be announced on May 23, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced on Sunday.

The first phase will be held on April 11, second on April 18, third on April 23 and fourth on April 29, fifth on May 6, sixth on May 12 and seventh phase on May 19.

Insinuating on Twitter that Kejriwal is a 'secret colonel of the Pakistan Army', Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Avdhut Wagh followed the label with another crass remark.

Earlier, Omar Abdullah's National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti's PDP had criticised the Centre's decision to ban Jamaat-e-Islami, saying it is against the essence of democracy which allows space to opposing political thoughts.

Hariprasad's remarks drew condemnation from the BJP, which said the Congress leader has crossed all limits of decency.

Incidentally, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief had also commenced her party's campaign for the 2014 parliamentary and 2016 assembly elections on the same date.

Modi slammed Opposition parties' efforts to form an anti-BJP alliance as 'politics of selfishness' and said they were guided solely by the agenda of 'Modi hataao'.