UP minister Dharam Singh Saini resigns from cabinet, meets Akhilesh

Former St Cruz MLA and former state Congress general secretary Victor Gonsalves joined the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) party after resigning from the Congress on Thursday.

The list includes 125 candidates including 50 women

"Swami Prasad Maurya is our leader. We will support whatever decision he takes. Many other leaders will join us in the coming days," he says.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Thursday claimed that Yogi Adityanath is set to lose the upcoming Assembly polls in the Uttar Pradesh and the process for the same has begun after the exodus of MLAs from BJP. The statement of the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister came after the resignations of three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs in Uttar Pradesh, weeks ahead of the state Assembly elections.

With a string of incidents of violence taking place in poll-bound Manipur, Assam chief minister and NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma demanded the election commission (EC) and police to provide adequate security to candidates and political workers in the state to ensure free and fair election.

The political tugof-war between BJP and SP intensified on Wednesday when SP MLA from Sirsaganj in Firozabad, Hari Om Yadav, and Congress MLA from Behat assembly seat, Naresh Saini, defectedtothe saffron camp. The two leaders joined BJP in the presence of UP BJP chief Swatantra DevSingh in Delhi.

Patiala former MP and former AAP leader Dr Dharamvira Gandhi on Wednesday said he would not contest the elections any more. However, he claimed to have extended support to honest candidates of Samyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM). Dr Gandhi said he had also been favouring Congress at this stage, as there was a need to save the country’s democracy,which had been facing a threat amid polarisation of voters. “I am not in a position to contest any election. I have crossed the age of 70 and I have already said goodbye to electoral politics. I still remain active, though,” said Dr Gandhi.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday disclosed that talks for a pre-poll alliance with farmers’ outfit Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM). led by farm leader Balbir Singh Rajewal, did not fructify due to differences over seat-sharing and admitted that the failure to work out a tieup with the outfit will have some impact on AAP’s vote share. He added that he will announce the chief ministerial face of the party next week. “Wait for another week, I will come again and disclose it,” he said, evading to comment on whether the CM face will be from among the party’s state leaders or from outside. Supporters of Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann have been waiting for him to be named the CM nominee of the party.

Sitapur district administration got an FIR lodged against 11 booth level officers (BLOs) deployed in Vidhan Sabha assemblyconstituency146in Sitapur.The FIR was lodged on the directions of the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sadar after the 11 BLOs did not complete the assigned election related work despite repeated reminders.