Lok Sabha Election 2024 Highlights: Congress releases fourth list of 45 candidates

Tripura chief minister Manik Saha said on Saturday that BJP candidates are poised to clinch victory in the state with a significant lead, citing the absence of substantial issues for the opposition to contest. He further criticised opposition parties for what he deemed misleading the public through the formation of the INDIA bloc.

Digvijaya Singh to contest LS polls from Rajgarh, Ajay Rai to contest against PM Modi from Varanasi

Congress releases fourth list of 45 candidates for Lok Sabha polls

With the Congress resorting to hard stand on the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) reluctance to allocate the desired seats for the party in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has decided to meet the top All India Congress Committee (AICC) leaders in Delhi on Sunday to sort out the issues, said Congress leaders privy to the matter.

Annoyed by distribution of symbols prospective candidates by RJD chief Lalu Prasad without finalising the seats deal among the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) constituents, the Congress on Saturday clearly to the RJD leadership that it might be compelled to explore the alternative in Bihar, if the RJD refused to relent and allocate the listed seats.

The AICC is learnt to have hardened its stance over the RJD’s approach after Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan, who are in Delhi, apprised the party leadership about unrest creeping in the party’s rank and file after the RJD begun taking unilateral decision and awarding party symbols on the seats the Congress was eyeing to contest.

"Tejashwi Yadav is going to Delhi on Sunday. He will stay there for three-four days as there is a family function," said an RJD legislator, who met him on Saturday.

Here’s what AAP leader Dilip Pandey (@dilipkpandey) said while attending an event in Dibrugarh, Assam, to unveil the party’s manifesto for the upcoming elections.

“Today in this event, we have announced Arvind Kejriwal’s guarantees. The whole country knows that Kejriwal has fulfilled all the promises that he made about electricity, water supply, employment, women safety, pilgrimage for old people and pension. AAP and Arvind Kejriwal have only one motto ‘staunchly honest, staunchly patriotic and dedicated to public service’.”

The CPM and Congress would vanish away gradually and microscope would be required to trace their presence in the coming days, said Tripura chief minister Dr. Manik Saha on Saturday.

" The CPM and Congress will be nowhere. We will require a microscope to find them. Our Prime Minister wants to develop socio-economic condition of people and welfare and empowerment of women", said Saha while speaking at the Yuva Shankhanad rally organized by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, youth wing of the saffron party.

The rally was organized in support of BJP nominees Biplab Kumar Deb and Maharani Kriti Singh Debbarma who would contest the Lok Sabha polls from West constituency and East constituency and Dipak Majumder, candidate of the Ramnagar Assembly by-election.

A day after BJP announced to call off the fortnight-long discussions on alliance with Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, the BJP central election committee headed by PM Narendra Modi met at Delhi on Saturday to finalise the candidates for most of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha along with other states.

Of the 21 Lok Sabha seats, candidates for around a dozen seats are likely to be decided today. Besides, names of candidates for the first two phases of Assembly polls being held simultaneously in the 147 memebr state Assembly are likely to be finalised in CEC, party sources said.

While the exact details of what transpired in the fortnight long discussions that began on March 6 with the statement by BJD that it would “take all steps to for the greater interests of people of Odisha” is yet to be known, some details emerging out of the discussions reveal how the Odisha unit BJP out its foot down on a larger share of Assembly seats than what it was offered.

The Left Front on Saturday announced the name of CPIM state secretary Md Salim as the candidate from Murshidabad West Bengal in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Along with Salim, names of three other candidates were announced as a part of the Left Front’s second list.

On March 14, the Left Front had announced candidates for 16 of the total 42 Lok Sabha seats.

The names of three other candidates announced during the day include Alokesh Das from Ranaghat, Sukriti Ghosal from Burdwan-Durgapur and Shyamali Pradhan from Bolpur constituency.

The JD (U) on Saturday re-inducted former MLA Ramesh Singh Kushwaha, who had quit the party a few years ago and joined fellow NDA partner Rashtriya Lok Morcha headed by ex-Union minister Upendra Kushwaha. Ramesh Kushwaha was holding the post of state president in Rashtriya Lok Morcha which, as per the seat-sharing formula of NDA, will contest only Karakat seat.

Ramesh Singh Kushwaha alongwith his wife Vijay Laxmi joined the party in presence of state president Umesh Kushwaha, ministers Vijay Chaoudhry and Ashok Chowdhary and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Jha.

Speculations are rife that the former MLA or his wife, maybe fielded in Lok Sabha polls from Siwan, one of the 16 seats the JD(U) is contesting.

Party general secretary and MP Sanjay Jha denied that no names has been finalised for any Lok Sabha seat. “No name has been finalised by the party president for any of the seats.” He also said that although the seat-sharing formula had been announced jointly by all NDA partners in Delhi earlier this week, parties concerned were likely to announce respective candidates separately.

“The couple had met the chief minister, who is also the JD(U)’s national president, a day ago,” said Jha.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has finally decided to leave the Ramtek parliamentary constituency to the Shiv Sena (Shinde) and has announced its intention to field a party nominee from the Amravati constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Talking to media persons here on Saturday, the state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule stated that the Ramtek Lok Sabha seat has historically been held by the Shiv Sena, currently represented by Krupal Tumane, and will be left for the Sena (Shinde) in the ensuing elections. However, he confirmed that the BJP will contest from the Amravati seat.

In a previous seat adjustment between the BJP and the Sena, the BJP had always allocated the Amravati seat to the Sena. Former Union Minister Anand Adsul had contested the 2019 elections from Amravati but was defeated by Navneet Rana, who had contested as an independent candidate with the support of the Nationalist Congress Party.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday searched the premises of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra’s parents in Kolkata in connection with the cash-for-query scam, officials of the federal agency said.

Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December last year, has been fielded by the TMC as the party’s candidate from Krishnanagar constituency in Nadia district, for the coming Lok Sabha polls.

A search was also carried out in the former MP’s party office in Krishnanagar later during the day. Moitra couldn’t be contacted despite repeated attempts.

In a press conference today, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh repeated the party’s promise, in its 2019 election manifesto, to scrap the Electoral Bond Scheme and replace it with a National Elections Fund if it comes to power. Ramesh called the bonds “pre-paid”, “post-paid” and “post-raid” bribes, through which the government had given Rs. 3.8 lakh crore in projects & contracts to private companies in exchange for ₹2004 crores in donations to the BJP.

In its 2019 manifesto, the Congress promised to scrap the "opaque" Electoral Bonds Scheme and replace it with a National Election Fund, to which any person could contribute and from which funds would be collected at the time of elections to recognised political parties in accordance with criteria laid down by law. It also said that it would ensure that EVMs and VVPATs were tamperproof and allocate "substantially more" free airtime on All India Radio and Doordarshan to recognised political parties in accordance with the criteria laid down by law.

“There were four routes in this scam. The first was, 'Chanda do dhandha lo' [Give donations, get business]. The second route is 'theka lo ghus do', which is postpaid, you get a contract first and then you give the bribe. The third route is ‘hafta vasooli’ [extortion]. The Modi government has patented this. ‘Hafta vasooli’ isn’t post-paid, it’s post-raid. First, the ED, CBI and Income Tax [Department] are sent to the companies and to escape from them, these companies would buy electoral bonds and give donations to the BJP. And the fourth route is the usage of shell companies.”, Ramesh claimed.

Former Telangana Governor and BJP candidate from Chennai South Seat Tamilisai Soundararajan says, "We will file nomination on March 25 at 12 pm... We will submit a nomination with all our alliance partners and our BJP workers... I will definitely win."

Stepping up its attack on the BJP-led government over the electoral bonds issue, the Congress on Saturday said the "opaque scheme" ensured that prepaid, postpaid and even post-raid bribes could be routed through the banking channel.

The opposition party also reiterated its demand that there should be a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into the issue.

At a press conference, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that this is the prime minister who gave a guarantee of 'bringing back black money' and instead "legalized corruption and is then desperately trying to hide it".

Professor and former advisor to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India, Amar Prasad Reddy, has been appointed as in-charge of the Tamil Nadu BJP's statewide Lok Sabha election campaign.

"I have been appointed as an Incharge for Thalaivar @annamalai_k Avls State Wide Loksabha Election Campaign." Amar Prasad Reddy posted on X.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, after being fielded from Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency, expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that Coimbatore is an important seat and he is confident that he will deliver the seat.

Hours after Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) sitting MP Ranjan Bhatt, who was fielded by the party to contest for the third time from the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, announced her decision to withdraw her candidacy for the upcoming elections, another candidate, Bhikhaji Thakor, has also opted out of the 2024 election race.

Thakor, who was fielded by the party for the Sabarkantha Lok Sabha seat, cited personal reasons for withdrawing on social media.

His withdrawal comes in the wake of the growing controversy over his surname and caste identity. The BJP had replaced its two-term representative Dipsinh Rathod with Bhikhaji Thakor for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Thakor's nomination had led to a dispute over his surname, with social media posts alleging he previously used 'Damor'. This sparked debates among Kshatriya (Thakor) voters. Thakor addressed the issue at a press conference, reaffirming his Thakor identity and highlighting his involvement with BJP's OBC front. He attributed concerns to Opposition propaganda and clarified the demographics in the region.

The Thakor community, classified as OBC, is prominent in northern and central Gujarat, primarily engaged in agriculture but diversifying into politics, business, and education.

Union minister Nisith Pramanik, who has been renominated by the BJP in Cooch Behar seat for the Lok Sabha elections, has 14 criminal cases pending against him, according to an affidavit filed by him along with his nomination paper.

Of the 14 cases pending against the Union Minister of State for Home, nine were registered between 2018 and 2020. The other cases were filed between 2009 and 2014, as per the affidavit.

He joined the BJP in 2019 after he was expelled from the Trinamool Congress in 2018 over allegedly putting up several independents in that year's panchayat polls in the state against party-nominated contestants in Cooch Behar district.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live: Six former Himachal Pradesh MLAs, who were disqualified as Congress legislators, join BJP in presence of Union Minister Anurag Thakur and former CM Jai Ram Thakur in Delhi.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live Update: Senior TMC leader and MP Shatrughan Sinha has predicted that the BJP would be defeated in the upcoming Lok Sabha Election 2024. In an interview with news agency PTI, the actor-turned-politician termed the electoral bond as a "major scam and extortion racket" of the BJP and said the "seven-phase elections are a boon for the opposition parties to expose the saffron camp’s extortion and blackmail racket in the form of electoral bonds."

"The BJP will be defeated in this election. If the NDA has the support of the CBI, ED, and Income Tax, INDIA has the support of the masses. Many think that INDIA doesn’t have partners, but the fact is people are its biggest ally. The opposition alliance is gaining momentum in various parts of the country," he said.

He dubbed opposition bloc INDIA as "filtered coffee" which is gaining momentum ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and emphasised the importance of not discounting the Congress, citing its track record of comebacks in politics.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live Update: The Bharatiya Janata Party's Lok Sabha member from Vadodara, Ranjan Bhatt, who was renominated by the party from the same seat for the upcoming parliamentary elections, on Saturday pulled out of the poll race citing personal reasons.

"I, Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt, am unwilling to contest the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 due to my personal reasons," she announced on X.

Bhatt had won the 2014 by-election after Prime Minister Narendra Modi vacated the seat. She also won the Lok Sabha election in 2019, and was announced as BJP's candidate for the upcoming poll, reported news agency PTI.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live Update: As part of strict vigilance ahead of the Holi festival and the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the district police are closely monitoring illicit liquor mafias and bootleggers in the region. According to police officials, regular raids are being conducted at hotspots of illicit liquor trade in the district. Activities of individuals with previous records of bootlegging and illicit liquor supply are also under surveillance. Dig Deeper

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live Update: Amid the buzz of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in the meeting of its core committee, the top decision-making body of the Akalis, on Friday passed a resolution hinting that the party might go alone in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Dig Deeper

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live Update: The Janvadi Party (Socialist) severed ties with the Samajwadi Party on Saturday amid the differences between the alliance partners, reported news agency ANI.

Founder and national president of the Janvadi Party (Socialist), Sanjay Chauhan announced the decision. "There was a dispute between the Janvadi Party (Socialist) and the Samajwadi Party over the distribution of seats," said Chauhan.

Earlier, Sanjay Chauhan's party had contested the elections in 2022 in alliance with the Samajwadi Party but could not win a single seat.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live Update: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Hyderabad Police on Friday seized an amount of ₹10 lakh from a car during a vehicle check at Shalivahananagar, Moosaramabagh, an official said, reported news agency ANI.

The cash was recovered from Bokka Sai Charan, a 33-year-old real estate businessman, police said. The cash was seized due to the absence of any proper documentation, the police added.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live Update: Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said it is not possible for a political party to survive without resources.

"When Arun Jaitely was (Union finance) minister, I was part of that discussion (regarding electoral bonds). No party can survive without resources. In some countries, governments fund political parties. There is no such system in India. Thus, we chose this system of financing political parties," said Gadkari on a question about electoral bonds, reported news agency PTI.

Meanwhile, the electoral bonds scheme, has now been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.