Election 2024 News Highlights: Congress fields Raj Babbar from Gurgaon, Anand Sharma from Kangra

In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami appealed to the voters to ensure a grand victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that the ongoing polls will realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for a developed India. Dhami, while addressing a public rally in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly, said that this election will mark the building of the nation as the third-largest economy in the world.

In her first rally in Karnataka following the scandal involving JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the issue. Addressing a public gathering in Kalaburgi, she questioned the Central government's stance on allowing Revanna to depart the country amidst allegations of sexual exploitation of women. "The individual (Prajwal Revanna) who stood alongside Prime Minister Modi, for whom the Prime Minister solicited votes, stands accused of abusing thousands of women. The numbers are staggering. I want to know Modi's response to this. I am keen to hear what the home minister has to say," remarked Priyanka Gandhi. Prajwal Revanna, the incumbent MP from Hassan and grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda faces allegations of sexual exploitation of women, leading to the registration of an FIR against him for sexual assault. Police reported that Revanna fled the country a day before the filing of the FIR.

There was a minor scare when the Pawan Hans chopper in which Union home minister Amit Shah was flying in, drifted behind, sideways for a few metres due to strong cross winds, immediately after lift-off from the GD College ground in Begusarai, as per a purported video shown on some TV news channels on Monday. The twin engine Pawan Hans chopper (VT ENZ), drifted away momentarily before turning around and re-aligning, as it stabilised and took off from the GD College ground in Begusarai. The chopper landed safely at the Patna airport, said officials. The home ministry, however, denied that the chopper faced some balance issues while taking off from Begusarai on Monday, as per an All India Radio (AIR) post on X. “The ministry says there was no such issue as was being reported by some channels,” said the AIR post on X.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress have asked for more time to respond to Election Commission's April 25 notices to their party presidents for violations of the Model Code of Conduct by their star campaigners Narendra Modi (BJP), and Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), respectively, an EC official aware of the matter said. The notices required BJP's JP Nadda and Congress's Kharge to respond by 11 am on April 29. The BJP has asked for a week while the Congress initially asked for an extension until 5 pm on April 29, and then asked for 14 more days. 

The poll body had sent a notice to Nadda on April 25 on the basis of complaints raised by the Congress, Communist Party of India, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation against Modi's anti-Muslim hate speech delivered in Rajasthan on April 21. An idential notice was sent to Kharge to respond to complaint raised by the BJP against Rahul Gandhi's speech in Kerala wherein the BJP had accused him of saying "derisive and obnoxious utterances" against Modi. 

Both Nadda and Kharge were directed to notify all star campaigners of their parties "to set high standards of political discourse and observe the proviisions of MCC in letter and spirit".

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dilip Ghosh on Monday claimed that the West Bengal government is not granting permission for the proposed public meeting to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 3 in Bardhaman. 

Ghosh, while speaking to the reporters here on Tuesday said that the BJP will be "forced" to go to court if permission is not given for the PM's rally. 

"PM Modi will address a gathering on May 3 in Bardhaman. While searching for a suitable ground for their meeting, local BJP leaders have chosen two grounds. But permission is being deliberately not given for the meeting. We will be forced to go to court if permission is not given," Ghosh said.

Ruling out any change in Constitution by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government once it retains power at the Centre for third term, union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds Dr BR Ambedkar in high esteem and would ever think of changing the Constitution. Scindia is contesting from Guna parliamentary constituency as a BJP candidate. He is presently a Rajya Sabha member. Addressing gatherings of people at Bangla Chouraha and Hathaikheda, Scindia said Congress never gave respect to the icons of the society whether it was Sant Ravidas, Birsa Munda, Dr BR Ambedkar etc whereas it glorified only a particular family.

Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee claimed on Monday that common people did not vote for Bharatiya Janata Party in the first two phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. 

“Common people did not vote for BJP in the first two phases. They randomly voted for whoever they spotted first. All negative votes went against BJP while the positive votes have gone in favour of those people,” Banerjee said at a campaign rally in the Murshidabad constituency which goes to polls in the third phase on May 7. 

“Can you hear the nation? Two phases are over. Can you hear what Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan are saying? I heard that at a polling booth in Tripura, the number of votes polled was more than the number of registered voters. BJP has already started rigging,” said Banerjee.

Shortly after a case was registered against a Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) leader for allegedly manhandling a presiding officer in public during second phase of Lok Sabha polling at Bagbassa Assembly constituency in Tripura, police on Monday arrested him. 

He was forwarded to the court and later, he was released on bail. The accused, identified as Kajal Das is BJP's North district president. 

Officer in-charge of Kadamtala police station Jayanta Debnath told the reporters this evening that the Assistant Returning Officer of Dharmanagar assembly segment in East Tripura Parliamentary seat filedthe complaint. 

Based on the complaint, the police booked Das under sections 353, 332, 131 of the Representation of People's Act alongwith section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

Two independent candidates, Dharmendra Singh Jhala and Dileep Thakkar whose names were in the list of nine having withdrawn nomination from Indore Lok Sabha seat, claimed that they have not taken back their nomination papers. They staged a protest with family members and supporters at the collectorate office on Monday evening. District collector and returning officer, Asheesh Singh, said the persons who proposed their nomination had withdrawn the affidavits and therefore, their candidature stands withdrawn. “According to rule, the candidate himself, his proposer or election agent can come and withdraw the name. In this case, the proposers have withdrawn their names. In the form of Jhala, there was the signature of him, which appears to be correct, as we do not have any system to check handwriting. But complete videography was done of the process so in case of doubts, it could be challenged before the court," he added. Jhala said, "My forged signature was used in the form. I will move to the court against it." Thakkar also said, "Neither me and my proposer withdrew the form. It is a forgery."

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the BJP and RSS of planning to change the constitution and emphasized their opposition to reservation policies, pledging to prioritize conducting caste and economic surveys if Congress is elected to power. 

He was speaking at a rally in Patan town of north Gujarat. “We are facing the Lok Sabha elections, and there is a fight between two ideologies. The question is whether India's democracy and constitution will survive or not. The people of BJP, RSS want the constitution to be abolished, while we, the Congress party and the India Alliance, are defending it. Whatever we have achieved after independence, be it education, health, development, water, whatever the poor people of India have received, its cause, its foundation is the constitution. For the first time, the leaders of the BJP are openly saying that if we win the elections, we will change this constitution, tear it apart, abolish it,” he said.

The Assam Police on Monday arrested one person from Guwahati in connection to the sharing of alleged deepfake video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

According to the police, several complaints regarding this deepfake video incident have been registered across the state. 

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at around 4pm on Monday wrote on, X formerly Twitter, "Assam police have arrested an individual named Sri Reetom Singh in connection with the fake video involving Honorable Home Minister Sri Amit Shah." 

Reetam Singh (31), a resident of Guwahati's Khanapara area. He is a member of the Congress party and the Assam Congress has condemned this arrest.

The voter turnout among youths aged 18-19 years was lower in the Lok Sabha General Election-2024 compared to the previous 2019 polls in Rajasthan. Over 9.90 lakh new voters, out of the total registered 16.64 lakh new voters aged 18-19 years, have participated in the Lok Sabha General Election-2024 in Rajasthan. Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said that approximately 60% of voters in this age group have exercised their franchise. In 2019 Lok Sabha general elections, out of the total 13.82 lakh registered new voters aged 18-19 years, a total of 10.60 lakh voted. Approximately 76.70% of voters in this category had cast their votes, he said.

The Latur district administration has banned the flying of drones till the intervening night of April 30-May 1 and also imposed traffic regulations on several roads, an official said on Sunday. These curbs are in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha poll rally in Birle Farm here on April 30, the Bharatiya Janata Party's Latur district in charge Kiran Patil told PTI.