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Lok Sabha polls: 7th phase campaigning ends as political parties await fate
Top leaders including PM Modi, Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge conducted several rallies across the country in a high-octane political campaign
The final phase of polling for 57 Lok Sabha constituencies in eight states and union territories will take place on Saturday.
Top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge conducted several rallies across the country in a high-octane political campaign.
How different parties conducted their campaigns
The prolonged campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, spanning over two months, saw both ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) engaging in a bitter war of words with each of the seven phases of polling.
Kharge says Modi didn’t mention inflation, price rise in last 15 days
Congress president Kharge alleged that PM Modi has mentioned his own name 758 times, spoke about mandir 421 times and mentioned Muslim, Pakistan and minorities 224 times but didn’t speak about inflation and unemployment even once in the last fifteen days.
“If we look at BJP’s campaign and talk about the PM, in last 15 days he mentioned Congress 232 times. He mentioned his own name, Modi, 758 times and on 573 times, he spoke about INDIA alliance and opposition parties. But didn’t speak once about price rise and unemployment. It shows that he kept the important issues aside and only spoke about himself in the campaign.”
Former PM Dr Manmohan slams PM for hate speeches
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, 91, on Thursday sharply criticised PM Modi, 73, for his election campaign pitch, accusing him of indulging in the “most vicious form of hate speeches” and describing him as the first prime minister to lower the dignity of public discourse.
In his appeal to the people of Punjab who are due to vote on June 1, Singh said this was one final chance to ensure that “democracy and the Constitution are protected from the repeated assaults of a despotic regime trying to unleash dictatorship in India”. It was also Singh’s first appeal in this poll campaign.
“No prime minister in the past has uttered such hateful, unparliamentary and coarse terms, meant to target either a specific section of the society or the opposition. He has also attributed some false statements to me. I have never in my life singled out one community from the other. That is the sole copyright of the BJP,” Singh, who retired from the Rajya Sabha in March, said in a three-page open letter.
Nitish Kumar not getting along well with BJP, claims Tejashwi
Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday claimed that “something major” would take place in Bihar after the results of the Lok Sabha elections are announced and added that chief minister Nitish Kumar seemed to be “not going along well” with ally BJP, reported news agency PTI.
Yadav, who lost the deputy CM’s post after Kumar’s abrupt return to the NDA in January this year, made the claim while interacting with journalists in Patna.
“Ever since I made the prediction that chacha (referring to Nitish Kumar) will take a big decision after Lok Sabha polls, he has not been going out to campaign,” Yadav said, referring to a claim he had made a couple of days ago.
Prajwal Revanna arrested, court hearing today
Suspended JD(S) leader and MP, Prajwal Revanna, arrived at the Bengaluru airport on Thursday night, and was taken into custody by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) shortly after his arrival. The airport security handed over Revanna to the SIT, after which he was taken to the CID office in Bengaluru. Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna is facing allegations of sexual assault and criminal intimidation by a woman who used to work in his residence.
He returned to India from Berlin, Germany, nearly a month after leaving the country on a diplomatic passport and was immediately taken into custody.
Upon his arrival in India, the SIT team confiscated two of his check-in baggage. Security was stepped up outside the CID office in Bengaluru, and barricades were put outside the office ahead of Revanna’s arrival.
