New Delhi:
Today is the last day of the election campaign in three states – Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – and Puducherry, the territory of the union. While Assam and Bengal vote for the third phase on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will vote in a single phase.
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In Kerala, more than 27 lakh people are eligible to vote in the entire state. The ruling Left Democratic Front, the United Democratic Front, of which Congress is a part, and the BJP are the three key contenders fighting in all 140 constituencies.
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Congressional leader Rahul Gandhi, who was elected deputy from the Lok Sabha of Wayanad in Kerala in 2019, will campaign in the southern state today.
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In Assam, BJP leader and state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will resume his campaign after the Election Commission halved the ban from 48 hours to 24 hours. The ban was handed down late Friday for threatening to send BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary, an opposition leader whose party had previously allied with his, to jail. On Tuesday, the vote will take place in 40 seats in Assam.
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Tamil Nadu has also witnessed a frenzied campaign in recent weeks. Voting will take place for 234 seats in the state on Tuesday. The AIADMK-BJP combination aims for re-election as the DMK-Congress coalition, Makkal Needhi Maiam of actor and politician Kamal Haasan and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam of TTV Dhinakaran put up a tough fight.
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On Tuesday, voting will also take place in Puducherry for 30 seats two months after the congressional government led by V Narayanasamy slipped a majority in great embarrassment to the party. Mr. Narayanasamy accused the opposition BJP and the NR Congress of overthrowing his government and also blamed former Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi for “colluding with the opposition.”
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Last month, the Madras High Court wanted to know whether Puducherry’s election could be postponed in light of allegations that the BJP had accessed and misused voters’ Aadhaar details, including phone numbers, for purposes of Bell.
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The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) informed the Madras High Court on Wednesday that no data from Aadhaar, more particularly the cell phone numbers of voters in Puducherry, has been provided to the BJP to campaign for the elections of the 6 of April.
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In Bengal, voting will take place on Tuesday for the third phase. The state has witnessed a virulent campaign in a very close election between the ruling Trinamool Congress, the BJP and the Congress-Left alliance.
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Today, Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is in Bengal to campaign for the BJP.
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Last week, Mamata Banerjee urged Congressional Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar and several other opposition leaders to unite against the BJP. The West Bengal prime minister was trapped in a voting booth for two hours in Nandigram on Thursday as unprecedented chaos unfolded on the day the second phase of voting took place.
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