Election updates LIVE: distribution of seats by state
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari presented his nomination from the Nandigram Assembly constituency against his mentor-turned-opponent, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, on Friday, saying he was “100 percent” sure of his victory. Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani also participated in the rally before Adhikari presented the nomination documents. “I am 100 percent sure of my victory in Nandigram. The people of the area are with me. I am the son of the earth,” he told reporters.
Two days after CM Mamata Banerjee suffered an injury in Nandigram, the delegation of six deputies from the Trinamool Congress in a formal complaint to the Electoral Commission alleged a “deep-rooted conspiracy by the BJP” behind the attack and called for an immediate investigation “and impartial “of the same. . The delegation includes TMC MPs Dereck O’Brien, Saugata Roy, Satabdi Roy, Kakoli G. Dastidar, Pratima Mondal and Santunu Sen.
The BJP’s West Bengal campaign is made up of many parts. A crucial one is the little-known Shiv Prakash, an RSS pracharak delegated to the party in 2014 shortly after overseeing its sweep of western Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. With former ABVP leader Arvind Menon, Prakash has set the framework for the BJP in the state, working behind the scenes.
In December, BJP President JP Nadda asked Prakash, 53, to move his headquarters from Delhi and pay “special attention” to Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, as well as West Bengal. However, in the high-stakes battle for Bengal, he has been stationed virtually permanently in Bengal. “After coming to the BJP, I have spent more than 60% of the time in the state,” Prakash told The Indian Express.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second-largest party in the Congress-led UDF, announced on Friday candidates for 25 seats in the Assembly, introducing a woman after more than two decades.
The account of the party in the alliance, meanwhile, rises to 27, from 24 in the last elections, after the exit of the Kerala Congress (M) and Loktantrik Janata Dal from the UDF. Candidates for two seats (Chadayamangalam and Punalur) would be announced later.
Congress, which is contesting at least 90 seats, has yet to announce its list of candidates.
The chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, participates in the Assembly elections at the head of a government that has stood firm even as the state fought against controversial issues such as the preparation of the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship (Amendment) Law. He spoke with The Indian Express on Thursday night at his official residence in Guwahati on a wide range of issues related to his government and the elections. Excerpts:
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