Election updates LIVE: distribution of seats by state
Amid an exodus of leaders from Trinamool Congress to the BJP, the party once again suffered a major setback on Wednesday ahead of the Assembly elections as State Minister Bachchu Hansda and TMC MLA Gouri Sankar Dutta, who did not receive a ticket. To compete in the next Assembly Polls, he joined the BJP. In other news related to state polls, TMC Director Mamata Banerjee, who published the TMC manifesto on Tuesday, presented her nomination from the Nandigram assembly seat on Wednesday.
In Tamil Nadu, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam of TTV Dhinakaran published her first list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections on Wednesday. In Kerala, the CPM also published its list, which includes Health Minister KK Shailaja, former Rajya Sabha ex-excise minister P Rajeev, TP Ramakrishnan, among others. On Tuesday, the DMDK abandoned the NDA alliance for the upcoming Tamil Nadu polls as it failed to reach an agreement on seat sharing with the ruling AIADMK. Party leader Vijayakant said that despite several rounds of talks, the ruling party did not agree to his demand to share seats. The two parties could not reach an agreement as the DMDK had been demanding more seats than was offered by the ruling party.
Upon arrival in Assam, the passing of Gogoi Senior has left the Congress without a main ministerial face, and the void is most evident in this constituency of Upper Assam, which votes on March 27, in the first phase of the elections.
Meanwhile, in Kerala, implementing its two-term limit policy for the first time, the ruling CPM released its list for the Kerala elections and benched 33 of its members in session on Wednesday. While six ministers have been re-elected, along with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, among the five tickets denied was Finance Minister Thomas Isaac.
In Tamil Nadu, which is at the polls, All India ruler Anna David Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) published her second list of candidates for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections on Wednesday. Including the first list that was published a couple of days ago, up to 27 former ministers have been renamed.
The party will contest its ‘Two Leaf’ symbol in 177 constituencies across the state and nine in Chennai.
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