Priyanka unleashes charm offensive; Pawan Kalyan to contest from 2 seats

As India inches closer to the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP and its opponents made a barrage of claims and counter claims on Tuesday in a bid to set the election agenda across states.
Here’s a look at the main poll activities from various states across the nation:

Karnataka

Worried over growing discontent among party workers in Karnataka, coalition partners JD(S) and Congress on March 19 tried to calm things down by holding a joint press conference to boost the morale of their party cadres.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that they will release the list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in a day or two and ensured to resolve even the smallest of differences, internally. Both the JD(S) and the Congress will hold a joint public rally in the state on March 31 with top leaders from both the parties attending the mega event.

In Bengaluru, city police commissioner T Suneel Kumar maintained that IT workers were not arrested but taken in for questioning at the Congress event in Bengaluru on March 18, but BJP leadership cried foul on social media. BJP alleged that IT workers were “arrested” for raising pro-Modi slogans when Congress president Rahul Gandhi was interacting with startup entrepreneurs in Bengaluru. Kumar said, the workers were let-off the same day after warning.

Andhra Pradesh

Actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan will contest from two seats — Bhimavaram in West Godavari district and Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam district — in the April 11 Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.

His five-year-old Jana Sena Party is contesting both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections for the first time. In the 2014 elections, his party had supported the Telugu Desam Party-BJP combine, with the popular actor then claiming that he was an ardent fan of Narendra Modi. However, he has since turned critical of both the parties for failing to get special category status for AP.

The decision to field Pawan from the two constituencies in the coastal region, considered safe bets in view of the caste equations, was taken at a general body meeting of the Jana Sena Party on March 19.

Tamil Nadu

The election manifestos of both the AIADMK and DMK were released on March 19. Both manifestos had some promises in common for the state of Tamil Nadu ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The state goes to polls on 18 April.

Uttar Pradesh

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had her first face-off with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on March 19 when she junked his report card that claimed the “state has become a better place” under BJP government.

Priyanka, who is on a three-day boat-ride from Prayagraj to Varanasi to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, visited the Vindhyavasini Devi temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur as part of her ‘Ganga Yatra’. Some sections of the media reported that while she was offering prayers at Vindhyavasini Devi temple, a group of men and women started chanting ‘Modi, Modi’ outside the temple. She also visited the Dargah of Khwaja Janab Ismail Chisti.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari set tongues wagging with his remark that “one look at Priyanka reminds us of Indira Gandhi who always wore a rudraksh mala”.
Tiwari was reacting to a petition by a group of lawyers against Priyanka’s visit to Kashi Vishwanath. On March 18, the lawyers had petitioned the district magistrate that Priyanka should not be allowed to enter the Kashi Vishwanath temple because she was “a Christian”,

Dismissing the allegation, Tiwari said that Priyanka was a “devout Hindu” which is why she was seeking blessings of Hindu gods.

In another bizarre remark, UP BJP MLA Surendra Narayan Singh took political rhetoric to a new low and said the BSP chief Maywati has no right to comment on anyone’s tastes as she herself does “facial” and “colours her hair”. He was responding to Mayawati’s barbs at Modi. Without naming the PM, she had said that he who lived a life like the royalty declared himself to be a ‘chaiwala’ in the last elections is now calling himself a ‘chowkidar’.

Arunachal Pradesh

If Priyanka was busy touring Uttar Pradesh, her brother and Congress president Rahul Gandhi kicked off the party’s campaign from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura. Addressing a rally in Itanagar, the Congress chief promised to restore the special category status to Arunachal Pradesh and other states in the Northeast if elected to power.

“Arunachal Pradesh has a special place in the heart of the Congress party and we would like to have a ‘dil ka rishta’ with the people of the state,” he said. Gandhi said the Congress will not allow the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to be passed in Rajya Sabha because the bill is “detrimental” to the people of the Northeast. Arunachal will have simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls on April 11.

Delhi

While all eyes are on the AAP and the Congress — whether or not the two will go for an alliance in Delhi for next month’s election — NCP chief Sharad Pawar has offered to be a mediator. Following Pawar’s intervention, Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit reportedly met her party colleagues to reconsider a tie-up with AAP. According to party sources, the final decision been left with Rahul Gandhi.

Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora along with Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Ashok Lavasa met representatives from various social media platforms to discuss issues related to social media content, post implementation of Model Code of Conduct, according to news agency. Social media is expected to play a key role in this elections with campaigns like “Main Bhi Chowkidar” already going viral.  Speaking at a media briefing about the campaign, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said ‘Main Bhi Chowidar’ has become a people’s movement.

“Around 20 lakh people retweeted, 1,680 crore impressions, and 1 crore people have taken a pledge that ‘main bhi chowkidar’ on NAMO app. The video was watched by 1 crore on the platform. It’s a worldwide trend. Main Bhi Chowidar has become a people’s movement. Doctors, CAs, farmers, all have taken part in it,” he told news agency.

Punjab

The 2019 Lok Sabha elections may turn out be the launch pad for sons and daughters of Congress heavyweights in Punjab. The party, which had introduced the ‘one family, one ticket’ rule in the 2017 Assembly elections in the state, is likely to overlook the norm this time. It has reportedly received over 180 applications from ticket aspirants to contest the Lok Sabha polls with children of several Cabinet ministers, former ministers, MLAs and former MLAs among those seeking tickets.

Haryana

In neighbouring Haryana, things don’t seem to be as cozy for the Congress as BJP minister Anil Vij asked Congress workers to add “pappu” as a prefix to their Twitter handles. According to Vij, “We have added #Chowkidar to our names and you have a problem with that. You should also prefix #Pappu to your names and we will have no objection,” Vij said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, the party was busy trying to unite warring factions within the state unit in the wake of differences of opinion and a brewing war between former CM Bhupinder Hooda and state Congress president Ashok Tanwar. It was reported that Hooda wanted Tanwar to be removed from the post.

On March 18, the AICC in-charge for Haryana affairs Gulam Nabi Azad re-released the list of coordination committee headed by Hooda. The party had last week made a similar announcement only to withdraw it later. The move to ask Hooda to lead the panel before the Lok Sabha polls is being seen as an attempt to give “due importance” to the two-time Haryana Chief Minister.

Madhya Pradesh

The Madhya Pradesh Congress is reportedly trying to get Bollywood star Salman Khan to campaign for it in Indore, where the actor was born and spent a part of his childhood before moving to Mumbai.

Congress leaders in the state seemed gung-ho over Salman Khan joining the election campaign for the party, which in the recent past has witnessed some unpleasant verbal exchanges between its veteran leaders.

Earlier, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath suggested that veteran leader Digvijaya Singh should look for one of the toughest seats in the state to contest the Lok Sabha polls. The senior Congress leader on March 18 responded by tweeting that he will go by the directions of party president Rahul Gandhi. “With the blessings of the people of Raghogarh, I had managed to win even during the 1977 wave of Janata Party. I am ready to contest the Lok Sabha elections from wherever my leader Rahul Gandhi asks me to,” said Digvijaya Singh. Elections in Madhya Pradesh will be held over four phases beginning April 29.