Karnataka
A government of combined opposition parties, which consider the BJP as a “common enemy”, is a “certainty” after Lok Sabha elections, senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said on Thursday (April 25). He said the Congress prospects are “looking up very well” and it’s quite evident from “desperate action, mood and statements” particularly from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “his followers”. The former Union Minister declined to say how many seats the Congress would get in the Lok Sabha elections but said the BJP-led NDA would not get majority to form the government. “Congress and ‘other people’, either pre-poll alliance or post-poll alliance, (forming government) will be a certainty,” Moily said.
Varanasi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (April 25) held a mega roadshow here, taking his parliamentary constituency, Varanasi, by storm a day ahead of filing his nomination papers. In a show strength, he was joined by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior BJP leaders. Modi started his seven-kilometer roadshow by first garlanding the statue of Banaras Hindu University founder Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. He is scheduled to perform the Ganga aarti at the Dashashwamedh Ghat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking re-election from Varanasi constituency, is set to face the heat from the agitating farmers from far-away Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Over 100 turmeric farmers from the two southern states are set to file nominations in Varanasi to highlight their set of demands including constitution of a Turmeric Board to stabilise the prices.
The farmers from Nizamabad in Telangana and Erode in Tamil Nadu have mobilised contributions from the villagers towards nomination deposit and are heading to the high-profile constituency to file their papers on April 29.
Delhi
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday (April 25) said his party would do everything to stop the Modi-Shah duo from coming to power and support any “secular mahagathbandhan” after the general election.
Addressing the media after releasing the party manifesto here, Kejriwal said the AAPs focus would be on getting full statehood for Delhi. “We will fight our battle on the issue of getting full statehood for Delhi,” he said.
Madhya Pradesh
Fatima Rasool Siddique, the BJP’s lone Muslim candidate in the last year’s Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, on Thursday (April 25) announced she will not campaign for Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, the saffron party’s Lok Sabha nominee from Bhopal. Siddique, who unsuccessfully contested Assembly polls from the Bhopal North seat in November last year, said some of the statements given by Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case of 2008, after her candidature was announced were “communal and obnoxious”.
Uttar Pradesh
The ongoing Lok Sabha election will see the end of those chanting “Namo, Namo”, BSP supremo Mayawati said on Thursday (April 25), while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav expressed confidence that the SP-BSP-RLD alliance will give a new prime minister to the country. Both the former Uttar Pradesh chief ministers were addressing a joint poll rally here, along with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president Ajit Singh, in favour of Dimple Yadav, the joint candidate of the opposition alliance from Kannauj. Dimple, the sitting Samajwadi Party (SP) MP and the wife of Akhilesh Yadav, is seeking re-election from this parliamentary seat. “This election will see the end of those chanting ‘Namo, Namo’ and pave the way for those who shout Jai Bheem. Seeing your response, it appears that you are going to ensure the victory of the alliance candidates,” Mayawati told the crowd.