POLITICS

Addressing the people outside his house in Sangrur, Mann thanked all the Punjabis, and said: "You have fulfilled your responsibility very well, now it is my turn to fulfill the responsibility." "We have good intentions and that is why the people of Punjab have trusted us. Trust me, change will be visible in a month. Now you will not have to go to the offices of government employees.

Five women were elected to the 60-member Manipur Assembly in the 2022 polls, the highest-ever in the electoral history of the state, where 10,57,336 women voters (52 per cent) outnumbered the male electorate of 9,90,833. Firebrand women leader and JD-U candidate Thounaojam Brinda, who was the Additional Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), also contested the elections from the Yaiskul constituency but came third, bagging 4,574 votes (18.93 per cent).

BJP alliance partners Apna Dal and Nishad party have outperformed the Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. As per the latest trend, both the BJP's alliance partners are together either leading or winning in 19 seats while Congress only won two and BSP is leading in one seat.

"The US approach to Iran's principled demands, coupled with its unreasonable offers and unjustified pressure to hastily reach an agreement, show that the US is not interested in a strong deal that would satisfy both parties," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani tweeted, Xinhua news agency reported.

While the major political parties in Uttar Pradesh have been facing hiccups in maintaining their performance, it is the Apna Dal, led by Union Minister Anupriya Patel, that has steadfastly maintained its success rate in elections in the past decade. The Apna Dal contested 17 seats in Uttar Pradesh, and as per the latest data issued by the Election Commission, it won 12 of them.

Addressing the boisterous party worker after landslide victory in four of the five Assembly elections, BJP National President J.P. Nadda on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has altered the culture of elections in India.

Novak, nominated by the ruling Fidesz Party, which with its ally, the Christian Democratic People's Party, holds 133 seats in the 199-member parliament, won the election in a vote of 137 to 51, and will take office on May 10, Xinhua news agency reported. The Hungarian president, whose duties are largely ceremonial, is elected by the parliament, and a candidate must receive a two-thirds majority of all incumbent members of parliament.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for its clean sweep in the Punjab Assembly elections, and assured the party of all possible help from the Centre. In a series of tweets, Modi expressed his gratitude to the voters and party workers and congratulated AAP for winning Punjab.

The biggest casualty was Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who lost Sirathu to his Samajwadi Party rival, Pallavi Patel, by a margin of 7,337 votes. Among others who lost the polls this time were Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, and Rural Development who was defeated by Samajwadi Party's Jai Prakash Anchal from Bairia constituency by 12,951 votes

The state voters have been solidly behind the BJP -- first in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, then in the 2017 Assembly elections, the 2019 parliamentary elections and now again in the 2022 Assembly polls. Despite all the votes the BJP has been able to get, it may be due to the Hindutva factor, however laced with social schemes of ration distribution during pandemic and the direct cash transfers to the farmers.