POLITICS

The party activists could be seen dancing, bursting crackers and congratulating each other. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP natioanl president J. P. Nadda are likely to reach the party headquarters late in the evening and thank the people. Senior leaders of the party have been visiting the party headquarters.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami lost to Congress candidate Bhuvan Chand Kapri in Khatima constituency. Kapdi bagged 52 per cent (44,479) votes while Dhami secured 37,425 votes. In Lalkuan constituency, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat lost to BJP's Mohan Singh Bisht by 14,000 votes.

It was not just a simple victory. In fact, the AAP trounced the 2022 Assembly polls this time by winning over 90 seats in the 117-seat Punjab Assembly. It is the first time that the party has expanded its political footprint beyond Delhi. But how was a 9-year-old party able to achieve this momentous feat?

The opposition was quick to use the incident as an example of 'law-and-order' situation in the state. However, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath promptly handed over the case to the CBI and gave compensation and a job to Gupta's widow. The matter died a natural death, and Gorakhpur has now given a clean sweep to the BJP with Adityanath winning his first Assembly election with an appreciable margin.

After becoming Chief Minister in 2017, Yogi Adityanath has visited Nodia multiple times to inaugurate, lay the foundation of several development projects and administrative work. The Noida jinx was a talking point in the Uttar Pradesh power corridor after Chief Minister Veer Bahadur Singh had to step down in 1988 within a few days after his return from the city.

 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a Dalit-centric party that had a Brahmin as its most visible face in the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, has come up with its worst ever performance and not quite unexpectedly either. With Mayawati making a very restricted appearance in the election campaign, it was left to BSP MP Satish Chandra Mishra, a Brahmin, to carry the campaign on his shoulders.

An intense campaign, huge crowds, attractive slogans and charismatic leadership. Yet the Congress has hit rock bottom in Uttar Pradesh, putting a question mark on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's leadership abilities. The party is likely to end up with just two seats, compared to the seven it won in 2017. The party has faced drubbing in its one-time bastions -- Rae Bareli and Amethi -- where the party has not won even a single seat.

Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Bhagwant Mann, who on Thursday won the Dhuri seat with a margin of 58,206 votes, is set to become Punjab's next chief minister. AAP is heading to a landslide win in the 117-member legislative Assembly by leading at over 90 seats. In his first public address in his home town Sangrur after winning the seat and seeing the meteoric rise of the party, Mann promised to fix unemployment as his first task in office.

Former Goa Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar must be up there smiling at how the BJP workers strived to ensure party majority in Goa, BJP women's wing state president and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's wife Sulakshana Sawant said here on Thursday.

As per the latest Election Commission update at 1 p.m., the BJP is leading in 44 constituencies with 43.9 percent vote share while the principal opposition party Congress is leading in 23 seats with 39.3 per cent vote share. The Bahujan Samaj Party is now leading in only one seat with 4.64 per cent vote share while two independents are leading in Uttarakhand. Till 1 p.m., Dhami got 17,071 votes with 45.43 per cent vote share and is trailing against his nearest rival Bhuwan Chandra Kapri of the Congress by 2,287 votes.