Elections

The BJP's triumph extends to Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where resounding mandates have bolstered its presence. Conversely, the Congress, despite clinching victory in Telangana, finds itself reigning in merely three states, alongside Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.

Addressing the annual Vijayadashami celebrations at the sprawling Reshimbagh ground in Maharashtra's Nagpur, Bhagwat was all praise for successfully hosting the prestigious G20 Summit in India and for extending the Indian hospitality to the participant countries. "The guests in India enjoyed the Indian traditions and culture and warm receptions to them," he said.

In Mizoram, voting will take place on November 7, while Madhya Pradesh will go to the polls on November 17. Rajasthan will vote on November 23 and Telangana on November 30. Chhattisgarh will vote in two phases on November 7 and 17. Counting in all five states will take place on December 3.

Political analysts believe that the Samajwadi Party (SP) will participate in the assembly elections in other states also to achieve national recognition. SP is also intensively preparing for assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, in addition to Uttar Pradesh.

Polling for the by-election took place on Tuesday. The BJP has fielded Dara Singh Chauhan, while the SP candidate is Sudhakar Singh. The counting of votes will take place in 32 rounds, said election officials. The entire process involving 19 teams will take place under surveillance of CCTV cameras. 

BJP finished a distant second in all the three tiers -- zilla parishad, panchayat samiti and gram panchayat. However, what will worry the saffron camp is the massive decline in its vote share as compared to the 2021 Assembly elections.

According to sources, Ajit Pawar, who split the NCP and took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in BJP-Eknath Shinde government, has approached the poll panel. The source said that EC is in receipt of a petition under para 15 of the Symbols Order, 1968 by Ajit Pawar on June 30 followed by 40 odd affidavits of MPs/MLAs/MLCs dated 30th June (received in Commission on 5th July) and a resolution dated NIL unanimously electing Ajit Pawar as the President of NCP.

The elections will be held in the states of Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal. In a statement, the poll panel said that 10 members from Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal are scheduled to retire in the months of July and August. The 10 seats which are to be vacated in Rajya Sabha due to the retirement of members include Derek O’Brien from West Bengal and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar from Gujarat.

These 315 companies, which will start getting deployed from Friday only, will be in addition to the 22 companies whose deployment has already been cleared. The Union home minister has sent a communication to the West Bengal State Election Commission on this count.

"I appointed the State Election Commissioner. I had faith in him that he will ensure free and fair polls. But I feel that the common people are disappointed. There has been so much bloodshed," the Governor said while speaking to mediapersons here. The Governor's remarks came after the division bench of Calcutta High Court's Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam on Wednesday advised Sinha to step down from his chair if he is unable to perform his duty.