Elections

This was revealed by an IANS analysis of ABP-CVoter Exit Poll for the Assembly elections held in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, with the findings showing BJP retaining power in both the states. In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress put up a spirited challenge while it was a lacklustre show in Gujarat for the Grand Old Party.

In a tweet, Arvind Kejriwal said, "Vote for honest party, vote for decent and good people. Do not vote for those who abuse corruption, hooliganism. Do not vote for those who litter Delhi. Vote for those who will make Delhi shine and clean.Vote for those who work, don't vote for those who stop working".

While the Aam Aadmi Party is looking to gain greater control over the national capital with the civic body polls, the BJP has put in all efforts to continue its reign. Voting started at 8 a.m. and as per the state election commission, polling station gates will be shut at 5.30 p.m., after which only those already inside can vote.

The campaign revolves around emotional bonds, betrayal and promises instead of political and social issues that should have been dominating the elections. In the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav is invoking memories of her father-in-law Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose demise necessitated the bypoll.

A report by Association of Democratic Reforms on Saturday disclosed that out of 1,336 candidates analyzed, 139 (10 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In 2017 MCD elections, out of 2315 candidates analysed, 173 (7 per cent) had declared criminal cases against themselves. In these MCD polls, 76 (6 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves while in 2017 MCD elections, 116 (5 per cent) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

The total number of MCD wards has been reduced from 272 to 250 this year, with 42 seats reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates. Three major parties -- the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Congress -- will go up against each other in the upcoming civic elections.

The contest in Mainpuri, considered to be an SP bastion, is between Mulayam Singh's daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav and the BJP's Raghunath Shakya. Mulayam Singh had first contested from Mainpuri seat in 1996 and won. Since then, the seat has remained with the SP. According to the political pundits, the elections of Mainpuri were fought on the basis of caste only. This is reason why apart from the issues or wave in the byelection, both SP and BJP are eyeing the caste equations.

However, the issues of sanitation and primary education that come under the Municipal Corporation have surfaced at regular intervals before the civic elections as despite a sizable amount sanctioned for these sectors in the financial year 2022-23, the situation on the ground has remained the same for years. The allocation for sanitation stands at Rs 4,153.28 crore which is 27.19 per cent of the total budget, while Rs 2,632.78 crore was sanctioned for education in the Financial Year 2022-2023.

K.T. Rama Rao said people of Munugode have given befitting reply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who out of their "arrogance" imposed a by-election. Rama Rao was addressing a news conference after the TRS won the bitterly contested by-election, defeating BJP by a margin of over 10,000 votes. The TRS leader said though Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy was the face of BJP, it was Amit Shah and Narendra Modi who were running the show from behind.

While the BJP bagged four seats, the RJD, TRS, and Udhhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena faction won one seat each. BJP retained Uttar Pradesh's Gola Gokarannath seat, Bihar's Gopalganj and Odisha's Dhamnagar seats. It also added Haryana's Adampur seat to its tally, which it wrested from the Congress. Congress also lost Telangana's Munugode seat to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).