Lok Sabha

Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua won many hearts when he won the Lok Sabha by-elections from Azamgarh on Sunday. "When he came, we thought he would be like other stars, but within no time he endeared himself to the party workers, and then the voters. He never threw any tantrums, and became one of us. This made every party worker work overtime to ensure his success in the elections," says Ram Prakash Yadav, a local BJP leader.

The counting of ballots will take place on June 26. A total of 15,69,240 voters will be exercising their franchise at 1,766 polling booths of which 296 are vulnerable. The bypoll for AAP-stronghold Sangrur was necessitated following the resignation of Bhagwant Mann, who won the Assembly election in February from Dhuri constituency, and became the Chief Minister.

A few days after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that he had lobbied for Sachin Pilot as Union Minister in UPA-2, the latter on Wednesday said that he had ensured a ticket for his son Vaibhav Gehlot in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections."The high command was not very much in favor of this ticket, because a single name had come from Jodhpur, whose father was the sitting Chief Minister, so at that time I advocated Vaibhav's case.

After the poll loss, Congress general secretary in charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has met the party leaders for three days in a row to devise strategy to revive the party in Uttar Pradesh ahead of Lok Sabha polls. The Congress could manage only over 2 per cent votes and two seats in the Uttar Pradesh polls and the task ahead is tough so Priyanka Gandhi has tried to prepare a blue print for it, sources said.