Lok Sabha Election 2024: Congress candidate Rohan Gupta backs out from Ahmedabad East constituency

Congress candidate Rohan Gupta said he would not contest from the Ahmedabad (east) constituency due to some medical emergency.

"As per my political experience, after PM Modi takes the oath as PM, the Congress will split on a national level. That will also affect in Karnataka, that's why the govt in Karnataka will not stay for long, and the Congress will split at the state level also," former CM Basavaraj Bommai said.

Central forces conducted a flag march in Sukant Nagar of Kolkata, West Bengal ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar arrives in Delhi

"PMK decided to ally with the BJP. Regarding constituencies and candidates, PMK founder Ramadoss will make an announcement the day after tomorrow," said PMK General Secretary Vadivel Ravanan.

Bihar Minister and JD(U) leader Ashok Choudhary his party was expecting 16 seats. His comment comes hours after NDA announced seat-sharing in Bihar.

"We had expected this, of getting 16 seats. This must have happened with the consent of leaders," he said.

LJP (Ram Vilas Paswan) leader Chirag Paswan thanked PM Modi after his party got 5 seats in seat-sharing deal with NDA partners.

"I would like to thank PM Modi for the way he kept the respect of our party. Thanks to all the friends in the NDA, the easiness with which the seat-sharing has been done and the sacrifices every party has made to strengthen the alliance is commendable. We will together work to achieve the vision of PM Modi to win all 40 seats. LJP will contest in Jamui, Hajipur, Khagaria, Samastipur and Vaishali... When my father (Ram Vilas Paswan) passed away, the responsibility was on my uncle (Pashupati Kumar Paras) to hold the party and family together, and my father wherever he is today must have been sad to see that the party and the symbol that he had chosen is still under freeze," he said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party to contest 17 seats including Paschim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Aurangabad, Madhubani, Araria, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Maharajganj, Saran, Ujiarpur, Begusarai, Nawada, Patna Sahib, Pataliputra, Arrah, Buxar and Sasaram.

The Janata Dal-United will contest 16 seats including Valmiki Nagar, Sitamarhi, Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia, Madhepura, Gopalganj, Siwan, Bhagalpur, Banka, Munger, Nalanda, Jahanabad and Sheohar.

BJP will contest on 17 seats, JDU on 16 seats, LJP (Ram Vilas) on 5 seats, Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Morcha on one seat each, said BJP leader Vinod Tawde on Monday.

RJD MLA Lovely Anand, wife of don-turned-politician Anand Mohan, joined JD-U in Bihar,

Bihar BJP leaders held a press conference to announce the seat-sharing formula.

BSP MP Sangeeta Azad, party leader Azad Ari Mardan and Supreme Court lawyer Seema Samridhi (Kushwaha) join the BJP, in Delhi.

"Congress divided the country on the basis of caste," said PM Modi while addressing a rally at Karnataka's Shivamogga district. 

Election Commission removes the Director General of Police (DGP) of West Bengal ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2024. 

Assam opposition parties Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC) have alleged that the state's BJP-led government has violated the election model code of conduct (MCC) by failing to remove official advertisements featuring the prime minister and chief minister. State Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah and TMC state chief Ripun Bora have separately written to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar expressing their concerns. While the Congress lodged its complaint on Sunday, the TMC sent the letter on Monday. Borah emphasised that the presence of advertisements with the photographs of the PM, CM and others constitute a "gross violation" of the MCC and urged the CEC to take immediate action.

The Election Commission has launched a special campaign in Himachal Pradesh to maximise voter turnout in 414 polling stations which registered less than 60 per cent voting in the last Lok Sabha polls. Bypolls to six assembly seats that fell vacant after disqualification of Congress MLAs would be held simultaneously with four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh in the last phase on June 1. The main focus of the campaign -- "Mission 414" -- is increasing the vote percentage in 414 identified polling stations which registered less than 60 per cent voting in the last Lok Sabha polls, Chief Electoral Officer, Himachal Pradesh, Maneesh Garg told the media. 

Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president and UP minister OP Rajbhar along with his son, Arvind Rajbhar, met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today. Notably, Arvind is an NDA candidate from the Ghosi constituency for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. 

SBSP chief OP Rajbhar, his son Arvind Rajbhar meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath

One of the most high-profile constituencies in this Lok Sabha election is Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Three-time MP from the constituency Shashi Tharoor of the Congress is up against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar of the BJP and a strong left candidate in Pannyan Raveendran a former MP. Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency comprises six Assembly segments: Nemom, Kovalam, Neyyattinkara, Parassala, Vattiyoorkav, and Kazhakkoottam. Being the state with the highest literacy rate in the country, Kerala holds 20 Lok Sabha seats.

Stepping up its attack on the Centre over the electoral bonds issue, the Congress on Monday accused the Modi government of "hafta vasuli" (extortion) and claimed that a total of 21 firms which have faced investigations from the CBI, ED, or IT, have donated through electoral bonds. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that with each passing day, more examples emerge on the true depths of the "electoral bond scam". "Today, we zoom in on the 'Pradhan Mantri Hafta Vasuli Yojana', the second of the four channels of corruption in the Electoral Bond Scam: 1.Chanda Do, Dhandha Lo 2.Hafta Vasuli," Ramesh said in a post on X.

Coming out in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charge at the Congress that it "uses and throws the people of an alliance", Janata Dal (United) leader Neeraj Kumar on Sunday said it was only natural of all partners in the Opposition bloc--INDIA--to hold divergent views on different issues while having their own vote banks, policies and principles. "The INDIA bloc was founded despite clear differences and ideological positions between these parties and the Congress. The differences were inevitable as the partners in the alliance have their own positions and principles and cater to their individual vote banks," Kumar told ANI.

RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Rohini Acharya is set to make her poll debut as she will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Saran Lok Sabha constituency, said sources. Party leaders have also hinted at this development through social media channels. Members of the Lalu family have been contesting elections from the Saran seat for a long time.

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Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha said the great festival of democracy has started, and that those who talk about caste and religion do not have faith in democracy. "Such people are not well-wishers of democracy and they are not eligible for any," he added. 

Ahead of his visit to south Indian states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there is an exceptional fervour in the NDA’s favour. "I will be addressing rallies in Jagtial and Shivamogga today. Later in the evening, will join the roadshow in Coimbatore. Be it Telangana, Karnataka or Tamil Nadu, there is exceptional fervour in the NDA’s favour," he wrote on X. 

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he was mocked for his 2019 Assembly poll campaign punchline "I will be back" but asserted he returned to power after breaking two parties, a reference to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar's NCP. The Shiv Sena split in June 2022 after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde rebelled, while the Nationalist Congress Party broke into two factions in July last year after Ajit Pawar joined the ruling alliance in the state.

The BJP which had won all five seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the Kalyana Karnataka region, comprising seven districts, may not find it a cakewalk in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, given the rise of the Congress in the 2023 assembly election. The Kalyana Karnataka region or erstwhile Hyderabad Karnataka region has five Lok Sabha seats – Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bellary and Koppal. The BJP has once again fielded Umesh Jadhav from Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) and Bhagwant Khuba. This time it has also fielded former Karnataka minister B Sriramulu from Bellary and Dr Basavaraj Kyavator from Koppal. The party has not yet announced its candidate from Raichur.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will discuss the party's manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections at its meeting tomorrow and give the final shape to it. The Congress' Central Election Committee (CEC) chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge is also likely to meet on March 19 to 20 to finalise the remaining candidates of the party for the seven-phase polls beginning April 19. AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the CWC, its top decision-making body, would meet on March 19 and give its nod to the draft manifesto which carries the five 'guarantees' for justice.

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari said that the people in the state were looking at his party with hopes ahead of the Lok Sabha polls as none of the “Modi ki Guarantee” has been fulfilled since 2014. “People in MP are disappointed and feeling dejected as promises and ‘Modi ki Guarantee’ have not been kept. They are looking at Congress with hopes,” the Congress leader told reporters. The polls in MP will be held in four phases – April 19, April 26, May 7 and May 13.

Assam's Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency will have more than 100 all-women polling stations during the upcoming general elections, a senior official said. Addressing a press conference, Guwahati's Returning Officer Sumit Sattawan said the constituency has more women voters than men, and the figure is likely to go up in the coming days. The Guwahati constituency, which will vote in the third phase on May 7, has 2,181 polling booths, spread across Kamrup Metropolitan, Kamrup and Goalpara districts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the states of Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in a mega South push.

Here's PM Modi's schedule: 

11:30 am: The Prime Minister is scheduled to address a public meeting at Telangana’s Jagtial.
3:15 pm: PM Modi will visit Karnataka’s Shivamogga, where he is also set to also hold a public meeting.
4:45 pm: The Prime Minister will visit Tamil Nadu. He will be holding a road show in Coimbatore.