Assembly Election 2022 Highlights: BJP to enrol one lakh 'cyber yoddhas' for Uttarakhand polls

Over one lakh social media 'yoddhas' (warriors) will be enrolled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to spread the achievements of the Pushkar Singh Dhami-led Uttarakhand government and defuse the propaganda of Opposition parties in the poll-bound state, party leaders said.For this purpose, the BJP has launched a campaign to enrol volunteers, and made an appeal to the youth to join the campaign to become a cyber 'yoddha'.

Pratapsingh Rane to be Congress candidate for the forthcoming election to the Legislative Assembly of Goa from 18- Poriem constituency.

Out of the 1,722 polling stations in Goa for the 2022 state assembly polls, 100 will have only women as staff, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said here on Wednesday, adding that the decision to have women on some polling booths was taken in order to boost their participation in the electoral process. Chandra also said that the objective of the Commission is to ensure maximum participation of new voters.

Political parties will now have to specify the reason for fielding a candidate with a criminal background for the 2022 state Assembly polls, Chief Election Commission Sushil Chandra said on Wednesday.

Congress campaign head for poll-bound Uttarakhand Harish Rawat on Wednesday alleged non-cooperation from his party organisation and said he feels like calling it quits. In a tweet in Hindi, Rawat said, "Isn't it strange that the organisational structure at most places, instead of extending a helping hand, is standing with its head turned away or playing a negative role at a time when I have to swim across the ocean of elections."

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple and their daughter have tested Covid positive. Both of them have mild symptoms and are under home isolation in Lucknow. Sources told India TV that samples have been sent for genome sequencing to ascertain whether they have been infected by the Omicron variant of the virus. Notably, Akhilesh Yadav has not taken any dose of Covid vaccine so far.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra on Wednesday warned against hate speeches in the run-up to the 2022 state Assembly polls in Goa, adding that social media feeds would be regularly monitored to track hate speeches and action would be taken in such cases.

UP CM Yogi Adityanath holds roadshow in Sonbhadra 

Today, inauguration and foundation stone laying of projects worth Rs 77 Crores was done here. All these projects will be the foundation of our development in the times to come. These will benefit not only Ghansali but also the adjoining areas: Uttarakhand CM PS Dhami in Ghansali

Uttarakhand CM PS Dhami today inspected Doon Medical College, Dehradun. He inspected ongoing construction works & interacted with patients admitted here. On doctors' advice,x-ray of his injured hand was done & it was put on a cast. He injured his hand during a cricket match y'day

When Covid came, there was no proper availability of PPE kits, sanitizers but now our country is manufacturing them and supplying them to other countries also. Our scientists made vaccines in India and now those vaccines are saving lives: UP CM Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday recalled the iconic dialogue from Bollywood movie 'Deewar' to counter critics that her party had lost base in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, saying, "Mere Paas Behen Hai" (I have sister). In a video clip uploaded by the Congress general secretary on her twitter handle, a journalist is seen seeking her response to the rival parties' remarks that the Congress had been speaking about women in its rallies as it had no base left in Uttar Pradesh. To this, she asks the journalist whether he has heard the dialogue from Deewar in which Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor played brothers.

Political parties will have to publish the criminal antecedents of their candidates in newspapers, television channels and on their websites, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Wednesday, while assuring that systems are in place to ensure free and fair elections for the Goa Legislative Assembly. "Political parties will also have to give a reason why they have chosen him/her and why they could not find a clean candidate," Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said. The ECI's team is in Goa to review preparations for the forthcoming Legislative Assembly polls. Chandra said the ECI has introduced a facility to allow people of more than 80 years of age to vote from home.

Senior Congress leader Harish Rawat has expressed unhappiness over the functioning of the party leadership. He said that the party is not extending the hand of cooperation, instead it is turning its back.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Thursday to lay the foundation stone of Banas Dairy Kashi Sankul at Karkhiyaon. The Prime Minister was earlier in Varanasi on December 13 to unveil the Kashi Vishwanath Dham Corridor project. According to government spokesperson, the objective of this project is to empower farmers and milk producers of Purvanchal region and provide good quality products at affordable prices. Modi will also digitally transfer Rs 35.19 crore to bank accounts of around 1,75,000 milk farmers as year-end dividend for 2020-21.

Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has accused Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal of colluding with the Akali Dal to run liquor mafia in Delhi.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a lookout circular against Shiromani Akali Dal leader and NDPS-accused Bikram Singh Majithia to prevent him from fleeing abroad.

Joining the race for Rath Yatras in Uttar Pradesh, the Aam Aadmi Party will be taking out five rath yatras in January in an effort to reach out to people with its agenda for the state. The yatras will be led by party MP and state in-charge Sanjay Singh. According to UP state president for AAP, Sabhajeet Singh, the yatras will start right after the January 2 mega rally which will be held in Lucknow and will be addressed by AAP national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. This rally will officially kick off the party's campaign for the 2022 Assembly polls.

Delhi CM and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, in Panaji, said that Trinamool Congress is not in the electoral race in Goa. "You might give a lot of importance to TMC but I don't think it stands anywhere in the race," he said.

When the 2017 Assembly elections were held in Goa, the Congress had put up a good show by emerging as the single largest party with 17 seats in the 40-member House, but it failed to form government and could also not keep its flock together, with its strength now reduced to just two. However, the party is still trying to put up a strong face ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year, saying it is not deterred by the desertions. 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a swipe at the BJP over the Uttar Pradesh government's move to introduce ‘happiness curriculum’ in primary schools, saying the Yogi Adityanath dispensation is copying the AAP government. Preparations are underway to implement ‘happiness curriculum’ in primary schools of Uttar Pradesh, on the lines of Chhattisgarh and Delhi, under a pilot project aimed at making students more sensitive towards nature, society and the country. The course is being developed keeping in mind the geographical and cultural conditions of Uttar Pradesh, state in-charge (happiness curriculum) Saurabh Malviya told PTI on Sunday. The happiness curriculum will be introduced for the students of classes 1 to 8 as it will enable them to connect with themselves, family, society, nature and the country, Malviya said, adding that children will be taught meditation as well.

Uttrakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami & BJP Yuva Morcha national president & MP Tejasvi Surya held a roadshow with BJP Yuva Morcha workers in Srinagar, Pauri Garhwal district, on Tuesday.

The Uttar Pradesh BJP will launch its Jan Vishwas Yatras from six places -- Bijnor, Mathura, Jhansi, Ambedkar Nagar, Ballia and Ghazipur -- on Sunday. State party President Swatantra Dev Singh said that BJP National President J.P. Nadda will launch the yatra from Ambedkar Nagar, the birthplace of Hindu king Maharaja Suheldev Rajbhar and Ram Manohar Lohia who initiated the Ramayana mela. BJP's Uttar Pradesh election in charge, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Kaushal Kishore, will be present at the function and the yatra will end at Kakori. The second yatra, which will start from Mathura and launched by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, will end at Bareilly. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will launch the yatra from Bijnor's Vidur Kuti. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Union Minister Sanjiv Baliyan will also be present.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) will field a maximum number of Brahmin candidates in the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Senior Samajwadi leader and former Speaker, Mata Prasad Pandey, said that SP president Akhilesh Yadav would field maximum Brahmin candidates, particularly in eastern UP, to ensure return to power. Pandey was speaking at a Brahmin summit organised by the party in Katheri constituency in Ambedkar Nagar on Sunday.

With an objective to increase the party's presence in villages, the BJP Kisan Morcha will appoint office bearers at gram panchayat level. The party has planned to appoint two or three members at each gram panchayat. The decision came during the BJP Kisan Morcha national executive meeting held on Sunday in Gurugram.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address convocation ceremony of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur on 28th December 

About 70 BJP heavyweights including union ministers, chief ministers and senior leaders will participate in the party's 'Vijay Sankalp Yatra' in Uttarakhand. The prominent names are Union Home minister Amit Shah, Chief Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar and Jairam Thakur. As per the plan, one senior BJP leader will be part of the yatra in one assembly constituency before it ends on January 5 next year. BJP chief J.P. Nadda and Union Minister Anurag Thakur have already participated in the Yatra.

Ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls, senior Congress leader and MLA Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi on Tuesday joined the BJP. Before joining the BJP here, Sodhi resigned from all the posts and primary membership of the Congress. He joined the saffron party in the presence of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Som Prakash. BJP national general secretary and Punjab in-charge Dushyant Gautam, Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Sanjay mayukh were also present on the occasion.

While Western nations were crumbling amid the COVID-19 outbreak, India has stood strong due to the mega vaccination drive undertaken by the Narendra Modi government, BJP national president JP Nadda said in Panaji on Tuesday. Addressing a public meeting in Shiroda in South Goa, he said countries like USA, UK, Germany and France were still fighting the COVID-19 onslaught, whereas India was the only country that had, so far, administered 136 crore vaccine doses against the infection.

On Wednesday, BJP president JP Nadda will hold a meeting at the party's office in Mapusa in North Goa. On Tuesday, the day Nadda arrived here, he addressed a rally in Quepem.

BJP chief JP Nadda will release a report card of ten years of BJP government in Goa and flag off of a 'Sankalp' rath near BJP's head office in Panaji. Assembly elections are due in Goa in February next year.