Assembly Elections highlights: UP CM Yogi Adityanath defends IT raids on Akhilesh's aides

Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday lashed out at Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav while lauding Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for taking actions against criminals and mafias in the state. The minister flagged off the 'Jan Vishwas Yatra' from Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur today. Addressing the yatra, Irani said, "SP chief Akhilesh Yadav was not hurt when farmers were troubled, mafia were looting poor people, women were sexually assaulted. He was hurt when Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ran a bulldozer over criminals and mafias in the state."

Promises made by the BJP prior to the formation of the government in 2017 have been fulfilled since we consider service to people as the real “Ram Rajya”, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday. He said the BJP's non-appeasement policy was the reason behind the "tremendous development" of every section of the society in the last four-and-a-half years. “The act of providing free housing, toilets and insurance cover up to Rs 5 lakh to the poor is the real Ram Rajya,” Adityanath said prior to flagging off the 'Jan Vishwas Yatra' from Mathura.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal will be on a two-day visit to Goa ahead of assembly polls in the state. He will land at Dabolim Airport on December 21 and will address a public meeting at Bandodkar Ground in Panaji at 5 pm. Kejriwal will also hold a press conference at Cidade, Goa at 5 pm on December 22. Goa assembly polls are scheduled to take place in early 2022. 

BJP president JP Nadda on Sunday said the Samajwadi Party (SP) stood for "corruption, injustice, atrocities and misconduct". He said the Akhilesh Yadav-led party, like several other political parties across the country, was marred by nepotism and dynastic politics and only the BJP catered to all sections of the people.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of getting his telephones tapped and listening to the conversation every evening. Yadav made the allegation while dubbing Adityanath as the most “anupyogi’ (useless) chief minister and seeking to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll formula “UP+Yogi=Upyogi”, aimed at asserting the utility of the Adityanath government for UP's growth.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that Goa would have been liberated from the Portuguese rule much earlier had the country's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel lived for some more time. He also said that although India got independence much before Goa became free, people of the country could not enjoy at that time as they felt uneasy thinking that one part was the country was still under foreign rule. Modi was speaking at an event to celebrate the Goa Liberation Day, observed on December 19 every year to mark the day Indian armed forces freed the coastal state from the Portuguese rule in 1961.

Sporadic incidents of violence including hurling of bombs at two booths marred an otherwise humdrum polling to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) where a 52.17 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 3 pm Sunday. Two incidents of hurling of crude bombs were reported in Kolkata's Sealdah and Khanna areas. Police contingents were rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control. 

Goa is top in good governance, per capita income, and many others. I want to congratulate Goa for completing cent percent coverage of 1st dose to all its eligible population. Today I can say that Pramod Sawant Ji is working with a big vision for the development of Goa: PM Modi

We don't do politics by lying to the public. We do whatever we say. After Independence, many leaders made many promises to the public but did those leaders fulfill their promises? Perhaps India would've become the most powerful country in the world today: Defence Min Rajnath Singh in Jhansi

With assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand drawing closer, over 150 senior BJP leaders from Delhi are traversing through the two states to work for the victory of the party.

More than 100 senior leaders and functionaries have been deployed to work as district in-charges in 44 assembly segments in Western Uttar Pradesh to coordinate and streamline campaigning and booth management, BJP leaders said.

While the polling for Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections on Sunday is underway, the BJP has alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) was 'misusing' every agency from the State Election Commission to police and civil administration to remain relevant in the polls.

A voter turnout of 10.86 per cent was recorded in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections till 9 AM on a chilly Sunday morning. A senior official of the State Election Commission told PTI that the polling process has been "absolutely peaceful" and no untoward incident has been reported from any of the 144 wards of the KMC.

Voting began at 7 AM in 4,949 polling centres with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols amid tight security, and it will continue till 5 PM, he said.

The Punjab government was "bent on using ad-hoc appointees in the police administration to target" the SAD, the opposition party alleged on Saturday and urged the Election Commission to restrain the Congress dispensation from indulging in "political vendetta" in the run-up to next year's Assembly polls.

Shiromani Akali Dal's vice president Daljit Singh Cheema demanded that a regular police chief be appointed in the state.

Members of the Kayastha community held a 'mahasammelan' in Lucknow on Saturday, in which they expressed concerns over their low representation in politics and decided to oppose parties that don't field members from the community in next year's Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Member present at the conference decided to stake claim on the Kayastha-dominated seats in the state, and said they will vote for the party which fields candidates from the caste, according to a statement issued.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee wished people of the poll-bound Goa on the occasion of the state's Liberation Day on Sunday. Goa was liberated from 450-year Portuguese rule on December 19, 1961.

Polling was underway on Sunday at more than 23,000 booths for elections to 8,690 village panchayats in Gujarat, with tight security arrangements and COVID-19 protocols in place, officials said. The polls are being seen as a major test for political parties ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections due in December next year.

The Uttarakhand Congress will launch a ‘Yatra’ to honour soldiers killed in the line of duty including Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat. The party said that it will now hold ‘Veergram Parivartan Yatra’ from Sunday (December 19). According to former state chief minister Harish Rawat, the three-day yatra will commence from the village of General Bipin Rawat, who recently died in an IAF helicopter crash.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will kick off its 'Jan Vishwas Yatra' from six places in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Goa today (Sunday) to attend Goa Liberation Day celebrations at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Goa's Taleigao at around 3 pm. PM Modi will felicitate freedom fighters and veterans of 'Operation Vijay', undertaken by the Indian armed forces to liberate Goa from Portuguese rule.