Election 2022: Huge cash found in SP leaders’ houses reveals why SP, BSP opposed demonetisation: UP CM

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said the recovery of a huge amount of cash in a raid by taxation agencies has made it clear why the SP and BSP leaders were scared of the 2016 demonetisation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Adityanath made the allegation while addressing a rally at Sitapur and referring to the recovery of a huge amount of cash from the house of Kanpur businessman Piyush Jain, whom the BJP accuses of being close to Samajwadi Party, which, in turn, has been stoutly refuting the charge.

Former Mohali mayor and realtor Kulwant Singh on Monday joined the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls next year. AAP's leader Raghav Chadha and state party chief Bhagwant Mann inducted him to the party fold. Mann said Kulwant Singh's familiarity with Mohali's issues and voters will help AAP a great deal. Meanwhile, Sheetal Angural, national executive member of BJP SC Morcha, joined AAP with his associates at party headquarters here. Raghav Chadha said people are continuously joining the party and with the support of Sheetal Angural, AAP will be strengthened in Jalandhar West.

Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Monday said his party, the BJP and the SAD (Sanyukt) have come together in the interest of national security and progress of the state, and claimed that the coalition will win next year’s Assembly polls. Amarinder Singh had quit the Congress after his unceremonious exit as the CM and launched his party the Punjab Lok Congress.

The West Bengal State Election Commission on Monday announced that polls to four municipal corporations -- Siliguri, Chandannagar, Bidhannagar, Asansol -- will be held on January 22. The commission left out Howrah Municipal Corporation, amid the ongoing row between the Mamata Banerjee government and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar over a bill seeking its bifurcation. Making the announcement at his office here, State Election Commissioner Saurav Das said that nomination filing for the January 22 polls will commence on December 28

With the AAP emerging as the leading party winning 14 of 35 wards in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls, its national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said the party's victory is a sign of the ensuing change in Punjab which will go to assembly polls early next year. Congratulating his party's winning candidates and the workers, he also said the people of Chandigarh have chosen "honest politics" of the AAP, rejecting the "corrupt politics" of its rival parties.

Health Ministry and election commission officials are likely to meet again in January first week to discuss assembly polls in five states. The Election Commission on Monday assessed the COVID-19 situation in the five poll-bound states with the Union health secretary and asked the top brass of the Narcotics Control Bureau to check the influence of drugs in elections.

Today we inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of projects worth Rs 554 crores in Pratapgarh. Now Pratapgarh has its own medical college. I want to ask why earlier govt didn't build medical college here? We deliver what we promise and are doing development works. Earlier govt had no place for the poor, widows because they only did vote bank politics. They felt that by firing at 'Ram Bhakts' they would get votes, so they did that. We said, we'll build Ram mandir & we fulfilled it. This is the difference: UP CM Yogi Adityanath in Pratapgarh

Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has courted controversy over his "make a cop wet his pants" remark with two police officials strongly condemning and dubbing it as "shameful". Even Congress MP from Ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu backed the policemen and praised them for their role during militancy and COVID-19 times. The controversy erupted after Sidhu at a recent rally in Sultanpur Lodhi while pointing towards sitting MLA Navtej Singh Cheema said he can make a "thanedar(cop) wet his pants". He repeated this remark during a rally at Batala on Sunday when local leader Ashwani Sekhri was standing by his side.

The BJP will contest the assembly polls in Punjab in alliance with Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa's SAD (Sanyukt), Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat said on Monday. Both Singh and Dhindsa, a Rajya Sabha MP, met with the BJP top brass, including president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, at Shah's residence here to chalk out a strategy for the polls.

BJP, Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa's party will jointly contest upcoming Punjab polls: Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat

BJP, Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) of Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa will release a joint manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections in Punjab: Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat

Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav has said that top BJP leaders stooping down to making personal attacks reflects their "narrow mindedness and frustration". He was reacting to statements made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who said that no one (read SP) would be able to stop the Ram temple construction now, and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had remarked: "Babua was playing with his smartphone during the pandemic instead of helping people." "The BJP has nothing left to showcase as their achievement and have, therefore, resorted to mudslinging and levelling baseless personal attacks," said Akhilesh.

The Meeting of Health Secretary with Election Commission officials is over. The Health Secretary has left from another gate. Now the meeting of Election Commission is going on with the Director of NCB. Chiefs of BSF, ITBP and SSB have also arrived at the EC office for a meeting. sometime

BJP's Brahmin leaders from poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday met party president JP Nadda, a day after holding a brainstorming session on reaching out to the crucial vote segment in the state. Various issues concerning the community were discussed at length during the meeting with Nadda. On Sunday, more than a dozen Brahmin leaders of the BJP from Uttar Pradesh held a marathon meeting at state in-charge, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan's residence to chalk out a strategy for reaching out to community members. According to sources, the party has formed a committee comprising BJP's Rajya Sabha chief whip Shiv Pratap Shukla, party leader Abhijat Mishra, former national secretary and Gujarat MP Ram Bhai Mokariya and Mahesh Sharma to reach out to Brahmin members of the community.

Former Punjab chief minister and leader of the newly floated Punjab Lok Congress Amarinder Singh on Monday met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda in Delhi. The BJP has announced that it will contest the Punjab assembly polls in alliance with Singh's party. The meeting is underway at Shah's residence where all three are present. Singh has been meeting various BJP leaders to chalk out a strategy for the Punjab elections. Both parties are expected to take various offshoots of the Akali Dal on board and forge a bigger alliance.

Union Health Secy Rajesh Bhushan arrives at the office of Election Commission of India (ECI) for a meeting convened by ECI with senior officials of the Ministry of Health &Family Welfare to discuss the prevailing Covid situation for upcoming Assembly elections in 5 states

Former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh will meet senior BJP leader and Union Minister Amit Shah in Delhi today. According to reports, the two leaders are likely to discuss the seat-sharing formula for the upcoming Punjab polls.

The Congress on Sunday sought to dub Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath as "Bulldozernath" or the lord of bulldozers, allegedly out to trample the dreams of youths. The Congress made the allegation a day after the Lucknow police denied the party to hold a five-km race in the city as part of Congress president Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's 'Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon' poll campaign. It accused the CM of crushing the dreams of girls who wanted to run a marathon organised by the party in Lucknow. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Claiming that Uttar Pradesh's economy is worsening instead of improving, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged that this has made Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath silent on his vision to make the state a USD 1 trillion economy. Making the assertion in a statement, Yadav, however, did not elaborate on what basis he had claimed that the UP economy has gone into a tailspin.  In his statement, Yadav also claimed that owing to the wrong policies of the BJP, the country's economy has crumbled. "The Prime Minister shows the dream of making the country a USD 5 trillion economy but no concrete step has been taken for it," he said.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said that the ruling BJP was trying to use the excuse of rising COVID-19 cases to postpone assembly election in Uttar Pradesh as it was staring at defeat. Yechury said, the Allahabad High Court has requested the Election Commission to consider postponing the 2022 UP assembly election owing to the rising cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19. 

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Sunday paid obeisance at the Sri Fatehgarh Sahib Gurdwara on the second day of the annual 'Shaheedi Sabha'. The 'Shaheedi Sabha' was dedicated to the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh's two younger sons Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh, and Mata Gujri.

If the Yogi Adityanath government returns to power in Uttar Pradesh for a second term, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi will start wearing Hindus' sacred thread 'janeu', worn across the shoulder, and chanting Lord Ram's name, a UP minister said on Sunday. This will be in the line of leaders like Rahul Gandhi wearing æjaneu' and Akhilesh Yadav visiting Hanuman temples to pay his obeisance amid the strengthening BJP's ideology, UP's Panchayati Raj Minister Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary asserted. Chaudhary, who hails from Moradabad and is a member of the state's Legislative Council, made the remark at a youths' meet in Shamli. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Ahead of next year's Assembly elections, Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma has said the people were well aware of the "false promises" being made by the rival political parties and exuded confidence that his party would form government in the state. Only the BJP can give a stable government and drug-free state, he said..

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said that if Priyanka Gandhi empowers girls and women through a marathon then a ban is imposed and the party accepts it but for Modi's event 25,000 sports persons are called and that is fine. "So one criterion for Priyanka Gandhi and another criterion for Modi ji to gather 25 thousand sports persons," he said.

The Congress on Sunday said it is for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP government to decide whether political rallies should be banned in the wake of the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and asserted that it will follow whatever decision is taken. Asked whether the Congress would demand that there should be a ban on rallies, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala at a press conference said it is for the government to decide on it.

The Election Commission of India will meet the senior officials of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare on Monday. The meeting, in which Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan will take part, will have a discussion on the prevailing COVID-19 situation for upcoming Assembly elections in five states -- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.