Differences emerge within BJP on accepting MGP's support in Goa

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday chaired the last meeting of his outgoing cabinet and thanked people for extending their support to the BJP in the just-concluded Assembly elections. The BJP and its alliance partners bagged 273 of 403 Assembly seats in the elections, the results of which were announced on Thursday. The Samajwadi Party-led coalition bagged 125 seats.

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday termed the assembly poll results unfortunate, but said the party will win back the confidence of people soon. The Congress received a drubbing in assembly elections in five states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur and drew a blank, losing Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party.

The new government in Manipur will be formed before March 19 when the current state assembly term ends and a decision on who will lead is expected to be decided in the next couple days, outgoing Chief Minister N Biren Singh said on Friday. National People's Party, a partner in the existing government which won seven seats in the just concluded state poll, will not be a part of the new dispensation, Singh told reporters at his residence. The decision on the new government and overall alliance would be taken by central observers of BJP who will come to Manipur. The decision on the alliance will be taken by the observers in consultation with state unit authorities, he said.

After the elections, the state assemblies of Goa and Punjab have acquired a younger profile and a greater representation for women. The number of women MLAs in Punjab have more than doubled to 13 from six in the outgoing assembly. The proportion of MLAs aged 55 years or below in the Punjab assembly has increased to 65. 

Not much was known about Mohan Singh Bisht, a humble BJP leader from Halduchaur area in Nainital district, until he defeated Congress campaign head and former chief minister Harish Rawat from Lalkuwa on Thursday. Before forcing arguably the tallest Congress leader from Uttarakhand to bite the dust in the polls to make his maiden entry into the state Assembly, Bisht had only won a zila panchayat poll in 2019. 

Another major giant killer was state Congress working president Bhuvan Chandra Kapri who defeated Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami from Khatima by 6,579 votes. Dhami had won from the seat in the last two consecutive polls. 

Thirty-four Muslim candidates won in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, 10 more than the last state elections. They were fielded by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and its alliance partners. The BSP, Congress and the All-India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) had fielded a number of Muslim candidates but they could not win. The Apna Dal (Sonelal), an ally of the BJP, had fielded Haidar Ali Khan from Swar seat in Rampur but he lost to SP's Abdullah Azam by over 61,000 votes.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday termed the BJP's victory in assembly elections in four states as “not a true reflection of people's mandate” and accused the saffron camp of looting votes by using the election machinery. Reiterating her call for an opposition alliance to defeat the BJP, Banerjee said there is no use of “sitting" idle and waiting for the Congress.

While a few ‘bahubalis’ managed wins in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, a majority of them were rejected by the voters. 
According to the results, many alleged dons-turned-politicians failed to make it to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. These include Dhananjay Singh (Malhani), Vijay Mishra (Gyanpur), Yash Bhadra Singh Monu (Isauli) and Amarmani Tripathi (Nautanwa), son of Purvanchal strongman Yatra Amanmani Tripathi, who is sentenced to life imprisonment. However, on the other hand, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya (Kunda) and Abhay Singh (Gosaiganj) managed to win. From Malhni seat of Jaunpur, Janta Dal (United) strongman Dhananjay Singh lost to Samajwadi Party candidate Lucky Yadav by a margin of 17,527 votes.

Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday said as the president of Shiromani Akali Dal, he takes responsibility for his party's defeat in the Punjab assembly election and the SAD's core-committee will meet on March 14 to analyse the poll results. The Aam Aadmi Party scripted a stellar victory in Punjab on Thursday, winning a three-fourth majority pulverising its rivals. The elections dealt a body blow to the Shiromani Akali Dal, which ruled the state several times, as its chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and his father Parkash Singh Badal, both former chief ministers, fell by the wayside. Badal said, "As party president, I take the responsibility for the defeat.

A majority of the turncoats failed to win their seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which saw the BJP sweeping to power for the second consecutive term. The BJP and its alliance partners won 273 of the 403 Assembly seats while the Samajwadi Party-led coalition bagged 125 seats in the elections. Of the 21 turncoats, only four managed to win the polls. Nine of the turncoats were fielded by the BJP and 10 by the Samajwadi Party (SP). Prominent losers included former UP ministers Swami Prasad Maurya and Dharam Singh Saini, who had joined the SP just ahead of the polls; and former Bareilly mayor Supriya Aron.

Capt Venzy Viegas, a merchant navy officer-turned-politician, who defeated veteran politician and former Goa chief minister Churchill Alemao in this year's assembly polls in the coastal state, is not the only one who has emerged as a giant killer in the coastal state. Like him, several new entrants and greenhorns made a number of established politicians bite the dust in Goa, where the BJP won 20 out of 40 seats, emerging as the single largest party. Alemao, who was considered as the "uncrowned king" of Benaulim assembly segment, had contested the February 14 election on Trinamool Congress (TMC) ticket. But Capt Viegas, who was fielded by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), defeated him with a margin of 1,271 votes.

A social activist, a young law graduate, a debutante, and an eye surgeon - Punjab polls gave gave birth to a number of giant killers from the AAP, who drubbed such stalwarts as Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Badals, and even the State Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. Among these spectacular hits was 50-year-old Jeevanjyot Kaur, who trounced Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and former minister and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia from Amritsar East seat. Kaur, a social activist, gave a crushing blow to Sidhu and Majithia, defeating the former, her nearest rival, by a margin of 6,750 votes.

AAP's Punjab CM-designate Bhagwant Mann will take oath on March 16. He has invited Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for the swearing-in ceremony. He will hold a roadshow in Amritsar on March 13 along with Delhi CM and party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal. 

Virtually decimated in the assembly elections, the Congress now faces a dual challenge -- an existential crisis and retaining its position as the leader of the opposition camp after the AAP's spectacular victory in Punjab. Political analysts say the road to the 2024 polls for the Congress is going to get tougher as it is a party that is "in the ICU" and cannot be revived with quick-fix solutions. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Thursday stormed to power in Punjab, bagging a record 92 of the 117 seats by decimating the Congress and the SAD-BSP combine. The Congress, meanwhile, also suffered a crushing defeat in the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa. The AAP's Punjab win has brought it at par with the Congress in terms of leading state governments. The Congress is now left in power only in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on its own and is a junior player in the coalition governments in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

A Samajwadi Party candidate, who went extra-vigilant ahead of counting of votes and kept an eye on the local election office through binoculars, has lost the Uttar Pradesh assembly poll, official results showed. Yogesh Verma of the SP contested from Hastinapur constituency in western UP's Meerut district where he lost to BJP's Dinesh Khatik, the sitting MLA, by a margin of 7,312 votes, the Election Commission (EC) website showed.

Mayawati on Friday blamed the “casteist media” for driving away Muslims from her Bahujan Samaj Party and said the fear of a 'jungle raj' if the Samajwadi Party came to power made its other supporters shift to the BJP. Plummeting to its lowest ever tally of winning only one seat in the current Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Mayawati said it was the media’s aggressive propaganda showing the BSP as the "B team of the BJP" that drove away Muslims and anti-BJP voters from it.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, whose party BJP has won 20 out of 40 seats in the state assembly polls, on Friday held a meeting of his cabinet, during which it was decided to recommend dissolution of the House on March 14. State Health Minister Vishwajit Rane told this to reporters after the cabinet meeting. "We met to thank the people for a resounding victory of the party. During the meeting, a resolution was moved to thank the people of the state," he said. "The meeting chaired by CM Sawant decided to recommend to the state governor dissolution of the House on Monday," Rane added. The tenure of the present assembly is scheduled to end on 15 March.

Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday hit out at the Congress for blaming the anti-incumbency of his four-and-half-years tenure for the poor show in assembly polls, saying the party's leadership will never learn. Punjab Lok Congress chief Singh, who was unseated from the post of chief minister last year, asked the grand old party who is responsible for its drubbing in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. "The @INCIndia leadership will never learn! Who is responsible for the humiliating defeat of Congress in UP? What about Manipur, Goa, Uttrakhand? The answer is written in BOLD LETTERS on the wall but as always I presume they will avoid reading it," said Singh in a tweet.

Day after assembly poll win, AAP's Punjab chief ministerial face Bhagwant Mann meets Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal at his residence.

The vote share of the Congress, which won 11 assembly seats in Goa this time, plunged by nearly five per cent as compared to what it was in the previous election, while the BJP, which retained power in the coastal state, saw a marginal rise in it, the data shared by the Election Commission shows.  The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), witnessed a slight increase in its vote share in the state, while the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), a regional party that declared support to the BJP to form the next government in the state after the results, saw its vote share dip by over three per cent. As per the data, the Congress's vote share slipped down from 28.4 per cent in 2017 to 23.5 per cent, but for the BJP, it went up from 32.5 per cent to 33.3 per cent. As per the poll results declared on Thursday, the BJP, which had fielded candidates from all 40 assembly constituencies in Goa, won 20 seats. The Congress had contested 37 seats, leaving three others to its alliance partner û Goa Forward Party (GFP), which won one. The vote share of the MGP dipped from 11.3 per cent in 2017 to 7.6 per cent. The Deepak Dhavalikar-led party had contested 13 seats, where it fought in alliance with the Trinamool Congress Party (TMC). The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC failed to win any seat. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, which had entered the electoral fray in Goa with all its might, registered a slight gain in the vote share - from 6.3 per cent in 2017 to 6.8 per cent this time. The AAP and the MGP won two seats each in the election. The GFP's vote share decreased from 3.5 per cent to 1.8 per cent. The vote share of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which could not win any seat, also reduced from 2.3 per cent in 2017 to 1.1 per cent in 2022. Interestingly, the number of people who preferred the NOTA option slightly deceased this year as compared to 2017. As per the data, 1.1 per cent people opted for NOTA this time, which was 1.2 per cent five years ago.

The number of voters who opted for the NOTA on the EVM during the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls this time increased in all three assembly constituencies of Gautam Buddh district as compared to 2017, official results showed. Noida, Dadri and Jewar assembly seats in Gautam Buddh Nagar were won by BJP's Pankaj Singh, Tejpal Nagar and Dhirendra Singh, respectively, in 2017 state polls as well as in 2022. In 2022, the number of NOTA voters in Noida stood at 2,463 (0.71 per cent), in Dadri 2,033 (0.57 per cent) and in Jewar 1,694 (or 0.73 per cent), the Election Commission website showed. In 2017, the number of NOTA voters was 1,787 (0.71 per cent) in Noida, 1,665 (0.63 per cent) in Dadri and 1,276 (0.61 per cent) in Jewar, the data from the corresponding year showed. In 2017, NOTA had stood as fourth option in Noida, sixth in Dadri and fifth in Jewar. In 2022, it stood sixth in Noida and fifth in both Dadri as well as Jewar, according to official figures. The 'none of the above' (or NOTA) option on electronic voting machine (EVM) was introduced in India in 2013. The option, which had made its debut in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in 2017, enables a voter to express dissatisfaction with all candidates in fray from a seat. While NOTA has found favour with some voters, critics believe the option wields no actual influence on elections and is a fit case of wasting a vote. The BJP has retained power in Uttar Pradesh after the 2022 assembly polls, winning a majority of the 403 seats in the state and is set to continue with its Yogi Adityanath-led government for a straight second term.

We accept the people's verdict. We'll hold a meeting to introspect the results. We'll support Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, says SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal as his party ended up with its worst-ever showing at the polls as its tally plummeted to three

Aam Aadmi Party's Punjab Chief Ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann reaches the residence of the party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal, in Delhi. 

Congress Punjab Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu : You reap what you sow...This election was for a change...people took a great decision...public is never wrong...I'm not going into a deep thought of whether people accepted Channi's face as CM's candidate or not...: 

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi described the results of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as a "victory of 80-20" and felt that such an atmosphere would continue for many more years in the country's democracy. Owaisi, whose party drew a blank in the UP polls, has said the AIMIM respects the people's verdict in the northern state and continues to make efforts to win people's confidence in the future. FULL STORY

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has resigned, He lost the election from the Khatima seat. But the ruling BJP retained power in the state. The BJP won 47 of 70 seats in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly. 

Whoever has people's mandate is the king... Possible that my father, other leaders didn't live up to people's expectations...I never for campaigned for my father, show me proof if I did: BJP's Sanghamitra Maurya on her father and SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya losing UP elections

I'd like to congratulate Yogi Ji as 'Bulldozer Baba's' bulldozer worked. BJP workers who went to Uttar Pradesh have increased BJP's glory... you wiped out Samajwadi Party & BJP won again: BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis

Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Piyush Goyal have been appointed as BJP's observers for Uttarakhand. They will travel to Uttarakhand and meet the newly-elected MLAs. The BJP won the elections, bagging 47 of the 70 seats.

CM Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh Cabinet to hold the last meeting of their first tenure today at 5 pm in Lucknow. The BJP stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh with a clear majority for the second term. 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he congratulated the Aam Aadmi Party for its victory in the Punjab Assembly elections. In a tweet, the prime minister had on Thursday night congratulated the AAP. "I would like to congratulate AAP for their victory in the Punjab elections. I assure all possible support from the Centre for Punjab's welfare.@AamAadmiParty," Modi had tweeted. In his reply, Kejriwal tweeted, "Thank you sir." 

I am grateful to my party & PM Modi that they chose me to serve the people. The myth has broken in Uttarakhand for the first time & with 2/3rd majority BJP has formed the government. We'll further fulfill all the promises: Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami

Chandigarh: Charanjit Singh Channi: I have given my resignation to the Governor. He told me and the cabinet to continue until the new Government is sworn in. I accept the people's mandate: 

AAP Legislative Party meeting to be held in Chandigarh today evening. The newly-elected MLAs to unanimously elect CM candidate Bhagwant Mann as their leader. 

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said the decision of people is paramount as he hoped the new governments in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand will work for farmers and labourers. The remark of the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) came late on Thursday after the BJP won majority seats in four states, including Uttar Pradesh, while the Aam Aadmi Party stormed to power in Punjab. “In the great festival of democracy, the decision of the people is paramount. The farmers' movement showed its effect. We hope that all the governments that have been formed will work for to uplift farmers and labourers in their respective states. Congratulations to all on the victory,” Tikait tweeted in Hindi.

Swami Prasad Maurya was made to bite dust in his Fazilnagar seat where he was defeated, ironically, by the BJP. Dharam Singh Saini, another BJP minister who had followed Maurya, also lost his seat in Saharanpur. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, whom the BJP projected as the face of OBC, also lost in Sirathu. Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and leader of opposition, Ram Govind Chaudhary, was also defeated in his Bansdih constituency. Ajay Kumar Lallu, UPCC president and the OBC face of the Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in his Tamkuhi Raj seat. Krishna Patel, president of the breakaway faction of Apna Dal who contested the Pratapgarh seat in alliance with SP, lost her seat. 

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati said on Friday that the election results in Uttar Pradesh were a 'lesson for us'. The BSP could win only one seat in the state. "UP election results are opposed to BSP's expectations. We should not be discouraged by it. Instead, we should learn from it, introspect and carry forward our party movement, and come back to power," Mayawati said. FULL STORY

In a seemingly polarised electoral atmosphere that saw a straight contest between the ruling BJP and Samajwadi Party (SP), voters have sent 36 Muslim candidates to the 18th Uttar Pradesh Assembly, two more than the previous Assembly. The newly elected MLAs account for 8.93 per cent of the total 403 legislators in a state that has a over 20 per cent Muslim population.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for its clean sweep in the Punjab Assembly elections, and assured the party of all possible help from the Centre.

While the major political parties in Uttar Pradesh have been facing hiccups in maintaining their performance, it is the Apna Dal, led by Union Minister Anupriya Patel, that has steadfastly maintained its success rate in elections in the past decade. The Apna Dal contested 17 seats in Uttar Pradesh, and as per the latest data issued by the Election Commission, it won 12 of them. Patel made her debut in the 2012 Assembly elections when her party contested two seats and won both. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party contested two seats in alliance with the BJP and won both -- a success rate of 100 per cent. Patel went on to become a Minister of State at the Centre.

The Bhartiya Janata Party got elected to power in Uttar Pradesh with a thumping majority, for the second consecutive term. As other opposition parties tried their best to cut BJP's votes, the party still got a whopping 38,051,721 votes and about 41.3% of the total vote count in the state, as per Election Commission. FULL STORY 

As many as 11 ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government failed to win in the 2022 assembly elections, despite the BJP registering an impressive victory. Among the ministers who lost is outgoing deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Suresh Rana, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar, Rajendra Pratap Singh alias Moti Singh, Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay, Anand Swaroop Shukla, Upendra Tiwari, Ranvendra Singh Dhunni, Lakhan Singh Rajput, Satish Chandra Dwivedi and Sangeeta Balwant.

The BJP leadership has now started looking for a suitable CM candidate for the hill state. Sources told India TV that the party leadership is unlikely to give the CM's job to a non-MLA. They added that the CM will be picked from the newly elected 47 MLAs. FULL STORY 

AAP's chief ministerial face in Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, will visit Delhi on Friday to meet party national convener Arvind Kejriwal. This comes after the party stormed to power in Punjab decimating the Congress and the SAD-BSP combine. Talking to reporters in Sangrur before leaving for the national capital, Mann said he was going to meet Kejriwal and will congratulate him on the party's stupendous victory in the Punjab elections. To a question on government formation, Mann said, "I will meet the (Punjab) governor tomorrow. We will seek time from him today." Mann said the oath-taking ceremony will be held at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in Nawanshahr district.

Samajwadi Party's chief Akhilesh Yadav thanked voters for their support and said they had shown that the BJP's seat count can be decreased.

In Uttarakhand, the BJP has won 47 seats, while the Congress has managed only 19 seats. The Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly has 70 seats. 

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) secured a landslide victory in Punjab. The AAP is the first regional party which will form a government in another state apart from New Delhi. It won 92 seats in the 117-member House. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained power in Uttar Pradesh, winning 255 seats in the 403-member Legislative Assembly. Its partners Apna Dal (S) and NISHAD won 12 and 6 seats, respectively.