Assembly Election 2021 LATEST Updates: Baijayant Panda said that whenever Congress sees defeat staring at it in its face they start making these kinds of allegations and blow it out of proportion
The Election Commission on Friday barred Assam minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma from campaigning for 48 with immediate effect for allegedly making threatening remarks against Bodoland People's Front chief Hagrama Mohilary
"For the first time in the country's history, a chief minister sat on a dharna in a polling booth when polling was on. Before she (Mamata Banerjee) sat on her dharna, 74 percent votes were polled in Nandigram and the polling was by and large peaceful," Prakash Javadekar told reporters after meeting the EC officials.
West Bengal has recorded a voter turnout of 86.11 percent in the second phase of polling held in 30 assembly constituencies spread across four districts
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested at a rally in Uluberia that Mamata might contest from another seat in final phase of Bengal polls, where registration are still underway, as she is set to lose Nandigram.
Linking the ongoing investigations in a gold smuggling case with the solar scam under UDF, Modi alleged that the UDF and LDF have committed their own seven deadly sins in Kerala
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said raiding the opposition is the BJP's "coping mechanism" when it is facing defeat in elections.
The saffron party has demanded that Udhayanidhi, who is the son of DMK chief MK Stalin, should be debarred from campaigning and his candidature should be cancelled
The incident snowballed into a huge controversy on Friday morning with the Opposition Congress and AIUDF alleging that the EVM was being "stolen", while the Election Commission suspended four poll officials and ordered a repoll at the booth as a video of the fiasco went viral on social media.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra announced that she is going into isolation after her husband Robert Vadra tested positive for COVID-19, adding that she will be cancelling her programmes planned to be held in the state on Saturday.
The Election Commission has ordered a repoll for a polling station in the Ratabari Assembly seat of Assam after reports emerged of an EVM being transported in a private vehicle belonging to a BJP candidate.
Amit Shah hit out at the Mamata Banerjee government, adding that it runs on a 3T model: Tanashahi (dictatorship), Tolabazi (manoeuvre) and Tushtikaran (appeasement), while Prime Minister Narendra Modi runs it on a 3V model: Vikas (progress), Vishwas (trust), Vyapar (business).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the DMK and Congress for trying to turn peace-loving Madurai into a mafia district because of “complications in DMK's first family”.
This is the second such raid on those associated with the DMK ahead of the 6 April Tamil Nadu Assembly polls. Last month, DMK candidate EV Velu's premises were searched in Tiruvannamalai and Chennai.
A seven-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress comprising MPs and ministers will meet poll officials in Kolkata on Friday at 1.30 pm. The delegation is expected to discuss issues faced during the first two phases of elections in West Bengal.
Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) candidate Rangja Khungur Basumatary Thursday joined BJP ahead of the third phase of poll in Assam when the constituency in which he is a contestant is slated to go to the poll.
Basumatary had reportedly gone missing for two days and at around midnight on Wednesday, senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma had tweeted that he had met the BPF candidate, who would join the saffron party.
BPF is an ally of the Opposition Congress in Assam, where two out of the slated three phased poll got over on Thursday.
"Official candidate of BPF and so called Congress-led alliance from Tamulpur Assembly constituency, Sri Ram Das Basumatary met me a short while ago. He has expressed his desire to Join @BJP4India and retire
from the election," Sarma tweeted.
Rangja Khungur Basumatary is also known as Ram Das Basumatary.
Basumatary told a local TV channel that he had decided to resign from BPF as the party did not lend any helping hand to him during the campaign.
Efforts made to contact him failed as his phone was switched off. A statement by the Congress confirmed that Basumatary has joined the BJP on Thursday.
Tamulpur constituency is in Baksa district under Bodoland Territorial Region and will go to the poll during the third phase on 6 April.
Reacting to the development, Congress MP Manish Tiwari said that Basumatary had gone missing due to threatening by BJPN and lambasted the saffron party for it.
"Never in India did such immoral activities take place during elections - you (BJP) threatened to use the National Investigation Agency against the party and the candidate. You (BJP) want to win the poll by wrong means. This is a fascist mentality and it is BJP's education. That party does not believe in democracy and democratic systems. This is absolutely the worst spectacle of fascism that is on display in the Assam polls," he told a press conference in Guwahati.
Tiwari demanded that the BJP government in the state tell the people what had happened to Basumatary for two days.
"I demand a detailed probe into the incident by Election Commission. How come such an incident took place in front of the EC? Is the EC blindfolded?" the Congress leader said.
AICC spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said a Congress delegation will meet the EC Thursday evening to seek deferment of voting in Tamulpur constituency and disqualification of Sarma, a senior Assam minister, from contesting and further campaigning for the state poll as he is a "repeat offender" of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
Vallabh questioned why the EC was not checking Basumatary's call records to find his whereabouts.
"We demand that the call records of Basumatary be made public so that the people of Assam get to know what coercion, intimidation or what proposal forced him to join hands with the BJP," Vallabh said.
Commenting on the EC notice to Sarma for allegedly threatening BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary with using the NIA against him, Tiwari said "The EC issued the notice because it is convinced that such threatening language is not acceptable."
"The EC prima facie found him guilty. It is a conspiracy against the candidate. It is an attempt to subvert the election process. They (BJP) don't believe in democracy and that is why they are resorting to such practice of threatening a candidate who is in the poll contest," he said.
Sarma had said that he had got evidence of Mohilary's alleged links with the recent recoveries of arms in Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and the case was being given to the NIA for investigation.
Later the state Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta had reportedly said that there was evidence of militant and his group in the arms recovery.
"We ask the Gujarati Mama (referring to Sarma's allegiance to BJP and that he is popularly called 'Mama') when did that evidence come? If it came before the MCC came into force, then why were you silent? It means you were indulging in a criminal offence. If it came after the MCC came into
force, then how and who gave the evidence to you because police now reports to the Election Commission. Yesterday the DGP said that he has all the information. Is it a coincidence or deliberate? DGP Sir why
are you not taking any action? Who has tied your hands? By making such statements, you are not strengthening the democracy, but weakening it," Vallabh added.
