Election 2022 Updates: Amit Shah, Guj BJP Leaders Review Strategy for 2nd Phase Polls; Tight Security in Place for MCD Elections

The election of 250 wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in the national capital will be held on Sunday concluding the high-voltage fight between the AAP, BJP and Congress. READ MORE

Chamber of Trade and Industry Chairman Brijesh Goyal said all the wholesale and retail markets in Delhi will remain closed on December 4, in view of MCD elections.

The high-level meeting is being held at the Gujarat BJP state office Kamalam after the second phase of the election campaign ended in Gujarat. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, State President CR Patil, Chief Minister Bhupendra Singh Patel, Organisation secretary Ratnakar and other leaders are present in the meeting being held to review of the first phase of polls and strategy for the second phase of polling.

The Election Commission has urged people in urban areas in Gujarat to vote in large numbers for the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly election to compensate for low voting in first phase. Stating “Urban apathy continues,” the election commission has said 833 candidates are in the fray in second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections. A total of 61 political parties are contesting the elections which will be held at 14,975 polling locations, 26,409 polling stations and under supervision of 1,13,325 polling staff.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who completed his campaign trail across Gujarat ahead of the second phase of the state Assembly polls, said people of the state want the trajectory of developments in the last two decades to continue. “Over the last few days, I’ve travelled across the length and breadth of Gujarat. Wherever I went, I have received tremendous affection. People have seen the development in the last two decades and want this trajectory to continue,” he said.

Gujarat BJP Chief CR Patil in a statement before the campaign ends at 5 pm said road shows by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have helped the party “immensely” and it will ensure a great victory for BJP in the Gujarat. “In the first phase, we have done a great job. We will win with a record margin this time,” he added.

Senior SP leader Azam Khan landed in fresh trouble after the Rampur administration lodged a case accusing him of using “provocative” words against police and the Election Commission during an election meeting two days ago. The FIR was lodged Friday evening at Kotwali Police Station on the complaint of one Sujesh Kumar Sagar, the in-charge of the video surveillance team set up by a poll panel for the Rampur by-election

The BJP is targeting the tribal-dominated Khedbrahma Assembly segment in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district which has remained as a Congress fortress. This time, the BJP wants to breach it with the help of tribal leader Ashvin Kotwal who has crossed over to the ruling party from the Congress.

The high-voltage campaigning for the second phase of elections in 93 out of the total 182 seats in Gujarat will end on Saturday evening with candidates and political parties making the last ditch efforts to woo voters. READ MORE

A BJP corporator has been arrested for violating Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in Surat. Sharad Patil was arrested late Friday evening and later released on bail. During the Gujarat Assembly polls’ first phase 1 on Thursday, Patil, after casting his vote, had appealed to electorate to vote for the BJP.

In his complaint, J S Rana, officer on election duty, said that a video clip, which he got, establishes that Patil had violated the MCC in polling booth number 176, of Udhana constituency.

To ensure a hassle-free civic polls on December 4, the Delhi Police will deploy 40,000 security personnel at every nook and corner of the national capital. According to Delhi Police, a total of 40,000 personnel will be deployed across the city on the polling day on December 4.

“A total of 20,000 security personnel of Home Guards have also been asked from the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana for the election duty,” said an official.

Slamming the BJP for turning Delhi into a ”mound of garbage”, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday people of the national capital will choose AAP in civic polls too.

All eyes are once again on the less-in-number yet influential Patidar or Patel community of Gujarat, which had put the ruling BJP on the edge in the 2017 Assembly elections that took place in the shadow of Hardik Patel-led quota agitation to secure OBC status for the community.

While political analysts believe that most Patidars will vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party this time, former quota stir leaders think that many young voters from the community are open to other options, such as new entrant – the Aam Aadmi Party.

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has been booked for allegedly making insulting remarks against women during an election meeting for the December 5 Rampur Sadar assembly bypoll, police said on Friday.

Circle Officer (City) Anuj Chowdhary said Khan and the SP’s bypoll candidate Asim Raja were addressing the meeting on November 29 during which Khan allegedly made a comment which agitated some women. READ MORE

Facing flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over his “Ravan” jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has accused the ruling party of misusing his remarks for electoral gains in Gujarat, and said that politics is not about individuals but policies.

“They are misusing it for electoral gains…For us, politics is not about individuals. It is about policies, it is about their (BJP’s) performance, and it is about the type of politics they practice. They make it about only one person, who is everywhere,” the veteran Congress leader said.

More than local issues and anti-incumbency, the outcome of the polls in the Bayad Assembly constituency in Gujarat’s Aravalli district could be determined by the ability of a turncoat politician to dent into the votes of the traditional contenders – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

Former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela’s son Mahendrasinh, who was elected to the Assembly from Bayad on a Congress ticket in 2012 but later switched over to the BJP, is this time fighting the polls from the seat as the candidate of the main opposition party. The Bayad seat, considered a Congress stronghold, in North Gujarat will go to polls in the second phase on December 5.

Sixty-eight model polling stations and as many pink polling stations have been established for quality experience of voters on the day of the civic polls in Delhi, officials said on Friday.

This will be the first civic election after the fresh delimitation exercise, and the much-awaited poll will be held in the gap between the two phases of the Gujarat assembly elections — on December 1 and 5.

Ahead of the Mainpuri parliamentary bypoll, the BJP and the Samajwadi Party are making claims of winning Dalit voters to their side in the absence of Mayawati’s BSP in the fray.

While the ruling BJP in the state has claimed that traditional supporters of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have shifted to its side, boosting its chances of winning, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has exuded confidence that people of all sections are with the party and ‘netaji’ as its late founder Mulayam Singh Yadav was popularly called. The SP has fielded party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav for the December 5 bypoll, while the BJP is banking on Raghuraj Singh Shakya in the electoral battle. Neither the BSP, which has a considerable Dalit base, nor the Congress have fielded candidates, making the bypoll a direct contest between the SP and the BJP

On the last day of campaigning for the elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) scheduled on December 4, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), claiming that the ruling party of Delhi will lose its deposit in most seats in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

“AAP has zero presence in Himachal Pradesh. The party will lose its deposit in most seats in Himachal Pradesh and same will be repeated in Gujarat. Even in Delhi, AAP is not getting much support for the MCD polls,” said Thakur.