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Independents, seems to be banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma, instead of flashing its own achievement card.
Building his campaign with the slogan ‘rivaj badlega’ (electoral traditions will change) as the party’s governments have repeated in the recent Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana polls, BJP president JP Nadda in his first three rallies on his home turf, drove his point home by saying, “The BJP does what it says.”
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-ji, once again a double-engine BJP government is set to be formed in the state with a huge majority,” donning traditional woollen cap Nadda said in Kaza. He also didn’t miss an opportunity to remind the people that the Prime Minister has replaced anti-incumbency with pro-incumbency in Indian politics by giving good governance. This time the people of Himachal would script history by electing the BJP government again.
At a time when several senior leaders of BJP’s Himachal unit turned rebellious and filled the nominations independently, Union Minister Amit Shah, who is also on a two-day tour of the poll-bound state, urged the voters to give another chance to ‘double-engine’ the government there to end the drug menace in Himachal.
Meanwhile, Congress is confident of forming the next government in Himachal Pradesh. Party’s campaign committee chairman Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has said that unemployment will be the biggest issue this poll season and added that this will prove to be the BJP’s nemesis.
“There are 64,000 vacant posts in government departments and we will fill these. Around 5,000 youth from Himachal, who were awaiting appointment letters to join the Army before the Agnipath scheme was announced, are upset with the BJP for ruining their career,” Sukhu was quoted as saying by Tribune. He further said that the people have made up their minds to bring Congress back to power.
Recently, actor Kangana Ranaut also dropped a hint at joining politics. The Bollywood actor said she is open to contesting from the Mandi constituency in the next month’s Himachal Pradesh elections if she gets a ticket from the BJP.
“Whatever will be the situation… If the government wants my participation, then I will be very much open to all kinds of participation… It will be my honour if the people of Himachal Pradesh or the party wants me to contest; I will have no problem. So, definitely, it will be my good luck,” Kangana Ranaut replied when asked about joining politics at an Aaj Tak conclave.
“I want others also to come forward who are hard working. They are people who really hard, I want them to come forward too,” the actor added.
Gujarat Election 2022
The Congress on Tuesday launched yatras in five zones of Gujarat to reach out to people ahead of the Assembly polls. During the ‘Gujarat Parivartan Sankalp Yatra’, 145 public meetings and 95 rallies will be held along the route covering more than 5,400 km. The yatras were launched from Vadgam, Bhuj, Somnath, Fagvel and Jambusar, party leaders said.
Senior Congress leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel, former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath, and MLA Sachin Pilot, were expected to join the yatra, party leaders had said earlier.
Meanwhile, Congress has alleged that AAP, which is emerging as a strong contender, is contesting elections in Gujarat to help BJP. Claiming that the fight in Gujarat is between Congress and BJP, party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said AAP entered the fray to cut into Congress votes.
Earlier, Bollywood actor and TMC MP Shatrughan Sinha predicted that AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal will either emerge as the “kingmaker or the king” himself in Gujarat Assembly election. “In Gujarat, Kejriwal will either emerge as the king or the kingmaker. There is a churning in the saffron camp in Gujarat. The BJP cannot milk Hindutva or the Ram Mandir issue every time. Kejriwal has played a masterstroke through his demand of photos of Goddess Laxmi and Lord Ganesh on currency notes,” he was quoted as saying by a news publication.
The Kejriwal-led party on Tuesday announced its eighth list of 22 candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls, taking the number of contestants declared so far to 108. It is the only party in poll-bound Gujarat which has declared more than 100 candidates so far. AAP state unit president Gopal Italia said the party’s youth wing leader Yuvrajsingh Jadeja will fight elections from Dahegam in North Gujarat.
Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat Election Dates
The Election Commission of India (EC) is likely to announce the schedule for the Gujarat Assembly elections this week. Meanwhile, the assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh are scheduled to be held in a single phase on November 12, the counting will take place on December 8. A report by the news agency PTI stated that by keeping the counting date for Himachal Pradesh nearly a month after polling, the Commission had given a clear hint that votes for Gujarat would also be counted on December 8.
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