Assembly elections 2022 updates: Congress may announce Punjab CM candidate on Feb 6

Six-term MLA and transGodinho is being challenged by Kargil war veteran Capt. Viriato Fernandes in Dabolim, home to the Indian Navy’s most important air base, INS Hansa. With AAP’s Premanand Nanoskar and state NCP president Jose Philip D’Souza also throwing their hat in the ring, the stage is set for an intense, multi-cornered fight.

The exodus from the ruling BJP in election-bound Manipur continued with party MLA and retired IAS officer P. Saratchandra, former Minister N. Biren, and a state government PSU's former chief N. Joykumar joining the Congress on Monday. The Congress' election in-charge for Manipur Bhakta Charan Das and former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh welcomed all the three leaders at a function.

Springing a surprise, BJP has fielded former SP leader and party's Dalit MP from Agra, Satya Pal Singh Baghel, again-st former CM and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in "family bastion" Karhal.

Desperate to regain political ground in UP, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary is finding himself under the shadow of his father late Ajit Singh, who was known for frequently switching political camps. This became apparent a day after Union minister and BJP’s UP election in charge Dharmendra Pradhan dismissed Jayant as “politically immature” who was not aware about history of his father -- in what RLD brass saw as BJP devious attempt to fuel “confusion” among the electorally significant Jat voters ahead of the first two phases of UP polls.

As many as 23,500 first information reports (FIRs), including 17,000 for violations of Excise Act and anti-narcotics law, 650 for model code breach and 260 for Covid violations, have been filed across the five poll-bound states since the announcement of assembly polls on January 8.

Congress has launched a tele-poll to get responses from the general public on who should be ithe party's CM face in Punjab. Sources said the AICC has begun making telephone calls to voters to help it decide whether to pick Channi or Sidhu or no one for the top post. The party is banking upon its database of Punjab voters and citizens who received promotional calls about the initiatives of Channi as CM.

Allowing a physical poll campaign to begin across the five poll-bound states from Tuesday in view of the flattening curve of Covid infections, the Election Commission on Monday allowed in-person public meetings in open spaces subject to a cap of 1,000 participants, up from 500 earlier, while also raising the

The Supreme Court on Monday protected SAD functionary Bikram Singh Majithia from arrest in a drug trafficking case till February 23 and told the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government in Punjab that in a democracy governments must not slap election-eve criminal cases on political opponents to prevent them from contesting.

Enforcement teams have seized liquor, psychotropic substances and unaccounted cash worth Rs 305 crore in Punjab since the model code of conduct came into force in the state with the announcement of assembly elections on January 8, according to state Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju. The seizure was made till January 30. Raju said the surveillance teams have seized 26.64 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 12.11 crore. Similarly, the enforcement wings have also recovered psychotropic substances worth Rs 273.13 crore besides confiscating unaccounted cash worth Rs 18.48 crore.