2019 elections

Expelled Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim launched his new regional party, Odisha Janata Congress, after questioning party leadership. The party aims to address issues like women's safety, unemployment, and corruption. Moquim, who faced disqualification and conviction in a loan case, plans a statewide outreach to strengthen his new political outfit.

Currency with the public on the eve of 2019 elections has posted one of the highest year-on-year growth compared with pre-election growth rates in past seven elections. Economists say the gap between the growth rates of nominal GDP and currency in circulation is a good indicator. In 2018-19, while currency growth was 17.3%, the projected nominal GDP growth was 12.33%.

The victory margin of PM Modi increased in the 2019 parliamentary poll but the number of NOTA voters also witnessed a rise in Varanasi constituency. In the 2019 election, the number of NOTA votes almost doubled from 2,051 to 4,037 in Varanasi constituency in comparison to 2014 poll. The trend shows that people are losing faith in political parties.

With Rahul Gandhi back from his overseas trip, Congress is mulling convening the meeting of its apex body Congress Working Committee (CWC) next week to pick the new party president. Sources in the know of developments said the date of the meeting could be decided in a couple of days and the meeting may be held within days.

The three-day meet of general secretaries (organisations) also discussed the role of pracharaks in the BJP and to firm up the road map for the 2019 elections. The state of the party in Uttar Pradesh was another focal point.

Says TRS only good for backstabbing

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in the maiden budget of the Congress-JDS coalition government yesterday announced a mega Rs 34,000 crore farm loan waiver scheme.

As the Election Commission announced dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the first-time voters to vote in record numbers. PM Modi hoped that the 2019 election witnesses a historic turnout and urged all Indians to enrich the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with their active participation.

They’re confiscating as much as Rs 100 crore in cash and goods each day, as offenders use ambulances and other vehicles fitted with flashing lights to carry cash and give handouts in lunch boxes to lure voters.

The loan program is called Aajeevika, and was started in the 1990s as a local poverty alleviation program for women’s groups in Andhra Pradesh. It was adopted country-wide in 2011 under Congress-led government that Modi ousted 3 years later. Once in power, Modi expanded Aajeevika to 622 of India’s 640 districts & increased annual outlays by about 3 times.

The number of voters in Uttarakhand, where polling for its five Lok Sabha seats is scheduled for the first phase on April 19, has risen by more than five lakh since the 2019 elections. The state has 83.21 lakh voters at present, Chief Electoral Officer BVRC Purushottam told reporters on Saturday. The number was at 77.65 lakh during the 2019 polls, he said.

Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had a brief meeting with IPAC founder Prashant Kishore during the former’s recent visit to the national capital.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday said his party will not join the NDA even if the BJP approaches it for the 2019 general elections. He said the party's no-confidence motion against the government was a battle of "morality versus majority".

The chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Pema Khandu, has urged BJP workers not to allow "money culture" to disturb the democratic ethos during elections. Khandu made the remarks while addressing a BJP state executive meeting in West Siang district on Saturday. Notably, several cash seizure cases were reported during the 2019 elections in the state. The chief minister also urged the party workers to involve women to make people aware about the benefits of government schemes. Khandu wrote on his official Twitter handle that the BJP is the "only party" which could take the state to a higher growth trajectory. Khandu also highlighted the development activities initiated by the state government. He said that historical achievements like the Tali and Vijanagar roads village programmes and reverse migration to border areas were some of the achievements of the government. The long-pending Assam-Arunachal boundary issue will be solved shortly, he said. Union law and justice minister Kiren Rijiju and Lok Sabha MP Tapir Gao also attended the meeting.

The BJP, NCP, Shiv Sena, and Congress are discussing strategies for upcoming by-elections in Kasba Peth and Chinchwad Assembly constituencies. A key meeting of BJP leaders took place on Friday in presence of Guardian Minister Chandrakant Patil to review the situation of Kasba Peth seat. A BJP functionary said that all the options are still open and that the party was readying the plans to ensure a comfortable win in case of a contest both seats were won by the BJP with a comfortable margin in the 2019 elections while Kasba Peth is considered as the BJP stronghold. The party has set up base in Chinchwad in the last decade. The Kasba Peth seat was with the Congress during the previous election. A senior leader from the Congress said that the party was in favor of contesting the seat. "Our talks with party workers are on the candidature is expected to be out soon." The leader said. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders are yet to take a call on candidatures. Political observers said that the decision is not going to be easy as the workers of Shiv Sena UBT are keen on fighting for the Kasba Peth seat. Shiv Sena U

The murder of YS Vivekananda Reddy just before the 2019 elections had put the then ruling party TDP in the dock as the then opposition leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy fired all his guns alleging that TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu was behind the murder of his uncle. Four years later, YSRCP is finding itself in the same position as that of TDP in 2019, with the ongoing investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pointing fingers towards the family members of CM Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Daggubati Venkateswara Rao, a former minister and late CM NTR's eldest son-inlaw, has said he is quitting politics. His son, Hitesh Chenchuram, has also decided not to continue in public life. Daggubati, who contested from Purchur Assembly constituency in Bapatla district on a YSRC ticket in the 2019 elections, lost to TDP's Eluri Sambasiva Rao by a narrow margin. He has been lying low since then. His wife, former Union Minister Daggubati Purandeswari, is with the BJP. His son, Hitesh, who hurriedly returned from the US to contest the 2019 elections, was supposed to be YSRC's candidate from Purchur but could not contest due to citizenship issues. Subsequently, his father, a two-time MP from Bapatla and five-time MLA from Parchur, contested the election but faced his first electoral defeat in his long political career. Despite the YSRC wave, he was defeated.

Patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel got a jolt from the Gujarat high court on Friday as it rejected his application seeking a stay on his conviction in a rioting case so that he could contest the 2019 elections. With Gujarat going to polls on April 23, it is a race against time for Hardik as his only hope now is to challenge the HC order in Supreme Court.