#UP byelections 2020

[novumtimes]

Justin Trudeau missing Calgary Stampede this summer

Article content OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s summer campaign circuit will not include a stop at the Calgary Stampede. The annual 10-day rodeo and festival is usually a must-do event for politicians and Trudeau hasn’t missed a summer except for the COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021. But his office confirms there will be no pancake flipping, cowboy-hat tipping or crowd-hopping for the prime minister this year. Article content There was no immediate explanation provided for his absence. The Stampede officially begins Friday with a parade and runs until July 14. Trudeau’s office signalled he wasn’t going to attend in 2017, but after a gaffe — when he accidentally forgot to include Alberta in a list of provinces during his Canada Day speech — he showed up at the Stampede two weeks later. Trudeau is currently dealing with the fallout from the stunning Liberal loss of a long-held Toronto seat in a byelection on June 24. His party’s slump in the polls has lasted more than a year and his MPs are up in arms about how to stage a comeback before the next election. He and his party have never been particularly popular in Alberta but he has been greeted mostly warmly at the Stampede in past years. Last year, crowds jockeyed for selfies as he made his way through the Stampede grounds. Recommended from Editorial Braid: The Trudeau Liberals may have finally doomed themselves to extinction Bell: Hey Toronto, took you long enough to figure out Trudeau He also flipped pancakes at a breakfast hosted by Calgary MP George Chahal, one of two Liberals elected in Alberta. Chahal is hosting a pancake breakfast again this year but Trudeau won’t be there. A spokesperson for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the news Trudeau won’t be attending “must come as welcome relief” for Alberta Liberal and NDP MPs who would prefer he “stay in hiding.” “Having just been rejected in one of the safest Liberal ridings in downtown Toronto, it’s hard to imagine that Canadians will miss Justin Trudeau all too much at Stampede,” Sebastian Skamski said in a statement. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2024. Share this article in your social network Source link via The Novum Times

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There will be nine new faces when the legislature resumes sitting on Prince Edward Island in the coming months, all from the governing party. The 22 Progressive Conservative seats include those nine first-time MLAs and all 13 incumbents. Three Liberals and two Green Party members also held their seats.

Below are the 27 elected representatives who will make up the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island. The majority increased from 15 seats to 22. Six came at the expense of the Green Party, and one was flipped from Liberal hands. Two other newcomers won seats held by former PC MLAs who did not re-offer.

Rob Lantz, a former leader of the Progressive Conservatives, won District 13: Charlottetown-Brighton. The seat was formerly held by Green MLA Ole Hammarlund, who lost his party's nomination to Janice Harper. A win is a form of redemption for Lantz, who lost the district in 2015 to Liberal Jordan Brown and spent eight years out of politics. He got a warm welcome back in King's victory speech Monday night.

Susie Dillon turned District 11: Charlottetown-Belvedere from green to blue. The seat was formerly held by the Greens' Hannah Bell, who did not re-offer. Joanna Morrison, who won the nomination in Bell's place, finished second.

Barb Ramsay took District 22 (Summerside-South Drive) from incumbent Green MLA Steve Howard. Tyler DesRoches, a former Summerside councilor, took District 21: Summerside-Wilmot from incumbent Green MLA Lynne Lund.

Jenn Redmond, who won the PC nomination by just one vote, was in another nail-biter Monday, winning District 5: Mermaid-Stratford by just 38 votes. Michele Beaton, the incumbent and a vocal MLA for the Greens, finished second.

Hilton MacLennan, who manages the O'Leary Co-op Feed Mill and Retail Store, took District 23: Tyne Valley-Sherbrooke from incumbent Green MLA Trish Altass.

Gilles Arsenault won in District 24: Evangeline-Miscouche, a seat formerly held by longtime Liberal MLA and interim party leader Sonny Gallant, who did not re-offer MacLellan, the Liberal candidate, and finished second.

Robin Croucher won in District 1: Souris-Elmira with 1,593 votes, keeping the seat for PCs LaVie, the MLA for the last 11 years, who made a late decision not to run again due to health reasons.

Jill Burridge kept District 6, Stratford-Keppoch, for the PCs with 1,479 votes. The seat was formerly held by James Aylward, who did not re-offer King the seat but handily won in District 15: Brackley-Hunter River) with more than 68 percent of the vote.

Bloyce Thompson, a farmer who was the minister of economic growth, tourism, and culture, won in District 8: Stanhope-Marshfield with the highest percentage of votes in any district this time - almost 80 percent of the vote. He faced only one challenger, Marian White of the NDP.

Matthew MacKay won in District 20 (Kensington-Malpeque in 2019) with a margin of 76 percent. MacKay held the high-profile social development and housing portfolio and was called upon to find temporary housing for Islanders facing homelessness.

Ernie Hudson won in District 26: Alberton-Bloomfield over Pat Murphy, a Liberal MLA from 2007-2019. Hudson was the King's minister of health and wellness at a time when many Islanders cited health care as the island's most pressing issue.

Steven Myers, most recently the minister of environment, energy, and climate action, won his fourth election in District 2: Georgetown-Pownal with almost 70 percent of the vote.

Darlene Compton, King's deputy premier and minister of agriculture and land, won in District 4: Belfast-Murray River with 1,510 votes, almost three times as many as her nearest competitor, Liberal candidate Katherine Bryson.

Cory Deagle, 31, retains his title as the youngest MLA, winning District 3: Montague-Kilmuir with more than 70 percent of the vote before dissolution was won for the PCs in a byelection in 2020, and cruising to victory in District 10: Charlottetown-Winsloe with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Sidney MacEwen, government house leader before the election call, had a convincing win in District 7, Morell-Donagh, with more than 70 percent of the vote.

Jamie Fox, the most recent minister of fisheries and communities, won his third election in District 19: Borden-Kinkora, well ahead of Matthew MacFarlane of the Green Party.

Jamie Fox, the most recent minister of fisheries and communities, won his third election in District 19: Borden-Kinkora, well ahead of Matthew MacFarlane of the Green Party.

Mark McLane, who was King's most recent finance minister, was re-elected in District 16: Cornwall-Meadowbank. McLane took the seat from the Liberals in a 2021 byelection after Heath MacDonald resigned to run federally. Green candidate Tayte Willows finished second on Monday.

Mark McLane, who was King's most recent finance minister, was re-elected in District 16: Cornwall-Meadowbank took the seat from the Liberals in a 2021 byelection after Heath MacDonald resigned to run federally and finished second on Monday.

The Liberals will form the official opposition, winning the second-largest number of seats, though their leader Sharon Cameron did not secure a seat herself McNeilly returns as the only person of color in the legislature, keeping his seat in District 14; Charlottetown-West Royalty candidate Kristi MacKay came in a close second.

Robert Henderson won his fifth election, taking District 25: O'Leary-Inverness in a three-way race with Daniel MacDonald of the PCs and Herb Dickieson of the NDP.

Hal Perry, who was first elected as a Progressive Conservative in 2011 before crossing the floor to the then-governing Liberals in 2013, was re-elected in District 27: Tignish-Palmer Road.

Leader Peter Bevan-Baker kept his seat in District 17: New Haven-Rocky Point, but just barely. PC Donald Docherty gave him a scare by finishing just over 100 votes behind. Liberal Leader Sharon Cameron finished a distant third.

Karla Bernard, the former opposition critic for social development, housing, and the status of women, kept her seat in District 12; Charlottetown Victoria Park Keizer, a longtime Charlottetown police constable, was a close second.

[atlanticcanada]

P.E.I. Green Party wasn't ready for election, may lose seats from 2019: experts

As the Prince Edward Island election approaches its final week, the Green Party is fighting to hold onto its historic gains from the last provincial vote -- a battle some experts say could result in lost seats.

Hannah Bell, a Green MLA who decided not to seek re-election, says the party simply wasn't ready for this campaign.

While Progressive Conservative Leader Dennis King did call the vote six months before the province's fixed election date, Bell says all political parties knew a campaign was coming this year. She says her party was not doing enough grassroots work or planning in the months and years leading up to the April 3 vote, leading her to believe the party's seat count may suffer.

"I do feel, and I have been saying this internally and externally, that the Green Party has missed an opportunity to build momentum in advance of an election," Bell said.

"You need to start planning for the next election the minute you finish an election. And in hindsight the Greens struggled with building and expanding on the fact they had such a momentous impact from 2019."

The P.E.I. Green Party made history four years ago when it won eight seats in the legislature and became the first Green official Opposition in North America.

The PCs formed a minority government, becoming the first one the province had seen since the 19th Century. That gave Peter Bevan-Baker's Greens more influence and opportunity to advance initiatives and policies than opposition parties of the past, although the Tories did secure a slim majority after a 2020 byelection.

Today, however, the Green Party's momentum appears to have stalled. At the outset of the campaign, the Greens were polling well behind the PCs. A Narrative Research poll suggested the Greens had the support of 22 per cent of decided voters in February, compared with 49 per cent support for the Progressive Conservatives.

The Greens have also struggled to attract candidates and were forced to leave two ridings without anyone carrying the party banner.

"I won't pretend that I'm not disappointed that we don't have a full slate, and I can tell you it wasn't for lack of trying," Bevan-Baker said in a recent interview.

Many supporters have expressed a desire to run for the party over the last four years, but found it hard to drop everything to run when the early election call came, he said.

Some also expressed a reticence to run due to the challenges of public life and how "ugly and petty and cruel that can be," Bevan-Baker added. "I think that puts some people off, particularly people from marginalized communities and women."

Both Bevan-Baker and Bell said they believe the public mood is also hurting the Greens. Both say they felt Islanders viewed 2019 as a "change election," while this campaign does not have the same energy.

But Bell also says she believes the party should have been doing more to prepare well before the lead up to this campaign. For example, the party has only established a handful of district associations and has not been expanding its membership in areas outside of the urban ridings where its support is strongest, Bell said.

She blames the party's "inexperience" in elected office -- no Green MLA was ever elected in P.E.I. before 2015 -- but also says her colleagues and party staff have been more focused on policy than on building the grassroots.

Don Desserud,a political science expert based in P.E.I., says he believes the Green Party's breakthrough four years ago was due largely to disaffected Liberal voters looking for an alternative after 12 years of Liberal governments.

That's why he says this election will be a test of how much support the Greens are able to retain, or whether 2019 was an "aberration" in a province that has typically elected either Liberal or PC MLAs.

Desserud said some disaffected voters who were parking their votes with the Greens in 2019 may have grown to like the party.

"But when I look at those polling numbers, I don't see that," he said. "I see the Greens back to where they were before."

The Liberals, who had four seats heading into the election, have been polling well behind the PC party and slightly behind the Greens. They are also not running a full slate of candidates for the first time since 1919.

Liberal Leader Sharon Cameron has made it her focus to target the Green Party in this campaign in an effort to win back some of those disaffected voters. Cameron has even taken the unusual step of running against Bevan-Baker in his riding, breaking the political convention of not pitting leaders against one another.

P.E.I. historian Ed MacDonald says the province's two-party system is deeply entrenched in older generations of Islanders, many of whom saw their party allegiances as a kind of family inheritance.

But he says the Greens could maintain their gains and attract new voters, given the shifting demographics of the Island thanks to population growth from aggressive immigration efforts.

"The electoral landscape on P.E.I. has been and is changing," he said.

"There are a lot more newcomers to Prince Edward Island from other parts of Canada, from other areas of the world who don't share in that traditional kind of electoral inheritance. So the swing vote, I think, is much larger than it ever was, especially in urban areas."

Bevan-Baker says criticism of his party's election readiness is "fair," but he remains hopeful that Islanders will focus on the Greens' substantial work over the last four years in Opposition, including getting 18 bills passed into law.

"We showed that we deserve to be there," Bevan-Baker said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2023.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/r38zDyM

[wowhealthfitness20]

Trends Show 2017 Assembly Bypolls Redux as BJP Leads in 6 Seats, SP Hold on to 1

Trends Show 2017 Assembly Bypolls Redux as BJP Leads in 6 Seats, SP Hold on to 1

Voters display their identity cards outside a polling station at Paliganj, in Bihar. (AP Photo/Aftab Alam Siddiqui)

In 2017, the six seats — Ghatampur, Bulandshahr, Bangarmau, Unnao, Deoria and Naugaon Sadat — were all grabbed by the BJP, while SP had won Malhani seat that saw a close contest between Lucky Yadav and independent candidate Dhananjay Singh.

News18 Lucknow

Last Updated: Novembe…

[everythingshouldbereality]

Haryana Bypoll Result: Counting of votes underway in Baroda Assembly constituency Image Source : PTI Haryana Bypoll Result: Counting of votes for Baroda Assembly bypoll seat begins…

[bbbnews]

By Election Results 2020 Live Updates: Bypolls Results Of 58 Seats In 11 States Today, All Eyes On Madhya Pradesh By Election Results 2020: In Madhya Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia defected to the BJP with 22 MLAs.

[bbcbreakingnews]

Grand Alliance likely to contest Rajya Sabha byelection in Bihar

PATNA: The opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar is likely to throw its hat in the ring for the Rajya Sabha seat, which has fallen vacant upon the death of former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, sources in the five-party coalition said on Sunday. The BJP-led NDA, of which the late leader’s Lok Janshakti Party has been a constituent, has fielded former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who will file his nomination papers on December 2. Paswan’s son Chirag, who currently heads the LJP and had burnt his fingers recently by going solo in the assembly polls, sought to downplay the cold-shoulder received from the NDA, saying “the seat belonged to the BJP. It is for the party to decide whom to field in the by-election”. Paswan had got elected, unopposed, in a bypoll last year necessitated by his cabinet colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad winning the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha seat. However, the RJD, which heads the Grand Alliance, had on Saturday indicated that it was not willing to give a walkover to the NDA. In a statement, the party’s spokesman Shakti Yadav had said “the BJP has acted out of spite (‘khunnas’) by denying the seat to the LJP. Had the late Ram Vilas Paswan’s party been allowed to contest, we would have considered supporting their candidate even though his party is not our alliance partner”. Meanwhile, sources in the Grand Alliance said the feelers have been sent to Chirag that he consider fielding his mother Reena Paswan from the seat and assured him of its “full support”. The offer appears to have put the 37-year-old LJP president in a bind as agreeing to the offer would be tantamount to burning his bridges with the BJP, to which he claims to remain loyal despite his brinkmanship, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for whom he expresses unreserved admiration. The LJP chief has been maintaining that his misadventure in the recent elections stemmed from the conviction that there was resentment in the state against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his JD(U). Numbers in the state assembly, too, appear to be in favour of the NDA, which now includes smaller parties like VIP and HAM. The ruling coalition has 125 MLAs in the 243-strong assembly as against only 110 of the Grand Alliance. The opposition coalition, which hopes to rally along parties like Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM which has five MLAs, is of the view that such a contest would be a win-win situation as even if Reena Paswan were to lose, the NDA would end up angering a large section of Dalits. Sources in the Grand Alliance also said that if Chirag did not come out with a positive response, the coalition might still go ahead and field its candidate for the seat, engaging in yet another trial of strength with the ruling NDA. Filing of nomination papers will come to a close on December 3. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is December 7 and voting is scheduled on December 14.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2020/11/29/grand-alliance-likely-to-contest-rajya-sabha-byelection-in-bihar/

[jainyupdates]

MP Byelection : मुरैना के सुमावली में फायरिंग, दिग्विजय बोले- हैक हो सकती है EVM

MP Byelection : मुरैना के सुमावली में फायरिंग, दिग्विजय बोले- हैक हो सकती है EVM

न्यूज डेस्क, अमर उजाला, मुरैना।

Updated Tue, 03 Nov 2020 10:41 AM IST

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कहीं भी, कभी भी।

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मध्यप्रदेश की 28 सीटों पर मंलगवार को उपचुनाव के लिए मतदान जारी है। इस दौरान मुरैना के सुमावली में फायरिंग की घटना सामने आई है। इसमें एक युवक के घायल होने की…

[newsyatra]

Mp Byelection : Firing At Sumavali In Morena, A Youth Injured, Digvijay Singh Said Evm Could Be Hacked - Mp Byelection : मुरैना के सुमावली में फायरिंग, दिग्विजय बोले- हैक हो सकती है Evm

Mp Byelection : Firing At Sumavali In Morena, A Youth Injured, Digvijay Singh Said Evm Could Be Hacked – Mp Byelection : मुरैना के सुमावली में फायरिंग, दिग्विजय बोले- हैक हो सकती है Evm

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न्यूज डेस्क, अमर उजाला, मुरैना।

Updated Tue, 03 Nov 2020 10:41 AM IST

दिग्विजय सिंह के साथ कमलनाथ। (फाइल फोटो)

पढ़ें अमर उजाला ई-पेपर कहीं भी, कभी भी।

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[net4news]

Political activities gain momentum in Basavakalyan

Political activities have gained momentum for the byelections to the Basavakalyan Legislative Assembly constituency where polling is scheduled on April 17 while counting of votes will take place on May 2. The last date for filing nomination papers is March 30. Scrutiny will be taken up on March 31 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination paper is April 3. The Assembly seat fell vacant due to the COVID-19 death of legislator B. Narayan Rao on September 24, 2020. Political activities in Basavakalyan gathered momentum following the announcement of candidates by the major political parties. The Congress has fielded Mallamma Narayan Rao, apparently in an effort to get sympathy votes following the death of Narayan Rao who represented the constituency since 2018 as party legislator. The Congress leaders are working hard to capture the seat in the byelection. Syed Yasrab Ali Quadri, who has been picked by the Janata Dal (Secular) for the seat, recently left the Congress to join it. Springing a surprise and ending days of speculation on the choice of candidate for the bypolls, the ruling BJP on Thursday announced the selection of its candidate, Sharanabasappa Salgar, a political greenhorn and outsider , for the seat. The choice of Sharanbasappa Salgar even surprised BJP local leaders as well as political observers as the party was expected to field a bigwig. The names of two-time former legislator Mallikarjun Khuba and BJP State vice-president and son of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa B.Y. Vijayendra were names doing the rounds in BJP circles. However, now all the three contestants are first-timers. In the last 11 Assembly elections in Basavakalyan, the Janata Dal (Secular) won thrice in 1999, 2004, and 2013 elections. Basavaraj Patil Atoor emerged victorious on Janata Dal ticket in 1994 and 1989 and once on BJP ticket in the 2008 elections. The Congress won it twice in 1972 and 2018.

BJP aspirants protest

Meanwhile, BJP aspirants, who were trying to get ticket for the byelections from the segment, were furious after they learnt that all of them were sidelined in favour of an outsider, Sharanabasappa Salgar. As many as 16 aspirants who were denied ticket and their supporters and local BJP workers staged a protest in the city and Bidar MP Bhagwant Khuba’s effigy was hit with footwear before it was set on fire on Friday. The BJP workers along with disappointed aspirants held a meeting and took a pledge to not vote for the BJP in the upcoming bypolls. Source link Read the full article

[bbcbreakingnews]

Ready to back Paswan’s wife if LJP fields her for RS bypoll, says RJD

PATNA: The Lalu Prasad-led RJD said on Saturday that it would extend “unconditional support” to LJP if it fielded Reena Paswan, widow of former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, as its candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Bihar. A byelection to the seat will be held on December 14. The RS seat was vacated due Ram Vilas Paswan’s death on October 8 this year. On Friday, BJP had named former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi as its candidate for the byelection to the RS seat. A day after BJP declared its candidate, the opposition RJD also urged LJP chief Chirag Paswan to field his mother as his party’s candidate for the RS seat. “RJD strongly feels that the late Ram Vilas Paswan was a big leader from Bihar. It would have been a befitting tribute to him if the NDA would have named his wife Reena Paswan as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat vacated by his death. But BJP opted for Sushil Modi,” RJD spokesperson and former MLA Shakti Singh Yadav told TOI on Saturday. However, LJP is yet to take a decision. A RJD politician said if LJP failed to decide, the Mahagathbandhan would put up a candidate for the RS bypoll. The name of Paswan Sr’s son-in-law Anil Sadhu, who heads RJD’s SC/ST cell, is also under consideration.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2020/11/28/ready-to-back-paswans-wife-if-ljp-fields-her-for-rs-bypoll-says-rjd/

[supersportsnewsblog]

Irish EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan was set to resign on Wednesday night, his spokesman said, after days embroiled in a growing scandal for attending a golf dinner in Ireland's County Galway which breached coronavirus rules. Phil Hogan had offered a “fulsome and profound apology” but he struggled to defend his actions during an interview in Irish television (RTE) on Tuesday evening and has been forced to step down. Pressure had been mounting after it was revealed he attended the event at the Oireachtas Golf Society in Galway on August 19 which resulted in a number of senior officials, including Ireland's agriculture minister, resigning from their jobs. 80 people went to the dinner, a number which breached restrictions on gatherings due to Covid-19. He was subsequently forced to outline all his movements dating back to the end of July to his boss in Brussels, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. This report also showed he had not in fact remained in a 14 day quarantine when entering Ireland as he was required to. Prior to the report being handed in, a spokesperson for the European Commission stood up publicly and told journalists that Mr Hogan had completed the quarantine, which has raised questions about whether he had been dishonest to his employer. Senior figures in the Irish government, including the country’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his predecessor Leo Varadkar, had all called for Mr Hogan to consider his position. His position as trade commissioner was seen as something of a scoop for Ireland meaning their man in Brussels would be in charge of the significant portfolio during Brexit negotiations. Appointing a new commissioner will be troublesome for the new Irish coalition government and sending a sitting politician could spark an unwanted byelection. The name widely being touted to replace Mr Hogan is David O’Sullivan, a former EU ambassador to the United States.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8260727 https://ift.tt/3jhYbvw

[bbcbreakingnews]

Chirag plays down BJP fielding Sushil Modi for seat won by Ram Vilas Paswan

PATNA: Cold-shouldered by the BJP in the byelection to a Rajya Sabha seat in Bihar, LJP president Chirag Paswan said on Saturday that it belonged to the saffron party and it was free to take a decision about whom to field. The seat had fallen vacant following the death of Chirag Paswan’s father and Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan. The BJP has nominated former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi for the seat. Sushil Modi is likely to win uncontested unless the opposition Grand Alliance fields a candidate to challenge him. In that event, the polling will take place on December 14. A union minister, Ram Vilas Paswan got elected from the seat last year after it fell vacant following his cabinet colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad’s election to the Lok Sabha from Patna Sahib. “The seat belonged to the BJP and it is for the party to decide which candidate from which party to field in the byelection,” the 37-year-old leader told reporters at a function held to celebrate his party’s 20th foundation day. Chastened by the drubbing in the recent Bihar elections, Chirag Paswan asked the party rank and file to gear up for the next assembly polls which could take place “any time”. He reiterated it in a letter addressed to LJP workers and shared with the media. Responding to questions, Paswan maintained that he saw “fresh elections taking place any time in Bihar, given the way the new government is functioning”. In a written message to party workers, Paswan defended his decision to go solo in the assembly polls, saying, “We had to make a choice between accepting the NDA’s offer of only 15 seats despite being a party with six members in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha, or engage in a friendly fight to preserve our honour”. In the one-page letter, Paswan refrained from making any remark against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) boss whom he had targeted all through the elections and repeatedly accused of being unfair and brusque towards his late father while he was alive. The letter contained no reference to the BJP or Prime Minister Narendra Modi to whom Paswan has proclaimed loyalty despite his steadfast support to Nitish Kumar. The Jamui MP also deplored the heated exchanges between the chief minister and Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav on the floor of the assembly on Friday and said both shared the blame for the unsavoury turn of events. “I would not like to take sides in this matter. From both sides many personal attacks were made. I do not think the discourse in Bihar assembly has ever touched such depths,” said Paswan. The LJP chief, under whose stewardship the party fought more than half of the seats in the 243-strong assembly but won only one, tried to perk up his supporters and asked them to focus on the bright side. “We could win only two seats in the previous assembly elections even though we had contested as part of the NDA. This time, we were alone, without an army of star campaigners to canvass in our favour. But we secured 28 lakh votes and now our party is being talked about across the state,” Paswan said in his letter. “It was the dream of the LJP founder, my late father, to help the party come of its own. We have taken a step in that direction. Let’s keep marching,” Paswan, who took over the party mantle from Paswan Sr a year ago, added.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2020/11/28/chirag-plays-down-bjp-fielding-sushil-modi-for-seat-won-by-ram-vilas-paswan/

[bbcbreakingnews]

As its fate hangs in balance, LJP claims it proved its worth in Bihar

NEW DELHI: With questions being raised about the Lok Janshakti Party‘s prospects after it won only one seat in the Bihar assembly polls, party sources on Sunday cited its “influence” in “changing” results in over 40 seats to assert that it will continue to have a key presence in the state politics. The LJP was instrumental in the defeat of chief minister Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)in at least 36 seats which is evident from its vote share, and the BJP would also have been hit hard if the regional party had gone all out against it in a similar manner, the sources claimed. The LJP might have won only one seat, but it has underscored its presence by fetching 5.7 percent votes, the party sources said. They noted that the party put up candidates in only six seats where the BJP was in the fray while contesting on almost each of the 115 seats where the JD(U) contested in the elections to the 243-seat Bihar assembly polls. With the JD(U), hit hard by the LJP in the elections, likely to oppose any friendly vibes to the party by its ally BJP, the sources in the Chirag Paswan-led party claimed that it was offered only 15 seats to contest in the polls, leaving it with no option other than to fight on its own. So far, there has been no official word from either the BJP or the LJP about the number of seats it was offered. LJP sources said their party could not have accepted only 15 seats after having six Lok Sabha MPs and one Rajya Sabha member in Ram Vilas Paswan, whose death has necessitated a byelection to the seat. “We had the option of either crossing over to the opposition or fighting on our own with a focus on seats being contested by the JD(U) as its reluctance was the main reason the LJP was offered only so few seats,” an LJP leader said, adding that its decision was driven by the desire to cause minimal harm to the BJP. The NDA scraped through in a close contest with the RJD-Left-Congress alliance by winning 125 seats against the opposition’s 110. The JD(U) suffered heavy losses as its tally fell to 43 from 71 in the 2015 polls. The LJP, which had two seats in the outgoing assembly, won only one seat while the BJP emerged victorious in 74. Chirag Paswan has insisted that his party might have left the NDA in Bihar, but it remains a member of the ruling alliance at the Centre. It remains to be seen what shape the LJP’s relations with the BJP at the Centre take as the party’s political presence is confined to Bihar where JD(U) leaders have expressed their opposition to any ties with Chirag Paswan’s party. In his campaign, Paswan was strongly critical of Nitish Kumar and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The post As its fate hangs in balance, LJP claims it proved its worth in Bihar appeared first on BreakingNews.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2020/11/15/as-its-fate-hangs-in-balance-ljp-claims-it-proved-its-worth-in-bihar/

[bbcbreakingnews]

BJP wins 41 out of 59 bypoll seats, 31 at Cong’s expense

In a tidal sweep of byelections in seven out of 11 states, the BJP or an ally on Tuesday won 41 of the 59 seats at stake –– as many as 31 of them at Congress’s expense. Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat provided the big bang in this cracker of a pre-Diwali performance, with the saffron party wresting 26 seats from Congress in these two states alone. In Gujarat, BJP’s “double engine” steamrollered Congress in all eight seats to which bypolls were held, including five in Saurashtra and the tribal-dominated constituency of Dang. Five of the victors are turncoat Congress MLAs who had switched sides ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls. In the 182-member House, BJP now has 111 seats to Congress’s 65. Manipur was the third state where BJP scored a near-perfect 4 in Congress strongholds. The fifth Congress-held seat was captured by an independent.

Uttar Pradesh, too, played to BJP’s script, strengthening CM Yogi Adityanath’s hand with a six-on-six show in seats held by the party, including the Bangarmau constituency that rape and murder convict Kuldeep Singh Sengar used to represent. One of the BJP victors was the late cricketer-turned-politician Chetan Chauhan’s wife Sangeeta Chauhan, who won the Naugawan Sadat seat that fell vacant when her husband died after a bout of Covid-19 in August. The Samajwadi Party narrowly retained the seventh UP seat that went to poll, maintaining status quo in the assembly. BJP continued its march in Karnataka, wresting the Sira seat from JD(S) and RR Nagar from Congress to silence CM BS Yediyurappa’s detractors and possibly put a lid on talk of a leadership change. As in Gujarat, voters re-elected a turncoat Congress MLA contesting the RR Nagar seat on a BJP ticket. Winner N Munirathna’s resignation after crossing over had necessitated the bypoll. The saffron party’s strength in the House now stands at 119, while Congress has 67 and JD(S) 33 MLAs.

In Telangana, BJP engineered a coup of sorts when its candidate M Raghunandan Rao beat the Chandrashekar Rao-led TRS’s nominee Solipeta Sujatha by a wafer-thin margin of 1,079 votes in the Dubbak byelection. For Raghunandan, it was fourth time lucky in Dubbak after thrice ending up on the losing side. Sources said the verdict could well be an affirmation of how Telangana’s future politics will play out, with BJP replacing Congress as the main opposition party in the state. The first sign of this was BJP winning four seats for the first time in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In MP, 18 of the 19 seats won by BJP were those that Congress lost. For the grand old party, the big gain was in Chhattisgarh, where it wrested the Marwahi (ST) seat — a stronghold of the Ajit Jogi family for almost two decades. Dr Krishna Kumar Dhruw defeated BJP’s Dr Gambhir Singh by over 38,197 votes there. The nearly 25% difference in vote share told the story — while ruling Congress got 56% votes, BJP managed 30.4%. With this win, Congress now has 70 seats in the 90-member assembly after winning the Dantewada and Chitrakot (ST) byelection in September last year. One of the two Nagaland seats that went to poll was won by NDPP, a BJP ally. The other went to an independent.

The post BJP wins 41 out of 59 bypoll seats, 31 at Cong’s expense appeared first on BreakingNews.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2020/11/10/bjp-wins-41-out-of-59-bypoll-seats-31-at-congs-expense/

[bbcbreakingnews]

BJP withstands heavy odds to come up trumps in Bihar

NEW DELHI: The outcome of assembly elections in Bihar and bypolls showed the BJP had cleared a challenge it had faced against heavy odds. The final outcome in Bihar is yet to be declared, but it is clearly the NaMo-fueled BJP which has brought the NDA to the brink of a victory in the face of RJD’s extravagantly seductionist promise of lakhs of jobs, sullenness in a section of its voters towards Nitish Kumar, a blizzard of mood-altering feverish commentary about its meltdown and dire predictions by psephologists. BJP is now the senior one among the NDA partners and, with an ounce of luck, could even grab the single largest party slot. That the feat was achieved in a state where it carried the burden of being the “incumbent” should make the performance all the more gratifying. Taken together with its impressive run in byelections in several states, the outcome on Tuesday underscores the party’s numero uno status and should boost its confidence for the West Bengal challenge scheduled for next year, and for dealing with the resistance to central government’s farm sector reforms and criticism of its handling of the pandemic. The virus had upturned the lives of lakhs of migrants from Bihar who were forced to return home and to an uncertain future, while Congress had launched a campaign against the just-enacted farm sector laws. BJP’s success in Bihar and the prospect of NDA holding on to the state owe greatly to PM Narendra Modi‘s credibility and his energetic campaigning in the state. According to senior BJP leaders in Bihar and at the Centre, while the impact of welfare schemes like free cooking gas connections, cash transfers to farmers, Swachh Bharat, housing for the poor and quota for poor among upper castes endures, recent measures like free foodgrain and cash transfer to women have enhanced the PM’s pro-poor credentials. BJP sources said Modi swung the game for NDA in the second and third phases by reviving the memories of jungle raj. “We were also talking about it, but were not successful until he arrived,” a Union minister from the state said. Speaking to TOI, defence minister Rajnath Singh attributed the victory to Modi’s leadership. But the result also brings with it a fresh set of challenges, the foremost being how to manage a coalition which will be led by Nitish Kumar even when his party has finished a distant third in the seat count. BJP was always confident of posting a better strike rate than its ally and has stood firm by its commitment to back Nitish for another term, but the wide gap between their respective scores has created a new situation. Apart from the high probability of Nitish showing his reluctance, the party also has to think of ways of bolstering his authority. It also has to address the suspicion, being stoked by anti-NDA quarters, in JD(U) that LJP’s Chirag Paswan was set up by sections in BJP to sabotage Nitish. Sooner than later, BJP also has to decide what to do with Chirag.

The post BJP withstands heavy odds to come up trumps in Bihar appeared first on BreakingNews.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2020/11/10/bjp-withstands-heavy-odds-to-come-up-trumps-in-bihar/