Lok Sabha Election 2024 highlights: 'A farewell party,' BJP takes dig at INDIA bloc's meeting tomorrow

Bahujan Samaj Party's Chandigarh candidate Ritu Singh on Thursday came down heavily on Congress and claimed that the party is standing against the reservation of backward communities like SC and ST.

In a face-to-face debate with Manish Tiwari in front of the media, Ritu Singh questioned the Congress candidate on how he would save the Constitution.

She said, "How the Constitution will be saved? On the poor people, you state that the reservation of SC, and Backward Class should be done on the basis of financial condition and should not be done based on caste and creed."

Manish Tewari in his reply to Singh, said, "In the Constitution, the reservation of SC and ST is ensured...As far as the question of reservation...My stand is absolutely clear. My stand is with the Indian National Congress."

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pabitra Margherita slammed the Congress party for opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled meditation at Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari on Friday.

"Only the Gandhi Vadra family knows what their agenda is. A citizen of India can go anywhere for meditation, and this has been India's culture for a long time. I consider it pathetic for the Congress party. When the Pran Pratishtha was held, Rahul Gandhi was roaming in sensitive areas. He opposed it. And now, when the Prime Minister, or any citizen goes for meditation or perform puja or yoga, what is wrong with it? Nobody can answer this question. Only Rahul Gandhi and his family know it. What is Congress doing?" Margherita said while speaking to ANI on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meditate from Friday until June 1 evening, throughout the day and night, at the Dhyan Mandapam, which happens to be the same place where Swami Vivekanand meditated.

Notably, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election too, PM Modi took a similar trip to the Kedarnath shrine before the final phase of the elections and meditated at a cave.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday offered prayers at Ram temple in Ayodhya and recalled his visit to the holy city as a young 'kar sevak' during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement and in the 1980s and 1990s.

"I am very happy that I have come here first time today after Ram Lalla is 'virajmaan' in Ram temple. Before this, I came here when the work (for the construction of the temple) was underway. I also came here as a Kar Sewak. So what I watched on television on January 22, I am able to witness today with my eyes. It's a dream come true, and I am very happy," he said.

Fadnavis is on a two-day poll-cum-pilgrimage to Varanasi and Ayodhya ahead of the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha polls on June 1.

The visit assumes political significance as 13 constituencies, including the high-profile Varanasi seat where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is contesting, in Uttar Pradesh are going to polls on June 1.

As battleground Sandeshkhali gets ready for polls in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission shared a picture of polling personnel on the move from the dispersal centre to the polling station at the riverine island on a boat.

"Polling Personnel on the Move in Dhamakhali, Sandeshkhali AC, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal," the Election Commission posted on 'X'.

The Chief Electoral Office in West Bengal also shared a few pictures of polling personnel being transported to the North 24 Parganas island.

Calling the BJP and BJD partners, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the Congress will uproot the BJD-BJP partnership government in Odisha as it did in Telangana where BRS was working for the BJP.

Addressing a public meeting in Balasore Lok Sabha constituency on the last day of the campaigning, Gandhi said BJP has lodged 24 cases against him, sentenced him to to years of jail in defamation case, took away his Lok Sabha membership, his government quarter and got him interrogated by ED for 50 hours.

"But why no cases have been filed against Naveen Patnaik who is claiming to be fighting BJP. There has been no interrogation, no raiding because Naveen Patnaik works for BJP. These two(BJD and BJP) are one and the aim of the partnership is to steal the wealth of the people of Odisha, the mines and make billions from it," alleged Gandhi.

Campaigning for the final phase of elections to the Lok Sabha seats and Odisha assembly ended on Thursday with 99.6 lakh voters set to exercise their franchise in 6 Lok Sabha and 42 assembly constituencies on Saturday.

Six Lok Sabha constituencies such as Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapra, Mayurbhanj and Jagatsinghpur will go to the polls along with the 42 Assembly segments in their jurisdiction on June 1. Voting has already ended for 15 Lok Sabha and 105 assembly constituencies with 74.52 % of the 2.36 crore voters exercising their franchise between May 13 and May 25. The voting percentage is a tad better than 2019 election when 72.83 % of the electorate had cast their vote.

In the final phase of polling, the fate of leaders like BJP’s state president Manmohan Samal, former PCC president Niranjan Pattnaik, BJP senior vice president Baijayant Panda and former union minister Shrikant Jena in the fray. Tjere are 460 candidates in the fray in the final phase of election for both assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

In another major bureaucratic reshuffle since Lok sabha elections that commenced on March 16 and are set to end on June 4, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet made a series of appointments and premature repatriation of officers at the Joint Secretary or Joint Secretary equivalent level.

The order said,"In view of declaration of elections to the Lok Sabha, if any of the officers mentioned in the instant communication are on election related duty, they may kindly be relieved after due clearance from the Election Commission of India to take up their new assignment."

In the Ministry of AYUSH, Sachidanand Prasad, an Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts & Finance Service(IP&TA&FS)officer from 1994 batch, has been appointed as Secretary of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM). The centre canceled Binod Kumar, ICAS (1993) appointment as the Secretary which it had announced in March this year, Kumar has been given the tenure till next year. The appointment is effective until Prasad's superannuation on December 31, 2027, or until further orders.

On the preparations for the seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state, Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar says, "Campaigning ended at 5 pm in Rajmahal, Godda, Dumka...The total number of booths is 6258, out of which all polling parties at 241 booths are women...In view of the heat, basic facilities are available at all booths, full security arrangements have been made and adequate security forces have been deployed..."

At least 19 people have died as Bihar experiences intense heatwave conditions, with temperatures exceeding 44 degrees Celsius.

In Bihar's Aurangabad, the death toll due to heat wave conditions has reached 12, while four people died in Kaimur district, including a worker on election duty, on Thursday and three people have died in Bihar's Arrah in Bhojpur district after suffering from extreme heatwaves in the region.

Dr Sahil Raj, a doctor at Kaimur's Mohania sub-divisional hospital, said that on Thursday, a total of about 40 people had come to the hospital who had been affected by heat stroke.

"Among them, two persons, including polling personnel, had come to me who died due to heat stroke. 30 to 40 people, including police personnel, are undergoing treatment. Many have been sent home after treatment, while others are undergoing treatment," he said.

As the election campaign of the Lok Sabha polls ended on Thursday, Congress' star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi's marathon election campaign in this poll season clocked 108 public meetings and roadshows, more than 100 media bytes, one television interview, and five print interviews spread over the last 55 days, the party said.

Priyanka Gandhi, who campaigned in 16 states and one union territory, hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attack on the Congress party and his allegations in a measured manner. Her speeches garnered adequate attention in this election as she shattered the Prime Minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party's efforts to misdirect the narrative, the Congress said.

Gandhi's dialogue, conversation style, gentleness, simplicity, and humility received much praise from the public.

Gandhi concluded her Lok Sabha election campaign with a huge road show in Himachal Pradesh's Solan. After offering prayers to Hanuman at Jakhu temple, Gandhi held her last road show of this poll campaign at Solan, in which thousands participated.

As campaigning for the seventh phase of Lok Sabha polls came to an end in Bihar, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary expressed confidence that the BJP would win all 40 seats in Bihar, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would come to power again.

Samrat Chaudhary said, "Lalu Prasad Yadav did not do any work in 15 years, that is why BJP has been fighting against Lalu Prasad Yadav's corruption in the past and is fighting even today. Today the election campaigning is over. The people of Bihar are going to give all 40 seats to Prime Minister Modi. The result will come on June 4 and Narendra Modi will become Prime Minister again."

He further alleged that the RJD was involved in spreading wrong rumours on reservations.

For Bharatiya Janata Party, which has targeted 30 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha segments, the seventh and last phase of polling at nine seats in Kolkata and two adjacent districts of South and North 24 Parganas is likely to be the acid test because it trailed the ruling Trinamool Congress at all nine in 2019.

The Dum Dum, Barasat and Basirhat seats are in the North 24 Parganas while Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour and Jadavpur are in the South 24 Parganas. The Kolkata North and Kolkata South seats cover the state capital.

Characterised by a mix of rural and cosmopolitan voters who speak various languages, including Hindi, some of these nine seats are likely to witness a different voting pattern because the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), has fielded a few prominent faces in a bid to emerge as a third force in the last leg of the elections.

In the six phases held earlier covering 33 seats, the contests were primarily bipolar in most of the segments because BJP had won 18 of these in 2019, setting a record.

The high-pitched campaigning for the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections in 57 seats in seven states and the Union territory of Chandigarh on June 1 ended Thursday evening.

Polling is scheduled in all 13 seats of Punjab and four of Himachal Pradesh, 13 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight in Bihar, six in Odisha and three seats in Jharkhand besides Chandigarh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third consecutive term from Varanasi.