With just weeks away from the general elections, all the political parties have begun the preparations to take on their opponents in their respective states. Both the national parties — BJP and Congress — have started the process of selecting candidates for the Lok Sabha polls that would begin on April 11.
So far, Congress, NCP and SP have declared the list of their candidates. While Congress and SP had announced the list last week, NCP announced its first list of candidates on Thursday.
Rahul Gandhi began his political campaign with the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. After CWC meet, the Congress President said: “the Congress Working Committee in Ahmedabad resolved to defeat the RSS/ BJP ideology of fascism, hatred, anger & divisiveness. No sacrifice is too great in this endeavour; no effort too little; this battle will be won.”
In 2014, the BJP had won 282 seats with 31.34 vote share bringing down the Congress to just 44 from 206 seats in 2009. This year, voting will begin on April 11 and end on May 19. The results will be declared on May 23.
Former Odisha Minister Damodar Rout who was expelled from BJD last year joined BJP in Delhi on Thursday. He joined the party in the presence of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP vice-president Baijayant Panda and other leaders. Panda welcomed Rout saying "Your decades with Biju uncle and long years in his cabinet and also his son's did not aid you against harassment when you exposed corruption at highest levels last year and were expelled from BJD. Look fwd to working together for Odisha's revival.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday announced its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls. Senior party leader Supriya Sule would contest from the party stronghold of Baramati. The NCP has also given the ticket to Mohammad P P Faizal from Lakshadweep. Sitting MPs Udayanraje Bhosale and Dhananjay Mahadik would fight from Satara and Kolhapur, respectively. The other candidates include Anand Paranjpe (Thane) and Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai Northeast).
Former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi said the Congress will benefit from the anti-Citizenship Bill sentiment in Assam after the AGP's "betrayal". He hoped to win at least 10 of the 14 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha polls.
The senior leader said that the alliance between the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party will not help them. Gogoi said that both the parties have formed an opportunistic alliance as none of them has the capability to win alone. The AGP had snapped ties with the BJP-led government in Assam over the Citizenship Bill.