Politics News Updates

The viral audio clip has surfaced at a time when the first phase of voting began for the three-tier Panchayat elections on Wednesday. 

Basudevpur village under Ganjam’s Digapahandi Block turned into a war zone on Monday afternoon when some armed miscreants, purportedly supporters of a Sarpanch candidate, disrupted the campaign procession of another Sarpanch candidate, Rabi Narayan Padhi before launching an attack.

"We have selected those leaders who are eager to campaign," said OPCC chief Niranjan Patnaik.  

General Secretary of State BJP, Lekhashree Samantsinghar raised the demand at a presser wherein she presented screen grabs of the video showing Minister Mishra at Raipur airport on October 15, 2021.

His resignation comes close on the heels of a spate of resignations, the most recent being that of another former union minister R P N Singh.

In another incident, some miscreants allegedly attacked BJD’s Zone-24 Zilla Parishad candidate Dharnidhar Sahu while he was campaigning at Potal village under Pipili block of Puri district on Monday.

A rather peaceful state of Odisha has suddenly witnessed eruption of violence in many parts, thanks to the cut throat competition among candidates for the forthcoming Panchayat elections.

Uttarakhand is holding single phase polling for all its 70 Assembly seats, with a total of 82,66,644 voters deciding the fate of 632 candidates.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders accused the police of bending rules for the ruling BJD party. “They (police) stopped us at different points from the beginning of the rally. No one can stop us from campaigning as it is our Constitutional right to reach people,” said State BJP President Sameer Mohanty.

The EC has put out a disclaimer that the data made available is approximate as data from some polling stations takes time to reach.

He said that the double engine government gave free houses while earlier government were totally indifferent. Even though the Centre was sending money, they were not ready to make the houses for the poor.

The Opposition party has claimed that Minister Mishra had visited Raipur on October 15, last year. Later, he went to Chandigarh before going to Delhi.  He met Sahu following his return to Raipur on October 18.

The Odisha State Election Commission (SEC) has laid down a set of guidelines specifying rules for the validation of votes polled during the Panchayat elections in the State.

On the other hand, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has intensified campaigning in Ganjam's Polsara Block. Several Ollywood actors like Tamanna, Poonam and Debashis were seen campaigning with local MLA Srikant Sahoo in ZP zone 38, 39 and 40. 

Ashwini Sethi has unsuccessfully been contesting as a ward member for last 35 years.