The Election Commission will send notice to at least two newspapers that ran full page advertisements for Vivek Oberoi-starrer film on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The EC has taken a dim view of the code violation by the two Hindi newspapers.Two newspapers that carried the full page ads are Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran. While Bhaskar has given full page space to the advertisement on the film, Jagran too has carried a full page ad, but not on the front page. The full page ad for Narendra Modi’s film in Jagran has appeared in its supplementary page for Noida.

In a jolt to the BJP in Assam, its sitting MP from Tezpur Ram Prasad Sarmah Saturday announced that he quit the saffron fold and alleged neglect of old workers by "new intruders in the party"

Mr Sarmah said he was resigning from the primary membership of the BJP after serving the RSS and VHP for 15 years and the BJP for 29 years.

"I have left BJP today. I really feel pained in my heart for those old BJP workers of Assam who are most neglected in the party by the new intruders in the party," he said in a Facebook post.

Mr Sarmah's name was not included in the party's panel of probable candidate for Tezpur Lok Sabha seat. It only had the name of Assam minister and NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Hardik Patel, Patidar quota agitation leader from Gujarat, will join Congress today during the party's Working Committee meet in Ahmedabad where party chief Rahul Gandhi and party leader Priyanka Gandhi will also be present.

In a series of tweets on Sunday, he said, "To give shape to my intentions to serve society and country, I have decided to join Indian National Congress on 12th March in presence of Shri Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders."

I would also like to state that if there is no legal hindrance and party decides to field me in electoral politics, I would abide by the party’s decision. I am taking this step to serve 125 core citizens of India.

— Hardik Patel (@HardikPatel_) March 10, 2019

The Election Commission today announced that the Lok Sabha election will be held in 7 phases. CEC Sunil Arora said that the Model Code of Conduct has come into force as it announced the dates for the elections to 17th Lok Sabha. The elections will start on April 11 and continue till May 19. The counting will be held on May 23. Nearly 90 crore voters will be eligible to vote for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country. With the announcement of dates the moral code of conduct comes into  force immediately.

Gautam Gambhir is likely to start new innings in politics as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could pitch the name of the former cricketer for Lok Sabha seat in Delhi.

Gambhir, who has been vocal about several issues of national importance and often expresses his views on social media, could be fielded by the BJP from the New Delhi seat, which is currently represented by Supreme Court lawyer Meenakshi Lekhi.

NEW DELHI: As the Election Commission today made it official that the dates for the national election would be announced at 5 pm, concerns were expressed by a few politicians - but entirely of the astrological kind.

Some politicians from the south, including a governor, wanted the timing of the announcement changed. The reason - today, the period between 4.30 and 6 pm would be Rahu Kaal or an inauspicious time of the day, which is not considered favourable for the start of any activity. Some of the "worried" politicians questioned whether the powerful election body could reschedule its press meet.

According to mythology, Rahu Kaal covers a span of about 90 minutes every day in between sunrise and sunset.

The Election Commission will announce the schedule of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra will address a news conference at Vigyan  Bhavan in New Delhi. They will announce the schedules of the Lok Sabha polls as well as the assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Odisha.

Jamnagar: Rivaba Jadeja, wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja on Saturday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in presence of Gujarat Agriculture Minister R C Faldu and MP Poonam Madam at Jamnagar in Gujarat. Her decision to join the ruling BJP comes just months before the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP leaders presented her with a saffron scarf while welcoming her to the party.
Riva Solanki is the Wife of Indian Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja. Her Real Name is Rivaba Solanki And Nickname is Reeva. Reeva Solanki is an Engineer by profession. She was born in the year 1990 in Rajkot, Gujarat, India. Reeva is the only child of millionaire H. Solanki and Prafulla.

Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, in a jaw-dropping departure from the opposition chorus and his own party line, said he "prayed" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's return to power, during speeches to mark the last sitting of the current Lok Sabha today before the national election. His supporters swore it was all in humour, but the comment still raised eyebrows.

"I want to congratulate the PM that he tried to move ahead taking everyone along. I hope all members to win and return, and you (PM Modi) become prime minister again," Mulayam Singh, 79, said in the Lok Sabha, sending the house into guffaws. The camera panned to his immediate neighbor, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, looking surprised, and to PM Modi, chuckling and thumping his desk. The prime minister also folded his hands.

The Yadav father and son have not been on the best of terms over the past two years, during which Akhilesh, 45, staged a coup and took over control of the party founded by his father.

Despite the strain, Mulayam Singh chose to remain by his son's side as his younger brother Shivpal Yadav broke away and set up a rebel outfit.


Mulayam served three times as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state (1989–91, 1993–95, and 2003–07).The SP made a dramatic comeback in the 2002 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, garnering a plurality, but not a majority, of seats. However, after the collapse of a short-lived BSP-BJP coalition government in 2003, the SP put together its own governing coalition, and Yadav became chief minister for the third time. Following the BSP’s trouncing of the SP in the 2007 state assembly elections, Yadav served as leader of opposition in the assembly (2007–09) before being elected again to the Lok Sabha in 2009. In early 2012 the SP won an outright majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Yadav retained his leadership of the party, but he stepped aside to allow his son, Akhilesh Yadav, to become the state’s chief minister. The elder Yadav was reelected in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, but his party could win only five seats in the chamber.

@INCIndia is leading a powerful, united campaign across India. Infighting cannot, and should not, be allowed to threaten our base in Mumbai. I appeal to all Congress leaders in Mumbai to unite as a team. We owe this much to our party and to Congress President @RahulGandhi.

— Milind Deora (@milinddeora) February 5, 2019

Thank You For the warm welcome..Look forward to serve the nation 🙏🏻 @narendramodi @bjpindia @bjpmaharashtra @bjpmumbai @nitingadkari @devendrafadnavis @ashishshelar @hajiarfatshaikh @vinodtawde @amarsable @amitshah pic.twitter.com/GESTfg4VG4

— Isha Koppikar (@ishakonnects) January 27, 2019

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s mouthpiece Organiser in its latest issue has predicted a “Hung House” in the 17th Lok Sabha and pronounced the inevitability of governance paralysis in the next six months.

It said, “A governance paralysis for the next six months will be inevitable. Most disconcerting would be the likelihood of a “hung Lok Sabha that would imply political instability which would be adverse from the national security point of view.”

Who could have imagined the media speculating that days of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister are numbered, that the countdown has started and even if the BJP manages to cobble a majority in next year’s general election, Narendra Modi may not remain the Prime Minister?

But the defeat of the BJP in the three crucial state elections to the Congress in direct contests has sent alarm bells ringing. All political pundits were earlier agreed that Prime Minister Modi and BJP could not expect to repeat the performance in 2014. BJP, they held, could lose a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 100 seats in the Lok Sabha and that it would have to make up the loss from new BJP turfs like the North-East, Odisha and West Bengal.

What has taken even the pundits by surprise, however, are rising voices within the BJP and the RSS in favour of projecting a new prime ministerial candidate. Not surprisingly, letters have been written to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that both Modi and Amit Shah had become liabilities and that the Nagpur MP and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari be projected as an alternative. His proximity to RSS leaders and headquarters at Reshambagh at Nagpur is of course an advantage.

Gadkari himself has been striking independent notes. At a time when the Government was gloating over what it believed to be the impending extradition of Vijay Mallya from London, Gadkari spoke up and said that it was inappropriate to describe a one-time loan defaulter as a scamster and fugitive. He also left nothing to imagination when he asserted that some people in the BJP loved to speak and that such people need to learn to speak less. While he pointedly said he was joking, nobody was left with any illusion about the leaders he was referring to.

Media is more focused on the Operation lotus in Karnataka but the political observers believe that Congress need to be careful in Madhya pradesh for coming six months. BJP narrowly lost its 15 year leadership in MP in December by 7 seats. Congress CM Kamalnath said BJP may be luring MLA's but he has faith in his MLA's.

The politics in Karnataka is on the boil once again. In a setback to the seven-month-old Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government, two MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh on Tuesday withdrew support to the Kumaraswamy government.