Chandigarh:

The farmers on Sunday protested against BJP candidate Dinesh Babbu in Batala and party leader Arvind Khanna in Barnala in Punjab as the party leaders continued to face their wrath over their unmet demands.

The BJP candidates and leaders have been facing protests from the farmers who have shown them black flags when they were campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.

Party candidates Hans Raj Hans from Faridkot seat, Taranjit Singh Sandhu from Amritsar and Preneet Kaur from Patiala have already witnessed the anger of the farmers.

In Fatehgarh Churian in Batala, a group of farmers on Sunday raised slogans against Mr Babbu, who is the BJP nominee from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat.

Police even tried to stop the protesters from heading towards the venue where Mr Babbu and the BJP supporters were holding an election related programme.

One of the protesters at Fatehgarh Churian said they will continue to oppose the BJP leaders.

Reacting to the protest, BJP candidate Babbu said it was only his party which can resolve their issues while the other political outfits will “use” them for their vested interests.

“We are with the farmers and I am also a farmer. Their issues can be resolved through dialogue,” said Mr Babbu.

In another incident, BJP leader Arvind Khanna faced the farmers’ protest in Barnala where he had gone to campaign.

A heavy police force was deployed and barricades were raised.

One of the woman protesters slammed the BJP government for not allowing the farmers to go towards Delhi and using “force” against them.

Another protester said they came to hold the protest against Mr Khanna in a peaceful manner but the police personnel did not allow them to move towards the venue.

Mr Khanna, however, alleged that it was not farmer outfits but the workers of the AAP who were “orchestrating” such protests.

“The farmers are either in their fields (for wheat harvesting) or mandis (for selling wheat). These outfits are the people of (chief minister) Bhagwant Mann and these are not farmers,” alleged Mr Khanna, adding that the Modi government stands by the farmers.

Meanwhile, BJP candidate from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Taranjit Singh Sandhu, who has also been facing farmers’ ire, said he belongs to a farming family.

He said he emphasised on increasing the income of the farmers. “I am campaigning and I will continue to do so,” he said.

The farmers under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) have already said they will oppose the BJP and will ask the people to “punish” the saffron party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The farmers owing allegiance to various farm outfits are upset with the BJP-led Centre for not accepting their demands, including a law on minimum support price.

They were also angry over not being allowed to head towards Delhi, forcing them to camp at Shambhu and Khanauri border points of Punjab and Haryana.

The SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) are spearheading the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march by the farmers to press the government to accept their demands which include that the Centre should give a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the crops.

The farmers have been staying put at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 when their march was stopped by the security forces.

The polling for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be held in the last phase on June 1. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Lucknow:

The BJP on Saturday released a list of seven candidates for the coming biennial elections to the Uttar Pradesh legislative council, repeating three candidates, including senior leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak, whose term is coming to an end in May.

Vijay Bahadur Pathak is vice president of the state unit of the BJP.

The list released by national general secretary Arun Singh includes the names of former ministers Mahendra Kumar Singh and Ashok Katariya who will also seek re-election.

The four new faces are state vice president Santosh Singh, president of the western region of the party Mohit Beniwal, former mayor of Jhansi Ram Tirath Singhal and co-media incharge of UP Dharmendra Singh.

There has been an attempt to strike a caste and regional balance through the selection of candidates for the legislative council, especially in view of the coming Lok Sabha elections, party insiders said.

The term of 13 members of the legislative council is coming to an end in May this year. It is believed that the party has left three seats for its allies and Rashtriya Lok Dal has already announced its candidate.

According to the notification, nominations will continue till March 11 and the last date for withdrawal of names is March 14. Voting, if required, will take place on March 21.

The counting of votes will take place after 5 pm on the same day.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party will hold a late night meeting to finalise the remaining seats in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, sources said on Saturday.

According to the sources, a meeting of BJP’s core group leaders from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana will be held with BJP National President JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah tonight.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced its list of candidates for the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar MLC elections.

The BJP has announced its candidates for 3 seats in Bihar for now, which include Mangal Pandey, Dr Lal Mohan Gupta, and Anamika Singh for the MLC election 2024.

There are a total of 11 seats up for contest in Bihar.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP fielded Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Mahendra Kumar Singh, Mohit Beniwal, Ashok Katariya, Dharmendra Singh, Ramtirath Singhal, and Santosh Singh.

In UP, candidates will contest 13 MLC seats, with the BJP announcing its candidates for 7 seats.

The MLC election in Bihar and UP is scheduled for March 21, and the last date for filing the nomination is March 11.

In a big jolt to the Congress party, ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Suresh Pachouri joined the BJP in Bhopal on Saturday.

Former Union Minister Suresh Pachouri on Saturday pointed to some decisions, both ‘political and religious’, as ones that prompted his exit from the party.

Speaking to ANI after being formally inducted into the BJP, Pachouri said, “I entered politics to serve society and the country. Congress has always worked towards establishing a classless society. However, the idea stands rejected today. Some of the decision-making by the Congress high command, especially on religious and political matters, drove me closer to the edge and eventually exit the party.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Raipur (Chhattisgarh):

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday released its fourth and final list of candidates for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, fielding party leader Rajesh Agarwal from Ambikapur constituency against state Deputy Chief Minister TS Singh Deo.

The party’s final list has four candidates including Sushant Shukla from Beltara, Dhaniram Dhivar from Kasdol and Dipesh Sahu from Bemetara.

The first phase of polling for 20 seats in Chhattisgarh will be held on November 7.

The BJP has now declared all 90 candidates in the state. The party’s first list of 21 candidates included Lok Sabha MP Vijay Baghel, who has been fielded against Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in Patan in Durg district.

The second list had 64 candidates and the third list had a single name.

The Congress has also declared the names of all its 90 candidates.

After the first phase of polling on November 7, the remaining 70 seats in the state will go to polls on November 17. The counting of votes will be done on December 3.

Last week, the BJP released the list of 40 star campaigners for the first phase of the state polls.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)