Ahead of the upcoming general elections, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah submitted his nomination today from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. During his nomination, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhuperndra Patel accompained him.

Former deputy prime minister and BJP chief LK Advani, who earlier served as a representative of this seat during Shah’s successful run for re-election.

Soon after filing nomination, Shah said, today he has submitted his nomination from the Gandhinagar seat. He said it is a matter of pride for him that this seat was represented by the former Prime Minister  Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and the seat where Narendra Modi himself is a voter. He also said he has been an MLA and MP from this seat for 30 years. The people of this region have given him immense love, Shah said.

With an astounding vote share of 69.67 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shah maintained the BJP’s stronghold in Gandhinagar with a resounding victory. Election turnout has been consistently high in the city.

In the context of Indian politics, Gandhinagar is a historical landmark. The former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, won seats from Gandhinagar and Lucknow in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections. However, he decided to stay to his Lucknow seat, opening the door for other leaders to set their mark in Gandhinagar.

Meanwhile, Congress has fielded its party secretary Sonal Patel from Gandhinagar.

Gujarat is scheduled to go for a single phase of elections on May 7. The results of the election will be announced on June 4.

Tamil Nadu BJP chief and party candidate from Coimbatore seat K Annamalai said the time of Dravidian politics is over and also accused the ruling DMK and AIADMK of spending Rs 1,000 crore in Coimbatore to influence voters. Annamalai made the statement after casting his vote at Uthupatti polling booth in Karur village on Friday.

He expressed his confidence of a historic result for the NDA on June 4, the IPS officer-turned-politician said the BJP will see a rise in its vote share in Tamil Nadu. Annamalai further added people of Tamil Nadu are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  

He said in the state of Karnataka the party is expecting a clean sweep this time. The State BJP chief said the BJP will be the number 1 party in Telangana. He said he was confident that Tamil Nadu will deliver a very big resounding result this time. He said there will be a rise in BJP’s vote share in the state and time of Dravidian politics is over.

In Coimbatore, K Annamalai is contesting the election from Coimbatore and is facing DMK’s Ganapathy P Rajkumar and AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran. All 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will go for voting in the first phase. K Annamalai spoke to the media after casting his vote and accused the ruling DMK and AIADMK of spending more than Rs 1,000 crore in Coimbatore to influence the voters.

He said if the ruling DMK and AIADMK can bring 1 voter in front of the media to say that BJP is trying to influence them, then he will leave politics the same day because he is running in this election as a matter of principle. The elections to the state of Tamil Nadu will be closely monitored as the state has been at the centre of the BJP’s southern push in order to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 400 paar goal.

As soon as the first phase of the Lok Sabha elecrtions for three of West Bengal’s 42 seats began at 7 a.m. on Friday, reports of clashes between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bhartiye Janta Party (BJP) began to circulate.

An argument between workers and supporters of the two bitter rivals at Chandmari, close to CoochBehar town, resulted in at least one injury. Reports of stone stone pelting also cirrculated.

Anant Barman, a local TMC functionary, was reportedly injured in a crude bombing at Bhetaguri and was admitted to the hospital. the state minister Udayan Gandhi, raced to visit Barman in the hospital.

All three seat, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, and Jalpaiguri, where the first phase of voting is taking place today, were won by the BJP in 2019. 15.2% of voters in CoochBehar, 15.91% in Alipurduar, and 14.13% in Jalpaiguri turned up till 9:00 am for voting.

The BJP and TMC both charged that the other was intimidating voters, keeping them from going to the polls, and attacking poll workers. It is stated that temporary electoral offices were set on fire in places like Toofanganj in Cooch Behar and Dabgram-Fulbari in Jalpaiguri.

The majority of calls regarding voter intimidation and poll violence, according to a representative of the West Bengal governor’s office, came from Cooch Behar.

Five people were killed in April 2021 during Cooch Behar assembly elections, one of them was a first-time voter. There have also been reports of clashes between state minister Udayan Guha and union minister Nisith Pramajick’s supporters.

Meanwhile, for complaints regarding electoral violence, the BJP has established a helpline at its office in Kolkata. TMC officials reported that Abhishek Banerjee, the party’s national general secretary, was keeping an eye on the voting process from Kolkata.