NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that he fears a new Putin is in the making in India. Pawar alleged PM Modi is trying to create fear and emulating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sharad Pawar said that former prime ministers worked to make a new India but PM Modi only criticises others and does not speak about what his government has done for the people of India in the last 10 years.

Sharad Pawar was addressing a campaign rally in Amravati for a Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate and said former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s contribution to the nation cannot be questioned. He said some BJP leaders had spoken publicly about changing the Constitution and appealed to the people to stop allowing autocracy from taking shape in India.

Pawar said he had seen Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and had seen the work of almost all Prime Ministers ranging from Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Narasimha Rao to Manmohan Singh. The NCP (SP) chief said he had seen that their efforts were to make a new India, but PM Modi knows only how to criticize. He said nobody in history can forget the contribution of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, but the PM Modi continuously criticises him.

Sharad Pawar further added that he wanted to apologise to the people of Amravati for the mistake he had committed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by supporting Navneet Rana. He hailed Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray for taking up the responsibility to protect the national interest by working closely with the Congress and the NCP (SP) as they did in the past. Speaking to the media, Pawar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constant attack on the Congress was not a wise decision as that party is not in power.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded Tej Pratap Singh Yadav for the parliamentary seat in Uttar Pradesh, putting an end to rumours that its chief, Akhilesh Yadav, would contest from Kannauj.

Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and his spouse Dimple previously held the seat.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son-in-law is Tej Pratap, a former MP from Mainpuri and Akhilesh Yadav’s nephew. The former Mainpuri MP has tied the knot with Raj Laxmi Yadav, Lalu’s daughter.

Ranveer Singh, the brother of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, is the grandfather of Tej Pratap. From 2014 to 2019, he was the MP for Mainpuri.

In addition to Tej Pratap, the Yadav family is running for the Lok Sabha seats in Mainpuri, Azamgarh, Badaun, and Ferozabad.

In opposition to Neeraj Shekhar of the BJP, the Party has put up Sanatan Pandey of Ballia.

Pandey had previously run from this location in 2019 on the SP ticket, but Virendra Singh Mast of the BJP defeated him.

Son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, Neeraj Shekhar served as a member of parliament for the state of Rajasthan from 2007 to 2014, representing SP from Ballia, the seat his father had previously held.

Shekhar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 but lost the polls to his BJP opponent. After the SP decided not to field him in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he left the party and joined the BJP, which promoted him to the Upper House of Parliament.

On June 1, elections will be held in the Ballia Lok Sabha constituency.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 62 of the 80 seats in the 2019 general elections. It also added two seats that its ally Apna Dal (S) won. Ten seats were won by Mayawati’s BSP and five by Akhilesh Yadav’s SP. In contrast, the Congress party managed to secure a mere one seat.

Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav on Monday lashed out PM Modi accsuing him of not having respect for the constitution.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal is elected unopposed from Gujarat’s Surat Lok Sabha constituency after all other contenders withdrew their candidature.

Gujrat BJP chief CR Paatil took to hi social media account X, formerly Twitter, and congratulated Dalal for being elected unopposed.

This latest developmnet comes after the cancellation of two Congress candidates’ nominations on Sunday and the withdrawal of eight more on Monday.

The Congress candidate for the Surat Lok Sabha constituency, Nilesh Kumbhani, had his nomination form canceled since he was unable to produce even one of his three proposers before the election commissioner.

The differences in three proposers’ signatures on Kumbhani’s nomination form had drawn scrutiny from the BJP.

The Congress’s replacement candidate from Surat, Suresh Padsala, had his nomination form nullified as well, which eliminated the party from the race in the city.

Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi issued an order stating that the four nomination forms that Kumbhani and Padsala had presented were refused because there were initially found differences in the proposers’ signatures, making them seem fake.

Pardhi’s order also mentioned that the proposers acknowledged having signed the forms themselves in their affidavits. It should be noted that Kumbhani’s three proposers were related to him.

Nilesh Kumbhani was given a day by the Returning Officer to submit his response following the proposers’ claim. The congressional candidate arrived at the polling place with his representative; however, none of his three proposers showed up.

According to the order, the Congress candidate’s attorney had requested that the camera tape be checked, and even their presence was not discovered.

Meanwhile, the Congress said that everyone was afraid of the government’s threat and accused the ruling BJP of being involved in dirty play.

Congress leader and activist Babu Mangukiya said that Kumbhani’s three proposers had been abducted, and he suggested that the Returning Officer look into this matter rather than the validity of the signed form.

According to Mangukiya, it was improper to cancel the form without first telechecking the signatures and determining whether or not the proposers’ signatures were accurate.