Election 2022 Highlights: Campaigning Ends For Punjab, UP Phase 3 Polls Ahead Of Feb 20 Voting
Assembly Election 2022 Highlights: Follow this space to get all the latest news on electioneering and campaigning for Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, and Punjab assemblies.
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Assembly Election 2022 Highlights: Hello and welcome to ABP Live blog to find all the latest news from the polling battlegrounds of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Manipur.
With the voting process for the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections over, preparations for the third phase have started. In the third phase, voting for 59 assembly seats will be held on February 20.
भाजपा राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री @JPNadda की 18 फरवरी, 2022 को उत्तर प्रदेश में जनसभाएं।
— BJP (@BJP4India) February 17, 2022
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In the third phase, elections will take place in seats across western Uttar Pradesh, Bundelkhand, and Awadh region. In this phase, the most keenly watched contest will be Karhal, the seat of Samajwadi Party president and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Akhilesh is in the electoral fray from the Karhal Assembly Constituency of Mainpuri. BJP candidate and Union Minister SP Singh Baghel is contesting against SP chief.
READ | BJP Incites Rift Among People, Should Be Named Bharatiya Jhagda Party: Akhilesh Yadav
On Thursday, Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav campaigned for his son Akhilesh in Karhal. The 82-year-old leader said his party's priority was the welfare of farmers and to provide the facilities for irrigation, seeds and fertilizers for increased productivity.
For the first time after the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Samajwadi Party founder campaigned at a poll rally. Age and ill-health have reduced Mulayam Singh's political activity in recent years.
UP Election 2022: Phase 3 Voting On Feb 20 — Check Full List Of Constituencies Going To Polls
UP Election 2022: Phase 3 Voting On Feb 20 — Check Full List Of Constituencies Going To Polls
UP Election Phase 3 Assembly Constituencies: In the third phase, 59 assembly constituencies from 16 districts will go to poll on February 20. Polling will be held in 7 phases in UP.
Punjab Election 2022: Single Phase Voting To Be Held On Feb 20 — Check Assembly Constituencies Going To Polls
Punjab Election 2022: Voting On Feb 20 — Check Full List Of Constituencies Going To Polls
Punjab Election 2022 Assembly Constituencies: 117 assembly constituencies from 23 districts of the state will go to the polls on February 20 in a single phase.
Punjab polls: SAD-BSP alliance will win over 80 seats, claims Sukhbir Badal
Muktsar (Pb), Feb 18 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday claimed that the SAD-BSP alliance would win over 80 seats in the February 20 Punjab assembly polls.
Badal also predicted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would fail to cross its tally of 20 seats that it won in the 2017 polls while the Congress was likely to be reduced to less than 10 seats in 117-member Punjab assembly.
The SAD-BSP combine is heading towards an absolute majority, he said.
Our seats are increasing by the day as people are realising the time-tested pro-farmer, pro-poor policies of the SAD coupled with its commitment to peace and communal harmony is the only way forward," Badal said.
"We are on the 80-seat threshold and this figure may increase further on polling day, the SAD president added.
Badal thanked the people for "reposing" their overwhelming faith and trust in the SAD-BSP combine by coming out in strength on the last day of campaigning to snub both the AAP and Congress.
Never before has Punjab witnessed such a sea of humanity coming out on the roads in overwhelming support of any political party, Badal said after attending a road show from Kotkapura bypass to Ghaa Mandi chowk in the city, according to a party statement.
Speaking at the rally, Badal claimed, The Congress party knows the game is up and that it has been consigned to the dustbin. It will not get more than 10 seats in the assembly elections .
Attacking AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, he alleged, Punjabis had also seen through AAP and its leader Arvind Kejriwal who has been thoroughly exposed as a divisive and communal leader with an anti-farmer and anti-poor agenda, besides being essentially anti-Punjab and anti-Punjabis .
He claimed that AAP would not even be able to reach its last term figure of 20 seats and could secure between 10 to 15 seats.
Badal said even Kejriwal has seen the writing on the wall.
That is why he is now crying wolf and complaining that all political parties have ganged up against him. Even he has realised that Punjabis have consolidated in favour of the SAD-BSP combine, he said.
Badal said people know that the Delhi Model is a sham and accused Kejriwal of trying to win the election on the basis of Rs 850 crore advertisement campaign.
On the Congress, Badal said people are judging the Congress by its five-year misrule which was marked by corruption, scams, gang culture, and sand and liquor mafia.
People realise that the Congress government added Rs one lakh to the state debt but did not implement even one of the promises made to the people, be it complete loan waiver, jobs for youth, Rs 2,500 per month old-age pension or Rs 2,500 per month unemployment allowance, he said.
It is due to this that the Congress party has been virtually dissolved in Punjab and will not cross the 10-seat mark, he added.
Meanwhile, SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia appealed to the people of Amritsar East constituency, from where he is locked in a keen contest against State Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, to vote for change and development.
Polling in Punjab is scheduled to be held on February 20 while counting of votes will take place on March 10.
Give AAP chance for honest govt in Punjab, defeat loot, graft: Arvind Kejriwal
Jalalabad/Abohar (Pb), Feb 18 (PTI) AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday appealed to people to give his party a chance to form an "honest" government in Punjab and take the state on the path of development.
On the last day of campaigning for the February 20 Assembly polls, he claimed the AAP's rivals have joined hands to defeat it, but the people of Punjab have made up their minds to bring his party to power.
"They have been looting Punjab for the last 70 years and want to continue it. All of them have united to stop AAP because they are afraid that if the party forms government in Punjab it will put a stop to all such practices forever," Kejriwal said.
He appealed to the people to "get together and put an end to their politics of loot and corruption".
"The AAP will come to power and an honest government will be formed in Punjab. The loot of resources is about to end. Punjab's money will now be spent on the people of the state," the Delhi Chief Minister said.
"This time we have to vote to save Punjab. Vote for the better future of your children. Vote to end corruption and mafia from Punjab.
Kejriwal campaigned for party candidates in Jalalabad and Abohar. Sukhbir Singh Badal is the SAD candidate in Jalalabad.
Kejriwal said his party aims to build good schools and hospitals, eliminate drug menace corruption and mafia, and provide education and employment.
"On the other hand, the aim of our opponents is only to defeat us."
Interacting with reporters in Chandigarh, AAP's Punjab affairs co-incharge and Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha claimed that his party ran an issues-based positive election campaign in Punjab.
It came out with a roadmap on how to take the state forward if the AAP comes to power, he said.
"On the other hand the Shiromani Akali Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress spread false propaganda against Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann and the AAP," Chadha said.
Punjab Polls: Dry Days Declared In Chandigarh From Feb 18 To 20 & On March 10
'Dry days' declared in Chandigarh from 6 pm of 18th Feb till the conclusion of Assembly polls in Punjab on 20th Feb and on 10th March counting day: UT Administration