With the Assembly elections in four Indian states and one union territory set to take place on March 27, all parties have begun their campaigns.
The Election Commission recently announced the date and details of the Assembly elections. Elections for Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will take place at the end of this month.
Elections in West Bengal will be held in eight phases on March 27, April 1, April 6, April 10, April 17, April 22, April 26 and last phase on April 29.
Elections for the Assam Assembly will be conducted in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6. Polling in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will take place in a single phase on April 6.
Voting is to be conducted for 294 seats in West Bengal, 234 in Tamil Nadu, 140 in Kerala, 126 in Assam and 30 in Puducherry.
In the run-up to the elections, party leaders of all the political parties have already started campaigning in all the five places.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi have launched campaigns in Tamil Nadu and Assam respectively. Rahul Gandhi visited Kerala and Puducherry few days back.
Rahul Gandhi
As part of his campaign in Kerala, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi engaged in fishing with the fishermen in Kollam district, and even took a dip with them. He also spent time with the local community, and he noted their difficulties.
Although many lauded his efforts, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan criticized him. The Chief Minister criticized Rahul for remaining silent in the states where the BJP government is in power.
“Why is he (Rahul) silent on states where the Congress has lost power. And why is he not campaigning in states against the BJP? He does not understand the waters of Kerala, he is a tourist. The waters in Kerala are not as calm as the waters in other places,” said Pinarayi Vijayan.
At the same time, during his visit, the Congress MP had also criticized the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government, alleging the LDF was routinely killing Congress workers.
Meanwhile, at a rally in Kanyakumari, Rahul lashed out at the NDA for not respecting the Tamil language, culture and traditions. “We have a chief minister here who submits to everything that Modi says. The chief minister represents what Modi wants to do but not the people of Tamil Nadu. This election will show the same thing that only a person who truly represents the Tamil people can be a chief minister of Tamil Nadu,” Rahul alleged.
During his Tamil Nadu visit, Rahul’s interaction and dance with school children caught the attention of social media. Videos of Rahul completing a push-up challenge with a student also went viral on social media.
Priyanka Gandhi
Priyanka Gandhi visited the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati and participated in a traditional Jhumur dance with the Lakhimpur tea tribes. She also visited Sonari gram panchayat and the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva’s primary disciple Sri Madhavdev.
During her speech, Priyanka said that BJP leaders have no courage to mention about the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam.
“The BJP makes tall promises before elections but during the next five years, they do nothing to fulfil them and people have realised it,” the Congress leader said.
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