Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asserted that the polling held so far suggests the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been eliminated from South India and its presence has been halved in the rest of the country. Ramesh further alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi attempted to polarize voters based on religion during the election campaign.
The Congress party has strongly criticized the Election Commission (EC) of India’s response to concerns raised by party president Mallikarjun Kharge about voter turnout data. The EC had termed Kharge’s letter to opposition leaders an attempt to push a biased narrative, prompting Congress leader Jairam Ramesh to label the EC’s response as a permanent blot on its reputation.
A political row has erupted over the issue of inheritance tax in India, with Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of wanting to reintroduce the tax that was abolished in 1985. BJP leaders, including Amit Malviya, have hit back, claiming that the Congress itself proposed the idea of inheritance tax in the past. The Inheritance Tax, also known as Estate Duty, is a tax levied on the total value of money and property of a deceased person before it is distributed to their legal heirs.
Mukesh Dalal has secured a landslide victory in the Surat Lok Sabha by-election after all other candidates withdrew their nominations. The BJP candidate was congratulated by party president CR Paatil and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. The Congress, which initially had two candidates in the race, was forced to withdraw both after their nominations were invalidated due to irregularities.
