Will BJP breach Dravidian land? First-hand analysis of mood on the ground

Hours away from phase one of polls, High Voltage campaign comes to an end Friday blockbuster in Tamil Nadu. Nabar bar Kerala CMP processor Gargas Sammela. I’m Congress the Congress, Kerala KCM Kojala Modi. Will BJP breach Dravidian land? Get first hand Analysis of mood on the ground 102 seats up for grabs across 14 states. State of War 2024. Top focus on 6:00 PM Prime Hello and welcome Vanakkam. You’re watching Election Express here on India Today. I am Akshita Nanda Gopal. And yes, I’m back in the studio after what’s been an exciting, amazing 10 days in beautiful Tamil Nadu. You’re just two days away from polling now, officially now on the clock. Campaigning has come to an end. The silence period has kicked off and on Friday, 102 constituencies will go to vote, including the 39 seats. 40 If you include Puducherry across Tamil Nadu, I’m going to be recounting all of my experiences in Tamil Nadu. Get you a sense of which way the wind really is blowing in the state will be breaking down all the latest on the other seats to watch out for. Also come Friday, the first phase of pulling on April 19. First, as always here the headlines. Ram Lalas big Surya Namaskar after 500 years Ram Mandir witnesses historic Surya Tilaka of Ram Lala. Prime Minister Modi watches the celestial splendor during his campaign trail. Prime Minister Modi lashes out at DMKS north-south divide. Pitch rejects the DMKS Hindi imposition. Charge says all Indian languages are sacred. Claims DMK is politicizing the Tamil language, Rahul Gandhi makes big claim attacks BJ, PS, char, sopaar ball crisis, NDA seats will be reduced to 150. Claims is a massive undercurrent in favour of the India bloc. Sanatan showdown escalates Priyanka Gandhi fires fresh salvo Prime Minister Modi says Congress never attacks Sanatan. Adhan claims Prime Minister Modi is levelling false allegations. This is an India Today exclusive big BJP versus Congress war over the Chhattisgarh Naxal encounter. Former CM Bhaghail accuses BJP of a fake encounter. Later retract statement. BJP slams Bhagyal for downplaying operation Salman Khan shooting probe intensifies, Mumbai cops to record actors statement as a witness in the firing case. Salman, security cover also beefed up. All right, let’s get right down to 848 hours to go for polling of phase one. And you’re going to be seeing a voting happening in 102 constituencies. Let’s take this across to our Election intelligence dashboard to give you a sense of which are the seats that go to polls in the next two days. All right. Taking a look at phase one, all of the areas marked in yellow, right here are the seats to watch out for. So you’ve got of course, two states that go completely to polls in one phase, that’s Tamil Nadu as well as Uttarakhand. Besides that, there are seats to watch out for in Uttar Pradesh E Uttar Pradesh. There are eight seats that go to polls. Uttar Pradesh, you’ve got parts also. In fact, the NE there also go to polls Madhya Pradesh, small pair of Maharashtra, Bengal also that will be voting in the first phase. Overall, 102 seats cutting across 14 states. But over the next one hour, I want to particularly focus on this big yellow patch here, the state of Tamil Nadu. 39 seats up for grabs. Many say that it is the state of Tamil Nadu that perhaps offers the most exciting election in this particular general election battle. So well, breakdown for you what to expect from Tamil Nadu, especially since I’ve just been there. I’ll also recount for you some of my big political takeaways from Tamil Nadu. What else can you spectrum? Phase one will break that down for you as well. But first a look at this report on the many highs and lows that we witnessed in the campaign so far. The campaign for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections ended on Wednesday. Top leaders from the BJP and Congress made their final appeals to voters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi energized supporters at a public meeting in Nalbadi, Assam, invoking chants of Jai Sri Ram Jai Sri Ram Jai Sri Ram Jai Jai Sri Ram Jai Jai Sri Ram Jai Jai Sri Ram Ramalaxma Janaki Jai Bolo Hanumanaki, Ramalaxma Janaki. He went on to accuse the Congress of depriving Assam of development. Char Joon Char Joon Char Joon hire Kumar hire Kumar hire Kumar. Shari. June Shari June this N Isco Congress the syrup samasya edithi usse BJP ney sambhao now Castro banadiya hai. Congress alga walko khad paana modine purvatar ko Gale lagane kakan kya Modi re shanti. Congress mera sankal fahi Congress party siya si bhai do keriye chetra ko apre me panje Mein pasa ka rakhasa. Congress ke panje purvotar ko isley jaka rakhata tagyun kellye prasta char or loot quid. Modi also held a rally in Agartala in Tripura Later communist tone Tripura ke logo ko tabaha karne ke lava kuch nahi kya le ke naaz Delhi main Ek aisi Sarkar hai John NE or hamare tripura ke bare main lagatar sosti NE merely a politics ka nahi Prem or pratik taka vishal hai. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a public rally in Silchar, Assam a bar a Jodi Modi konorako muji tejai desh gone on Prabhana on Nirbachon vena unni akai. They’re stuck bechadavan already. They’re stuck at BHADHN desko bezier for the Congress. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took out a roadshow in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Here in Saharanpur, you can see a Priyanka Gandhi campaigning along with Imran Masood. Right behind us, the entire cavalcade moving through busy market of Saranpur. In an exclusive interview to India Today, Priyanka rejected MODIS charge that Congress attacked Sanatan Dharam Raj Mendraji ka Pehanti. Kiss me gali di hai Sanatan dharam to Congress party. May bilkul nahi kalat baat or yeh dekhi Chai hamari parivar ke bare Mein Chai hamari party ke bare Mein hamesha inkai akraman hotai or jhuta hamare humko kehte hamari E mandari PE bacha hai ham. With a total of 102 seats across 14 States and Union territories up for grabs, the biggest electoral battle of this decade is off to a start. Your report India Today. About 36 hours to go for the first vote to be cast in this general election. Let’s talk about Tamil Nadu. As promised, 39 seats up for grabs, 40 if you count Puducherry as well. But let’s take a look at some of the seats that you need to watch out for in Tamil Nadu. Why is there so much focus on the state? Because some of your biggest political names are all in the poll fray This time, let’s take a look at some of the VIP seats that you need to watch out for. First is Karthi Chidambaram in Siva Ganga. It’s a stronghold, it’s a safe seat, it’s a family bastion. So it’s expected to be a big battle there in Sivaganga, one that Karthi Chidambaram is confident of winning. Chennai S is going to be a very interesting one. I was there a couple of days ago. You have the BJP fielding Tamara Sai Soundararajan. Shes been out of the campaign trail actively canvassing for votes up against us. T Sumati also known as Tamarachi Thangapandian. She is the incumbent MP right now. And then you have doctor JJ Vardhan, DJ Kumars son, former AIADMK minister. He’s won previously 20/19. He was defeated by Tamarachi Thangapandian. Let’s take a look at some more of those VIP seats that you can watch out for Tutukudi. You’ve got Kanimori there once again and contesting, expected to be an easy battle for her. This is a seat in which shes won handsomely previously as well, so she will be counting on doing that once again. But it is also one of the factors in Tutukudi that we’ve seen massive rainfall leading to endless problems. This is perhaps a battle everyones far too familiar with right now. What will happen in Coimbatore? You’ve got three big weeks. Interestingly, all three making their debut in this particular election, the Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Anamalai up against Ganapati Rajkumar of the DMK, who was previously mayor with the AIADMK in Coimbatore. So is a local boy in that sense. Singai Ramachandran of the AIADMK also a very, very strong candidate. All three of them will be squaring off in Coimbatore. A what problem this is to be a very, very close contest that many say will actually go down to the fire. Let’s take a look at a few more than the modern in Chennai Central. A high stakes battle of course, for modern this is the DMK stronghold of Chennai Central. The AIADMK is handed over this particular seat to their ally, the DMDK. Vinod seldom has been fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party, and there are questions about whether he can actually be a giant Slayer in this election. So those are just a few of the seats that we’d like to focus on. Let me bring in on this broadcast Shilpa Nayak as well as Pramod Madhav as well. Good evening to both of you Shilpa. If I can begin with you campaigning officially coming to an end, its curtains down. We know MK Stalin was out there campaigning for one last time. Every politician going that extra mile today to ensure that they make their last ditch efforts to woo voters in Tamil Nadu? Well, absolutely. In fact, just a short while back, Chief Minister and DMK Chief MK Stalin concluded his election campaign here in Chennai. Chennai, of course, is considered a DMK Fort and he of course, chose to end his election campaign by campaigning for the Chennai Central and Chennai S constituencies. And behind me is that stage where the Chief Minister was addressing the public and the voters just a short while back and right before the time, you know start 6 the the Chief Minister of course ended his campaign speech because this campaigning, the official campaigning period ends today for the first phase of the general elections. Now as far as the DMK campaign is concerned, Uday Nidhi today was in Coimbatore, which the DMK believes is going to be a hot seat. It is a high stake battle for all the three parties there. So to give DMK its final push, DMK Uday Nidhi Stalin, the star campaign of the party was in Coimbatore campaigning for Ganapati Rajkumar, whom they fielded against Anamalai, the BJP chief and also singer Ramachandran of the AIDMK. Now to speak about the other star leaders or the main leaders of Tamil Nadu. EPS, of course, was in his hometown of Salem. You know, he was undertaking A roadshow and also addressing a public meeting in favor of the AIADMK candidate there. And Anamalai, of course, was stationed in Coimbatore, you know, doing that groundwork to ensure that they reached the maximum number of voters. In fact, when we met Anamley recently, he said the BJP in Coimbatore is fighting for each and every vote. That’s how tough this election is going to be in Coimbatore for the BJP. So he of course leaving no stone unturned and ensuring that he camps out in Coimbatore, reaches out to the voters because you know, OK, come April 19th, the voters of Coimbatore will decide the fate of Anamle. So that is the reason why he was also there. So overall, we’ve seen a very high pitched election battle here in Tamil Nadu. Let’s recap some of those moments. Also Shilpa, just stay with me. I want to bring in Pramod Madhav also on this broadcast. Pramod you’ve been covering, of course you’ve been on the campaign trail for the last many months. To you, what are really the issues that political party is really raised in the run up to this election in Tamil Nadu? Well, Lakshana, we can clearly say one thing. The Band-Aid of DMK was very clear even before they could go ahead with the talks and things like that. It looked like they have already confirmed what is going to happen with the the like strong allies, Congress and various other parties, CP/M, CPI. So they were concentrating on gathering the minority words and the women votes. Which they have done so because every campaign the chief minister he speaks about the special schemes for women that is like free bus ₹1000 for like like homeowners and such and school students. How it is like implim Alika causing a major kind of like a positivity for the people of women in particular in the state of Tamil Nadu. That has been his strong point. Then he is criticizing the Prime Minister. Even though the national calamity state faced back in December, the Chief Minister has been constantly targeting the center claiming that no funds were released. But DMK from like the DMK government has already given ₹6000 to all those affected in the district. So that way DMK is going ahead with it. BJP on the other hand, they are concentrating on issues of dynasty, politics and corruption. Now the drug menace and also Kachitiv. However, Kachitiv and drug menace are not necessarily resonating much but it looks like BJP wants to concentrate on that only. But one important aspect is that even though DMK does not claim that they are not worried about anomaly. DMKS minister TR Biraja was stationed in Coimbatore and he was was personally taking care of the campaign over there. So that also speaks a bit of like what exactly is happening on the ground in Coimbatore. Rest as you mentioned every other seat for now DMK is actually like the Chief Minister went to various places and he has also done the campaign over there and raised all. So let’s see, you know these are the issues that political parties have raised. What really resonates with the voter we know on June 4th, the day after is when all of the voters in Tamil Nadu will be coming out of caste voted from Pramod and Shilpa. You could say essentially that the focus right now is largely on Coimbatore, in which way that seat will actually go. Pramod Shilpa, thank you very much for joining us. We’ll catch up with you, of course, on April 19th. For the people of Tamil Nadu, after this kind of a hectic campaign will have their say. I’ve been in Tamil Nadu for the last 10 days covering different constituencies, covering different districts to kind of understand which party has the edge, which campaign has actually led to in fact a connect with the people. So let me just quickly recap for you my Election Express journey across Tamil Nadu. Quite simply to bring the election Express election expresses first stop is from Eshwaram, a beautiful coastal town that falls under the Ramanathapuram constituency. The big political bone of contention, Kachativa is just 30 kilometers from here in the the big headline that’s emerged from Rameshwaram is the candidate in the fray up against incumbent Emmy Nawaz. Khani from the IUML is former chief minister Upani 7 number one party #1 alliance. We end the day with a taste of What’s it like to be Anita? India Today’s Holiday TV Join me as we take you through the sights and sounds of Kanyakumari and of course the politics. This districts population breakdown is 48% Hindu and 46% Christian with 4% Muslims. So there’s no one party that dominates here. You got a very senior BJP leader against you, Pan Radhakrishnan who’s won here before in Kanyakumari. So are you worried your father’s defeated him? Of course. Are you worried even I have defeated him. So no, its not a worry because he’s been contesting for the last 10 years all the BJP elections, if all the elections of parliamentary elections in the past, we’ve seen last 10 attempts. Youth have been contesting it, but the people have needed the change, even inside the party. Also, because he’s been contesting about 1010 times, people inside the party also needed the change. People, common people also needed change and I’ve been working aggressively. I’ve been meeting people. There was a question saying that no, he won’t be in town, he’ll be travelling, he’s in Chennai and all. But I broke the thinking. I said no, I’m here with the people and always with the people. So I also met with the Congress candidate and he was saying that the BJP has made it very difficult for him to work as an MP. That they weren’t allowing funds to reach Kanyakumari. Why he is contesting here? He got elected and he was MP for three years. He had not brought even a single project. Again, Modiji is coming to power with thumping majority 400 seats. What he is going to do if he is elected here? What he is going to do? So people think all Christians and others, they are also thinking this. Anyhow, Prime Minister is Narendra Modi, he already told the MP. Told that I could not get anything from the government then they don’t want to waste the vote. They want the development of the In a high stakes election, there’s high stakes coverage involved. A three-way battle that’s got everyone talking. Welcome to the Vidhu Nagar war. There’s already an unexpected time in my life because I was never expected I’ll be candidate this soon after my father’s death. Then everything has changed. So at this moment after becoming the candidate of Viridin Nagar, the peoples love and support from AIADMK alliance has been enormous and wherever we go, people wish to come and see me. In the replacement of Captain, we finally catch the Sarit Kumars in action. Why? Why Viridin Nagar? Why did you choose to contest from the high command? Of course gave us Viridin Nagar and were very happy because Viridanagar is not a unknown place to him and to me. We’ve been here, we’ve done a lot of political rallies here. There is so much which could be done which has been neglected for the last 10 years. So we are trying to work towards it and giving a very positive response. And finally, as the sun sets on a hot hot day in Viruda Nagar, a final stop is MP Malikam Chagors Rally and India Today always reports about the pain of Viruda Nagar and Svagasi much better than any other channel. Thank you very much. Are you seeing more more spotlight on Viruda Nagar, this time because of Radhika Sarit Kumar? Because of Vijay Prabhakaran I, the candidates are candidates and we the fight is between the ID MODIS program, Morris MODIS governments programs and we see that the you can see that the agenda which we are speaking to the people is about the distress on the the price rise. And we can see that joblessness is a bigger issue and the price rise is a bigger issue than any other issue in the ground. When I come from Singara, Chennai, our last stop of the election express what a journey it’s been. Chennai S has been ravaged off late by some of the worst floods. Every time it’s rained, the situation has been grave for residents of this area. As someone who’s lived in Sholingan Alur for years and covered these floods too, I’ve seen first hand how residents suffer due to a lack of planning. So with the agenda being clear for the candidates, let’s speak to each of them on how they plan on addressing this issue. We first meet the AIADMK candidate Doctor Jayavardhan while he campaigns in the lanes of T Nagar. You won before from the seat. What went wrong after that in 2019? What do you think had to be changed for this time 2019? The major reason why we had lost that election is because we were in an alliance with BJP. The peoples sentiment was anti BJP, so that was the reason. Another reason was that DMK had continuously made false propaganda with people. They had made false promises with people. For example, loans will be waived off for students, need will be abolished and the farmers loan will be waived of. This reflected in the entire Tamil Nadu. So who do you consider as your biggest competitor right now? Is it the DMK or is it the BJP? Is it Tamil? I sounded Rajan or is it Tamil Nach Danka Pandey? National parties don’t have a role, don’t have a grassroot level connect with, with the, with, you know, the people as such. So whether its Congress, whether its BJP, they don’t really have a connect with the people. People, people are not talking about them when people themselves are not talking, only media is talking about them. So it doesn’t really reflect at the grown level and doesn’t really impact the elections. Our next stop is in the other end of the city to OMR or Old Mahabalipuram Rd. to catch Tamarisai Sandra Rajans campaign. How confident are you winning Chennai S? I’m very confident. Would you consider as your main competitor DMK or AIDM? What is your plan for Chennai S? How do you plan on? What do you plan on bringing for them? I have lot of plans and I want to solve the problems and we have to make some concrete steps to development of this S Chennai. So you’re confident you will win Chennai 100%? What is the base on which the BJP is building in Chennai because it is considered a DMK Nadu? No, it is now not DMK Nadu. It is now BJP Nadu. Chennai is BJP Nadal definitely. Is it challenging to represent such a diverse constituency? Challenges actually do not pose a very large threat or whatever it is. It is always very interesting because I basically come from a village, I studied in our city and then I got settled here. So I come from a place wherein we all have that mix it of village roots as well as urban population. Here it is the sholing in Nallur. If you go, lots of migrant worker workers will be there. And this is a very elite area. And when you go to Saida Pate in Varasaravakkam, it is also, you know, like marginalized people live. So challenges are being meted out with all the welfare schemes we are just working towards on a larger target. That is with how much larger margin can we win this time rather than the last time. That is our only goal. And fittingly, this is where we end our journey in Tamil Nadu. And I’ve seen a whole lot of your messages asking me what is going to happen in Tamil Nadu, what’s my prediction, etc. So I’ll just tell you about, in fact, what is my assessment of the ground? I’ve been to several districts and my sense is yes, DMK is very much in the lead. They’re going to be the number one party. And I agree with Chief Minister Stalin when he says there is a fight over #2. There’s a lot of talk that the AIADMK is going to be completely wiped out. I don’t think so. I think that their biggest strength is their symbol and that’s still in their favor. As far as the BJP goes, yes, they’re going to make inroads. But however, my sense from some of the places I visited is that their candidate selection hasn’t really been the best. And I believe that perhaps if they’ve gone with someone else, it’s a very different results in some seats for them. So that’s my sum up really, of the political takeaways. But my biggest take away has been from this trip, the amazing people of Karagawa. And every single time I come here, that’s what makes me feel at home. You know, in the blistering heat, when you’re out there for hours together, you’re swearing it out. There were so many countless women at rallies who came up to me, who offered umbrellas, who offered me water, which is something, and also to, you know, have me home for lunch or dinner, which has been absolutely wonderful. So Tamil Nadu, as always, lots of love to you. Nandri, thank you. Election Express hasn’t ended just yet. A few weeks from now, it’s on to Andhra Pradesh Polamana. I hope you enjoyed that quick recap. We kind of put together as much as we could of 10 episodes of Election Express on the road in Tamil Nadu into 10 minutes. Those are some of the highlights of some of the candidates I’ve spoken to. So we’ve given you a quick sense of what Tamil Nadu essentially looks like in the run up to April 19th on polling day. Let’s focus on the other states. I want to talk in particular about Uttar Pradesh, because here too you’re going to be seats, a very, very interesting seats going to polls in phase one in all eight seats that will be voting on April 19th. But there are a couple of seats that I want to talk about this Pilibet, this Muzaffar, Nagar and Saranpur, these three everyones watching out for particularly. Let me tell you why. When it comes to Pilibet, this is something that we covered extensively here on India Today. No, Varun Gandhi did not get a ticket. Instead you have Jitim Prasada who is a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government who’s now going ahead and fighting this Lok Sabha election from Pilibhit in the place of Varun Gandhi. So he is now going to be fighting and it will be interesting to see whether the BJP manages to hold on to Pilibhit or not in such a circumstance of such a big change in phase. For them, Muzaffarnagar is another very interesting fight because you have Sanjeev Bali on Union minister aiming to get a hack hat trick in this particular seat. We also saw those very interesting optics of in fact Jayant Chaudhary joining him for a campaign in Muzaffarnagar. So will that work in favor of the BJP? Can Sanjeev Balyani actually pull off hat trick in Muzaffarnagar? So these are going to be some interesting aspects to watch out for in Uttar Pradesh. Let me bring in Samarth Srivastava on this broadcast. Who’s joining us live from Lucknow right now? Samarth good evening. Eight seats in Uttar Pradesh in phase one of polling in East Uttar Pradesh and there are a number of seats that everyones going to be talking about in this phase. Even today we have seen a full high voltage campaign taking place here. Well Akshita, good evening. We have seen the high voltage campaign by both Samajwadi Party and the Bharti Janata Party with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding rallies while Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi in a way marching around. And on the final day of campaigning Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav holding a presser in a way saying Akhilesh Yadav saying that from Ghaziabad to Ghazi it will be a clean sweep for the saffron party. But the the eight seats, the interesting eight seats includes Karana, Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Rampur, Pilibhit etc. Because you talk about Pilibhit, they have Jitin Prasad and that has been a thing thing to worry for BJP with the removal of Varun Gandhi. There are talks whether the the Varun Gandhi people will support Jitin Prasad or not. While if you talk about Rampur and Moradabad there there’s enmity in fighting amongst the Samajwadi Party. From Rampur they have plays Nadvi which is not not the the Azam Khan candidate. While from Muradabad, St. Hassan was going to be the candidate for Samajwadi Party but due to the pressure of Azam Khan, Akhilesh Sharad had to push Ruchi Veera. So that has been the consent by the party. But there is infighting amongst the party lines for both Rampur and Muradabad. While Kerala we are seeing a young 28 year old woman Ekraasan fighting for Samajwadi Party and that there’s also we are we are getting that there’s also going to be a bigger fight between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party especially in Muzaffarnagar and Kerala. Its going to be worth seeing how this goes to the favor of BJP or the Samajwadi Party. Another important thing which needs to be pointed out is the is the anger amongst the Rajputs and the Sani. If it is true then its going to hurt BJP but if its not true then it could be it could be benefiting the 2nd party. Let’s see how it plays out in two days. Less than that actually. You’re going to be seeing the people of Uttar Pradesh decide put forth their mandate and on June 4th of course will have the answers. Its a long wait essentially for those who are voting in phase one, April 19th all the way up to June 4th. Thanks very much Samarth for joining us with those details and giving us a sense of how the campaign has been in these seats. But also Samarth was telling us about Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav holding a campaign together in Uttar Pradesh. They were in Ghaziabad earlier today and there was a press conference in which a question she was asked to Rahul Gandhi on whether he is going to contest from Amethi or not. There’s been endless suspense over this. Yes, Wayanad is 1 chosen seat but what about Amethi? This question was asked. Its something that there’s been endless buzz over. Rahul Gandhi however has called it a BJP question. Here are the details. Will he or won’t he fight from Amethi? Rahul Gandhi has finally broken his silence on whether he will return to attempt and reclaim lost Amethi territory. And heres what he said. Amethi Ki baat Congress hai. Jobi mujhe order malega. Mevo karunga CC meeting. Amare amari party. May CC meetings make a decision. Rahul in his interaction with the media also taunted the reporter for the question on Amethi, calling it a BJP question. Nope. To Gujarat, Cholkar PM Pannekaliya Banara sathe AAP by night To Kya Amethiya BJP opening opening ball, opening ball, BJP question. Rahuls response comes amid the BJP claim that Congress will announce Shahul as the METI candidate soon after Wayanad polling ends. The BJP also lashed out at Rahul for his BJP question taught at a reporter few days ago. When Khadge Ji was asked this question, he said it was Rahul Ji’s personal decision. That means they both know that they have to transfer the topee from one to the other. But if this is a BJP sponsored question, the first time this question was asked was asked by the Left leaders when they fielded any Raja. At that time. Brinda Karaji, Vijayanji and others made this question mark on Rahul that why are you treating Kerala like backup and you contest from Amethi. So is this question ABJP sponsored question if a Left party leaders have asked it and media is asking it. But Rahuls attack on the media seems to be a clear strategy of the Gandhis. In an exclusive chat with India Today, Priyanka Gandhi had this to say when asked about the Modi factor. Congress party, Congress Party, Congress Party. Media attacks aside, questions still loom on whether Rahul will bite the methi bullet. Smriti Irani has repeatedly dared Rahul to return to a methi. Well, my challenge to Mr. Gandhi was very simple that if he considers himself the tallest leader of the Congress party, he should fight only the seat of a methi. And then you had Badra saying he was keen to contest Bhari Bhamaat Sajitayenge Yahataki O Mercedes Prerna Karte Hai or Asha Karte hai Ki main waha apna Pella kadam Agar rajni me rafta Ho or Sansad Baniki. Socza Bureau report. India Today gives you a sense of how heated the political battle actually is in a state like Uttar Pradesh. So we’ve covered Tamil Nadu, We’ve covered Uttar Pradesh and what to expect on April 19th. Let’s talk about Rajasthan as well because there are some very, very interesting seats up for grabs in the first phase itself. Overall, 12 seats that go to polls in Rajasthan in phase one, the entire state not being covered in one phase, much like in fact many other North Indian states. Let’s take a look at the VIP seats to watch out for. There are two in particular I want to talk about. First is Bikaner, where Arjun Ram Meghwal and this was previously considered to be a Congress bastion. Since 1999, the Congress has the BJP has held on to Bikaner. So you’ve got Arjun Ram Meghwal now looking for a record fourth term as MP from Bikaner. He’s up against Govindra Meghwal and Keta Ram. This is similar to what we saw in 2019. So it will be interesting to see whether Meghwal can actually win Bikaner for a fourth term. Churu is another very, very interesting seat because here you have a veteran politician against a star Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia who’s been given the ticket by the BJP. Rahul Kaswan in fact was with the BJP switched over to the Congress. So that will be also very interesting fight to see because he’s the incumbent MP was denied a ticket so that Jhajharia can be given the ticket from Churu. Will that work out of the BJ, PS favour or not? So these are seats there will be very interesting Alwar and Nagar also where you have Hanuman Beriwal of the RLP. In Alwar you have Bhuvendra Yadav of the BJPI. Want to bring in Dev Ankur on this broadcast as well. Dave, good evening. Several seats that go to polls in phase one in Rajasthan, which are the seats that you believe will be very, very closely watched. Good evening, Akshita. Absolutely. The seats that you mentioned will be up for grabs and you know its been a tight contest in Churu. Rahul Kaswa is the Congress candidate and he’s a switchover politician from the BJP. He was denied a ticket from Churu by the BJP and he joined the Congress. He’s up against a Paralympian, a medal winner at that. And recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held a rally in Churu and he mentioned that Narendra aya hai. Dave Devendra Kile vote Magne Kilee. So the BJP is making, you know, a strong pitch for Devendra Jhajadiya from Churu. That is 1 interesting seat. The other seat is of Nagar, from where Jyoti Mirza is up against Hanuman Beniwal of the RLP. The RLP has entered into an alliance with the Congress for the Nagar seat. This seat had had been won, interestingly, Akshita by Hanuman Beniwal in 2019 when he was in alliance with the BJP. But this time round he’s on the other side of the fence. He’s with the Congress and Jyoti Mirada, who at that time was with the Congress is in 2024 with the BJP. That is another interesting seat. The third seat, which you mentioned about Bikaner is also very interesting. The 4th seat that I want to talk about is that of Jaipur city. From here, former cabinet minister Pratap Singh Khajri Awas is up against, you know, a relatively new politician, that is Manju Sharma of the BJP. But clearly its the name of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the trump card for the BJP, who’s the lead politician for the party and he’s the face of the party in Jaipur city. But this is also one interesting contest that the people. So there are some seats that they was referred to. What I find interesting in Rajasthan is seems to be new versus old faces, several stories of turncoats as well. And will that really play out? How will that play out for respect to political parties? Thanks Dev for joining us with all of those details.