BSP to contest all 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh

July 24th, 2009 CHENNAI - The two communist parties - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Communist Party of India (CPI) - have decided to contest in the by-elections in Tamil Nadu despite their Lok Sabha election alliance leader AIADMK deciding to boycott the bypolls to be held Aug 18. In a meeting of their high level committee held in Tiruchirapalli Friday, around 300 km from here, the two communist parties decided to contest four out of five seats.

March 30th, 2009 RAIPUR - A total of 254 candidates have filed nomination papers for the 11 Lok Sabha seats from Chhattisgarh with 107 doing so Monday - the last day, election officials said. Filing of nomination papers had begun March 23 and the scrutiny will take place Tuesday while April 2 would be the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers.

March 24th, 2009 PATNA - Lok Janshakti Party President and Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday announced that his party would contest five Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand along with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Virendra Pradhan will contest from the Dhanbad constituency, while Nityanand Mahto and Sala-Uddin Ansari will try their luck from the Hazaribagh and Godda Parliamentary seats respectively.

March 22nd, 2009 RAIPUR - The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has decided to go it alone in Chhattisgarh and has named potential candidates in several seats, may affect the chances of the two main contenders, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, politicians here say. The party has fielded three women candidates and has given tickets to five candidates from the Scheduled Tribe (ST), two from the Scheduled Caste (SC), one from the upper castes and three from the other backward class (OBC).

March 21st, 2009 BANGALORE - If the Congress decision to contest 26 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, against the three offered to it by the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Lok Janashakti Party combine, leads to division of secular vote, it would not be 'of our making', Congress general secretary Jayanthi Natarajan said here Friday. The Congress will contest 26 seats in Bihar as the offer of a mere three seats by the RJD-LJP combine is unacceptable, Natarajan said.

March 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Deciding to go it alone in Bihar, the Congress Saturday said it would contest 37 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The decision comes days after a jolt from its allies Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) which unilaterally decided to stitch up a pre-poll tie-up in Bihar and contest 37 seats between themselves.

March 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI -Putting all speculation to rest, the Congress party Wednesday announced that possibilities of a poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh were over. 'Certainly the possibilities of alliance with Samajwadi Party are over now.

March 17th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Gujarat has kept up its demand for contesting at least two Lok Sabha seats in the state, even as ally Congress has already announced its own candidates in 12 constituencies. The Congress is expected to make an announcement on candidates for the remaining 14 seats from Gujarat in the next two days.

March 15th, 2009 PATNA - The Bihar unit of Nationalist Socialist Party (NCP) declared on Sunday that it would field its candidates in 14 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Speaking to the reporters in Patna, party spokesperson Anil Kumar Jha revealed that NCP is considering to contest for more seats on Monday.

March 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress party Monday released a list of six candidates for Chhattisgarh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, including four for reserved constituencies. The list includes candidates for three seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and one for the Scheduled Castes.

March 7th, 2009 PATNA - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest 18 of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats, upsetting the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) which wanted the BJP to field candidates only in 14 constituencies. 'The BJP has decided to contest 18 seats, two more than in 2004,' party spokesman Vinod Narayan Jha told IANS.

March 6th, 2009 RAIPUR - Discontent is brewing in the Chhattisgarh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with several leaders and party workers unhappy with the list of candidates for the 11 Lok Sabha seats. Four new faces who were never in the race to contest the April 16 elections have been given party tickets.

March 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday announced 46 more candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Sushma Swaraj who will contest from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh. The list was finalised at a meeting of the Central Election Committee, presided over by party president Rajnath Singh, general secretary Arun Jaitley said.

March 4th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Tuesday said it will field candidates in all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. 'Gujarat is an important state for the BSP high command.

March 4th, 2009 RAIPUR - The Bharatiya Janata Party's Chhattisgarh unit hopes to be ready with its list of candidates for the forthcoming general elections by next week. Party leaders Sushma Swaraj has already taken the draft list to Delhi to place before the BJP's central election committee Thursday.