Congress leads in MP assembly bypolls
Bhopal: The Congress on Wednesday took a lead in both Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.
Following the third round of counting in Kolaras, Congress candidate Mahendra Singh Yadav is ahead of Devendra Jain of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 1,280 votes; whereas, in Mungaoli, Congress' Brijendra Singh Yadav is leading with 1,373 votes against BJP's Bai Sahib.
Turning the tables in Mungaoli, Congress took the lead from the BJP after the second round of counting of votes that began at 8 a.m.
A total of 22 candidates from Mungaoli and 13 from Kolaras were in the fray for the February 24 polls. There was 77.25 per cent voting recorded in Mungaoli and 72.82 per cent in Kolaras on Saturday.
The BJP that has been in power for 15 years in the state pitched for development in the Congress bastion. Having lost two assembly bypolls to the Congress last year, the BJP is keen on recovering lost ground.
The assembly seats fell vacant after the death of sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
