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party only on Friday, did not figure in the first candidate list of the party. Harish Rawat had unsuccessfully contested the Haridwar-Rural and Kichcha assembly seats in the 2017 assembly polls.

Yashpal Arya, a former Speaker in the state assembly, who had recently joined the Congress after quitting the BJP, has been fielded from his Bajpur-SC constituency. Arya’s son Sanjeev Arya has also been fielded from the Nainital (SC) assembly seat, which he quit after resigning from the BJP along with his father.

Sumit Hridayesh, the son of senior Congress leader Indira Hridayesh who died in June last year, has been fielded from Haldwani assembly seat. Elections will be held for 70 assembly seats in Uttarakhand on February 14 and the results will be declared on March 10. The Congress is seeking to wrest power back from the BJP in the hill state.

Uttar Pradesh election commission transferred district magistrate of Firozabad, Bareilly, and Kanpur Nagar on Saturday. The poll body also removed SP of Firozabad and Kaushambi districts ahead of assembly elections in the state.

BJP president J P Nadda held a meeting with party leaders and candidates in Bijnor on Saturday in the run-up to the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. BJP leaders said Nadda reached Bijnor on Saturday afternoon by helicopter.

He then held a meeting with the party’s candidates and leaders from 15 assembly seats in Bijnor and Muzaffarnagar districts. Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7 and the results will be announced on March 10.

Putting into the spotlight the issue of alleged exodus of Hindus from Kairana before 2017, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday visited the affected families who have since returned here as he began his door-to-door election campaign in western Uttar Pradesh. Asserting that the people of Kairana were no longer living in fear, Shah said a satisfactory law and order situation is the primary condition for development and the Yogi Adityanath government has ensured this in Uttar Pradesh.

Accompanied by party workers and leaders, wearing saffron caps and stoles, Shah walked in the rain-drenched lanes in the winter chill and distributed pamphlets on the achievements of the BJP government, amid slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. The choice of Kairana for Shah’s first political programme in Uttar Pradesh after the assembly poll dates were announced is significant as BJP leaders had alleged that a large number of Hindus were forced to migrate from the area due to threats during the Samajwadi Party rule, making it a big poll issue in 2017.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee are among the 30 star campaigners of the party for the Goa assembly poll, TMC said on Saturday. The list of campaigners for the February poll was released on Saturday.

Former union minister Babul Supriyo, who quit BJP for TMC, state Sports Minister Manoj Tiwary, Howrah MP and former international footballer Prasun Banerjee, its Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’ Brien, actor-turned Trinamool Yuva Morcha Bengal president Saayani Ghosh are among the other star campaigners, according to the list. Names of Luizinho Faleiro, MP and former Goa chief minister and Churchill Alemao, another former chief minister of the state also figure in the list. Assembly poll is slated to be held on February 14 in the coastal state, where Trinamool Congress is making a strong bid to increase its base.

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