Dec 8 (IANS) It is a big win for the BJP and the AAP in the Gujarat Assembly elections with the former bagging 53.33 per cent vote share and the latter getting a 12 per cent share.

The Congress share has shrunk to 26.9 per cent, as per the Election Commission (EC)figures of 12 p.m.

According to the EC data, BJP was leading in 150 seats, Congress in 22 seats, AAP six, Samajwadi Party on one and independent on three seats.

BJP General Secretary Pradipsinh Vaghela told the media that people have rejected the Congress and AAP both, and one more time Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the party to not just a landslide victory but the BJP has won record breaking seats, setting a new record in Gujarat’s electoral politics.

Congress candidate Lalit Vasoya alleges that the AAP worked as the ‘B’ team of the BJP by denting the Congress votes. “Its presence helped the BJP to cross 150 seats,” said Vasoya.

Congress candidate Harish Janartha on Thursday won from Shimla constituency in Himachal Pradesh with a margin of 3037 votes. While Congress is leading on 39 seats out of 68 and BJP is leading on 18.

Janartha won with a total count of 15803 votes while the candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sanjay Sood trailed behind with 12766 votes. As per the latest trends, the Shimla seat is the first to be won by Congress in Himachal Pradesh, however, so far, the BJP has won 7 seats including Mandi, Nurpur, Paonta Sahib, and Sundernagar, by 1.25 pm.

As per the EC till 2:10 pm congress is leading on 35 seats and won 5 seats so far while the BJP has won 7 seats and leading on 18 seats.

Despite the Congress leading in the trends of the Election Commission of India, the BJP is still very hopeful of continuing to govern the hill state for the next five years. In contrast, Congress says it would be “too soon” to say anything in accordance with the trends.

“Though Congress is leading in many constituencies in Himachal, there is a neck-and-neck competition at many others. We should wait till the election results are announced as the counting is still underway,” Bhupesh Baghel said in his address to mediapersons in Raipur.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also said that it is too early to make comments and the party will respond when the final results are declared.

“It is too early to speak now. Our party will speak in the evening only after the final results are declared,” Kharge told reporters.
In Himachal Pradesh, as per the latest trends by the ECI, the BJP is currently leading in 21 seats after registering victory in four of the 68 assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh. The competition is tough as congress leads in 39 of them.

Counting votes for Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh began at 8 am on Thursday.

Dec 8: With the Bharatiya Janata Party taking a clear lead in the vote counting underway today for the Gujarat Assembly polls, BJP’s Viramgam candidate and Patidar leader, Hardik Patel, attributed the party’s success to work done so far.
He also highlighted the 2019 revocation of ‘Article 370’ from Jammu and Kashmir. “It’s a win of BJP’s work, the removal of ‘Article 370’,” said Patel, who had left Congress months ahead of the state polls and joined the BJP.
The Modi government had on August 5, 2019, scrapped the controversial ‘Article 370’ which provided special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“We’ll focus on the work to be done in the next 20 years. There was no competition with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Viramgam ‘made’ Hardik Patel win for the further development of the constituency,” said Patel while hoping for his clear win from the seat.
Patel, who switched from Congress to the BJP this June, contested against Congress’ Lakha Bharwad and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Amarsinh Thakore. The Patidar quota stir leader contested the polls from his hometown, Viramgam – one of the 182 assembly constituencies of Gujarat. (Agencies)

 Dec 8: In his first month in office, Justice D Y Chandrachud has taken several key judicial and administrative decisions having a far-reaching impact such as deciding to examine the right to marriage of gay couples and ordering protection of an area in Varanasi’s Gyanvapi complex where a ‘shivling’ was claimed to have been found.
Justice Chandrachud, who has been credited with taking steps for digitisation of the judiciary, gave a green signal for operationalising an online RTI portal and making available an updated android version 2.0 of SC mobile application.
The Chief Justice of India has also attempted to streamline the listing of cases by giving primacy to bail petitions and matrimonial transfer cases and decided that every apex court bench will hear 10 such pleas each before starting regular proceedings.
Besides, Justice Chandrachud has also decided to set up four special benches to hear criminal appeals, direct and indirect tax and land acquisition matters and motor accident claim cases respectively.
Justice Chandrachud was sworn in as the 50th CJI by President Droupadi Murmu on November 9.
Born on November 11, 1959, Justice Chandrachud studied in St Stephen’s College and the Campus Law Centre before going to Harvard. He was elevated to the top court on May 13, 2016.
Justice Chandrachud has been part of several Constitution benches and landmark verdicts like on the Ayodhya issue that paved the way for the construction of the Ram Temple at the disputed site in Uttar Pradesh and Right to Privacy.
He will have a tenure of two years as the CJI and during this period, as many as 19 posts of judges in the Supreme Court will have to be filled.
Presently, there are seven vacancies in the top court against the sanctioned strength of 34 judges including the CJI.
The last 30 days have been quite eventful as the CJI batted in favour of the collegium system of appointment of judges and also called for respect of the district judiciary while asking judges of the higher judiciary to get rid of the “colonial mindset”.
He also expressed his disapproval of the notion that only educated people are better decision-makers.
Over four years after a bench of which he was a part decriminalised consensual gay sex between adults, a CJI-led bench sought response from the central government to separate pleas by two gay couples seeking enforcement of their right to marry and a direction to authorities to register their marriage under the Special Marriage Act.

 Dec 8: The government of the Union Territory of Ladakh has approached the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), a unit of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for developing “Spatial Data Infrastructure geoportal ‘Geo-Ladakh’ for UT-Ladakh, said Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Singh said, the project encompasses spatial database generation (water resources, vegetation and energy potential) using remote sensing, geospatial techniques and the development of a Geo-portal for hosting this database.
According to the Department of Space, Singh said that the project also aims towards training of UT-Ladakh officials on Geospatial techniques and applications. Portal provides geospatial data visualization and analytics for UT-Ladakh, consisting of Spatial viewer, Carbon Neutrality, Geospatial utility mapping and Geo-Tourism.
He further said that a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between IIRS (ISRO) and UT-Ladakh Administration on January 1, 2022, towards carrying out the above work.
“The potential of space technology could be used for generating the spatial database on time series snow cover, freshwater availability, sites for renewable energy potential (solar and wind), availability of alpine pastures/grazing lands for natural resource management and change assessment at a periodic interval,” he said.
Singh further said that presently, ISRO is setting up an optical telescope at Hanle for tracking spacecraft and space objects. (Agencies)

Trends emerging from the counting of votes Gujarat Assembly polls on 144 seats show the Bharatiya Janata Party is leading on 123 seats, while Congress is placed in the second spot with a lead on 22 seats.

Of the 182 seats in Gujarat, the majority mark stands at 92. The Aam Aadmi Party is leading on 9 seats and is in the third spot on the list. The independents are also leading on two seats. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has gained leads in 9 Assembly constituencies and is still making progress.

According to the Election Commission data shared till 9.45 am, the BJP continued to retain its first spot with 112 seats out of the 182-member Assembly.

According to the trends till 9.30 am, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who is contesting from Ghatlodiya against AAP’s Vijay Patel and Congress’ Amee Yajnik, is leading securing 15,032 votes so far.

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Godhra CK Raulji is leading on the seat with a total of 8,772 so far. BJP’s Rivaba Jadeja, who made her electoral debut in these elections, is trailing on the Jamnagar North seat. Congress’ Bipendrasinh Jadeja is leading on the seat securing 2,976 votes so far.

AAP’s Chief Ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi, who is in the fray from Khambhalia, is leading with a total 4,088 votes against BJP’s Ayar Mulubhai Hardasbhai Bera, and Congress’ Ahir Vikrambhai Arjanbhai Maadam.

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Godhra CK Raulji is leading on the seat with a total of 8,772 so far.

BJP’s Rivaba Jadeja, who made her electoral debut in these elections, is trailing on the Jamnagar North seat. Congress’ Bipendrasinh Jadeja is leading on the seat securing 2,976 votes so far.

The counting of votes for the Gujarat Assembly elections began on Thursday at 8 am.

The counting in Gujarat began at 37 centres in 33 districts.

Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer P Bharathi said that 182 counting observers, 182 election officers and 494 assistant election officers will be on duty for the counting process. There will be an additional 78 Assistant Election Officers for the counting of votes. In addition, 71 additional Assistant Election Officers have been assigned responsibility for the electronically transmitted postal ballot system in the previous polls

Earlier on December 1 and 5, Assembly elections in Gujarat were held in two phases.

The approximate voter turnout in Gujarat by the end of the second phase of the Gujarat elections was recorded at 59.11 per cent.

During the first phase of polling on December 1, Gujarat saw an overall turnout of 63.14 per cent. While polling for 68 assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh was held on November 12.

Meanwhile, the exit polls have indicated a clear win for the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat.

BJP has been in power in Gujarat for 27 years with Prime Minister Narendra Modi remaining in the Chief Minister’s post for the longest time before becoming the Prime Minister. Congress gave a tough fight to the ruling BJP in the last assembly elections in 2017. However, AAP may spoil the game for Congress by taking away a significant vote share in their favour.