Highlights: EC withholds Akola West Assembly bypoll in Maha after HC order
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The Election Commission (EC) decided on Wednesday to withhold the bypoll to the Akola West Assembly seat in Maharashtra, a day after the Bombay High Court said the by-election will not be held as the new member will get less than a year to represent the constituency. The gazette notification to commence the nomination process was to be issued on Thursday and the bypoll was to be held on April 26.
Top Congress leaders met here on Wednesday to discuss and finalise party candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Goa, Telangana and Jharkhand. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary K C Venugopal and members of the central election committee, including senior leaders Ambika Soni, Madhusudan Mistry, Uttam Kumar Reddy and Salman Khurshid, were also present.
Discussion on seat-sharing among Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partners took a turn for the worse on Wednesday, as the Shiv Sena (UBT) went ahead and announced 17 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including for seats coveted by the Congress.
Congress Legislative Party leader Balasaheb Thorat stated that the Sena (UBT) should have avoided declaring candidates for Sangli and seats in Mumbai where discussions, he said, were still on.
The Congress on Tuesday announced its candidates for the remaining four Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh. With this, the Grand Old Party has announced candidates for all the 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Congress' list features an MLA who is facing an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe, and two women. The four candidates are Devender Singh Yadav (Bilaspur), Biresh Thakur (Kanker-Scheduled Tribe reserved), Shashi Singh (Surguja-ST) and Dr Menka Devi Singh (Raigarh-ST). The Naxal-affected Bastar (Scheduled Tribe) constituency will alone see polling on April 19 in the first phase of general elections and filing of nominations for the phase started on March 20. Three constituencies - Kanker (ST), Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund - will vote on April 26 in the second phase, while the remaining seven - Surguja (ST), Raigarh (ST), Janjgir-Champa (SC), Raipur, Durg, Korba and Bilaspur will witness polling on May 7.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bhardwaj took part in the 'Thali Bajao Campaign' raising the slogan 'Kejriwal ko Riha Karo' (Free Kejriwal from Jail), in the Greater Kailash area. A PMLA court on Friday remanded Kejriwal to six days of ED custody in the money laundering case related to the alleged liquor policy scam case till March 28, following his arrest on March 21. Earlier, Sunita Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's wife, met him the office of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been demanding that Kejriwal quit the chief minister's post after his arrest in connection with the liquor policy case. However, the AAP has stated that he will run the government from ED custody.
Bharadwaj said that CM Kejriwal has issued a second order from the ED custody, asking him to address the shortage of medicines and diagnostic tests at mohalla clinics and hospitals in the national capital.
 "Highlights: EC withholds Akola West Assembly bypoll in Maha after HC order")
