Three BSP leaders, who had contested the last assembly elections in Delhi, today joined the BJP alongwith their supporters.Ved Prakash Maan, Lal Pradhan and O P Malhotra, who had contested the 2009 assembly polls on BSP tickets, joined the BJP in the presence of state party chief Vijender Gupta.

The Election Commission has rejected the plea of two advocates for putting a freeze on UP Chief Minister Mayawati’s party symbol elephant and seeking her disqualification from contesting in elections.

The Commission in its 21-page order said, “at the time of elections, the Commission will take appropriate steps and measures to see that the statutes of Mayawati and BSP symbol elephant do not disturb the opponents during elections.”

A petition was filed by 2 advocates Ravi Kant and Sukumar in Jul 2009, who accused the UP government of misusing public money for the installation of statues of Mayawati and party symbol elephant at various public places in Uttar Pradesh.

The petitioners appealed to freeze the BSP party symbol and they also wanted to disqualify Mayawati from contesting elections in future, as several of her statues will always remain and create an unequal playing ground for her opponents during elections.

As if throwing his weight behind the Congress candidate from North East Delhi was not enough, BSP candidate, Haji Dilshad Ali, dealt another blow to his party on Tuesday when he released an advertisement in a vernacular daily, asking his supporters to vote for Congress.

A day after defecting to the Congress, while Haji Dilshad Ali, the erstwhile BSP candidate from Northeast Delhi, hogged the limelight for a brief while by sharing the stage with Rahul Gandhi during a rally on Tuesday, BSP national general secretary Nasimuddin Siddiqui accused the Congress of “bribing” him away.

The Congress has denied that any money had changed hands.

More Information about India Elections

The election campaign will come to an end on Tuesday at 5 p.m. in more places, ahead of Thursday’s Phase IV polling in 85 Lok Sabha constituencies in seven States and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Political canvassing is at its peak, as less than 24 hours are left for the end of public campaign. One of the most important state that will go to polls on Thursday, is National Capital Delhi. Polling will be held in all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi on May 7. The main battle will be between arch-rivals Congress and BJP. However, BSP may play a crucial role in some of the seats.

Union Ministers Kapil Sibal (Chandni Chowk), Ajay Maken (New Delhi) and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J.P. Agarwal (North-East Delhi) and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s son Sandeep Dikshit (East Delhi) are in the ring. Mr. Ajay Maken’s (Congress) rival in the BJP is the former Union Minister, Vijay Goel.

In Delhi, BJP has been able to hold some advantage over the Congress, riding high on the personality of its Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani, issue of terrorism, price rise, black money in Swiss Banks and confusion among the UPA allies. However, it is to be seen if the party can convert those responses into votes.

In an interesting development, BSP candidate Haji Dilshad has withdrawn his nomination in favour of the Congress candidate JP Aggarwal from North East Delhi. He has decided to campaign for the Congress candidate.

More Information about India Elections

BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday targeted the Congress for being “anti-Dalit” and asked the people to teach the party a lesson.

From CBI clean chits to Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors case and Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 riots case, to the black money trail – Maya alleged one Congress minister has crores stashed in Swiss bank accounts – to making political capital out of the three Muslim BSP candidates in the city, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister kept the 15,000-odd crowd glued to every word of her 50-minute speech.

“Baba Saheb Ambedkar had told Dalits not to vote for the Congress even after his death, after a Congress-fielded candidate defeated him in the 1952 Lok Sabha elections with the gross misuse of the government machinery,” Ms. Mayawati told an election rally here and asked the people to avenge the defeat of Dr. Ambedkar.

She alleged that the Congress led by “Nehru and Company” had attempted to block the entry of Dr. Ambedkar in the Samvidhan Sabha of the country through various measures. “These are the facts after knowing which, people from the Dalit community can never forgive the Congress,” she said.

More Information about India Elections

An angry mob led by a BSP Lok  Sabha candidate today pelted stones at a police station in the capital and damaged a government vehicle during their protest demanding arrests of two persons in a murder case.

The crowd of around 500 had gathered outside Bhajanpura police station this morning demanding the arrest of two persons they claimed were allegedly involved in the murder of one Kallu and turned violent after police declined to act.

However, police told the protestors that they could not arrest anyone without evidence which allegedly provoked the crowd. The mob turned violent and started pelting stones at the police station, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-East) S S Yadav told media.

A police vehicle was damaged in the stone pelting, he said adding the window panes of the jeep was broken.

Yadav said the crowd was brought under control after sometime and two persons who indulged in the violence were arrested.

Deepak Bhardwaj of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday filed his nominations papers from the West Delhi constituency, declaring assets worth a whopping Rs 600 crore.

Bhardwaj is the richest candidate, so far, for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections surpassing the previous richest candidate who had declared assets worth Rs 514 crore.

Interestingly, the candidate who belongs to Mayawati’s party came on a tractor that he uses on his farmland, to the Rampura election office in West Delhi to file his nomination.

Earlier this week, the previous richest LS candidate, a Mumbai-based businessman, filed his nomination as an Independent from Surendranagar. Khimji Patadia, 53, has declared assets worth Rs 514 crore, mainly in jewellery and real estate.

Riding high on the increase in its vote share in the capital, the BSP is gearing up for a high-pitched campaign which includes a rally by party supremo Mayawati.

The BSP had garnered the support of nearly 5.5 per cent of voters in the 2007 MCD polls and then steadily increased its vote share to nearly 14.5 per cent votes in last year’s Assembly elections in parts of South, Northeast and Northwest Delhi, According to party’s state unit chief, Brahma Singh Bidhuri .

“Our concentration will be on all the seats, but South Delhi, Northeast and Northwest constituencies are crucial when we see BSP’s vote share in these areas in the Assembly polls,” he said.

A Muzaffarnagar court has issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against Bahujan Samaj Party candidate for East Delhi  Haji Yunus and his brother Haji Alim, a BSP MLA from Bulandshahar, in a case of rape and child labour at a circus that the brothers allegedly owned.

The additional chief judicial magistrate issued the warrants on Wednesday after the duo failed to appear in court despite several summons. According to Muzaffarnagar Superintendent of Police the NBWs are being sent to Bulandshahar, where the brothers come from.

The Congress bagged one more seat in the Delhi assembly when it won the Rajinder Nagar assembly by-election from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that had fielded the widow of its late leader Puran Chand Yogi.Polling in the constituency had been postponed to Dec 13 after Yogi, who had represented Rajinder Nagar in the Delhi assembly, committed suicide in the run-up to the elections.

According to figures, Congress’ Ramakant Goswami defeated BJP’s Asha Yogi by 5,406 votes. While Ramakant Goswami got 29,394 votes, Yogi’s widow managed 23,988. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Trilok Chand Sharma was third with 15,871 votes.

The Congress now has 43 seats in the 70-member assembly while the BJP has 23.