The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday announced that party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj constituency.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the first thing his party will do if it comes to power at the Centre would be to initiate the caste census.

Here’s a look at today’s top developments:

  • Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will contest the polls from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency, the party announced. The constituency is a family bastion. He held the seat between 2000 and 2012. His wife Dimple Yadav had represented the constituency between 2012 and 2019. Party Mulayam Singh had won the seat in 1999.
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party are scared of the “X-ray” of the caste census and that no force can stop the exercise from taking place, PTI reported. “As soon as our government is formed, the first thing that would be done is caste census,” Gandhi said. He added that his life’s mission is to ensure justice for the 90% who he said have faced injustice.
  • Dulu Mahto, the BJP candidate from Jharkhand's Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat, has been booked for alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct, PTI reported quoting officials. Mahto had allegedly held a poll rally on April 15 at a football ground without obtaining prior permission from the authorities, the news agency quoted Dhanbad Sadar Circle officer Shashikant Sinker as saying.
  • The BJP on Wednesday expelled Usman Ghani, its Minority Morcha leader from Rajasthan’s Bikaner, from the party after he expressed disapproval of Modi’s recent remarks about Muslims, PTI reported. Ghani was removed from the party for “tarnishing” its image in the media, BJP leader Onkar Singh Lakhawat was quoted as saying. “The party took cognisance of the act of Usman Ghani to tarnish its image and expelled him from the primary membership of the party for six years, considering it a breach of discipline,” the news agency quoted Lakhawat as saying. Ghani had recently told a news channel that he had been disappointed at what the prime minister had said about Muslims during rallies in the state, PTI reported.

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