Voting was underway on Friday in 102 Lok Sabha seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the world's largest electoral exercise, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging voters to exercise their franchise in record numbers.
Polling is scheduled in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Some India states are likely to record a significantly higher number of heatwave days, according to the national weather body.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
Concealed beneath the feat, which testifies to his political acumen and survival instincts, is the fact that the 72-year-old leader could never remain at peace with his allies which also made him change partners frequently.
In some states, many women voters had enrolled themselves by their relationship with the male members of their family instead of providing their own names.
A high-level committee on Thursday recommended simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies as the first step followed by synchronised local body polls within 100 days.
Police personnel removed him and his supporters from the protest site as they were holding the demonstration near a restricted area, and thus it was "illegal", a senior officer said.
One is a budding cricketer and the other is a wannabe actor, but politics is what they have in common. Tejaswi Yadav, a cricketer, is better known as the son of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's son. Chirag Paswan, who is looking for a break in Bollywood, is the son of Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan.
'The RJD is a family centric party and its top leadership's main concern is only to promote the family.'
The BJP holds 28 of the 59 Rajya Sabha seats that will soon face election.
The party was floated exactly two years after Kishor had embarked on a more than 3,000-km-long 'padayatra' of the state.
Ruling parties held sway in most of the 13 states in the assembly byelection results declared on Saturday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies wresting seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan and the Trinamool Congress sweeping West Bengal.
Hailing the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi assembly polls victory as 'historic', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a stinging attack on the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, saying the country needs a serious political transformation and not politics of 'dhoort-ta (deceit) and moorkhta (foolishness)'.
This will be the 49-year-old JMM leader's fourth stint as chief minister. Soren retained the Barhait seat, defeating BJP's Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes in the recent assembly polls.
'We all are united and intact. We have been working for the people and will continue to serve people. We have done a lot of developmental work in Bihar. From constructing good roads, bridges, electricity, and drinking water facilities to several other infrastructural projects, we have done a lot of work in the state. The electorate will make the final decision'
The EC's advisory, re-issued ahead of the three-phase elections in Bihar beginning later this month, asked the media, both electronic and print, to 'refrain' from airing and publishing such programmes during the prohibited period to ensure free, fair and transparent polls.
Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
Acharya will contest from Saran while Bharti will try her luck in the Patliputra LS constituency.
A maximum of 92,000 personnel of CAPFs are likely to be deployed in politically volatile West Bengal, where elections will be held in seven phases, followed by 63,500 personnel in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir, where polling will be held in five phases.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar's areas close to the borders (seemant) will become 'infested with infiltrators' if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday termed his past alliances with arch rival Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal as a 'mistake' that he committed twice but was determined not to repeat again.
'It is an important and significant election -- but there is nothing make-or-break about it. A victory is always great, but if the BJP wins, it can't make Mr Modi any stronger in his party and government than he already is,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
"People ask me why I am now criticising Nitish Kumar, having worked with him in the past. He was a different man back then. His conscience had not been put up for sale," said Kishor, who had managed the JD-U president's election campaign in 2015 and formally joined the party two years later.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) on Sunday elected its first Dalit president from the Left-backed groups after nearly three decades.
The BJP may win more seats in the February 5 assembly election, but not enough to trump AAP, notes Ramesh Menon.
Voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 from third gender. There are as many as 35.67 lakh first time voters, besides 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has outperformed ally JD-U which has triggered speculations in some quarters if Kumar will still be the chief minister or somebody from the saffron party will lead the coalition government in the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday appointed election in-charges and co-in-charges for 23 states and Union territories in view of the Lok Sabha polls this year.
In continuing operations to enforce the Model Code of Conduct, more than Rs 10.5 lakh unaccounted cash and 3,112 litres of illegal liquor were seized from different parts of the state on Saturday.
The elections will begin on April 19 followed by subsequent phases on April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
WC star Azad beats state BJP heavyweight Ghosh from Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency
State RJD president Jagadanand Singh on Saturday announced its candidates for two seats, having done the same for 21 others a week ago, and declared that it was leaving one for the Left parties.
'Undeniably, Modi's position has stabilised and he has staged a comeback of sorts from the weeks after the Lok Sabha results.' 'Coalition partners are likely to be more tolerant of Modi... The forthcoming elections in Delhi and Bihar will determine whether this continues or not.' 'To win Delhi and Bihar, Modi will have to work in conjunction with the RSS.' 'However, because of the 'truce' that has been worked out within the Sangh Parivar, Modi will have to be more consultative than he has been in the past ten years,' reveals Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
As Election 2024 hurtles towards result day in a medley of mangalsutra, mujra, mutton, machli and other barbs, these may sound like character names from Hindi comics of yore. Instead, these are the mocking, sometimes vicious monikers given by political rivals to each other.
Political parties have fielded sons, wives and daughters-in-law of legislators who quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.
The Congress also asserted that the opposition INDIA bloc had been formed for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at the national level and was not state specific.
The monthly Rs 2500 payment for poor women is expected to cost Rs 11,000 crore while the pension scheme of Rs 2000 for every senior citizen will cost around Rs 4100 crore. The Yamuna clean up will cost over Rs 10,000 crore while a similar amount is required to upgrade Delhi's hospitals. Ultimately, the new BJP government will have no choice but to ask the centre for financial support, notes Rashme Sehgal.
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