Is the unusually and unbearably scorching Sun and the general laxity, bordering on laziness, among voters, responsible, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
As the tussle for control of the Nationalist Congress Party hotted up after its vertical split, Sharad Pawar on Thursday declared he was the president of the party and hit back at nephew and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's retirement jibe, saying he will work more effectively "whether 82 or 92."
An approximate voter turnout of 59.06 per cent was recorded in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday in 58 constituencies across six states and two Union territories with the polling percentage in the Jangal Mahal region of West Bengal touching 78.19.
The RTI also sought the details of the fees paid by the SBI to senior advocate Harish Salve to defend its case against the disclosure of the electoral bonds' records, citing that the records are held in a fiduciary capacity and the information is personal in nature.
As the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections gathers momentum, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, the leaders of two prominent regional parties in Maharashtra, are fighting a battle for political survival.
According to the Federation of Resident Doctors Association, during the indefinite strike, all outpatient departments, operation theatres, and ward duties will be shut, but emergency services will continue to operate as usual, ensuring that urgent patient care remains unaffected.
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.
"Since the elections started in West Bengal, central government hatched conspiracies to remove us (from power). I was hurt in my feet so that I don't contest the polls," she said.
According to an Election Commission statement, the two have decided not to avail exemption from income tax on sumptuary allowance and to surrender two of the three Leave Travel Concessions (LTC) available each year.
The TMC has won in 34,560 gram panchayat seats, besides leading in 705 seats, according to the SEC as of 11.30 am on Wednesday.
After rebelling against the Shiv Sena leadership, the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will face its first popularity test in the November 3 bypoll to the Andheri (East) assembly segment in Mumbai, which was represented by Shiv Sena MLA the late Ramesh Latke.
The Election Commission on Tuesday ordered the delisting of another 86 'non-existent' registered unrecognised political parties, raising the number of such organisations red flagged by the poll panel for failing to comply with electoral rules to 537.
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.
Santiago Martin has funded Rs 1,368 crore to political parties between October 2020 to January 2024 through electoral bonds.
When a strong executive decides it wants something, even something that is dangerous and unconstitutional, there is little resistance from within to stop it, notes Aakar Patel.
Terming as "serious" the promise of "irrational freebies" made by political parties during elections, the Supreme Court on Tuesday wondered why the Centre was hesitant about taking a stand on the issue.
The elections to legislative assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha will be held simultaneously along with the Lok Sabha polls
Modi can abandon the path of Hindutva only at risk to his position within his own fraternity. But if he pursues a hard line, he faces the risk of being hauled up by his coalition-partners. For the first time in a decade, Modi is not in enviable situation, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Most of the candidates of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen have not been able to cross the 5,000-mark in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, according to poll trends on Thursday.
The agency has also summoned Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot for questioning in a case related to alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law, official sources said on Thursday.
Mahua asserted that despite all efforts by the Bharatiya Janata Party to "sound the death knell" for constitutional democracy, India is too great a country to be destroyed by the fascists.
The former Congress president alleged that PM Modi had a "monopoly over corruption".
The courts in Pakistan have been flooded with petitions as candidates, mostly backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), challenged the results of Thursday's general elections, alleging rigging.
Justice V Bhavani Subbaroyan in an order passed on June 12, 2024 said in 'every employment and educational avenues,' the government shall prescribe separate norms for transgenders.
In a surprise development, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on Tuesday nominated its president Shehbaz Sharif as the prime ministerial candidate of Pakistan instead of the party supremo and three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif.
A host of conspiracy theories followed, involving Indira Gandhi, her younger son Sanjay, his favourite small car project, secret funding of the Bangladesh Mukti Bahini and even the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States.
Among the keenly watched contests are those involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP) and Union ministers Giriraj Singh (Begusarai, Bihar), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur, Bihar) and Raosaheb Danve (Jalna, Maharashtra).
The heat wave is likely to impact parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal, the Met office said.
While the BJP said it has only portrayed some incidents, which happened during the previous Congress regime through the cartoons which are not meant to hurt anyone, the grand old party accused it of releasing such illustrations out of frustration.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday held discussions with his cabinet colleagues in the wake of the Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot reportedly issuing him a 'show-cause notice', seen as a precursor to sanctioning his prosecution in the alleged Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment 'scam'.
With the Election Commission's announcement of the schedule for elections to the legislative assemblies of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, the heat has once again taken a good track. While the stage for the political battle is being set, authorities seem more concerned of the security aspects
'There is no scope for any doubt. This was a scheme designed to enrich the ruling party.'
The Congress alleged that the claims made by the ED against Baghel are part of a "conspiracy" hatched by the BJP to tarnish the Chhattisgarh chief minister's image and asserted that the people of the state would give a befitting reply to such tactics in the upcoming Assembly poll.
In a first, central paramilitary forces will be deployed at all 62,779 polling stations during the 5-phase Bihar assembly polls, the Election Commission said on Monday.
'My suspicion is that most of the bonds were given by companies who had got contracts or who had benefited from policy changes by the government.'
TMC's Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose submitted a letter to the Election Commission on Thursday.
'Eknath Shinde and 40 other traitors have become slaves of Delhi (Centre) to finish off the Shiv Sena'
The ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Monday sent a letter to the West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) seeking details of the need for additional 485 companies of central forces, for which it has sent a requisition, an official said.
The Mizoram assembly elections passed off peacefully on Tuesday with over 77 per cent of 8.57 lakh electors exercising their franchise, officials said.
While the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will organise its event at NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai, the Shiv Sena-UBT will hold its event in Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai.
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