Incidentally, 164 of the total 356 candidates in the fray from the 43 assembly seats of Jammu region got less votes than none of the above, which gives an option to voters to reject all candidates in a constituency.
An average voter turnout of 20 per cent was recorded in the first four hours of voting in the bypolls to 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand on Wednesday amid an incident of stone pelting in a village in UP's Meerapur and allegations of police personnel deterring voters from casting their ballot.
The Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, where Rahul Gandhi won for the second time in a row, comprises three assembly constituencies each in the tribal district of Wayanad and the Muslim-dominated Malappuram, as well as one in Kozhikode district where Christians hold a significant vote base.
The announcement was made after AICC general secretary Ajoy Kumar held a meeting with CPI-M state secretary Jitendra Choudhury on Friday evening.
Left workers were attacked and several vehicles set ablaze allegedly by the Trinamool Congress at Bamunghata in South 24 Parganas district on Tuesday when they were going to attend a rally to protest Sunday's attack on Marxist leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former minister Kanti Ganguly said.
Nearly 57 per cent of total income of five national parties during financial year 2013-14 was from sale of coupons (smaller donations), a leading election watchdog NGO has said.
Gautam Navlakha, an accused in Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, was released from Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai on Saturday evening and will live under house arrest for a month.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Centre had sent multiple advance warnings to the Kerala government about possible floods and landslides in the state, starting as early as July 23, and nine National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams were rushed to the state the same day.
Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to decide whether West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan's "political interventions" in seeking an apology from the party politburo for the Delhi incident, involving Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was justified.
Twenty-year old worker Nirmal was stabbed to death during celebrations at a festival in a temple.
Shukla claimed that the current Nitish Kumar-led dispensation would be ousted after the elections and people have started protesting against the ruling alliance leaders in public meetings.
Leaders of 13 Opposition parties Sunday urged the Centre to launch a free mass vaccination drive across the country in view of the unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday censured veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Anil Basu for using expletives against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee at an election meeting, while the Trinamool Congress demanded his arrest.
Addressing a Confederation of Indian Industry meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday, Advani had warned the ruling United Progressive Alliance government that its Communist allies would prove to be a 'liability' in achieving any good for the country.
Communist Party of India-Marxist's top leader in Jammu and Kashmir Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami tells rediff.com's Krishnakumar Padmanabhan about Bharatiya Janata Party's plans to hoist the national flag at Srinagar's Lal Chowk on Republic Day, and how 'it will disturb the region's fragile peace.'
A local court in Ajmer has issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India on a plea seeking to declare the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti a temple. The petition, filed in September, has sparked a heated debate, with politicians and community leaders weighing in on the potentially volatile issue. The dargah committee has declined to comment, but the Anjuman Syed Zadgan, a body representing the caretakers of the dargah, described the petition as a deliberate attempt to fracture society along communal lines. The petition comes just days after four people were killed in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, following a local court ordering survey of a Mughal-era shrine. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which fixed August 15, 1947, as the cut-off date for status quo on the character of religious places, is at the centre of much of the debate. Several politicians, including Union minister Giriraj Singh and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, have weighed in on the issue. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called the civil court's decision to entertain the petition unwarranted and has asked the Supreme Court to immediately intervene.
According to police, CPI-M legislator K Bhimrao and other party supporters were arrested from Guindy railway station in Chennai.
After his 'inadvertent' comment against Rajiv Gandhi enraged Congress legislators in the state assembly, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the late prime minister. Speaking after inaugurating the Communist Party of India - Marxist's local committee office at Thamarakkulam, the veteran Marxist leader said Rajiv Gandhi was "no better than Sanjay Gandhi."
There were some tense moments as BJP members, carrying placards, marched towards the opposition members near the Gandhi statue in Parliament premises to condemn their 'undemocratic actions' inside the House.
Shailaja, who had won accolades for containing the Nipah infection effectively in 2018, said the southern state has a protocol and standard operating procedure (SOP) to effectively fight the infection and prevent its spread.
Though he has physically improved, his doctors remained unsure of his mental functioning.
