Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party is ready for virtual election rallies and the party will follow the Election Commission's guidelines.
The Delhi high court on Monday refused to quash the proceedings against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party leaders in a defamation case over their remarks about alleged deletion of the names of 30 lakh voters belonging to some communities from electoral rolls in the national capital.
The country now has six national parties - Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India-Marxist, NPP and AAP.
No limit exists on the number of electoral bonds that a person (including corporate entities) can purchase.
This article traces the history of the DMK's fight for state autonomy, beginning with C.N. Annadurai's advocacy in the 1960s and culminating in M. Karunanidhi's resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 1974. The article highlights the key figures involved, the arguments presented, and the impact of the Rajamannar Committee Report.
The officer said that as Section 505 is non-cognisable, police have sought permission from court to initiate an investigation.
Justice Sanjeev Narula said it would be in the interest of both -- the two Shiv Sena factions and the general public -- that the Election Commission's proceedings on the use of Shiv Sena's bow and arrow election symbol and name are concluded soon. It asked the poll panel to decide the issue as expeditiously as possible.
The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister.
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday said though there is no pre-poll adjustment with the Tipra Motha, there can be local-level understanding with the tribal party, which has emerged as the third pole in the upcoming Tripura elections.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday alleged blatant misuse of constitutional authorities and public agencies after reports claimed that the Election Commission recommended his disqualification as an MLA in the mining lease case.
Hundreds of people are still seen attending the rallies without wearing face masks and pushing and shoving each other for space.
In line with most of the exit poll predictions, bookies in Delhi feel the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will get more than 340 seats in the Lok Sabha polls while the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) may secure around 200 seats.
Can the Election Commission step up to the plate and exert its Constitutional powers with non-partisan conviction, asks Mitali Saran.
Who can vote, who can't vote and how will the polls take place?
Hitting back at the Election Commission after it dismissed allegations about slowing down the updating of Haryana election results, the Congress on Tuesday said the poll watchdog's reply degrades the conversational level to an 'unacceptable low' and 'misrepresents crucial facts' in a vein similar to that done by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Now, every state election -- first up, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year, then Delhi in January and Bihar in September next year -- will be seen by his followers for evidence of his recovery, and by rivals of sharpening decline, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Sharada Kukreja, a Pakistani woman living in Odisha for 35 years after marrying an Indian citizen, has been served a notice to leave the country. She has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi to stop her deportation, citing her long-standing ties to India and family here. Sharada fled Pakistan to escape forced conversion and marriage, and despite having an Aadhaar card and participating in elections, she has not been granted Indian citizenship. The Odisha government has identified 12 Pakistani nationals residing in the state and asked them to leave by April 27. Another Pakistani woman in Bhubaneswar also received a country exit permit on Saturday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his party was fighting the 'Bharatiya Janata Party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Indian state itself', triggering a row with the BJP alleging that everything the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha does or says is in the direction of breaking India and dividing the society.
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.
The principal opposition party though appeared content securing 99 of the 543 seats in the 2024 national elections as against its all-time low of 44 in 2014 and then 52 in 2019.
Kumar said the increase was due to Outer Manipur being counted twice, since polls will be held there in two phases.
United States President Donald Trump for the fourth time in recent days claimed that the Biden administration allocated $21 million funding to India for 'voter turnout', evoking a sharp response from the Congress which urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to 'talk to his friend' and strongly refute the allegation.
Modi said laws which divide the country on communal lines and become a reason for inequality have no place in a modern society.
The opposition parties and some former CECs had opposed the move, saying it will go against the independence of the institution.
'When people have money in their hands, they make their judgment about whether they want to spend it entirely or spend some out of it.'
With this latest notice, the Income Tax department has raised a total demand of Rs 3,567 crore from the Congress.
The Election Commission has now officially taken up the investigation of charges of rigging and fraud through the Electronic Voting Machines.
For renomination to the Rajya Sabha, Nadda will have to look for a seat outside his home state of Himachal Pradesh as the Congress is in power there.
The biggest electoral exercise in the world -- India's general elections -- will be held in seven phases across 543 parliamentary constituencies starting on April 11 till May 19, the Election Commission announced on Sunday. The results will be out on May 23. As India gears up for this massive exercise, here's a throwback to when the nation voted for the first time -- held between October 25 1951 to 21 February 1952.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notices to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Law Minister Somnath Bharti on separate pleas of two BJP leaders seeking to declare their election as void on the ground that they exceeded the poll expense limit of Rs 14 lakh each.
The BJP, which contested more seats this time than in 2019 but is likely to fall short of the magic figure of 272, garnered 36.91 per cent of the total votes polled, a drop of around 0.39 percentage points as of 6.15 pm.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance on Saturday retained power in Maharashtra, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats, as the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi's dream of wresting power fizzled, with the opposition combine managing to garner just 50 seats.
Without naming any party, Prasad said he thought cut and commission was the legacy of only one political party.
The agitation demanding his removal had been launched on Tuesday and resumed Wednesday morning by a large number of Young Mizo Association members in front of the CEO's office from 8 am. The protestors later dispersed.
'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.
The Election Commission Wednesday directed the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to refrain from making speeches on religious and communal lines, and opposition Congress from potentially divisive statements on the socioeconomic composition of the armed forces.
Names of Rajya Sabha MPs Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal are missing from the list.
The Delhi high court on Friday sought a response from the Centre, Election Commission of India, and 26 political parties on a petition seeking to restrain opposition parties from using the acronym INDIA for their alliance.
After the Gujarat and Himachal elections and the municipal polls in Mumbai and Delhi, Karnataka, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh will elect new assemblies next year leading up to the Lok Sabha election in April-May 2024, points out Virendra Kapoor.
