As the comparison between 2014 and 2019 shows, the voter turnout is not only lower than in 2019 but also lower than in 2014 in some of the larger states where polling took place.
In the notice issued on Sunday, the ECI has notified the main organiser of the 'Auto Rajakanmar Iftar' event, Abubakar Siddique, for violating the election model code of conduct.
Some India states are likely to record a significantly higher number of heatwave days, according to the national weather body.
Eleven states and Union territories -- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand -- had a voter turnout lower than the national average of 67.40 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The only visible hint of the impending election is the hoardings put up by local election authorities, urging citizens to exercise their franchise.
The attack took place near Shashidhar in the evening when the vehicles were moving towards Sanai Top in the district's Surankote area.
The Election Commission of India has set up more than 200 polling stations within housing societies in the urban areas of Uttar Pradesh to increase the voter turnout in the politically crucial state.
The EC said polling percentage in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir is the highest in 40 years.
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.
A delegation of the NCSC had visited Sandeshkhali on Thursday after a large number of women claimed that TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters captured swathes of land by force and also sexually harassed them.
On Sunday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) formed the committee to probe the explosive allegations levelled by former Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha that widespread rigging aided by the judiciary and the top election body took place against jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's party in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Tahul assured that he would raise the stampede issue in Parliament in a bid to prevent such incidents in the future, they said.
Several newly-wed couples turned up at polling stations in wedding attire to cast their votes in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur constituency which went to polls in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Sandeshkhali leader Gangadhar Koyal on Friday moved the Calcutta high court, claiming that technology-aided videos mimicking his voice were being circulated in a bid to defame him, and prayed for security be provided to him by central agencies.
"Not a single woman (from Sandeshkhali) has lodged any FIR. It was me who directed the police to lodge a suo motu case. Our block president has been arrested," she said.
A day after a stampede in Hathras claimed 121 lives, Uttar Pradesh minister Asim Arun on Wednesday said the state government has started work on standard operating procedures (SOPs) for granting permission for large gatherings to prevent such incidents in future.
Ghulam Nabi Azad remarked that the figures are not high enough to know whether the people are happy or angry with the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, Mehbooba Mufti said it is a message that the people have not accepted the Centre's decisions.
Pakistan's election commission has expressed its inability to hold general elections within three months due to legal, constitutional and logistical challenges, according to a media report on Tuesday.
Though seven opportunities have been granted to the states, it appears that full compliance has not been affected and several states are in default, it said.
In a post on X, Atishi questioned the "sealing" of the party office, saying it is against the "level playing field" promised by the Constitution.
Kangana later apologised saying she didn't mean to hurt anyone, and it was a harmless joke about Biden being friends with the Dalai Lama.
The incident, as reported, indicates a "lapse" on the part of the law enforcing agencies and the forces deployed to ensure peace and law and order in the state, the rights panel said in a statement.
Singh asserted that Deshmukh set a staggering collection target of Rs 100 crore for his officers, specifically from Mumbai, while also discussing plans to target key opposition figures, including former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Farmers will march towards Delhi on Tuesday after a meeting with two Union ministers over their demands, including legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) for crops, remained inconclusive.
Announcing candidates for the remaining four seats in Kerala, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its state chief K Surendran in the high-profile Wayanad constituency against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The riverine Sandeshkhali area in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district -- situated on the borders of the Sunderbans, about 100 kilometres from Kolkata -- has been on the boil for more than a month with protests against Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shahjahan, who is absconding, and his supporters.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'Whether she is in power or not, she always makes it a point to visit us. This is her best quality as a leader.'
Modi said laws which divide the country on communal lines and become a reason for inequality have no place in a modern society.
The Congress' strength in the 230-member MP assembly came down to 65 after Shah's exit.
Seemingly expressing his displeasure against ministers demanding three more deputy chief minister posts in Karnataka, state Congress president D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said the party would respond to them appropriately.
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