It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Twelve constituencies of Bastar division were among 20 assembly segments in Chhattisgarh that went to the polls in the first phase on November 7. A high voter turnout of 78 per cent was recorded in these 20 seats.
The editorial in Saamana said the "Wagner group" has shown dictatorship can be challenged.
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.
'I don't know whether on voting day there will be intimidation from some militant groups to vote for a particular person and then force them from voting for another in the stronghold of the candidate which does not favour them, or, force them not to come out for voting.' 'Anything is possible.'
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 counting of votes in three out of four states on Sunday showed that less than 1 percent of the voters exercised the 'none of the above' option in the just-concluded assembly polls, according to the election commission.
Helicopters are anticipated to be more in demand compared to fixed-wing aircraft as choppers will help in providing accessibility to rural and remote areas in a shorter time.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi has been sent as a special officer to oversee the counting process in Meerut and Bihar's CEO to Varanasi.
The former Congress president alleged that PM Modi had a "monopoly over corruption".
Holding simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and all assemblies would need any no-confidence motion to be coupled with a 'confidence motion' by a leader proposed as next prime minister or chief minister, while any mid-term election can be conducted only for remainder of the term, the Election Commission had said earlier.
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.
Right to apprenticeship, legal guarantee for MSP, passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, a nation-wide caste census and scrapping of Agnipath scheme are among the promises made by the Congress in its Lok Sabha polls manifesto released on Friday.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday said he will attend the inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya in January if he is invited to the programme.
If the BJP gets only 200 seats and wants to remain in power, Modi will have to make way -- either for a proxy of his choice, or for an internal rival, predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Khera told reporters in Hyderabad that the views of the newly-elected MLAs have been elicited and the central leadership is seized of the matter.
Counting of votes will be held on Sunday in assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana in what is seen as a semi-final contest ahead of the general elections in less than six months.
With voter-verified paper audit trail being used on a large-scale for the first time in the country in the Mizoram Assembly polls, the Elections Commission is leaving no stone unturned to make it easily accessible to voters.
The Congress said the rally by the INDIA will send a "strong message" to the Lok Kalyan Marg, where the prime minister's residence is located, that the BJP-led government's "time is up".
Modi said this is the time for peace and brotherhood, and time to move forward together.
With Lok Sabha polls next year and assembly elections round the corner in some key states, the government cleared a proposal on Thursday to procure 1.80 lakh Electronic Voting Machines.
"Mock polls" are part of the first level check (FLC) process.
The Election Commission on Thursday said that there were 'multiple factors' leading to the delay in the announcement of the Gujarat assembly polls, adding that the recent Morbi bridge collapse tragedy was one of them.
The Congress leadership on Friday held separate meetings to review its performances in the assembly polls in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and said its defeat in the two states at the hands of the BJP was unexpected.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that polls can be rigged through social media, and that if social media companies want, they can make any party win an election.
'The right to vote is the supreme right of democracy which is being executed through EVMs. No nationally or internally recognized institutions or governments have certified the EVMs as a cent per cent accurate. Despite this fact, by conducting polling using the machines in India, which is the biggest democracy in the world, the constitutional right of my vote is being violated. There is no guarantee whether my vote is cast in favour of whom I pressed the button through the EVM machine,' he said.
Leaders of 22 opposition parties met the Election Commission and demanded verification of VVPAT slips of randomly-selected polling stations before the counting of the votes.
More than 10,000 security personnel, returning officers, and other support staff will oversee the counting of votes for the Himachal Pradesh assembly polls on Thursday.
Tushar Dedha of the ABVP won the post of DUSU president, defeating NSUI's Hitesh Gulia by a margin of 3,115 votes. Dedha got 23,460 votes and Gulia 20,345.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
Maharashtra Speaker Nana Patole on Tuesday said he has asked the state legislature to frame a law to give voters the option of using ballot papers besides electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the local governing bodies' and state assembly polls.
Hindu temples are also coming up in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, the prime minister told the gathering.
Days after Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar undertook an hours-long trek to a remote polling station in Uttarakhand, the poll panel on Tuesday decided to double the remuneration of polling officials going to such booths as early as three days before voting day.
It's a single phase polling in Mizoram while first phase of assembly elections is underway in Chhattisgarh.
In the last assembly elections in 2018, the state recorded a voter turnout of 74.06 per cent. The Election Commission has set a target of at least 75 per cent turnout in each constituency this time.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the committee as a special invitee, while legal affairs secretary Niten Chandra will be secretary to the panel.
All political parties were asked at the dinner meeting on Monday night to suggest names for the alliance and the same would be discussed and consensus would be arrived at during the deliberations.
Polling in 70 constituencies began at 8 am and will conclude at 5 pm, except in nine polling booths in the Maoist-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Gariaband district, where voting began at 7 for security reasons, a poll official said.
'We want maximum voting and a healthy system. People from the whole world appreciate our system'
Voting for 10 constituencies was held from 7 am to 3 pm in 10 seats and from 8 am to 5 pm in the rest 10 segments under a thick security blanket of police and paramilitary personnel in the Naxalite-hit Bastar division.
