The BJP has taken an early lead in the Gujarat local body elections, winning a significant number of seats as counting progresses. The Congress trails behind, while Independents and other parties, including AAP and AIMIM, have also secured seats.
The BJP has secured a majority vote share across all categories in the recent local body elections in Gujarat, according to data released by the State Election Commission (SEC). The ruling party swept the elections, winning a significant number of seats across municipal corporations, municipalities, district panchayats, and taluka panchayats.
The Election Commission is preparing to launch the third phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' lists, potentially covering 22 states and Union Territories with approximately 40 crore electors.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
Police in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district have arrested an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate for allegedly fabricating a shooting incident and possessing a live bullet. The arrest followed a forensic investigation that debunked the candidate's claims of being fired upon.
'98 lakhs in Bengal, 97 lakhs in Tamil Nadu, 2.83 crores in Uttar Pradesh.'
Counting of votes begins in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, and West Bengal, with significant implications for regional and national parties.
The Congress party has accused the Modi government of abusing its power and distorting the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during the upcoming assembly elections in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry. The party alleges that the MCC has become 'Modi's Code of Campaigning' filled with defamation and lies.
Chief Elections Commissioner N Gopalaswami and Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and S Y Qureshi will meet representatives of six main political parties later in the day.
Hopefully, the BJP will realise that it's the right time for parivartan (change) in its polarising poll strategies after achieving the impossible-looking goal of winning West Bengal, argues Sheela Bhatt.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has launched a strong rebuttal against Union Home Minister Amit Shah's 'chargesheet' on the West Bengal government, accusing the BJP of attempting to polarise the state ahead of elections and failing to address critical issues such as violence in Manipur and women's safety in BJP-ruled states.
TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee challenges Amit Shah to resign, questioning his commitment to clean politics, citing Shah's past arrest and criticising the BJP's actions against allegedly corrupt leaders.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has promised to expel infiltrators from West Bengal and secure the border if the BJP wins the upcoming assembly elections. He accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of neglecting North Bengal and favouring Muslims in budget allocations.
Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to resign, citing hypocrisy in Shah's call for 'clean politics' given his past arrest. Banerjee also criticised the Election Commission and defended his party's record.
'The nepotism, corruption, bad governance and 15 years of rampant crime that has happened across West Bengal under her rule led to her ouster.'
Opposition leaders have criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation, calling it politically motivated and a misuse of official platforms during ongoing elections.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed rallies in West Bengal, promising to address infiltration issues, resolve the Gorkha issue, and tackle corruption if the BJP wins the upcoming elections.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserts the BJP will form a government in West Bengal and address the issue of infiltration, accusing Mamata Banerjee of allowing it for vote-bank politics.
'If the BJP becomes our political identity, our political face, if we are represented by the BJP, then what happens to our identity as Bengalis?'
'All this talk about women's reservation and Nari Shakti is a mirage.' 'It is a classic Trojan horse to bring about an alteration in the structure of political competition -- to the enduring advantage of the BJP.'
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) faces a significant setback as several of its Rajya Sabha MPs, including key figures like Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak, resign from the party, with some reportedly joining the BJP.
The Election Commission is likely to declare poll dates for Gujarat and Himachal on October 4 or 5.
According to BJP sources, the media committee under the Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer objected to the word mentioned in the script of the advertisement which was submitted by the party for approval last month.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said that his party is ready for elections in Gujarat at any point of time.
The Election Commission on Thursday extended the timeline for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in six states and Union territories following requests from the chief electoral officers.
For successive governments the Election Commission remains a 'holy cow', where unhealthy precedents are allowed to be nurtured since Independence, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to display the names of those on the 'logical discrepancies' list at various public offices in West Bengal, addressing concerns about irregularities in the voter rolls.
The Election Commission has ordered a 'Special Revision' of electoral rolls in Assam, with the final voter list to be published on February 10, 2026. The revision aims to ensure clean and accurate electoral rolls, with house-to-house verification taking place from November 22 to December 20.
"The truth is that the election system in India is already dead. Please remember one thing that the prime minister of India enjoys a very slim majority. If 10-15 seats were rigged, and we suspect the actual figures to be closer to 70-80 to 100, he would not have been the prime minister of the country," the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha claimed.
The Election Commission removed 6.5 crore electors from the draft electoral rolls of nine states and three Union territories as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The removals are due to voters being absent, shifted, deceased, or duplicates.
'I disagree with much of Modi's politics, but it cannot be denied that in these years in office, he has carved more than a niche for himself in history,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
The Supreme Court has directed states to consider deploying additional staff to ease the workload on booth level officers (BLOs) engaged in the special revision of electoral rolls, following concerns about extreme work pressure and related issues.
The Election Commission will conduct phase two of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union territories between November and February, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar announced on Monday.
The Gujarat assembly election will be held in mid-December, according to a senior source in the Election Commission of India.
Opposition parties are questioning the Election Commission's intentions behind the second phase of special intensive revision of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union Territories. The BJP has slammed the Congress and called the opposition a 'herd of dissatisfied souls'.
Aam Aadmi Party's Gopal Italia on Monday won from Gujarat's Visavadar assembly constituency and his party also retained Punjab's Ludhiana West seat while the Congress-led United Democratic Front wrested Nilambur from the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala, according to results of assembly bypolls in four states.
The Election Commission has extended the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in several states and Union Territories following concerns raised by opposition parties.
A series of deaths and health-related incidents involving staff deployed for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in multiple states has triggered alarm, even as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission, calling the ongoing exercise 'chaotic, coercive and dangerous'.
Given Modi's track record from the time he became Gujarat chief minister in October 2001, it is highly improbable that Nabin will get opportunities to display his individual capacity. Even the team of organisational leaders that he will 'appoint' in a few weeks or months, will unlikely to be his choice, predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Taking umbrage at Navjot Singh Sidhu's remark in which he termed him as an "anti-national leader", Gujarat Parivartan Party president Keshubhai Patel on Saturday appealed to the Election Commission to take suo motu action against the Bharatiya Janata Party MP and his party.
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