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.
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.
While the Congress top brass has declined the invitation to the January 22 consecration ceremony at Ayodhya's Ram temple, the party's Uttar Pradesh unit plans to go ahead with its own event a week earlier in the holy town.
Some of them also carried pictures of Lord Hanuman as party workers and leaders assembled at Indira Bhawan, the state Congress office, and distributed sweets, threw gulal powder and burst firecrackers.
In a strange incident, a man who had gone missing some 33 years ago returned to his home in Rajasthan's Alwar much to the astonishment of his family who had stopped believing that he could be alive and had even got a death certificate made for him.
Rana, who currently represents the Amravati Lok Sabha seat, joined the ruling BJP at the party's state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule's residence in Nagpur along with her supporters late Wednesday night.
"Bapu, I am here today not as a Prime Minister, but as a Hindu," said Sunak, opening his address at the gathering.
Subhash K Jha celebrates the Ram Mandir pran pratishtha ceremony by picking some memorable Ram bhajans from movies you may not have heard of.
There are fears of a fantasized or a re-imagined version of Ramayana to fit the Hollywood machine.
Daily glimpses of India captured on camera.
Former Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan on Sunday asserted that every party wants him to be on its side, indicating he could tilt towards the one that offered a better bargain.
Joining the chorus against the film, the Samajwadi Party said the faithful are hurt by its "cheap and superficial dialogues" and that the film was part of an "agenda".
Cherry blossoms in Sri Lanka, Hanuman speaking Bombaiya, the mythical Sone Ki Lanka looking darkly Gothic, Raavan looking like a Bollywood dude... this is not modernisation. This is a travesty, asserts Deepa Gahlot.
From damsels versus dragons to showbiz shenanigans, ready to catch all the action on OTT this week?
A day ahead of the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple, the streets and the skyline of Ayodhya have turned saffron with flags flying atop buildings, small and big, across the temple town.
Four of seven Bharatiya Janata Party MPs who fought the Rajasthan assembly elections won their respective seats while three others lost the polls.
The British prime minister, who is of Indian origin, has often emphasised his Hindu roots and said he is proud of it.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Ayodhya on December 30, the streets in the temple town in Uttar Pradesh are being decorated with flowers to give the city a 'divine look'.
'I am a spontaneous actor. I follow what works for the character.'
'Just because of my background and poor academic qualifications, most people disbelieve what I have done.'
A statuette of Lord Hanuman is among few items that United States President Barack Obama always carries in his pocket and seeks inspiration from whenever he feels tired or discouraged.
Making a blatant mockery of the great religious epic, Adipurush showcases the worst side of today's Bollywood, declares Sumeet Nadkarni.
Chouhan, who stepped down as CM earlier this week, was also seen getting emotional and in tears as women encircled him and raised slogans in his praise while he was on his way to a famous Hanuman temple in Vidisha, around 55 km from Bhopal, on Thursday.
The Madhya Pradesh Congress filed a police complaint on Sunday, claiming that a fake letter was made viral on social media to create the impression that its senior leader Digvijaya Singh resigned after the party released the first list of its candidates for the upcoming assembly polls.
During Vajpayee's tenure, he was there as an indispensable insider, witness to every action that had an impact on history: Pokhran-II (nuclear tests in 1998), the 1999 Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan, the Indo-Pak Agra Summit in 2001, intense engagement with the United States on nuclear issues besides the Kandahar hijack.
The Delhi police has denied permission to a group for holding 'Shree Ram Bhagwan Pratima Yatra' on Ram Navami in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri, which was rocked by violence during a Hanuman Jayanti procession last year, officials said on Tuesday.
The actor and his wife Upasana Kamineni are expecting their first child; his film RRR has bagged two Golden Globe nominations.
UIDAI claims 99.9% accuracy rate, says this incident makes up less than 0.1% of cases which slip through system.
The Mumbai police has decided to provide security to Manoj Shukla Muntashir, the dialogue writer of the film Adipurush after he cited a threat to his life, an official said on Monday.
'I apologised because sentiments were hurt.'
"I have always felt that Lord Ram has been shielding me and my family from all the bad times and I strongly believe that it is him, who chose me for the auspicious task," Yogiraj, who has received effusive praise for his work, told PTI.
Of the 34 SC reserved seats that went to the polls, the BJP won 22 and the Congress 11.
On seeing them, Gandhi got off his vehicle, walked up to them and shook hands with several people in the crowd.
'The temple's construction is the result of collective wisdom of some of the best brains in the country. Water and sacred soil from almost all pilgrimage sites in India, including Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kailash Mansarovar, Prayags (there are seven Prayags) and all 'puris' (seven holy towns in India, besides Ayodhya) have been used in the making of the temple'
Efficient land use, minimum congestion, a focus on dharamshalas (inns) and homestays, upgrading the infrastructure while retaining the historical and cultural character of the city are some of the highlights of the plan prepared by Kukreja, the managing principal of CP Kukreja Architects.
The Allahabad high court on Tuesday expressed concern over the way key characters of the epic Ramayana have been depicted in the controversial movie Adipurush, saying, "Hindus are tolerant but why they are tested every time?"
The controversy-ridden film, which registered a bumper opening at the box office only to witness a major drop in collections as negative word of mouth spread on social media, is now screening in theatres with altered dialogues.
It will try to exploit the infighting in the state's ruling Congress while it manages factionalism within its own ranks
The Opposition's stand on the Ayodhya consecration is puzzling. Their only objection seems to be that the BJP has hijacked a religious event for political benefit. In saying this, the Opposition is either being naive or hypocritical, argues Jyoti Punwani.
In his recent speeches in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also targeted the Gehlot government over the incident.
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