Complaints of electronic voting machine malfunctioning poured in from several booths on Tuesday during the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha polls which saw voters turning out in large numbers to cast their vote in 116 seats, including all constituencies of Gujarat and Kerala.
While refuting media reports about her plans to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha election, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Thursday went all out to woo the state's Muslims, by training her guns at the entire brigade along with its prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi.
Most exit polls have forecast gains for Congress in at least four states including a clear majority in Rajasthan.
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Constitution amendment bill to restore the power of states to make their own OBC lists after a thaw in the logjam as Opposition parties backed the legislation but demanded the removal of the 50 per cent cap on reservation, with many of them also calling for a caste-based census.
The move could hurt the BJP as the JCC, according to political analysts, might have eaten into the Congress' votes in at least four of the 11 parliamentary constituencies in the state. R Krishna Das reports.
The Congress has often accused the media of being "biased" towards the Modi dispensation.
In a jolt to the Congress ahead of Lok Sabha polls, retired Indian Administrative Service officer Bhagirath Prasad, whom the party had declared its candidate from Bhind seat in Madhya Pradesh, on Sunday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The DMK leadership may now have to deal with a demand for more seats from its Congress ally in the Lok Sabha polls, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bharti said she would 'embark on a pilgrimage to devote time for Ganga river and Lord Ram by leaving power'.
The bone of contention is believed to have been the number of the seats the Congress wants to contest in the national capital.
It may be recalled that a large number of TDP leaders have switched over to the TRS in the last few years which has weakened the party substantially in Telangana.
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Between 71 to 82 per cent polling was registered in five Lok Sabha seats in the eastern states of Tripura, Assam and of Sikkim in the fourth phase of the polls on Saturday.
'It may take the AIADMK much more convincing than already, not only to try and bring around even the one-time Muslim voters of the party. 'More importantly, the party leadership may find it even more difficult to convince traditional party voters and cadres, who had admired Jaya's nonchalance to the party and leader ruling the Centre,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
With election campaign ending in Tamil Nadu before it goes to polls on Thursday, N Sathiya Moorthy lists a few questions uppermost in the minds of voters.
The byelections are scheduled to be held on March 11.
The announcement put an end to speculation that Sonia Gandhi may not contest in the upcoming polls due to health reasons and the party's newly appointed general secretary in-charge (East UP) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be fielded from her constituency.
With the Bahujan Samaj Party keeping out and the Congress being in the fray only for namesake, Saturday's bye-election for 11 state assembly constituencies and for one Lok Sabha seat will determine the supremacy between Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mahajan, who turns 76 next week, said there had been speculations whether the party will field someone who has crossed the 75-year age bar.
Amid the din in which BJP and Congress members tried to shove each other and some members banged the door leading to the secretary general's desk, Birla adjourned the House for the day.
Slamming Trinamool Congress member of Parliament Tapas Pal's controversial comments allegedly threatening to kill Communist Party of India-Marxist workers and have their women raped, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded that the leader be put "behind bars", saying he has "no right" to be in any political party.
Slogans of 'Unnao ki beti ko insaaf do, beti bachao' were chanted by MPs in the well of the House.
Polling in Vellore was scheduled on April 18.
'Since 2002, we have not received any justice and we are still fighting for it.'
"Within a few weeks, Rahul Gandhi will become the prime minister. In your (Gandhi's) hands the country will be safe we believe," he said.
The cricketer-turned-politician, who will be making his electoral debut from East Delhi, has shown an income of nearly Rs 12.40 crore in the income tax returns filed for 2017-18.
BJP sources said Gambhir may be fielded from the New Delhi constituency, currently represented by the party's Meenakshi Lekhi.
Chowdhury is a five-time MP from West Bengal and has not lost the Lok Sabha election since 1999.
Rajasekharan resigned from the post as he is keen on contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from Kerala.
It is likely that small parties would be given very few seats to contest, but these parties believe that they would be able to swing the result in favour of bigger alliance partners by transferring their vote bank.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that social distancing norms will be strictly followed in the monsoon session of Parliament in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and 257 MPs of the House will sit in Lok Sabha chamber, 172 in the visitors gallery and the remaining members in the Rajya Sabha chamber and its gallery.
The new chief minister, if from the Congress, will have little or no time for political administration, to ensure that he does not lose the voter's goodwill even before the Lok Sabha polls. He can count only on one thing. That the BJP may not want to upset him too early lest an early failure should become an added problem for the party in all the polls to follow, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The repoll will be held on April 13.
Counting of votes is underway for four Lok Sabha and eight assembly Constituencies, spread across six states and one Union Territory where by-elections were held on Saturday.
Joshi has issued a brief statement for voters in Kanpur, from where the 85-year-old leader had won in 2014.
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Hitting out at Tharoor, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee working president and the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Kodikkunnil Suresh on Friday said everybody in the party should work according to it's policies and programmes.
At 70, going by hospital records made public, most age and health-related arguments put out against super-star Rajinikanth's entry into politics, before he withdrew citing a 2016 kidney-transplant, hold good for Sasikala, too, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday ruled out contesting all 545 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, but will field candidates in maximum number of seats and announced a nationwide fortnight campaign for enrolling new members from January 10.
Bharatiya Janata Party's firebrand leader Sushma Swaraj will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from Bhopal or Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh.The final decision about her nomination will be taken by the Central Election Committee on February 26, she told rediff.com.
