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.
In a major organisational rejig ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Saturday appointed Avinash Pande the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, replacing Priyanka Gandhi Vadra while Sachin Pilot was made the general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh.
As the two parliamentary constituencies in Meghalaya, Tura and Shillong go to polls on Wednesday, the glare will be on Tura constituency where former Lok Sabha Speaker and eight-time Lok Sabha member Purno A Sangma, 66, of the National People's Party is fighting the most crucial election in his life against Congress greenhorn Daryl Williams Ch Momin, 27, in a straight contest.
The northeastern state has witnessed change of guard six times in the last five years.
'The fraud is the electronic voting machine is being manipulated by humans, and not counting the votes that is shown on VVPAT.'
The BJP, which rules the Centre, is in power in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and is all set to get Madhya Pradesh back and snatch Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from the Congress after today's vote count.
The 'ethical voting' campaign launched by the Election Commission of India has pulled big crowds in rural as well as urban centres of Garo hills areas under Tura parliamentary constituency in Meghalaya in the run up to the polling that is being held on Wednesday.
Congress nominee and Meghalaya Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Friday won the by-poll to Laitumkhrah constituency defeating the United Democratic Party candidate Malcolm Tariang by a margin of 2,327 votes.
While 67 per cent of India's population is 39 years old or younger, states are governed by chief ministers who are 70 or older.
Sonam Wangchuk, a key campaigner for constitutional safeguards for Ladakh, on Monday said they would launch a fast unto death from February 19 to press their demands and that details of participation of local residents in the agitation were being worked out.
BSF jawans on Thursday fired in the air and detained a BDR personnel who along with several others tried to intrude into Indian territory in Meghalaya.
Trouble began in both the places after people, including activists of Garo Students Union, gathered for a rally defying prohibitory orders on the Meghalaya Board of School Education issue.
The constitution of a committee by the Centre to explore the feasibility of "one nation, one election" has opened up the possibility of Lok Sabha polls being advanced so that they could be held with a string of state assembly polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday tried his hand in beating Khasi traditional drum as he wound up his two-day visit to Meghalaya.
Assembly elections in Tripura will be held on February 14 and in Meghalaya and Nagaland on February 23 and their results will be out on February 28, the Election Commission announced on Friday.
Mukul Sangma was on Friday re-elected as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party and is set to become the 23rd chief minister of the state. The Congress, which won 29 seats, two short of an absolute majority, held its first CLP meeting at a hotel in Shillong.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
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Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma retained the key departments for his National Peoples Party, and gave the lesser politically significant ones to alliance partners Bharatiya Janata Party, Hill State Peoples Democratic Party and United Democratic Party as he allocated portfolios on Thursday.
Security personnel deployed outside the Transport Bhavan, metres away from the Parliament complex, did not allow anyone to go beyond the barricades they had put up before checking their identity cards and entry passes.
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.
Cricketer Yusuf Pathan will contest from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, whereas Kirti Aazd will fight from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
The Congress's loss in the three states in the North-East, a region it had dominated for decades, shows there is a lot left to do to reclaim its political turf despite the Bharat Jodo Yatra which it had touted as a successful experiment in mass public outreach.
Against the backdrop of the violent clashes with villagers from Meghalaya, the Assam cabinet on Wednesday decided to hand over the investigation to CBI, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The Congress now knows that it is the only force -- however weakened it might be -- that stands between the BJP and India's evolution into a single-party Republic. Because, once it is out of the way, the BJP could sort out the other regional powers: Co-opting some, demolishing others, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Laws, he said, are meant to facilitate justice for the common people and not trouble them. They are meant to prescribe certain mechanisms to ensure that the life of common people is as normal as possible.
The decision to appoint Rymbai was taken during the meeting of the Congress Legislature Party held in Shillong.
'Are we so ready to believe that in this country whose virtues we constantly shout from the rooftops, there is no single person -- other than Modi -- in a minimum of 272 elected MPs with the talent and ability to lead this country?' asks Prem Panicker.
Love Storiyaan comes alive in the courageous and fearless voice of six spirited romantics speaking direct dil se, applauds Sukanya Verma.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Deputy PM Richard Marles will be among the key personalities who are expected to attend the ICC Cricket World Cup grand finale
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
Vice Chancellor of Jamia Milia university and a seasoned bureaucrat Najeeb Jung was on Monday appointed as the new Lt Governor of Delhi while former Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul was made Governor of Meghalaya.
Bright dreams of a new journey, desperation to stage a comeback and desire to rediscover old glory will be the dominant themes of this season's Ranji Trophy that begins at various centres across the country from Friday.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party managed to notch up a morale-boosting win on its 'Mission Northeast' on Thursday by retaining Tripura emphatically, despite anti-incumbency and newcomer Tipra Motha playing spoilers to its party, while also piggy-backing to power in Nagaland on Neiphiu Rio-led NDPP's shoulder.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he does not get 'intimidated' and fights for truth even if the world stands against it, remarks that come amid repeated confrontations between his party and the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Assam during the 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra'.
The ruling Congress in Meghalaya, which is enjoying a wafer-thin majority in the 60-member assembly, has reportedly petitioned the party high command on attempts allegedly being made to create rift within the party.
On skeletons being seen by the Navy team, the sources said the water inside the mines has high Sulphur content which can decompose the bodies very fast.
The murders happened in July and August last year, and few parts of the mother's body were recovered on Sunday near Cherrapunji in Khasi Hills.
The former Meghalaya chief minister, who recently switched over to the TMC along with 11 other Congress MLAs, told PTI in an interview that the political dynamics in the entire region is going to change with him quitting the grand old party.
