The showstopper of this year's IPL is a robot dog, which has instantly become a hit among players, experts and fans alike.
According to the Election Commission's website at 5.45 pm on Tuesday, the NOTA votes ranged as high as 2.1 per cent in Chhattisgarh to 0.5 per cent in Mizoram.
Rutuja Latke, the candidate of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), secured a comfortable win in the bypoll to Andheri (East) Assembly seat in Mumbai on Sunday, while votes polled in favour of the None of the Above (NOTA) option obtained the second position.
Villagers said they have been demanding a 1,500-metre link road since 2007. Lack of connectivity has already forced about 65 per cent of the residents to abandon the village, they complained.
Most candidates of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party secured less than 1,000 votes in the two states and were set to lose to their security deposits.
They alleged that while the two main political parties in the state -- the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party -- have 'cheated' them, the other parties are 'ineffective'.
The apex court had questioned the poll panel's notification and said that NOTA was meant to be exercised by individual voters in direct polls.
The None of the Above option, like previous polls, had few takers in the assembly elections to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The EC maintained that use of none of the above in Rajya Sabha polls was not a new move as it was introduced in 2014 after the Supreme Court in 2013 made it mandatory to have the NOTA option in EVMs.
Of the 2,67,82,371 votes cast in the state, 3,27,911 were cast in favour of NOTA while 2,72,642 were in favour of AAP. Shahnawaz Akhtar reports.
Angry members of the Congress and other opposition parties forced adjournments of the proceedings as they questioned the NOTA provision for these elections.
The BJP on Wednesday approached the Election Commission seeking removal of the None Of The Above or NOTA option in the upcoming Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat, a day after the Congress made a similar demand.
Incidentally, 164 of the total 356 candidates in the fray from the 43 assembly seats of Jammu region got less votes than none of the above, which gives an option to voters to reject all candidates in a constituency.
If the Aam Aadmi Party made an impressive debut in Indian politics in Delhi, so did the 'None of the Above' option in Rajasthan.
On Tuesday, the Congress had approached the EC against NOTA in RS polls.
The SC asked Gujarat Congress 'why is it so late in raising question over the use of NOTA'.
Close to 60 lakh voters opted for the None of The Above option across the country while exercising their franchise in the 16th Lok Sabha polls, with the maximum percentage of the electorate going for this choice in Puducherry.
The results of assembly elections in the Kashmir Valley have culminated in a significant rejection of separatist candidates, including those from Engineer Rashid-led Awami Ittehad Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, who failed to make a meaningful impact in the polls.
A much larger number of candidates could garner less than 500 votes each.
Seeking to end confusion regarding the use of 'none of the above' option in the Rajya Sabha and state legislative council elections, the Election Commission has come out with a fresh set of instructions to prevent rejection of vote.
The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu has won the Erode East bypoll with a massive margin, defeating actor-politician Seeman's NTK. The victory is seen as a boost for the DMK ahead of next year's Assembly elections. DMK candidate V C Chandhirakumar trounced Naam Tamilar Katchi's (NTK) M K Seethalakshmi by a margin of 91,558 votes, leading to the NTK forfeiting its deposit. Chief Minister and DMK president Stalin attributed the win to the DMK government's good governance, while AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami termed it a "fake" victory. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA EVKS Elangovan last year.
Results for assembly polls in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir were declared on Tuesday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party scoring a hat-trick in Haryana while the National Conference-Congress alliance emerged victorious in J-K. Here's how some big names fared.
On the basis of her committee's report, the UCC in Uttarakhand established mandatory registration for marriages and live-in relationships, banned polygamy, and provided equal inheritance rights for women.
The BJP received 39.94 percent votes, while the Congress managed 39.09 percent in the assembly polls.
'Arithmetic could decide the Haryana election given the presence of multi-cornered contests.'
The 50-lakh-strong community of sex workers in India is seriously considering the NOTA option while exercising their franchise in the Lok Sabha election to register protest against deprivation and apathy.
Brisk polling was seen for the Wayanad Lok Sabha and the Chelakkara assembly seats in Kerala as they witnessed a turnout of 20.54 and 19.08 per cent, respectively, after the first three hours of voting on Wednesday.
As Mumbai goes to the polls today, film folk did their primary duty for the country and cast their votes.
The hapless voters fervently hope that they get to make a more equal choice in the next election and political discourse in the country becomes positive and more enlightened. One wonders if the masses would become more politically aware to discern good intent and performance from gimmickry, notes Biswajit Dasgupta.
'I thought AAP will uphold administrative fairness which is not there. And it is an indication of the fact that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'
With all 29 under its belt, the BJP became the first political party to achieve such a feat after 40 years in Madhya Pradesh.
The elections to 32 assembly constituencies in Sikkim were held simultaneously with the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 19.
Singh defeated Bharatiya Janata Party's Dara Singh Chauhan in the bypoll to the Ghosi Assembly constituency in Mau district with a margin of 42,759 votes on Friday.
'The Congress in the past backed the demand, but will not support it now since the SP opposes any division of UP.'
'Just today a shopkeeper I went to was saying how bad business is. He must have been a BJP supporter.' 'He finally said, "It's a good thing there's an NDA government, not a BJP government, 'they' had become too big for their boots,".'
'If the Pawars are so powerful, then why are they scared of me?'
Campaigning for May 13 elections in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories including all seats in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly elections are also being held concurrently, and Telangana concluded on Saturday evening.
'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).
