However, scores of displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu were unable to vote on Monday due to their names missing from the electoral rolls.
Disgruntled BJP leader Jahanzaib Sirwal criticizes his party for allegedly using the plight of displaced Kashmiri Pandits for political gains and calls for meaningful action to address their grievances.
This was the first general election in the valley after the abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the EC said in a statement.
Aviation regulator DGCA plans to implement measures to control excessive air ticket price increases, following concerns raised during a parliamentary panel meeting. The meeting also addressed air safety issues in light of the Ahmedabad plane crash.
Here's a quick look at who spoke in the Lok Sabha on the first day of the Operation Sindoor debate.
The Delhi High Court has ordered Jammu and Kashmir MP Abdul Rashid Sheikh, alias Engineer Rashid, to deposit Rs 4 lakh with the prison authorities as travel expenses for attending Parliament. The court allowed Rashid to attend the ongoing Parliament session "in-custody" till April 4, but the NIA had raised concerns about him being a flight risk. Rashid has been lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail since 2019 after the NIA arrested him in a 2017 terror-funding case.
The Election Commission of India has released detailed statistical data from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, revealing a record voter turnout of 64.64 crore, with women outnumbering men. The data also highlights the participation of women candidates and the use of postal ballots, along with insights into overseas Indian electors.
On May 18, 2024 night, terrorists struck at two places in Kashmir killing a former sarpanch, Aijaz Sheikh in Shopian and injuring a tourist couple from Rajasthan in Anantnag.
A voter turnout of over 40 per cent was recorded till 1 pm on Monday in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 96 constituencies spread over 10 states and Union Territories amid incidents of violence in Andhra Pradesh and reports of poll boycott in some villages of Uttar Pradesh.
The junior Abdullah would be banking heavily on Shia support as the constituency has many Shia dominated areas that include Budgam, Beerwah, Pattan, Sonawari and Bandipora, among other pockets.
Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy and president of the ruling National Conference Dr Farooq Abdullah filed his nomination papers from the prestigious Srinagar parliamentary constituency on Monday. The constituency goes to polls on April 30.
Over 2.5 million voters will decide the fate of 239 candidates in the fray for 26 Jammu and Kashmir assembly seats in the second phase of the election to be held in the Union territory on Wednesday.
The notice requested Rashid or a representative of his to appear before the district expenditure monitoring committee within two days to address the discrepancy and ensure timely submission of the expenditure report to the Election Commission of India.
National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah Tuesday asserted that there should be no "fiddling" with the mandate of people in Jammu and Kashmir, and the Centre and the Raj Bhavan must not indulge in any "machinations".
Karra, who became the J&K Congress chief last Friday replacing Vikar Rasool Wani, said a call is already there for all secular parties who are opposed to the "hegemonic attitude" of the BJP to unite.
ASJ Chander Jit Singh underscored he would first consider the issue of jurisdiction and whether or not to transfer the case to a special court meant to try lawmakers, considering Rashid was now an MP.
Scores of individuals and groups including from many political parties, and Panchayati Raj Institutions members, met the commission.
'The Congress backstabbed us and the BJP frontstabbed us.' 'This is the only difference between the two parties.'
Although the Supreme Court has mandated the Centre to conduct the polls by the end of September, a spate of terrorist attacks in J&K could cause delays.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
The PDP looks a distant third in the race, observes Mohammed Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir politics.
'There is no link between Article 370 abrogation and a rise in voting percentage.'
Rajnath came down heavily on the National Conference-Congress alliance over its poll promise of restoring Article 370 and said it is impossible as long as the BJP is there.
Even as parleys continue in both states, the grand old party is expected to contest less than 110 seats in the November 20 polls for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.
Here are glimpses of famous faces who got their fingers inked.
'PM Modi would have swept the elections in Kashmir after notebandi but then he scrapped Article 370 so all his good work went down the drain.'
The previous highest voter turnout in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency was witnessed in 1984 at 58.90 percent.
'Who are Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti to issue certificates?'
The former chief minister said if there was any danger of his losing from Budgam, then his party colleagues would not have allowed him to contest from Budgam.
Those familiar with intricate Kashmir politics do not rule out further delay in the assembly elections. Primarily, because the BJP having 'invested' so much for so long in Kashmir would try its best to wait a little longer if only to secure the 'gains' it believes to have achieved after its deafening action on August 5, 2019, points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday clinched a stunning hat-trick win in Haryana overcoming anti-incumbency and dashing Congress' hopes of a comeback while the National Conference-Congress combine pulled off a spectacular victory in maiden elections in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
The chief opposition in the state, the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party has breached the stronghold of National Conference in prestigious Srinagar Parliamentary constituency by gaining a lead in five seats with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah trailing in Sonawar seat.
People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti and several other regional party leaders on Monday claimed that they have been placed under house arrest on the fifth anniversary of the reading down of Article 370 of the Constitution that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
'The BJP claims they have eight lakh cadres in the Kashmir Valley so why can't they contest elections from Kashmir?'
Jammu and Kashmir Bharatiya Janata Party chief Ravinder Raina is going to miss voting for his party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as the party has not fielded any candidate from his home town which falls in Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency.
With 19 border polling stations along the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch, a contingency plan has been worked out to deal with cross-border shelling though chances are negligible given the ongoing ceasefire between India and Pakistan that came into effect in February 2021, officials said.
The Election Commission on Monday said the voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir this time was the highest in a Lok Sabha election in the last 35 years with the Kashmir Valley witnessing a 'massive' 30 percentage point jump in poll participation compared to 2019.
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).
Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP accused National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah of leaving them "no option".
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