Here are some instances of celebrities coming in the crosshairs of the underworld with cases of extortion, threats and even a killing.
The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
In a stunning comeback, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance on Saturday stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance which managed only 24 seats.
All eyes are now on the Sena factions, led by CM Shinde, backed by the BJP, and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, and their performance in the coastal belt in the November 20 polls.
According to police, Javeed allegedly thrashed Samina on Monday when she was celebrating the victory of the BJP in the recently-held assembly elections, counting for which was done on December 3.
First-time Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rahul Narvekar on Friday filed his nomination as the party candidate for the post of Maharashtra assembly speaker, election for which, if required, will be held on July 3.
Babaria said he offered his resignation to the high command soon after the result of the Haryana assembly polls came out last week but no decision has been communicated to him over the matter.
A government counsel in the case said the special court accepted the appeal filed against Khan's sentence.
The name of Devendra Fadnavis has been finalised as the new chief minister of Maharashtra who will be elected as the legislature party leader in a meeting to be held either on December 2 or 3, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said on Sunday night.
'They are attacking my wife; they are attacking our 13-month-old daughter. They are saying that I do drugs.' 'I'm giving an open challenge to Mr Nawab Malik and Ms Sana Malik let's go to the labs and let's do the medical test of our family and your family.'
The voter turnout recorded in the 2019 assembly polls was around 68 per cent.
An analysis of the affidavits of all the 90 winning candidates by the Association for Democratic Reforms and Haryana Election Watch show a slight rise in the number of crorepati MLAs, from 93 percent in 2019 to 96 percent this time.
Hemant Soren staked claim to form the government and the swearing-in ceremony is likely to be held soon. If sworn in, Hemant Soren will be the 13th chief minister of Jharkhand, which was carved out of Bihar on November 15, 2000.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Sushanta Ghosh, facing trial in connection with the recovery of skeletons near his ancestral house at Benachapra, was injured when a man beat him up with a shoe at a local court in Medinipur in West Bengal on Tuesday.
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.
Patil said after he cast his vote in Mumbai on June 20 for the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, he was called to Shinde's bungalow in neighbouring Thane.
A land-owning class, the Jats are a powerful community and account for 28 per cent of Haryana's population. The time, they believe, has now come for them to take revenge.
Evidence of several irregularities have been detected in the transfer of 14 sites by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to B M Parvathi, the wife of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, according to the Enforcement Directorate.
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar chief Sharad Pawar turned the heat on his estranged nephew and deputy CM Ajit Pawar on Tuesday, virtually accusing him of breaking the family for his political ambitions.
Speaker refused to let Loni MLA Nand Kishor Gurjar discuss the alleged high-handedness of an official. Even after the Speaker called it a day, some members from both sides kept occupying their seats.
Anwar, while addressing an election meeting in Palakkad district of Kerala on April 22, had also said that the Congress leader does not deserve to be called by the surname of Gandhi.
Despite these challenges, his strong voice for the state's tribal population has been central to his political identity
Officials said the Gurjar community's decision to take out a gaurav yatra in honour of King Mihir Bhoj Pratihar had been opposed by the Rajput community.
There is an authenticity and sense of purpose about Dry Day which is appealing, observes Deepa Gahlot.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SV N Bhatti sought Tankha's response in four weeks on the plea of Chouhan and BJP state president VD Sharma and former minister Bhupendra Singh who have challenged the October 25 order of the Madhya Pradesh high court refusing to quash the defamation case.
'When I see people's faces I can see that there is a certain sadness in their eyes which makes me unhappy as a person.' 'I want to see people happy in their lives.'
Even as political pressure was building against Ranjith, actor Siddique quit as the general secretary of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) amid voices from within his fraternity seeking his resignation.
Singh, known for his hardline religious rhetoric, was suspended by the party following protests in Hyderabad against his comments leading to his arrest by the Telangana Police.
The state government will also give Rs 2 lakh more as financial assistance, the Balrampur MLA who met the victim's family said on Friday.
'There are 7,000 guns which are in the hands of the armed militia of the Kuki and Meitei communities.'
Dubey visited the party headquarters at Trikuta Nagar in Jammu this evening and posed with Sharma and other senior leaders of the party, which the BJP termed as a move to show the "unity and the strength of the organisation".
Out of the 20 candidates announced by the BJD for the 21 Lok Sabha seats, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's party has nominated at least seven leaders who came from either the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Congress.
A Janata Dal-United leader was allegedly murdered in Bihar's Nalanda district in the early hours of Monday, the police said.
In a video, which has gone viral on social media, Sanjay Kumar is purportedly heard telling a power official on phone, "Please provide me the data pertaining to the raids conducted by you in Muslim houses from April 1 till date, and also, tell me against how many people you have got FIR registered."
West Bengal minister Bachchu Hansda and Tehatta MLA Gouri Sankar Dutta joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday after being denied nominations for the assembly polls by the Trinamool Congress.
The Congress was fighting the elections in a pre-poll alliance with National Conference and had fielded 32 candidates, mostly in Jammu region, compared to 51 by the regional party.
'If you look at the average age of all our candidates, you will notice that their average age is between 35 and 40. It is a kind of revolution that the MNS is bringing in Maharashtra.'
Police scoured places of worship in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain and Khandwa in their hunt for the third shooter wanted for Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique's killing.
The prisons department had on Thursday issued an order for the premature release of Amarmani Tripathi, citing the state's 2018 policy on remission, since they have completed 16 years of imprisonment.
He also accused Gandhi of making "unfair and contemptuous comments" against the court through his aides, associates and Congress leaders.
