A plea challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct assembly elections over eight phases in West Bengal was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is contesting 88 seats out of the total 89, tops this list among major political parties in the fray with 36 per cent of its candidates having criminal cases. Thirty per cent of its candidates are facing serious cases such as murder, rape, assault, kidnapping, among others, the ADR said in its report. The number of candidates having criminal cases fielded by the AAP is 32.
Braving rainy and cold weather, and riding atop buses and trucks, officials carrying out Election Commission's task of holding the seven phase hustings in Uttar Pradesh have a thankless job.
There are 218,442 voters over 100 years on the electoral rolls.
People in these villages routinely encounter big cats that stray into their farms from the adjoining Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, a bustling habitat for the Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris).
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Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mukesh Dalal was on Monday elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat after all other nominees withdrew from the fray, a poll official said.
The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday came out with the constituency-wise data on the number of votes cast in the first five phases of the Lok Sabha polls and said there is a pattern in creating false narratives and mischievous designs to vitiate the electoral process.
A number of Assembly seats in the Parliamentary constituencies of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (in Lucknow), Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi (in Amethi) are also going to the polls.
During the first phase of voting on November 12 for 18 seats in the Naxal-affected areas of the state, a total of 76.42 per cent polling was recorded.
More than 40 per cent of the 908 candidates contesting the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are Independents, leading to claims that a large number of them have been propped up by the Bharatiya Janata Party to divide votes.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
Dantewada recorded lowest turnout with 49 per cent voting.
Even as KPs lined up across special polling stations in Jammu amid tight security, several of them had to return without casting their vote.
A total of 833 candidates from 61 political parties, including Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel of the Bharatiya Janata Party, are contesting the polls in these assembly segments spread across Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Gandhinagar and other districts.
According to the Election Commission of India, the code has evolved over the last 60 years to assume its present form.
Sheela Bhatt and Sharat Pradhan bring voices from the ground in Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, which is voting today in the first phase of elections
The term of the 243-member Bihar legislative assembly comes to an end on November 29.
Polling was held in 1,643 polling stations in 38 constituencies across the twin districts of Imphal East and Imphal West, Bishnupur and the hill districts of Churachandpur and Kangpokpi.
The April 11 polling will decide the fate of several political bigwigs.
Speaking a day after refusing to take up the responsibility given to him by the ruling outfit ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls, he also said that he has been working as an ordinary worker of the party and was not greedy for any post.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the 59 seats spread across seven states and one Union territory going to polls in the last and final phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 19, 2019.
Living separately and refusing to co-exist in future, many members of both Kukis and Meitis communities ask - why elections at this time and what difference will they make?
From Instagram to X, social media platforms, in the run-up to the polls have seen bitter poster wars and even bitter meme battles for political one-upmanship.
"Yediyurappa's yesterday reaction is his personal reaction. Until now, there has been no discussion on seat sharing or anything. We have met cordially two or three times. Later on, let us see what is going to happen," Kumaraswamy told ANI.
Ignoring the separatists' call to shun the vote, electors in the five districts emulated the trend seen in the first phase by turning up at polling booths in large numbers at 8 am, the scheduled start of voting. It turned out to be an impressive 71.28 per cent turnout in the second phase.
The districts going to polls in this phase are Balrampur, Gonda, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Amethi and Sultanpur.
They said the meeting was necessitated after "some differences" cropped up in seat-sharing arrangement during the talks between the local leadership of the parties.
However, scores of displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu were unable to vote on Monday due to their names missing from the electoral rolls.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 per cent while in Puducherry it was 80.47 per cent.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Patole asserted there are no disagreements within the MVA, adding that discussions on seat-sharing were underway and would conclude soon.
Ahead of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, keeping food prices under check has emerged as one of the topmost priorities for the government. Food prices would likely have a bearing on the preferences of voters. In the past, there have been instances when governments have been voted out over rising food inflation.
Fifty-seven assembly constituencies spread across nine districts went to the polls in this round.
The voting will be held on November 30, December 7, 12, 16 and 20.
In line with most of the exit poll predictions, bookies in Delhi feel the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will get more than 340 seats in the Lok Sabha polls while the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) may secure around 200 seats.
The high-octane campaign for the first phase of the crucial Gujarat elections, viewed as a prestige battle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a litmus test for the leadership of soon-to-be Congress president Rahul Gandhi, will come to an end on Thursday. Here's everything you need to know about the polls -- from candidates to the constituencies.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha's power to nominate five members to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was at the centre of a political and legal debate on the eve of vote count, with the Congress and regional parties the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party on Monday opposing any such move during government formation.
'I challenge Pawar Saheb (Sharad Pawar) to announce their face for the CM post'
Explaining his vision for the region, Modi cited the example of Kutch district of Gujarat.
Talks on pre-poll alliance were being held between the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the opposition BJP for the past few days.
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