The Mahagathbandhan's seat-sharing announcement comes a day after the filing of nomination papers for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls was over.
The nodal officer for EVMs in Varanasi, a returning officer (RO) in Sonbhadra district and an additional election officer in Bareilly district have been pulled out from election duties, a day ahead of the counting of votes in UP.
Aiming to breach the Bharatiya Janata Party's Gujarat bastion, the Aam Aadmi Party fielded its candidate to contest all 182 assembly seats and carried out a high decibel campaign in the run-up to the polls in Gujarat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party faces an uphill task of repeating its performance of the last assembly election of winning 53 out of 58 constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh where polling will be held in the first phase on February 10.
Intense heat swept through east India and parts of the southern peninsular region on Thursday, testing power grids and prompting the Kerala government to order closure of educational institutions till May 6.
NCP's Kandhal Jadeja was the only MLA to win from the party.
'We have learnt lessons from Mamata Banerjee who overcame the BJP's canard by reciting Chandi Path and playing up her Brahmin origins in her campaign. We need to adopt strategies like asking Muslims to lie low and distributing tickets prudently so that we are not accused of favouring one community.' Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
With six children of Karnataka ministers in the Lok Sabha poll arena, the campaign scene is getting spiced up in the high-stakes elections for the ruling Congress in the state.
This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
In the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 23, 116 seats spread across 13 states and two Union Territories, will go to the polls.
With this phase, election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats will be held on May 12 and 19.
He was responding to a question on whether Gujarat polls would also be staggered like the seven-phased UP polls. The term of the present Assembly in Gujarat expires on December 26.
Facing protests from a section of the Rajput community over Union Minister Parshottam Rupala's remarks, the Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh -- a Rajput-dominated seat -- is hoping that the 'Modi factor' and the development work undertaken by his government will help it retain the Lok Sabha constituency.
Why is the saffron party welcoming corrupt people to their fold, the veteran leader asked.
81 per cent voter turnout recorded in West Bengal, 80 per cent in Assam.
A high voter turnout was recorded in West Bengal, Assam Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry assembly elections on Tuesday. The massive polling exercise following COVID-19 health protocol and involving lakhs of personnel began at 7 am and the last hour from 6 pm to 7 pm was set aside for COVID-19 patients and those under isolation. The counting of votes in the states will be held on May 2.
"The nakli Shiv Sena wants to bury me alive. They abuse me in such a way that it will be liked by their favourite vote bank," Modi said.
Many exit polls have kept the incumbent Bharatiya Janata party ahead of the Congress in what was a straight contest between two main parties. Assembly polls were held in the state in a single phase on November 17.
Six Naxalites, including "deputy commander" Punem Nagesh, his wife, and another female cadre, were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Wednesday, a police officer said.
Underscoring the importance of voter satisfaction and trust in the electoral system, the Supreme Court on Thursday told petitioners who sought its direction to go back to using ballot papers not to suspect the efficacy of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and appreciate if the Election Commission does good work.
Shah said he is confident that BJP will return to power in four states -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur -- and make impressive gains in Punjab.
'I am shocked that the BJP makes so many commitments. What did they deliver as the NDA?'
A total of 2,021 candidates filed their nomination papers for the December 4 polls on all the wards.
Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Monday.
According to an Andhra government statement, Naidu 'reposed confidence' in the PM's leadership.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday promised free education in government schools and colleges in Chhattisgarh and Rs 4,000 a year for 'tendu' leaves collectors if his party retains power in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
Will BJP campaigners start using the term 'Ram Rajya' to refer to the nation under Modi's rule, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The Congress in the past backed the demand, but will not support it now since the SP opposes any division of UP.'
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged the Election Commission to re-consider its decision to stick to the original poll schedule, as she stressed that wrapping up the last three phases of polls on a single day or at the most in two days would check the spread of Covid-19 to some extent.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
While the Congress is in power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Telangana by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Mizoram by the Mizo National Front.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and three of his cabinet colleagues are among 44 candidates whose fate will be decided on Tuesday in the third phase of polling in 16 seats spread across Budgam, Pulwama and Baramulla districts.
More than 50,000 officials have been deployed for the counting of votes on Thursday in the five states where assembly polls were held recently.
'Modi 3.0 will have more balanced policies like one saw in Modi's first term.'
'The inauguration of the Ram temple was the pinnacle of the BJP's religious politics.' 'Politics is dynamic. What goes up has to come down.'
Market chatter suggests that the BJP could win fewer than 300.
As the curtain falls on the campaign for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat on Wednesday, April 24, a ringside view of the closing ceremonies.
Muslims' share in the reservation will keep on increasing also because of "conversion and infiltration because they are having a secular cover from them (the Congress)", he added.
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