Here are some of the famous faces queued up to get ink mark on their fingers.
Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases from September 18 while Haryana will go to polls in a single phase on October 1, the Election Commission announced on Friday.
Amidst rumblings within the state Bharatiya Janata Party seeking a change of leadership in strife-torn Manipur, Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday tendered his resignation to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla at the Raj Bhavan in Imphal.
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the government's decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, which bestowed a special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and said steps should be taken to conduct the election to the Assembly in the Union Territory by September 30 next year.
In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday underlined the need for collaboration between the Centre and states to take up the next-generation reforms covering land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. As far as revenue share goes, the government has projected to give about 32.5 per cent of central taxes to states during FY25, against the 15th Finance Commission's recommendation of 41 per cent, according to the Union Budget estimate.
It is the first time in nearly nine years that India's foreign minister travelled to Pakistan even as the ties between the two neighbours remained tense over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
The assertion comes in the wake of the Supreme Court directing the SBI to submit the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 to the EC.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli, now a Union Territory, were occupied by the Portuguese in 1783 and 1785, respectively. They continued to be ruled by the Portuguese till an armed revolution liberated them, and the Tricolour was unfurled at Silvassa on 2 August 1954.
Two more Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including a district president, submitted their resignations from the primary membership of the party on Saturday, citing their resentment against the choice of candidates in their constituencies for the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
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.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will visit AIIMS, Jhajjar on April 10 to oversee the mock drill, officials said on Sunday.
Purohit's resignation came a day after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
'Putin will not be bound by any kind of deal he would sign with the US.'
"The new districts, namely Zanskar, Drass, Sham, Nubra and Changthang, will take the benefits meant for the people to their doorsteps by bolstering governance in every nook and cranny," he said.
A Pakistani intruder was also killed in the exchange of fire, they added.
The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday said the fresh revision of electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir does not disturb the schedule or conduct part of polls and the poll panel is aware that there is a "vacuum" in the Union territory which needs to be filled.
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
The immediate challenge for the Centre and the home ministry is to ensure the conduct of assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and restoration of its statehood.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the August 5 notification of the election department of the Union territory of Ladakh for the hill council polls and ordered issuance of a fresh election schedule within a week.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued pan-India guidelines on demolition of properties and said affected people need to be given some time to challenge demolition orders before an appropriate forum.
'Look at the post mortem reports. Every body (of the 10 Kuki-Zo youth who were killed) has almost 12 bullet marks on it.' 'Why do they have to fire so much even if they wanted to kill them?' 'One or two shots would be enough to kill them. Why then they had to fire so many bullets on them?'
Environmental activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk said democracy has been compromised in Ladakh and the local people have no say in decision-making.
"The voting percentage is likely to go upwards when reports from all polling stations are obtained as polling is scheduled till 6 pm in many constituencies. Final figures will be known on Saturday after the scrutiny of form 17A," the EC said.
'I don't believe there is an international conspiracy to swamp tribals in India or in Jharkhand.'
'If the BJP does not change its stand, we will hope that those who are in favour of protecting Ladakh come to power.'
A gazette notification was issued after the panel, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, signed the final order giving Jammu six additional seats and one more to Kashmir.
Mufti resigned from the post of the chief minister on June 19, 2018 after alliance partner BJP withdrew support to her coalition government.
The BJP has emerged the second largest party by winning 29 constituencies in the maiden assembly polls post abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, improving its all-time high tally of 25 seats recorded in 2014 elections.
Ahead of counting of votes, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said his party was open to the idea of taking support of Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party to form government in the Union territory.
The mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community changed the very cultural ethos of Kashmir and there has been little turnback despite three decades having gone by since it got triggered by growing fundamentalism fuelled from across the border, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said on Monday.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
Political parties and leaders wait with bated breath for the Haryana and Jammu-Kashmir assembly poll results on Tuesday.
It will be for the first time in nearly nine years India's external affairs minister will travel to Pakistan even as the ties between the two neighbours remained frosty over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking a declaration that abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, was constitutionally valid.
In his first visit to the valley after becoming the prime minister for the third consecutive term, Modi emphasised the importance of enabling the people of Jammu and Kashmir to elect their representatives for the assembly.
A 17-year-old girl from Bangladesh was arrested by West Bengal Police after the Border Security Force (BSF) apprehended her for illegally crossing the border into India. The girl, who is a resident of Panchagarh district in Bangladesh, claimed that she fled after her family members were threatened by fundamentalists in Bangladesh for being ISKCON devotees. The girl's relatives confirmed that they had received threats and were planning to send her to India to protect her from harm.
The brief exchange and handshake between Jaishankar and Sharif took place at a banquet dinner hosted by the Pakistani prime minister at his residence in honour of the delegates attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Saturday's voting will mark the end to the marathon polling process that began on April 19 month and has already covered 486 Lok Sabha seats in 28 states and Union territories.
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