The repolling started at 7 am amid tight security with four central forces personnel deployed in each booth, besides state police. Till 11 am, 10.9 per cent voter turnout was recorded.
A Trinamool Congress legislator on Sunday threatened to not support any bill tabled by the government in the West Bengal Assembly in the future and abstain from voting in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in the state if 'atrocities' on his loyalists allegedly by a rival faction continued, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party said the collapse of the Mamata Banerjee government was just a matter of time.
Aggrieved by the violence that marked the panchayat poll in West Bengal which claimed at least 12 lives and left 43 injured, several candidates who were in the fray had met the SEC officials and demanded the repolling.
Mamata asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in the Congress on seat-sharing in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The release of water from the Chungthang dam led to a sudden increase in water levels up to 15-20 feet high downstream, defence spokesperson Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said.
This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal this pre-monsoon season.
Independence Day was celebrated across states and Union territories on Thursday, as several chief ministers announced job schemes while some others vowed their support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
In a letter to the chief minister, Dhankhar urged Banerjee to take appropriate steps urgently and address the issue in public and national interest.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the damage caused by the earthquake in eastern India and has spoken to the chief ministers of Bihar, Assam and Sikkim, government sources said.
Security measures have been heightened in view of the violence in the previous phases, particularly the death of five people in Cooch Behar in the fourth phase of polling on April 10, an Election Commission official said.
Three persons were shot dead and several others were injured as violence and arson marked the conclusion of nomination filing for the three-tier West Bengal panchayat polls slated next month.
Interestingly, the Muslim representation in West Bengal assembly has dropped this time when compared to what it was in 2016, even as members of the community voted en masse for the Mamata Banerjee camp.
Noor, niece of Congress stalwart A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury, have quite often been taking stands which were not in line with that of the party's state leadership.
BJP MLA from Kaliagnaj Soumen Roy Saturday joined the ruling TMC, becoming the fourth saffron party legislator to do so since the West Bengal assembly poll results were declared in May.
Among those killed were eight from TMC, and one worker each of the BJP, the CPI-M, the Congress and the ISF.
Top Lashkar-e-Tayiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda was on Wednesday remanded in seven days' police custody by a Delhi court after the investigators said those who had allegedly helped him in illegal infiltration of Pakistani nationals are yet to be identified.
The Congress's share has almost halved, down from 12 in 2014 to six now.
Though the BJP is running too close for comfort, populist schemes and support among Muslims may help Mamata Banerjee overcome the challenge, observes Aditi Phadnis.
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.
"This TMC government is anti-people, anti-democratic and have compromised with national security," Adityanath said.
A total of 1,660 fresh cases have pushed the country's COVID-19 tally to 4,30,18,032, while the number of active cases has fallen below 20,000, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 19 straight days.
Muslims across the country have joined the agitation, apprehending that the move could be a precursor to a country-wide NRC.
Scattered incidents of violence, including torching of buses and clashes, occurred and 1,600 people were arrested during the 12-hour bandh.
Mohd Zakariya, a close aide of top Lashkar-e-Tayiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda, was on Monday remanded to 10- day police custody by a Delhi court after the investigators said he had helped in illegal infiltration of Pakistani nationals into India through Bangladesh.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.52 per cent.
The West Bengal chief minister said no refugee living in the state will be deprived of citizenship. "You have an address, ration card, voter card, driving licence. There is no need to get this new card of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Don't worry, you will always find this didi beside you. Your family is my family. I will not let anybody take away the rights of our people," she asserted.
The number of active cases dropped to 14,01,609.
Taking exception to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan not mentioning the death of healthcare workers due to Covid-19 in his statement in Parliament, the Indian Medical Association has published a list of 382 doctors who died due to the viral disease and demanded that they be treated as "martyrs".
From children to soldiers, everyone in India marked the 72nd Independence Day with much vigour and zeal. Here are glimpses of the celebrations from across the nation.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union terrotories till a week post May 3, when the second phase of lockdown will end, for containment operations.
The TMC, which is yet to fully recover from the 2019 Lok Sabha poll setback, when the BJP's tally soared from two to 18, is apprehensive that the AIMIM may act as "spoiler" in several assembly segments.
'It did not start as a Hindutva slogan.' 'It started to tease the TMC and slowly it got internalised and the BJP started countering with Jai Shri Ram slogans because Mamata was getting provoked.'
Banerjee said the state is targeting to shift at least 10 lakh people to safer places in a bid to avoid any loss of life.
The flood situation eased in Assam and northern districts of West Bengal with water receding and no fresh deaths being reported in both the states.
Home Secretary L C Goyal said 72 deaths were reported from the four states of Bihar -- 56, Uttar Pradesh -- 12, West Bengal -- 3 and Rajasthan --1.
It's time for colours, lights and celebrations - Diwali is here! In these photos, see celebrations from Gujarat to London to Colombo.
Defying prohibitory orders, protests were held in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and several other cities. Protesters, mostly students and activists, were detained on a large scale in national capital and other places.
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