The JD-U insisted that its decision to fight the polls independently will have no impact on its ties with the BJP in Bihar.
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.
Announcing the election schedule with a strong focus on digital and virtual modes of campaigning, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said the ban on rallies, roadshows, nukkad sabhas, padayatras and vehicle rallies will be reviewed on January 15.
The prominent faces among the 676 candidates for 57 seats spread across 10 districts in this phase included Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Urban and state Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu from Tamkuhi Raj.
It also allowed political parties and candidates to hold meetings and rallies with the restriction of using only 50 per cent capacity of space being relaxed.
The National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms states in it report and analysis that out of the 248 candidates 76 candidates or 31 per cent declared criminal cases against them. In 2007 assembly elections for Uttar Pradesh, 27 per cent candidates had declared criminal cases against themselves. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Priyanka Gandhi said that biggest problem in the state is recruitment and the youth are disappointed.
Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases beginning from April 19 and the counting of votes will take place on June 4 for the world's biggest election exercise in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will bid for a third consecutive term.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is considering fielding Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Ayodhya in the upcoming assembly elections, sources in the party said on Wednesday as senior leaders met to finalise candidates.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and chief ministers of Congress-ruled states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Chhattisgarh are among those named by the party as its star campaigners in Uttar Pradesh.
Voting for the seventh and final round will be held on March 7 for Varanasi and its eight adjoining districts.
The Election Commission on Monday rescheduled from November 13 to November 20 the assembly bypolls to all nine and four seats in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, respectively, and one seat in Kerala in view of festivals, an official statement said.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
In Phase 6, indications are that the BJP, which is defending 40 seats, will lose in double digits and gain in single digits. Not good, if you are the ruling party scrambling to earn a working majority, with just one phase left to go, argues Prem Panicker.
Rediff Labs brings you the election affidavits of all candidates in the fray in the fifth phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections.
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
A total 2.51 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise for the second phase of elections, including 1.29 crore men and 1.22 crore women.
The story of Uttar Pradesh in the third phase of the assembly elections is no different from phase-II polls. One hundred and twenty one candidates out of the 317 have criminal candidates pending against them. Vicky Najappa reports.
Under Election Commission guidelines, campaigning has to end 48 hours before the close of polls for each phase.
State deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya among 692 candidates are contesting on 61 seats spread across 12 districts in the fifth phase.
"Former Chief Minister Mayawati and I will not contest the assembly elections," Bahujan Samaj Party member of Parliament Satish Chandra Misra told ANI.
Polling started at 7 am and closed at 6 pm and there were reports of technical snags in EVMs at some places, but voting was peaceful, Election Commission officials said.
When asked from where Akhilesh Yadav will contest, the source said that the party has not yet disclosed the seat.
Till 5 pm, Agra recorded 56.61 per cent polling, Aligarh 57.25 per cent, Baghpat 61.35 per cent, Bulandshahr 60,52 per cent, Gautam Buddh Nagar 54.77 per cent, Ghaziabad 54.77 per cent, Hapur 60.50 per cent, Mathura 58.51 per cent, Meerut 58.52 cent, Muzaffarnagar 62.14 per cent and Shamli 61.78 per cent, an EC report said.
The Samajwadi Party's Mainpuri district unit Thursday gave a written request to the party chief to contest from the Karhal seat and he agreed, sources said.
This phase will cover 57 constituencies spread over 10 districts, including Bareilly, Moradabad and parts of Kanpur divisions.
Besides the national capital, polling 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. Simultaneously, polling will be held for 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha.
Campaigning for the fifth phase ended on Friday evening, and all necessary arrangements have been completed, state Chief Election Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said in Lucknow on Saturday.
The percentage was 63.14 per cent in Hathras, 61.89 per cent in Firozabad, 63.04 per cent in Kasganj, 65.7 per cent in Etah, 61.51 per cent in Mainpuri, 59.13 per cent in Farrukhabad, 61.93 per cent in Kannauj and 58.35 per cent in Etawah.
Notification for the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections was issued on Wednesday, setting in motion the process of filing nominations.
Yadav also promised caste census in the state after the formation of the SP government and equal representation and honour to all castes.
The Muslim card played heavily by the Congress party will be at test on Tuesday, when the 67-state assembly constituencies go to poll during Phase VI of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh election.
A maximum of 92,000 personnel of CAPFs are likely to be deployed in politically volatile West Bengal, where elections will be held in seven phases, followed by 63,500 personnel in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir, where polling will be held in five phases.
The election process got underway in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday with notification for the first phase of Assembly polls which will be a litmus test for Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma and National Commission for Scheduled Caste Chairman PL Punia.
Vijay, despite the loud message from his delayed arrival at the road-show/stampede venue, and more so his continued inaccessibility for fans-turned-cadres after graduating from a super-star to a political party leader with electoral ambitions, refuses to change. Or, so it seems, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The second phase of the Lok Sabha election ended on Friday, April 26, 2024, for 88 seats across 13 states.
In keeping with the first phase poll in Uttar Pradesh, the voter turnout on Saturday once again crossed 60 per cent during the second round of the seven-phased polling in the country's most populous state.
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dubbed the electoral bonds as the 'world's biggest extortion scheme' and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 'champion of corruption'.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for 'one nation, one Election' as recommended by the Kovind panel, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
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