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.
KC Venugopal mentioned that the Congress's goal is to diminish the BJP's representation in Uttar Pradesh by securing half of the seats in the state.
Voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 from third gender. There are as many as 35.67 lakh first time voters, besides 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.
The newly-inaugurated Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi is being largely hailed as a symbol of resurrection of India's spiritual consciousness but a section of people here claims that the mega project is being showcased so that the ruling party gets a "political edge" in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
The elections will be conducted in seven stages.
Of the 114 constituencies going to polls in the first two phases in Uttar Pradesh elections, 41 are red alert constituencies -- they have three or more candidates with criminal records. According to the record of the candidates analysed by the Association for Democratic reforms, 36 per cent of the constituencies in the first two phases of UP polls are red alert ones. Of the 41 red alert constituencies, 28 have three candidates with declared criminal cases.
The first of the two-phase urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh will take place on Thursday, a major poll battle in the politically crucial state ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.
As people queued up across these states to cast their vote, there were some famous faces in the lines at different polling stations.
The districts going to polls include Barabanki, Bahraich, Sitapur, Basti, Gonda, Siddharthnagar, Shravasti, Balrampur, Lakhimpur Kheri and Sant Kabir Nagar.
Referring to the polling for the first phase of elections, Yogi said that the time for a "big decision" has come.
Several political parties had approached the EC to postpone the polls in the state in view of Ravidas Jayanti on February 16.
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.
613 candidates are in the fray on 54 seats, including those falling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary segment Varanasi.
Rediff Labs brings you the election affidavits of all candidates in the fray in the sixth phase.
Over 1.57 crore voters were likely to decide the fate of 705 candidates including state Minister Ujjwal Raman Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party state chief Kesri Nath Tripathi and All India Mahila Congress president Reeta Bahuguna Joshi.
Amid intense speculation over whether he would contest the Lok Sabha polls from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he would abide by his party's decision on it.
Polling for the fifth phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly election covering 49 seats spread over 13 districts is being held on Thursday that would decide the fate of several stalwarts, including firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharati.
The proportion of postal votes polled in the general elections has gradually risen since 2009.
The BSP boss has left no stone unturned in running down Narendra Modi, particularly in the context of Muslims and OBCs. A large chunk of the 'most backwards' among the OBCs had been part of her vote bank. What also made her anxious were reports of a sudden shift of a section of Dalits from the BSP to Modi.
The polling for the sixth phase on May 12 covers 6 states and one Union Territory.
Facing opposition fire for exit polls allegedly being used for stock market manipulation, Axis My India's chief Pradeep Gupta has said he is open to facing all kinds of investigations and it would help do business in a much better way if the government frames specific regulations for pollsters.
In 2019, an all-party meeting was held in Delhi and it was attended by 19 political parties to discuss critical reforms in governance. One of the subjects of the discussions was simultaneous elections
The Election Commission on Tuesday appointed special observers for administrative, security and expenditure monitoring purposes in several states to ensure a level playing field during the upcoming elections.
Priyanka and Yogi meet up with future voters.
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.
A delegation of opposition party leaders on Friday met the top brass of Election Commission to raise its concerns over poll code violations by the ruling party leaders, and also flagged concerns over delay in release of voter turnout figures for the first two phases of the polls.
As many as 623 candidates, including 73 women are in the fray in the first phase and around 2.28 core voters, including 1.24 crore men and 1.04 crore women are eligible to caste their francise, election officials said.
The Election Commission on Saturday deferred the Haryana assembly poll date to October 5 from October 1, saying the decision was taken keeping in mind a centuries-old festival of the Bishnoi community.
The counting for all five states will be held on March 11.
Phase two of the Uttar Pradesh elections will see a whopping 118 candidates with a criminal background. The details released by the Association for Democratic Reforms reveals that out of the 337 candidates analysed for the second phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, 118 candidates have declared criminal cases against them. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Eighty-nine Lok Sabha seats spread over seven states and two Union Territories will go to polls in the seventh phase on Wednesday.
The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
There will be total of 51 seats going to polls spread across 7 states in the fifth phase.
BJP candidate was attacked in West Bengal, EVM glitches were reported in New Delhi.
"Mock polls" are part of the first level check (FLC) process.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray were among the famous faces who queued up at the polling booths on Monday to caste their votes in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
The first phase drew a turnout of about 46 per cent and the second 47 per cent.
The third phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for Tuesday will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in a single phase -- 117 across 15 states and Union Territories. It will also be a test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which will aim to defend the maximum number of seats at 62. This time the BJP will be tested in its bastion Gujarat -- where polling will be held for all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state -- apart from Karanataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had done well in 2014. Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Tuesday.
Balyan was addressing an election meeting when the cars parked in the vicinity were damaged.
Residents of Majlis Taufikpur in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor Lok Sabha constituency have collectively decided to not vote, citing poor condition of roads. Gaurav Arora reports.
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