Lakhs of voters will have to bear the searing heat when they step out to exercise their franchise in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
The threshold for a heat wave is met when the maximum temperature of a weather station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, 37 degrees in coastal areas, and 30 degrees in hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 notches.
A voter turnout of 10.82 per cent was recorded till 9 am on Saturday in 58 constituencies in six states and two Union territories where polling is underway in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
In response to escalating crime rates in Delhi, including extortion attempts and gang-related violence, the Delhi Police has launched a comprehensive crackdown. This includes stringent checks at hotels and guest houses to verify the identities of guests, as well as verification of local criminals and juveniles. The police have also intensified raids on suspected hideouts of jailed gangsters and their associates. This initiative is being implemented across all 15 police districts and over 180 police stations in Delhi. The decision stems from recent incidents involving out-of-state criminals who used hotels as bases for their criminal activities, highlighting the urgency of proactive measures to curb crime.
According to an official release, the voting percentage is likely to go up when reports from all polling stations are obtained, as polling was scheduled until 6 pm in many constituencies.
Ratra, a former Indian wicketkeeper-batter, brings with him a wealth of experience and an impressive track record in both domestic and international cricket.
'Mamata needs to address the anger and resentment among various sections of the Hindu community because low-scale communal violence has always paid richer electoral dividends for the BJP.'
In 2024 alone, South India saw the highest rise in sales in the luxury segment, with Tamil Nadu reportedly registering a 19.3 per cent increase in premium car registrations from 2022-23
Opposition parties in India, led by the Congress, have demanded a detailed discussion in Parliament on alleged discrepancies in voter lists. Rahul Gandhi raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, highlighting concerns about the integrity of the electoral process. The opposition alleges large-scale duplication of EPIC numbers, which they claim undermines voter integrity and the electoral process. They have also pointed out instances of inflated voter lists in states like Maharashtra and Haryana. The Election Commission has acknowledged discrepancies but maintains that these are not widespread and that corrective measures are being taken. The opposition, however, insists on a comprehensive discussion on the matter to ensure the integrity of elections in India.
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.
Continuing to push back against the stringent quality of service (QoS) norms brought in by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), telcos have informed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that collection and submission of monthly and site-to-cell-level data should be eased, officials and industry sources said. In place since October last year, the QoS norms call for data for network availability, call drop, voice packet drop rate in uplink and downlink, among other parameters, to be collected at the cell level.
Andhra Pradesh's Jyothi Yarraji and Tejas Shirse of Maharashtra won their third successive gold medals in the women's 110m hurdles and men's 100m hurdles respectively at the National Games in Dehradun.
Election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor has predicted that JD(U) president Nitish Kumar will contest the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar in alliance with the BJP but may switch sides later, with hopes for another term as the chief minister. Kishor, founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, also asserted that Kumar's popularity has declined and he is unlikely to win a fifth consecutive term. He challenged the BJP to declare Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate, arguing that they would struggle to win seats if they did so. Kishor also criticized Kumar's leadership, accusing him of being "physically tired and mentally retired" and of "bringing disrepute to Bihar" by touching Prime Minister Narendra Modi's feet. He said his new party will enter the fray to pull Bihar "out of the political rut" and that the state's much-touted prohibition policy is an example of the BJP's duplicity.
The SBSP can impact around 10 Lok Sabha seats and 40 assembly seats in 7-8 districts in Uttar Pradesh, according to poll analysts.
The train hit the cylinder before coming to a screeching halt on Sunday morning. Due to being hit by the train, the cylinder was thrown away from the tracks, they said.
Increased production of pulses, oilseeds, and cereals will help boost domestic supplies and contribute to keeping inflation low in the coming months.
The incident took place around 8.30 am at the under-construction site of Amrapali Dream Valley Society, the police said, adding that the long-stalled project is being completed by the state-run NBCC.
The BJP has dropped C T Ravi, a leader from Karnataka, Dilip Saikia, a Lok Sabha MP from Assam, as its general secretaries, and Vinod Sonkar, Harish Dwivedi, both Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh, and Sunil Deodhar as secretaries.
Polling for the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections for 94 seats will take place today, covering 11 States and Union Territory.
Despite recent fatal stampedes at the Kumbh Mela and a Delhi railway station, pilgrims, driven by faith, continue to participate in the holy gathering in Prayagraj. Despite safety concerns, pilgrims from across India are undeterred by the tragedy and are taking the holy dip at the Triveni Sangam.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
Several leading scientists, academicians, and agriculturalists have called for raising government support for research and development to make Indian agriculture future-ready.
Jitin Prasada was once considered as among Rahul Gandhi's 'young Turks' and was a minister in successive Manmohan Singh governments but defected from the Congress to the BJP in 2021, where he has again established himself as a prominent Brahmin face of Uttar Pradesh.
In the debate whether spectrum was over- priced or not, the focus seems to have shifted from Videocon's telecom gamble.
The protests by resident doctors at government hospitals in several states across the country ended on Thursday as major doctors' bodies called off their 11-day strike over the rape-murder of a trainee medic in Kolkata after the Supreme Court made an appeal to them to resume work.
'Prashant Kishor is a businessman before he is a politician, and given that the expected average turnout for JSP candidates is 5,000 to 6,000 votes and since Bihar has a significant number of seats where the margin between the winner and runner-up falls within that range he will capitalise on exactly that to showcase his presence.'
"I came to meet you as your 'didi' not as the chief minister," she said.
According to police sources, the UK national, Savinder Singh, came to India last moth to supervise the transportation and delivery of the 208-kg consignment suspected to have been brought from South American countries.
'The intensity and frequency of heatwaves will be much higher than in previous years over Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.'
In the last five years, 480 candidates with declared cases related to hate speech have contested elections to state assemblies, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the ADR said.
Thunderstorms and dust storms are 'very likely' on Tuesday too, the weather office warned.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday named 14 candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls including former Union minister R P N Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi -- the only outgoing MP renominated by the party.
An approximate voter turnout of 59.06 per cent was recorded in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday in 58 constituencies across six states and two Union territories with the polling percentage in the Jangal Mahal region of West Bengal touching 78.19.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
A voter turnout of 60.19 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in 93 constituencies spread over 11 states and Union Territories on Tuesday with sporadic incidents of violence in West Bengal.
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
Voting for by-elections to seven assembly constituencies of six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, started on Tuesday at 7 am.
The 45-day Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj concluded on Mahashivratri with a record-breaking number of pilgrims taking a holy dip at the Triveni Sangam. Over 65 crore pilgrims participated in the event, which took place once every 12 years.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is among six personalities chosen for this year's Padma Vibhushan.
Though the extended tenure of incumbent president JP Nadda ends on June 30, a recent amendment in the BJP's constitution has empowered its apex body, the Parliamentary Board, to take a call related to a president, including his term, in "emergency" situations.
