Counting began at 8 am under multi-tier security cover. At first, postal ballots will be counted and then EVMs opened.
Counting of votes for the bypolls in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand will be taken up on Sunday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in the assembly polls on Thursday has put the party on a stronger wicket for the election for the post of President expected later this year.
While Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is considering staying away from mainstream politics for a few months after resigning, Seema-Andhra MPs are gearing up to join the BJP or YSR Congress. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Polling was by and large peaceful in the bypolls for three Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats spread across five states and Delhi on Thursday barring an incident of stabbing of a policeman in Tripura, where polling was the highest at 76.62 per cent.
Rao's death triggered a political slugfest in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh with the Telugu Desam Party holding the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government there responsible for the veteran leader's suspected suicide.
With the Biju Janata Dal backing the National Democratic Alliance's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, the vote share of the ruling dispensation has now crossed 50 percent, virtually paving the way for her election as the first tribal President and the youngest too.
The son of Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Minister Ravela Kishore Babu, and his driver have been arrested for allegedly misbehaving with a 20-year-old teacher.
'It is mind-boggling that a party can be in rigor mortis even after numerous electoral defeats,' observes Ramesh Menon.
Kanyakumari is the tip of India and will convey the symbol that from the tip of India, the Congress is on its way up.
Political observers are keen to see if the BJP will now be guided by its more firmly entrenched ideological dominance in picking a face solidly identified with its core planks, or if it will choose a person tilted more to its electoral calculations. Or, whether its pick will be an ode to its core supporters or a outreach to relatively new groups of votaries.
Taking cognisance of the alleged defamatory posts, the high court had directed the CBI to probe the role of prominent persons in the southern state who were intentionally targeting Supreme Court and high court judges.
Polling for three parliamentary seats and 29 assembly constituencies were held on October 30, an exercise being seen as a barometer of the political mood in the country ahead of assembly elections in politically critical Uttar Pradesh as well as other states.
Barely a few hours after Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu said at a rally that his party would fight alone in Seema-Andhra, the TDP has gone into damage control mode and says the statement was misinterpreted.
Elections for 19 Rajya Sabha seats spread across eight states will be held on Friday with the contest in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan promising to be a close affair between the BJP and the Congress.
Party leaders and workers who were on their way to Naidu's residence were stopped by police and taken into preventive custody.
AP Minister Konda Surekha recently resigned to protest the Congress leadership's reluctance to appoint Y S Jaganmohan Reddy as Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's successor.
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
As round one of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election began in 91 constituencies across the length and breadth of India, from the hills of Kashmir to the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, reports of unrest and irregularities cast shadows over the world's biggest poll process.
With Andhra Pradesh on the verge of a division, the "government" in the state exists only on paper after a notification issued by the Governor and is non-existent for practical purposes.
One of the dropped ministers, Bojjala Gopala Krishna Reddy, resigned from his assembly membership.
As he took oath of office on Sunday night, Nara Chandrababu Naidu has earned a unique distinction of becoming the first chief minister of a new state in addition to being the longest-serving CM of Andhra Pradesh.
Congress says K Chandrashekhar Rao backstabbed it; Chandrababu Naidu detests him.
This time however, the poll panel did not share the overall polling percentage at its briefing.
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
