Polling will be held on November 17, 20, 24, 27 and 29 and December 1, 4, 8 and 11 from 8 am to 2 pm.
Buoyed by the formation of governments in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP is making a bid to expand its footprints in the region.
An estimated 69 per cent of the about 4.36 crore electorate voted in the largely peaceful assembly polls in Karnataka on Sunday amid projections that the beleaguered ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was on a sticky wicket against a resurgent Congress.
He further informed that the highest voting of 71.6 per cent was reported from the Ballimaran constituency, while the lowest turnout was in Delhi cantonment, which reported 45.4 per cent polling.
"The purpose of this film is only political -- to get some extra mileage in the elections. We believe, it is not just a corrupt practice, but the very launch of the film is motivated," Kapil Sibal told reporters outside the Election Commission.
'The government does not want to be transparent or accountable. Therefore, they do not want to appoint information commissioners.'
Vijayakanth was unwell for quite some time and his wife Premalatha took over the reins of the party days ago.
Around 67 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise right on Tuesday in the by-elections at Bankura in West Bengal while the figure was 73 per cent at Daspur, officials said.
The Election Commission has asked the returning officer of Amethi Lok Sabha constituency to probe allegations by Subramanian Swamy that Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi gave "wrong information" regarding his assets while filing nomination papers in the 2009 polls.
Chief electoral officers will brief Lyngdoh on February 4.
Voting will be held on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state where 788 candidates are in the fray.
Encouraged by their initiatives which resulted in high voter turnout in Naxal-hit areas, officers in Chhattisgarh's Chief Electoral Office are hopeful of a similar trend in 72 constituencies going to polls on Tuesday.
The election authorities on Tuesday gave a clean chit to Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's son and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chowdhury who was caught on camera accepting money from a local leader in Mathura and allegedly violating the model code of conduct.
With assembly polls in some states due by early next year, the Election Commission expressed concern over the "alarming proportion" of "paid news" and directed officials to closely monitor poll-related reports.
Over 60 per cent of 1.5 crore electorate on Saturday exercised their franchise in a keenly fought Delhi Assembly elections which saw stray incidents of violence but remained by and large peaceful.
The Election Commission is likely to declare poll dates for Gujarat and Himachal on October 4 or 5.
Rain played spoilsport during polling for the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections as only 5.17 per cent of the over 1.70 lakh electorate exercised their franchise in the first two hours.
Pressure is mounting for a resolution to be moved in the assembly when it meets next week for its maiden sitting to demand 'restoration of Article 370 and Article 35A' as committed in the National Conference's election manifesto, reveals Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Re-polling would be held in eight polling stations spread across six constituencies in Tamil Nadu on Saturday, Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar said.The re-polls were necessitated due to defective display of Electoral Voting Machines, damage of EVMs by unruly elements and also boycott of voters in one place protesting shifting of polling station among other reasons, he told mediapersons.
A senior SP leader requesting anonymity said that the party chief had called a meeting to brief the MLAs about the voting process of the Rajya Sabha elections.
There has been an absolute decline in voters aged between 20 and 39, compared with 2018, and there has been a huge increase in voters aged over 50.
The BJP won the Chandigarh mayoral election on Thursday, defeating the AAP-Congress alliance. Harpreet Kaur Babla of the BJP was elected as the new mayor, while the AAP-Congress alliance won the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The victory of the BJP candidate indicated that cross-voting took place during polling. The Supreme Court had previously overturned the result of the 2023 mayoral poll, which had seen the BJP candidate win despite allegations of tampering with ballots. The court had ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his "misdemeanour." The court had also declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new city mayor. This latest victory is a significant win for the BJP in the city and represents a setback for the AAP-Congress alliance.
Party leaders list three clear positive outcomes -- an activated Congress which has hit the ground running leaving the past inertia behind, an interactive top brass which is directly engaging the people, and a mobilised organisation which was dormant for many years.
The CJI also said merits of a case may be quite different from what is shown in the media when asked about the delay in hearing on the bail plea of former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid, lodged in jail in a Delhi riots case.
The Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday petitioned electoral authorities against Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman Nandan Nilekani, tipped to be the Congress's candidate from Bangalore in Lok Sabha polls, taking exception to his name and picture figuring with Aadhar Card advertisements when the Model Code of Conduct is in force.
The PDP looks a distant third in the race, observes Mohammed Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir politics.
Besides the not-so-hidden unease between Modi and Adityanath, Modi chose to address the Lok Sabha to ensure that he could personally claim all the kudos, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said his party would pull off a spectacular victory in the state assembly elections, but evaded a direct reply to a question whether he would be the chief minister for the fifth time, as he just said 'Bharatiya Janata Party Zindabad'.
The number of nominations filed by candidates for the May 5 Assembly elections in Karnataka crossed 2,000 on Tuesday.
Delhi Election Commission on Friday directed all mobile service providers to stop "political" bulk SMS services 48 hours before the assembly election to ensure that parties do not influence voters during this period.
India and the US have agreed to work together to draft a comprehensive framework on defence cooperation, aimed at structuring the bilateral collaboration for the 2025-2035 period. The framework will cover multiple domains in land, air, maritime and space, and will focus on intelligence, logistics, operational and industrial engagement. The agreement comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned trip to Washington, where he is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump to discuss boosting India-US cooperation in the areas of trade, energy and defence.
The northeastern state is set to witness a triangular fight this time, with the BJP-IPFT coalition seeking to retain supremacy, the Left-Congress combine looking to wrest power, and regional outfit Tipra Motha making its debut at the hustings after its stunning performance in the autonomous council polls.
Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Thursday called for a "complete check" on the menace of paid news during polls and emphasised on keeping a track on the expenditure record of candidates.
Sharma claimed he has received complaints that neither any virtual nor any physical meeting was held to finalise the electoral rolls, the sources said.
The Election Commission on Saturday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to uncover statues of Chief Minister Mayawati and of elephants, the Bahujan Samaj Party's poll symbol, in the state. "The EC secretary has written a letter to the UP chief secretary stating that the statues draped following its January 7 order should be uncovered forthwith," said UP Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha.
The upcoming Delhi Assembly elections will see around 20 candidates who have switched parties, with the AAP, BJP, and Congress fielding former foes in a bid for political gains. While these candidates aim to prove themselves in their new political homes, they face challenges including apprehension among members of their adopted parties. The article provides details of prominent leaders who switched sides, including those who joined the AAP, BJP, and Congress.
Delhi is set to get its third woman chief minister, after Congress' Sheila Dikshit and Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj, as Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi has been chosen to succeed Arvind Kejriwal.
All preparations for conducting free, fair and peaceful elections to the 60-member Tripura assembly on Thursday have been completed, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Gitte Kirankumar Dinakarro said.
The Election Commission has directed returning officers and chief electoral officers of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand not to start counting and announce results of the Rajya Sabha elections before its clearance. In a letter sent to the election officials in the two states, the poll panel has directed them that counting of votes "shall not be taken up" until they receive a specific written clearance from the commission.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal candidate Ranendra Pratap Swain on Wednesday defeated his nearest Congress candidate Suresh Chandra Mohapatra by 47,390 votes in the by-election for Athgarh assembly seat in Odisha.
