Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced six guarantees for West Bengal if the BJP wins the Assembly polls, promising to end the 'reign of fear' and address corruption, while criticising the TMC government's performance.
All along, we were told SIR was an essential exercise carried out as part of the Election Commission's regular duties. But now that the ideological mentor of the ruling party has declared that SIR is a means of detecting infiltrators, one understands the unseemly haste with which it is being carried out, notes Jyoti Punwani.
'Even today illegal foreign immigrants live in Assam and their names might be on the voters list. This we can get rid of only by doing SIR.'
Several opposition parties on Wednesday decided to jointly oppose the delimitation provisions in the Constitution amendment bill in Parliament, even as they reiterated support for women's reservation, with Mallikarjun Kharge alleging the move is politically motivated.
The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, has reassured the public that individual data collected during the upcoming census will remain confidential and cannot be used for any purpose other than statistical aggregation.
In a strategic move for the upcoming West Bengal elections, the BJP has announced its first candidate list, highlighted by Suvendu Adhikari challenging Mamata Banerjee in both Nandigram and Bhabanipur.
More voter deletions recorded in draft SIR exercises than to the combined SSRs in the past 10 years.
Following the new government's assumption of power, the Bangladesh Army has undergone a significant reshuffle, including the appointment of a new Chief of General Staff and changes in key strategic commands.
During the presser, Gandhi showed a picture of a woman who appears on the voter list 22 times in 10 booths in the Rai assembly constituency, and said this shows that this was a 'centralised operation'.
The Election Commission on Friday gave the go-ahead to the airing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Mann ki Baat programme on Sunday.
Large hoardings praising Fadnavis' leadership appeared across the city, reflecting a celebratory mood within the BJP camp following its strong performance in the country's richest civic body.
'It is best to remain vigilant. Tarique Rahman arranged arms smuggling to Indian insurgent groups.' 'He has criticised India for sheltering Sheikh Hasina, but has also sought India's support.'
'Some states have become more populous, while others have become less populous. Those who became less populous became economically strong. Those where population increased, they became economically weak
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal. The court is also addressing concerns about disenfranchisement and citizenship issues related to the revision process.
The Election Commission has defended its Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in the Supreme Court, refuting allegations of mass deletion of genuine voters as exaggerated and politically motivated.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has approached the Supreme Court, contesting the legality of the Election Commission's order for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, alleging it is arbitrary and unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to display the names of those on the 'logical discrepancies' list at various public offices in West Bengal, addressing concerns about irregularities in the voter rolls.
Criticising the Election Commission ahead of the local body elections, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Monday claimed that 9.6 million fake voters have been added, as per the information received.
The results for the election to the 243-member Bihar assembly will be available on Friday, November 14, 2025.
The Election Commission has ordered a 'Special Revision' of electoral rolls in Assam, with the final voter list to be published on February 10, 2026. The revision aims to ensure clean and accurate electoral rolls, with house-to-house verification taking place from November 22 to December 20.
The Supreme Court has urged political leaders to promote fraternity while declining to entertain a PIL seeking guidelines on political speeches, emphasizing the need for objectivity and even-handedness in addressing concerns about hate speech and constitutional values.
The Election Commission has placed orders estimated at more than Rs 300 crore with Electronics Corporation of India Ltd and Bharat Electronics Ltd to deliver Electronic Voting Machines for the Lok Sabha elections.
Mohammed Shami on Tuesday appeared before poll officials in Kolkata for his scheduled hearing under the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal.
The Election Commission has allotted the 'whistle' symbol to actor Vijay's political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), for the upcoming 2026 Assembly elections. Party workers are enthusiastically promoting the symbol across Tamil Nadu.
Booth-level officers in Kerala boycotted work following the suicide of a colleague allegedly due to work strain related to the Special Intensive Revision exercise. Trade unions and political leaders are demanding investigations and changes to the process.
The Supreme Court expressed concern over threats to election officials in West Bengal and other states, urging the Election Commission to take action. The court also addressed the lack of cooperation from state governments in electoral roll revisions.
"The truth is that the election system in India is already dead. Please remember one thing that the prime minister of India enjoys a very slim majority. If 10-15 seats were rigged, and we suspect the actual figures to be closer to 70-80 to 100, he would not have been the prime minister of the country," the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha claimed.
'Tarique Rahman's refrain during the electoral campaign was that the minorities are safe under BNP. He has to honour that promise.'
The BJP has accused the Congress party, particularly Rahul Gandhi, of using social media accounts based in foreign countries to create an anti-India narrative. The BJP alleges that accounts originating from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, and the US are being used to target the BJP, RSS, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Congress party has alleged that approximately 23 lakh women's names have been removed from the voter list in Bihar, particularly in constituencies with close contests in the 2020 elections. They claim this is a deliberate act of 'vote theft' orchestrated by the ruling party through the Election Commission.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee escalates tensions ahead of assembly polls by accusing President Droupadi Murmu of political bias and criticising her stance on tribal welfare, sparking a major controversy.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday challenged Home Minister Amit Shah to debate with him on his three press conferences in which the Congress leader alleged 'vote chori' by the Bharatiya Janata Party in collusion with the Election Commission.
The final phase of the two-phase Bihar elections takes place today, November 11.
The Election Commission reports a discrepancy of nearly 26 lakh voters' names in West Bengal's current electoral rolls when compared to the 2002 voter list.
Since 2004, 12 states have added 160 million people to their rolls.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections were held under Kumar's supervision. He demitted office in February this year.
Turning her guns on the Election Commission, Banerjee alleged that the BJP had "stolen" the mandate in Maharashtra with the poll panel's help and was now attempting to replicate it in Bengal through the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise by deleting genuine voters' names.
According to data available from the Election Commission of India, 17 seats in the 2020 Assembly elections had a victory margin of less than 1.5%
The Election Commission is expected to initiate a phased, pan-India special intensive revision (SIR) of the voters' list, prioritizing states with upcoming assembly elections. This cleanup exercise aims to weed out illegal foreign migrants and ensure accurate electoral rolls.
In a unique initiative to speed up the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls, the Pilibhit administration has announced a set of incentives, including a family safari and lunch, for booth-level officers who fills up the maximum number of digitised forms in their respective assembly constituencies.
