About 65.46 per cent electorate on Tuesday exercised their franchise in the second of the five-phase polling for the 20 Maoist-hit assembly constituencies as the day passed off peacefully.
Allegations of electronic voting machines malfunctioningreturned to haunt the Election Commission as four Lok Sabha seats and nine assembly constituencies went for bypolls on Monday across 10 states with moderate-to-heavy voting amid prestige at stake for the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as opposition parties ahead of the 2019 general elections.
'EVMs did not accept votes polled for any party other than BJP'. The BSP chief said that the results in UP and Uttarakhand were surprising and not palatable to anyone.
'The people of India have not only challenged the ruling dispensation with the constitution, they have also opened the eyes of the leadership that sits in the Opposition.'
'Although the Election Commission remains convinced about the EVM's integrity, as a fair umpire of the game it was necessary to travel the last mile to convince political players that the entire process was not only fair but transparently so.' A fascinating excerpt from former Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's new book, Excerpted from Every Vote Counts: The Story Of India's Elections.
While the BJP emerged as the single largest party in 12 municipal bodies, it has majority in five of these bodies.
Two weeks ahead of October 1 deadline, Sebi likely to relax certain conditions.
The title alludes to Socrates willingly drinking poisonous hemlock as his punishment after he was convicted of corrupting the minds of the young and impiety in ancient Athens.
The opposition made it clear during the meeting that it will press for a joint parliamentary committee to probe the Rafale jet deal and raise several issues, including the "misuse" of probe agencies and the autonomy for Reserve Bank of India.
Most exit polls have forecast gains for Congress in at least four states including a clear majority in Rajasthan.
Opposition parties demanded that all elections in the future be held through ballot papers.
"The Opposition's mahagathbandhan is an alliance of corruption, negativity and instability. The Opposition has 'dhanshakti' (money power), we have 'janshakti' (people's power)," the prime minister said.
What's in a name? A lot if an election is at stake and you have three other people with the same name standing up against you. And that's the case for Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who filed his nomination from Varanasi on Thursday. Modi is facing 77 rivals, including three other Narendras.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
Voting is being held in 59 of the total 60 seats .
The emphatic victory in all three municipal corporations in Delhi will enthuse the party to keep its winning trajectory for the next polls, reports Sahil Makkar.
The party's research centre, overseen by chief Sonia Gandhi, provides members with solid facts that can be used to target the Centre.
Tiwari said on Amarinder's remark that when the latter was PCC president, he had himself demonstrated as to how the EVMs can be gerrymandered.
'Here's a list of the things we should be reading more about in the media,' says Mitali Saran.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat lost both seats he contested.
If the BJP falls sizeably short of the 115 mark -- the seats it won in 2012 -- it will be hard to deny the party hasn't suffered a telling reverse.
The final figure of polling could increase and it will be available on Tuesday, officials said.
Voting in the first phase began with reports of multiple faulty electronic voting machines at various booths, prompting Congress leaders to request quick action from the poll body.
Angry members of the Congress and other opposition parties forced adjournments of the proceedings as they questioned the NOTA provision for these elections.
'The EC is a sacred institution.' 'In the last few years, more than once, we have found the EC bending over backwards to accommodate the government.'
The first phase of UP polls in 73 assembly constituencies on Saturday witnessed an "exemplary" 64.22 per cent voter turnout.
Voting is being held in the politically sensitive Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya and Nagaland Lok Sabha seats.
'People do not want a 'maha milavat' (highly adulterated) government of those who assembled in Kolkata.'
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the PAC, has entrusted Vishwas with the responsibility of Rajasthan which goes to polls by the end of 2018.
'No government will forego the usage of data of this order and nor will any private concern.' 'Unless, of course, there are strong safeguards to privacy.' 'Which is why that nine-member Supreme Court bench could make or mar everybody's future,' says Devangshu Datta.
"Only the Congress and the JD-S are celebrating, people of Karnataka are not," he told reporters.
A 7.8 per cent increase in votes for the JD-U-RJD-Congress alliance over BJP-led NDA's tally fetched it another 120 seats catapulting the Nitish Kumar-led coalition to a landslide two-third majority.
A party leader said the AAP will resort to what it did during the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls-- a "positive campaign".
The next general elections would be held in multiple phases next year and be completed in time to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha by June 1, Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath has said.
Opposition members trooped into the Well of the House calling the government a "cheat".
Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Javed Ahmad Qadri from Shopian in Jammu and Kashmir allegedly thrashed a voter inside a polling station, claiming that the latter had entered the booth without a voter slip.
'I am also concerned over Chinese ambitions in the Maldives and wider Indian Ocean,' former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed tells Rediff.com contributor Rajeev Sharma in an exclusive interview.
Millions voted in the United Kingdom on Thursday in the country's closest polls in decades as Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party and opposition Labour were locked in a dead heat electoral battle with migrant voters, including the Indian diaspora, expected to be the deciding factor.
In a first, central paramilitary forces will be deployed at all 62,779 polling stations during the 5-phase Bihar assembly polls, the Election Commission said on Monday.
The poll panel said it did not receive specific complaints or concrete material from political parties and candidates about alleged tampering of EVMs during recently held election process.
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