Gujarat has witnessed the steepest decline in the number of contestants in the fray for its 26 seats, from 371 five years ago to 266 in 2024.
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 elections to the first phase would be held on April 22.
The court said the chancellor's order to withdraw nominations of the members was not based on any reason and "was rather founded on prejudice".
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
'Bribing voters is very, very less in Kerala; I would say, almost zero... Across the border, there is so much of money power during the elections. But I don't think in Kerala, people vote for money... People of Kerala do believe that politics can bring in good governance, 'says Nalini Netto, the Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala.
With elections elsewhere in India showing that multi-pronged contests usually work to the BJP's favour, the party can gain if it hangs on stubbornly. In the meantime, any additional support helps. That is why the archbishop's comment attracted political traction in Kerala, observes Shyam G Menon.
Terming the Kerala government's apprehension over safety of the Mullaperiyar dam as "unnecessary", Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday claimed it was borne out of "bypoll fear".
According to sources, the filters were applied on Saturday night soon after the poll schedule was announced.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The EVMs, officials explained, are not designed to register this system of voting.
A six-phased Assembly elections in West Bengal, a two stage poll in Assam and a single day poll in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry were announced by the Election Commission, setting in motion the largest such exercise after 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Parliamentarians and legislators across the country voted on Monday to elect India's 15th president, choosing between opposition pick Yashwant Sinha and National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu who is favoured to win the battle to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the Left Democratic Front were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.
Public money 'looted' through an 'unholy nexus' between United Progressive Alliance politicians and bureaucrats is being used for the April 13 assembly elections in Kerala, alleged Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Saturday.
Polling is scheduled in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
The CEC said that in the case of Wayanad, the remainder of the term is more than a year.
The brothers were booked under the UP Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of the then BJP MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanad Rai, on November 29, 2005 and the kidnapping-murder of Varanasi-based trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997.
Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The members, whose terms are ending, include union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan, J P Nadda, Thaawarchand Gehlot and Ramdas Athawale.
In the tribal village of Edamalakkudy, nestled deep within this hill district's lush forests, lives 92-year-old Sivalingam. Despite his age and being bedridden, Sivalingam's determination to vote remains strong.
The grilling of Brigadier-General Dyer by Akshay Kumar's Sir C Sankaran Nair, as shown in Kesari 2, is purely an imaginary sequence, proves Utkarsh Mishra.
'The first and most basic responsibility of any government is to protect its people from external threats and internal harm.' 'Budget 2025-2026 has to focus on meeting this responsibility,' asserts R Jagannathan.
The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The Model code of conduct has come into force immediately in the states.
Kerala Chief Minister and Communist Party of India - Marxist veteran V S Achuthanandan on Wednesday got into trouble over his comment about his opponent and Congress leader in Malampuzha segment Lathika Subhash.Subhash moved the Election Commission and court against him for making a 'defamatory' remark against her.The row was sparked by Achuthanandan's comment at a press meet in Palakkad on Tuesday when he said, "They are famous, and, if you inquire, you will know why."
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Distancing himself from the comments, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the LDF's stand is not to personally attack Gandhi.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
he FIR was lodged against her based on a complaint, the police said.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana agreed to hear next week the EC's plea after senior advocate Vikas Singh submitted a large number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail machines (VVPATs) are still being preserved and need to be released.
Defending the panel's recommendation to retain the law, which is at present under abeyance following directions of the Supreme Court issued in May last year, he said enough safeguards have been proposed to prevent its misuse.
The first phase of polls to the six southern districts was on April 22 and the last phase for the remaining Kasargode and Kannur districts is scheduled for May 3.
The Election Commission has decided to set up a panel to identify the experiences and shortcomings during the recently-held five assembly polls.
Justice Krishna S Dixit, presiding over a single judge bench, issued notice to the parties concerned and paused the ongoing investigation.
Digital canvassing is expected to benefit from political money looking for alternative blow horns.
The decision has been taken to check the spread of coronavirus, the sources said.
A plea challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct assembly elections over eight phases in West Bengal was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday.
As results pour in for the four states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam -- and one Union Territory -- Puducherry - here's a glimpse at the leaders who are trailing and those who are leading.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
