'It's dull because this time the election is spread over such a long period.'
'To attribute motives to the individual election commissioner or the Election Commission as a group is very unfair.'
The run-up to the polls, which should have been a humdrum affair, became a cause celebre after it was marred by violence, arrests, sit-ins in far-away Delhi and a Supreme Court intervention asking officials to ensure peaceful polling.
The voter turnout in the first three phases of the civic polls in the valley has been low.
At least 30 people were killed and 60 others injured in a pre-dawn stampede at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh early on Wednesday as crores of pilgrims jostled for space to take a holy dip on the occasion of one of the most auspicious days of Mauni Amavasya, officials said.
The party bagged 11 of the 25 seats, from 20 Local Authorities' constituencies in the state, for which the biennial election was held on December 10, and counting was taken up today, poll officials said.
Gowda also said he did not know how long the Congress-JD-S government, headed by his son H D Kumaraswamy, would continue and it was in the hands of the senior coalition partner.
The Congress on Tuesday said it cannot accept the Haryana assembly polls verdict as there were 'serious issues' about the integrity of the counting process and functioning of the EVMs in some districts, and asserted that it would take up the matter with the Election Commission.
The Trinamool Congress welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on panchayat polls in West Bengal as a "victory of democracy" and asked opposition parties to apologise to the people of the state.
In an interview with rediff.com's Arun Lakshman, scholar, writer, teacher and social activist Professor Hameed Chendamangalur says that the people of the state have given a befitting reply to such organisations in the recently held local body polls.
The latest trend issued by the State Election Commission showed the BJD had already won or was leading in 762 Zilla Parishad seats, as compared to BJP's 46 and Congress's 36 seats.
The move comes a day after the government called a special session of Parliament between September 18 and 22, the agenda for which is under wraps.
All the parties fielded women candidates after the Lucknow mayoral seat was reserved for women.
Gujarat Congress working president Hardik Patel on Monday removed his designation and party poll symbol of 'hand' from his Twitter profile amid mounting speculation about his next political move after he launched a scathing attack on the state party leadership and praised the ruling BJP.
The plea for contempt action has been filed as there are repeated incidents of violence and false cases are being lodged against their members, advocate Amar Dave, appearing for TMC, said.
A slew of sops were announced for teachers, employees of municipalities and others.
The ghost of the 2002 Gujarat riots continued to haunt Chief Minister Narendra Modi who was grilled for the first time by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team this year.
The 'Taliban-like' attack on a college teacher by radicals who chopped off his hand sent shock waves across Kerala during the year which also saw the drubbing of the ruling Left Democratic Front in the local body polls.
Calling for a national discussion on replicating the Gujarat model of making voting compulsory, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday criticised the Congress and Left parties for opposing it 'without applying their minds'. Describing the bill as 'innovative and useful', senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said the modalities of experimenting it in other states should be discussed.
The Gujarat government's law to make voting compulsory in local body polls in Gujarat has failed to impress the Election Commission which believes that extending the idea across the country is 'impractical'. "Such proposals have come up for discussion in the Commission on many occasions earlier. For India, it is full of difficulties. We also consider that democracy and compulsion do not go hand-in-hand," Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said.
Like, Share, Subscribe, Vote: The 2024 polls may be dubbed 'YouTube election'.
Hitting back at the Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said the Uddhav Thackeray-led outfit's Hindutva is merely on paper and finds mention just in speeches, while it was his party men who faced bullets and lathis during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
Fadnavis made the remarks in reference to reports speculating mid-term polls in Maharashtra amid farmers' stir
"If municipal elections can take place in Hyderabad and Assam, why not here. The situation is worse than Kashmir and is similar to that of Iran and Iraq. Didi (Mamata Banerjee) has proved that West Bengal's law and order is not conducive to go for polls," he said while addressing a party meeting in Kolkata.
Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal has said the Centre is looking into the matter.
The Maharashtra government will bring an ordinance to grant OBC quota in upcoming by-elections to a set of local governing bodies without crossing the Supreme Court-mandated 50 per cent cap on reservation, said state minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Wednesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership in Himachal Pradesh is making efforts to mollify party leaders who are disgruntled over distribution of tickets to six Congress rebels for the assembly bypolls, former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said on Tuesday.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole claimed Thackeray had selected a candidate finalised by Congress for the Nashik Teachers' constituency without consulting coalition partners.
The keenly fought elections to the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation ended in a tie with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Tuesday winning 16 seats each.
Ever since, he has remained Thiruvananthapuram preferred MP, winning four elections on the trot, including the closely fought battle with Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajeev Chandrasekhar in 2024. This could well be his swansong from the capital segment.
Terms of the two dozen seats had expired last year though elections were deferred because of a delay in Panchayat polls which could not be held in time on account of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Tikait says PM Modi was supporter of MSP law when he was CM
Here is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh.
Amid tight security arrangements, polling for the second and final phase of Tamil Nadu local body elections on Wednesday commenced on a peaceful note.
Sachin Tendulkar and his wife Anjali voted in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections at Bandra.
Modi said laws which divide the country on communal lines and become a reason for inequality have no place in a modern society.
A commando contingent of the Manipur police has been airlifted to Jiribam on Saturday morning from Imphal to assist in the security operations against the militants, police said.
Gufran, a resident of neighbouring Pratapgarh district, was injured in an exchange of fire with the Uttar Pradesh Police's Special Task Force near Samda village in the Kaushambi district, Superintendent of Police Brijesh Kumar Srivastava said.
Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Wednesday said the Supreme Court order on the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) quota was a setback to the state government and it should do everything it can to save the community's reservation.
