The state Election Commission also issued certain guidelines for not using the coming festive days for political purpose in the seats where polling would take place in next phases.
At places in the border districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer, people walked miles through the desert to cast their votes.
Lavasa, a career bureaucrat, joined as Election Commissioner on January 23, 2018, and being senior most on the poll panel would have become CEC in April next year after the term of incumbent Sunil Arora ends.
In Gujarat's political circles, the appeal was seen as an indirect call to vote against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal, Randeep Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh of the Congress and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut were among the 16 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha from four states where polling was held on Friday after tussle over cross voting and alleged breach of election rules delayed the counting by around eight hours in Maharashtra and Haryana.
Voicing its disapproval, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday ticked off its Bihar leader Giriraj Singh for his 'back Narendra Modi or go to Pakistan' remark even as Congress and the Janata Dal-United complained to Election Commission and demanded criminal action against him.
Bedi is irked with Kejriwal for using her photo in AAP posters
Maharashtra police have made extensive security arrangements to ensure that voting for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly polls goes peacefully with the deployment of over 2 lakh state police personnel, along with the reserved police forces.
Sixty-six former bureaucrats in a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind said that the 'polling body's independence, fairness, impartiality and efficiency are perceived to be compromised today'.
Latching on to a Pakistan minister's "destabilisation" remark against Narendra Modi, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad on Thursday said that the BJP prime ministerial candidate should be sent to Pakistan.
With political parties using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook in a big way for campaigning in Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission has issued detailed guidelines for political advertisements on such platforms that include obtaining certification for contents before putting them in public domain.
The PM's choice of ministers is interesting, to say the least, says Jyoti Punwani.
Trends that added colour to workplace culture in 2022.
Modi has repeatedly attacked Siddaramaiah over alleged corruption, calling his government "seedha rupaiya sarkar" (government that takes bribe for every work) and "10 per cent commission government."
Wipro, HCL in race for Sebi's fraud detection system upgrade,
The two notices, which have listed virtually similar wordings, say that prima facie the manifestos of the two parties 'have not substantially fulfilled the guidelines of the Commission'.
Despite strong AUM growth, MFs lag behind other popular investment avenues. MFs received only 6 per cent of total household savings in 2021-2022.
Abdullah termed the gag order as an attempt by the EC to please the BJP.
While the polling so far has been peaceful, police had to open fire in the air in Purnia to disperse a crowd trying to disturb voting, even as people boycotted polling at 12 booths in Katihar in protest against barriers not being set up at two railway crossings.
It was alleged that Sidhu violated the model code of conduct as he, along with his family, entered the premises of the booth in private cars.
Former Navy chief Admiral L Ramdas also said he was 'upset' over the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's remarks.
The Election Commission on Saturday asked political parties in Bihar not to publish advertisements that have the potential to create mutual hatred and ill-will among different social and religious communities so that the peaceful atmosphere is not vitiated.
A day after Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah called Azamgarh a 'base of terrorists', the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party have rallied together, demanding Shah's arrest and a ban by the Election Commission from campaigning in Uttar Pradesh.
The regulator had introduced trading plans to provide an opportunity for those holding possible insider information to legitimately trade, without violating insider trading regulations
The Election Commission on Saturday granted four more days to Narendra Modi to reply to its notice over his "khooni panja" (bloody claw) remark made during campaigning for Chhattisgarh polls after he sought more time.
Complaints were received by the Commission on possibilities of inducement of electors by distributing cash and gifts in innovative forms like tokens, prepaid phone recharge coupons, newspaper subscription, milk tokens.
"Party disciplinary committee will submit the report within 10 days," Shah said.
A video of the purported incident is also in circulation on social media, as the entire episode was captured on CCTV.
"The cause of action has not arisen within the jurisdiction of this court... We find no grounds to entertain the petition," it said.
It said even if the film is released on April 11, as claimed by the Congress activist, it will be appropriate for him to seek a redressal from the Election Commission.
India is only the fourth country to acquire such a specialised and modern capability after the United States, Russia and China.
Uttar Pradesh, which is set to witness game-changer elections, and four other states will go to polls simultaneously, most likely in February-March next, commencing shortly after the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1.
Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari on Friday declared his support to Congress saying it will "strengthen" secularism and termed communalism as "bigger threat" to the country than corruption.
EC in its fresh advisory said despite the direction certain advertisements of "offending nature" have been brought to its notice.
In a massive setback for the country, world football governing body FIFA on Tuesday suspended India for "undue influence from third parties" and said the Under-17 Women's World Cup "cannot currently be held in India as planned."
Senior bureaucrats say the government has planned a 'feel-good' Budget after the 'pain' of demonetisation.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Singh Patel, as also former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa and poll strategist Prashant Kishor were among those whose phone numbers were listed as potential targets for hacking through an Israeli spyware sold only to the government agencies, an international media consortium reported on Monday.
Hours after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yogi Adityanath defied a ban on his election meeting in Lucknow, police lodged a complaint against the controversial MP and other party leaders who participated in the rally.
The journey for 24-year-old Akash Anand would be much tougher, because dynastic succession goes against the grain of Dalit politics that B R Ambedkar founded.
It said the sleuths have recovered Rs 14.6 crore of "unaccounted" cash and seized diaries and computer files of suspect payments made between Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
