An assistant returning officer in Samastipur, Bihar, was suspended and a case registered against him after VVPAT slips were found on the roadside. The Election Commission initiated an inquiry after a video of the incident went viral.
'Should China's interest in the Teesta River projects be approved, it would likely result in heightened Chinese presence near the Siliguri corridor.'
Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal will to polls in 2026 and they are amongst the states where the voters' list cleanup exercise will begin first.
Both NDA and INDIA are racing to woo marginalised groups with Assembly polls fast approaching.
Developed to meet the growing transportation needs of modern India, the fully AC Vande Bharat sleeper train would offer passengers an "airline-like travel experience at economical fares," a statement issued by the PMO stated.
The share of none of the above (NOTA) option went up marginally this time in the Bihar assembly polls as compared to the last elections but is still much lower than 2015, data shared by the Election Commission shows.
Elections for the 81-member Jharkhand assembly will be held in two phases; the fist phase on November 13 and the second on November 20, with the counting of votes scheduled for November 23.
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.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
The Election Commission has extended the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in several states and Union Territories following concerns raised by opposition parties.
Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) failed to make a significant impact in the Bihar assembly elections, with most candidates securing less than 10% of the votes. The party is set to forfeit security deposits in a majority of constituencies.
The marathon polling process to elect the 18th Lok Sabha ended on Saturday with the seventh phase of elections witnessing an approximate voter turnout of 62.36 per cent, amid clashes between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party supporters in Sandeshkhali and some other parts of West Bengal.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed the Bihar Assembly results as "truly surprising" and said "we could not achieve victory in an election that was not fair from the very beginning". He added that the Congress and the INDIA bloc will conduct an in-depth review of the poll results.
The Election Commission is set to publish the draft electoral rolls for West Bengal on Tuesday following the completion of the statewide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) ahead of the 2026 assembly polls. The publication of the draft rolls will mark the end of the enumeration phase and the beginning of a far more contentious stage - claims, objections and hearings that will stretch into February 2026.
The build-up of voters at polling stations, which are manned heavily by security personnel was slow initially, but picked up later. The state government has declared a holiday on Saturday to ensure that voters turn up in large numbers. Polling has been peaceful so far in the 12 districts and no untoward incident has been reported.
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.
A voter turnout of over 40 per cent was recorded till 1 pm on Monday in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 96 constituencies spread over 10 states and Union Territories amid incidents of violence in Andhra Pradesh and reports of poll boycott in some villages of Uttar Pradesh.
Heat wave is believed to have contributed to several voters not turning up at polling stations in both the phases.
The fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections has so far registered a voter turnout of approximately 62.19 percent, 1.97 percentage points less than 2019.
The Election Commission has warned against the use of bulk SMSes and audio messages during the 48-hour 'silence period' before the conclusion of voting in the Bihar assembly polls. The EC has also mandated pre-certification of political advertisements on electronic media, including social media.
Tejashwi also announced that farmers would be given Rs 300 per quintal of paddy and Rs 400 for wheat as a bonus over MSP.
Election Commission data reveals Bhabanipur constituency in West Bengal recorded significantly higher voter deletions compared to Nandigram, sparking political debate ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
His remarks come after the Sindhudurg Police registered an FIR against Nilesh Rane on Friday on the charge of trespassing on a BJP supporter's house, days after the Shiv Sena MLA alleged that bags of cash meant for distribution to voters were found there during his "sting operation".
Bangladesh's interim government has ordered a nationwide security clampdown following the shooting of a youth leader and election candidate, leading to renewed unrest.
Voting for this crucial phase, covering 40 assembly segments across seven districts -- Jammu, Udhampur, Samba and Kathua in the Jammu region and Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir -- is scheduled for October 1.
'The move to appoint a person with a profile, markedly lower than the leader Nitin Nabin will replace, has the potential to put the brakes on the careers of several others in the party and government in the positions they currently hold,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The elections will be conducted in seven stages.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said local residents must be given priority in jobs at the upcoming Vadhavan Port project in Palghar district, and warned that any attempts to deprive them of their 'rightful employment' at the mega facility would not be tolerated.
In Bihar, women outvoted men and, perhaps, became one of the decisive factors behind the NDA's landslide victory in the assembly polls in the state on Friday.
The first phase of the three phase Jammu and Kashmir elections will be held on Wednesday, September 18, 2024.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the record turnout in the first phase of the Bihar assembly polls indicates people's trust in the NDA government. He predicted victory for the NDA, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and lauded the Election Commission for conducting successful elections.
Opposition parties are questioning the Election Commission's intentions behind the second phase of special intensive revision of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union Territories. The BJP has slammed the Congress and called the opposition a 'herd of dissatisfied souls'.
'Now there is no fight between us (Thackerays); now the fight is with them.'
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to address typographical errors and other mistakes in the final Bihar electoral roll. The court will hear further arguments on November 4.
The final phase of elections in Jammu and Kashmir on December 24 will have the distinction of having the highest number of Independents in state's electoral history. Of the total 370 candidates in the fray in 21 constituencies, 140 are Independents, election department officials said.
Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday met Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav, apparently with the mandate to defuse tensions with the ally, which has plunged the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) into turmoil in poll-bound Bihar.
The RJD, which has been voicing apprehensions that the SIR might have been carried out to "help" the BJP-led NDA, also urged the EC to divulge details of the 3.66 lakh persons whose names were deleted from the final electoral roll published earlier this week.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using the term 'katta' (country-made gun) in a recent election rally in Bihar, calling it an inappropriate choice of words for a Prime Minister.
This election is a thank you note to Nitish Babu from a grateful Bihari people, notes Sheela Bhatt.
The Election Commission defends its directive to verify the identity of burqa-clad women at Bihar polling stations, citing a 1994 order issued during T N Seshan's tenure.
