The polling for the sixth phase on May 12 covers 6 states and one Union Territory.
For the last few weeks, Fadnavis had been participating in the party's internal meetings over the Bihar polls and has even visited the state a few times.
On the Opposition's poll promise of statehood restoration, Shah said, "I want to ask Farooq Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, who is going to restore the statehood. You cannot give it back. Why are you misleading the public?"
As the Uttar Pradesh assembly election battle hits new lows, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani walks you through all you need to know about the fifth phase of polling on February 27.
Karra, who became the J&K Congress chief last Friday replacing Vikar Rasool Wani, said a call is already there for all secular parties who are opposed to the "hegemonic attitude" of the BJP to unite.
Think you are a political junkie? Go ahead, take the Rediff.com Election Game!
Maharashtra Minister Uday Samant on Friday claimed that many leaders from the opposition Shiv Sena-UBT were in touch with his party and would be inducted in phases.
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Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the "champion of corruption".
Ignoring the separatists' call to shun the vote, electors in the five districts emulated the trend seen in the first phase by turning up at polling booths in large numbers at 8 am, the scheduled start of voting. It turned out to be an impressive 71.28 per cent turnout in the second phase.
The final phase saw voting in all 13 seats of Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
A total of 17 places are being covered in the two neighbouring states by the Jharkhand office of the federal probe agency.
Among the fatalities recorded on Friday, the maximum 17 were from Uttar Pradesh, 14 from Bihar, five from Odisha and four from Jharkhand, where officials said more than 1,300 people are hospitalised with heatstroke conditions.
China is likely to deploy Artificial Intelligence-generated content via social media to sway public opinion to boost its geopolitical interests during elections in countries like India, South Korea and the US, tech giant Microsoft has warned.
Home to several Yadav family bastions, Phase III of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections is especially crucial for the Samajwadi Party.
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.
Dantewada recorded lowest turnout with 49 per cent voting.
Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Thursday promised that LPG cylinders will be provided in Jharkhand at a subsidised rate of Rs 450 even for 'infiltrators', sparking a political row in the midst of assembly elections in the eastern state.
Once a trusted lieutenant of the former National Conference president Omar Abdullah and his political advisor during his tenure as chief minister, Rana holds considerable sway among Muslims, particularly the Gujjar community in Jammu.
Former Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla has been appointed as the governor of strife-torn Manipur. Ex-Army chief Vijay Kumar Singh is the new Mizoram governor. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has been shifted to Bihar, while Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar will become the new Kerala Governor. These appointments will take effect from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices.
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.
Amidst barbs flying back and forth, Rediff.com's Aslam Hunani lists all that you need to know about the fourth phase of the UP assembly elections, which will take place on February 23.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is contesting 88 seats out of the total 89, tops this list among major political parties in the fray with 36 per cent of its candidates having criminal cases. Thirty per cent of its candidates are facing serious cases such as murder, rape, assault, kidnapping, among others, the ADR said in its report. The number of candidates having criminal cases fielded by the AAP is 32.
The Election Commission is in the process of deciding the number of phases and the months in which polling would be held, sources said.
The top court issued notice to the Election Commission on the PIL filed by author, activist and motivational speaker Shiv Khera.
The fifth and last phase of the state assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir ended on Saturday with a turnout of 76 per cent.
A 30-year-old man was hacked to death by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on the suspicion of being a police informer. The incident comes close on the heels of the murder of two men, one of them a former Naxalite, in neighbouring Bijapur district two days ago. The two were killed by Naxalites, as per the police. Earlier on January 26, Naxalites killed a 41-year-old man in Bhairamgarh area of Bijapur, accusing him of being an informer. On January 16, Naxalites killed a 48-year-old man in Mirtur area of Bijapur for the same reason.
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
In violence-hit Manipur, the general buzz associated with elections and the related paraphernalia of posters, banners and rallies are missing but it is the presence of these brown boxes with pictures of guns that is symbolic of the strife-ridden society struggling to return to normalcy.
A majority of over 50,000 internally displaced people are currently staying at relief centres across five valley districts and three hill districts.
More than two crore voters in Bihar will decide the fate of 1,066 candidates on Wednesday across 71 assembly segments in the first phase of elections.
The Indian Parliament will introduce a constitutional amendment bill on Tuesday that seeks to hold Lok Sabha and state assembly elections simultaneously. The bill, popularly known as "one nation, one election", will be introduced by Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and is likely to be referred to a joint committee of both houses for wider consultations. The bill also aims to align elections in the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry, and the NCT of Delhi. The move has been met with mixed reactions, with some supporting the idea of reducing election-related expenses and others expressing concerns about its impact on democratic processes.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Monday dared the opposition to share evidence of allegations that returning officers and district magistrates were influenced to vitiate the poll process so the panel could take action against them.
The high-octane campaign for the first phase of the crucial Gujarat elections, viewed as a prestige battle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a litmus test for the leadership of soon-to-be Congress president Rahul Gandhi, will come to an end on Thursday. Here's everything you need to know about the polls -- from candidates to the constituencies.
The incident comes amid accusations by the opposition BJP of "targeted killings" of its workers in the run up to the polls.
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Voting will be held on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state where 788 candidates are in the fray.
The Aam Aadmi Party tops the list with 61 such candidates.
The elections to 32 assembly constituencies in Sikkim were held simultaneously with the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 19.
The second phase election to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly began today at 7am amid tight security against the backdrop of Naxalites killing a school head master and a lecturer in the Naxal-infected Udupi district on Thursday night. Naxals, who were active in Shimoga, Udupi and Chikamagalur Districts, had pasted posters and distributed pamphlets a couple of days back calling for boycott of elections.
