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.
Women-centric schemes could have proved a game-changer in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand, as both states witnessed a surge in women voters in the recently held assembly polls as well as return of the ruling alliances with a thumping majority.
The fifth and last phase of the state assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir ended on Saturday with a turnout of 76 per cent.
Think you are a political junkie? Go ahead, take the Rediff.com Election Game!
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 Bhojpuri superstar and Gorakhpur MP was in Noida on Sunday to campaign for BJP's sitting MLA Pankaj Singh, who is again contesting the election as the party's candidate.
The Delhi assembly results have underscored that a section of Arvind Kejriwal's committed supporters abandoned him because they were let down by his refusal to take a stand on crucial issues that impinge on the security and Constitutionally enshrined rights of the people, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
There are a total 623 candidates in the fray, and affidavits of eight of them could not be analysed because they were either badly scanned or incomplete, the ADR said.
Complaints of electronic voting machine malfunctioning poured in from several booths on Tuesday during the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha polls which saw voters turning out in large numbers to cast their vote in 116 seats, including all constituencies of Gujarat and Kerala.
The leaders will also raise the issue of alleged "use of religious symbols" by the Bharatiya Janata Party in their campaign, they said.
The proposed first constitutional amendment bill would deal with making provisions for holding Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly elections together.
A total of 833 candidates from 61 political parties, including Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel of the Bharatiya Janata Party, are contesting the polls in these assembly segments spread across Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Gandhinagar and other districts.
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.
The senior Pawar, however, said that the entire family campaigns during elections.
The fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections will go to polls on April 29. The voting will be held for 71 seats spread across 9 states.
Madhya Pradesh assembly polls have recorded a voter turnout of 77.15 per cent, which is 1.52 per cent higher than in 2018, as per the latest data released by the Election Commission of India.
In 2019, an all-party meeting was held in Delhi and it was attended by 19 political parties to discuss critical reforms in governance. One of the subjects of the discussions was simultaneous elections
"The voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections published by ECI on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling... on April 19 and four days after second phase of polling... on April 26.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at multiple locations in Maharashtra and Gujarat as part of a money laundering investigation targeting a Malegaon-based trader suspected of misusing bank accounts to carry out transactions exceeding Rs 100 crore. The probe is linked to an FIR filed by Malegaon Police against Siraj Ahmed Harun Meman, who operates a tea and cold drinks agency, for allegedly misusing bank accounts for illegal transactions. The ED suspects the trader may have been using the funds to divert and route money for certain individuals by misusing the banking credentials of ordinary citizens. The possibility of electoral malpractice being involved is also under scrutiny.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on May 17 a plea of an NGO seeking a direction to the Election Commission to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
The term of the 243-member Bihar legislative assembly comes to an end on November 29.
The Congress had fielded Bam against sitting BJP MP Shankar Lalwani from the Indore Lok Sabha seat, where polling will be held on May 13.
Polling was held in 1,643 polling stations in 38 constituencies across the twin districts of Imphal East and Imphal West, Bishnupur and the hill districts of Churachandpur and Kangpokpi.
Among the long queues of voters, there were some famous faces too who exercised their franchise.
A "record" 57.59 per cent of over 1.46 crore voters cast their ballots in 55 assembly seats in Bihar on Sunday in the fourth and penultimate round of polling.
"Mock polls" are part of the first level check (FLC) process.
Polling in the first phase will take place in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, Tumkur, Mysore, Chikkaballapur, Ramnagar, Mandya, Hassan, Kodagu, Chamarajnagar and Kolar. Polling in the 20,000 booths for the first phase will commence at 7 am and would end by 5 pm.
The voting will be held on November 30, December 7, 12, 16 and 20.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said Narendra Modi should be referred to as a Bharatiya Janata Party leader and not as the prime minister in the saffron party's campaign as he is a 'caretaker PM'.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 per cent while in Puducherry it was 80.47 per cent.
Asked if she will continue her political role, Kejriwal replied, "When I was arrested, she was a bridge between me and Delhi's residents. It was a temporary phase.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday snubbed the Rashtriya Janata Dal, headed by his arch-rival Lalu Prasad Yadav, stating that he had forged alliances 'by mistake' with the opposition party which 'did nothing' while in power.
Even non-partisan observers are saying the Congress and INDI alliance are not making any significant effort to campaign on the ground, he said.
Campaigning for the first phase of the Gujarat assembly elections to be held on December 1 ended at 5 pm on Tuesday.
Think you are a political junkie? Go ahead, take the Rediff.com Election Game!
The Delhi High Court has reserved its order on a plea by jailed MP Rashid Engineer, facing trial in a terror funding case, seeking custody parole to attend the ongoing Parliament session. Engineer, a Baramulla MP, was opposed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) who argued that he has no vested right to attend Parliament and there were security concerns. The court said though there might not be a vested right to attend the session, it could exercise its discretion. The NIA also argued that Rashid misused the telephone facility in Tihar jail and that allowing him to attend the session would be a security risk.
Murmu, a descendant of Sido-Kanu, who led the Santhal revolt in 1855, joined the party in Deoghar on Sunday in the presence of Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
In the 2017 assembly election, the voter turnout in the first phase covering the same 89 constituencies stood at 66.75 per cent.
Two deaths due to heart attack were also reported from polling stations in Madhubani and Darbhanga districts.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances