Voters from the Gudivada assembly constituency refuse to cast their ballot, protest outside offices of political parties. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases from September 18 while Haryana will go to polls in a single phase on October 1, the Election Commission announced on Friday.
Besides disclosing in their affidavits, candidates have to prominently declare criminal cases they are facing, if any, thrice in newspapers in print as well on television, he said, adding that political parties too have to publish within three days of nomination why a candidate with criminal background was selected. "You (political parties) have to tell the public whether you did not get any (other) candidate and why was it necessary to select them (those with criminal background)," he said.
In a setback for the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the exit polls on Saturday predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party will move ahead of Mamata Banerjee's party in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
The Election Commission on Monday censured BJP leader Dilip Ghosh and Congress'd Supriya Shrinate for derogatory remarks against the dignity of women.
The month-long assembly elections, Bihar's second in 2005, came to an end Saturday as the fourth phase of polling in 41 constituencies passed off by and large peacefully, with an estimated 45 to 50% voter turnout.\n\n
The heat wave is likely to impact parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal, the Met office said.
'Do you see even a single woman offering Namaz?'
An estimated 16 crore people casting their votes in a presidential election is a record in itself in terms of turnout after 1900, according to Michael P McDonald, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida, who leads the US Election Project that tracks early voting.
Voting was underway on Friday in 102 Lok Sabha seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the world's largest electoral exercise, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging voters to exercise their franchise in record numbers.
Additionally, the Haryana police and home guard personnel will be deployed for security during the elections, he said.
As many as 624 candidates are in the fray in this round of voting being held in Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Hardoi, Unnao, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Banda, and Fatehpur districts.
As the fight reaches its crescendo with the big election day just a few hours away, many political observers billed the unpredictable race for the 47th President of the US as the most consequential one in decades while appearing to project a grim picture for the country's future under a Trump presidency.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) on Sunday elected its first Dalit president from the Left-backed groups after nearly three decades.
Amid tight security cover, polling began on Friday morning in the second phase of the Bihar assembly elections, spanning 32 constituencies spread over six Naxal-hit districts.
Among the political parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the largest party, winning 227 seats, followed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) with 160 seats.
"We should not have a repeat of what happened in Mumbai. That there was a terror attack and there was no response," Jaishankar told reporters in Mumbai.
'We accept EVMs cannot be hacked because it is not connected, but can they be manipulated?' 'Are you allowing us to check if EVMs can be manipulated?'
Twelve constituencies of Bastar division were among 20 assembly segments in Chhattisgarh that went to the polls in the first phase on November 7. A high voter turnout of 78 per cent was recorded in these 20 seats.
Tral, the former hotbed of terrorism, rocks to the music of democracy.
Elections in a democracy have their own sanctity and their process cannot be stalled, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, after a lawyer alleged that voters of Rampur Sadar assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh were beaten up by the police and forced to confine themselves to their homes during the bypoll held on December 5.
Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha polls will be held on Friday for 88 seats in 13 states with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seeking a second-straight term from Wayanad in Kerala.
In a stunning comeback, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance on Saturday stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance which managed only 24 seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is banking on high turnout in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi
As many as 19.31 lakh applications have been registered so far as part of the ongoing summary revision of electoral rolls in Maharashtra and voters would have the opportunity to enrol themselves until the last date of filing of nomination papers, the Election Commission of India said in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 14 rallies in Madhya Pradesh during campaigning for polls and reached out to young voters by reminding them of the failures of previous Congress governments on various fronts as he doubled down on development of all sections.
Governor La Ganesan and Chief Minister N Biren Singh were among the early voters in their respective constituencies of Sagolband and Heingang.
The report highlights that India's population in 2036 is expected to be more feminine compared to the 2011 population, as reflected in the sex ratio which is projected to increase from 943 in 2011 to 952 by 2036, highlighting a positive trend in gender equality.
Terming Naxals the biggest human rights violators, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said security forces have been carrying out 'offensive operations' instead of defensive against the insurgents and have achieved big successes in recent times.
'PM Modi would have swept the elections in Kashmir after notebandi but then he scrapped Article 370 so all his good work went down the drain.'
Although the Supreme Court has mandated the Centre to conduct the polls by the end of September, a spate of terrorist attacks in J&K could cause delays.
The EC directed the state's Chief Electoral Officer to ensure that wide publicity is given in the polling areas. It also directed the official to inform political parties and contesting candidates about the fresh poll.
Banerjee, who lost from the Nandigram constituency in the assembly elections earlier this year, has to win this by-poll to retain the chief minister's post.
Pezeshkian gained the attention of people for his stance against the crackdown on the 2009 pro-democracy protests and the violence perpetrated by the notorious morality police in 2022 after Mahsa Amini's death.
A record 70 per cent voter turnout was registered at 12 of the 22 booths in Gadchiroli district where re-polling was conducted on Thursday.The overall percentage of voting, however, dipped to approximately 60 per cent due to the low turnout at polling stations in Aheri assembly segment. Armouri assembly reported 74 per cent turnout while Gadchiroli recorded 72 per cent and Aheri 39. However, not a single voter turned up for voting at Bamanpalli polling station.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the 59 seats spread across seven states and one Union territory going to polls in the last and final phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 19, 2019.
With this phase, election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats will be held on May 12 and 19.
With election campaigning by political parties ending in the next two days, the Election Commission has directed all multiplexes and theatres in the city to play its theme song on to motivate the voters ahead of the polls.
Going by Himachal Pradesh's "riwaj", or tradition, it should be the Congress' turn to form the next government.
Many exit polls have kept the incumbent Bharatiya Janata party ahead of the Congress in what was a straight contest between two main parties. Assembly polls were held in the state in a single phase on November 17.
