Union Home Minister Amit Shah accuses West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of facilitating illegal immigration from Bangladesh, leading to demographic changes. He promises to end infiltration if BJP wins the upcoming elections.
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.
Left to its machinations, the BJP would have loved to cut Nitish down to size, but it can't afford to do so as the JD-U is in alliance with the BJP at the Centre, and cannot form a government on its own in Bihar. For now, both need each other: Nitish for legitimacy, the BJP for numbers, points out Ramesh Menon.
'...the electoral playing field is tilted significantly in its favour.'
Two teachers-cum-Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Madhya Pradesh died of illness while conducting voter list surveys. Relatives allege heavy workload and pressure to meet targets as the cause. A third BLO is missing.
Election Commission officials defend the intensive revision of Bihar's voters' list as 'inclusive' amid criticism from opposition parties, who claim it will disenfranchise voters. The Supreme Court is set to hear petitions challenging the revision.
State Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal has reiterated that the party would never join hands with "those who indulge in violence".
West Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer reports over 10 lakh SIR enumeration forms identified as 'uncollectable' due to absentee voters, duplicates, deaths, or permanent relocation. The special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is underway with significant BLO involvement.
The first phase of Bihar assembly elections saw a moderate pace of polling across 121 constituencies, with 53.77% voter turnout reported till 3 pm. Sporadic incidents of violence were also reported. Key leaders are in the fray for both the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc.
If women voters are mobilised in big numbers to the voting booths on November 6 and 11 by the Nitish Kumar-led NDA, then it will be quite difficult for the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan to defeat the incumbent government, points out Sheela Bhatt.
A Trinamool Congress delegation on Friday alleged before the Election Commission top brass that around 40 SIR-related deaths had occurred in West Bengal so far, a charge junked by the poll authority.
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.
The window to submit claims and objections to rectify any errors on draft electoral rolls opened on August 1.
Dhurandhar's most dangerous idea is that Director Aditya Dhar envisions an Indian state run by a deep state -- an intelligence machinery not accountable to Parliament, courts, or voters. A future political system where unelected officials decide when Indian democracy is 'fit' to function, observes Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'I don't see how a company like OpenAI can honestly expect to generate revenue significant enough to maintain its spending habits via John and Jane Q. Public,' points out Sree Sreenivasan.
Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list commenced in nine states and three Union territories on Tuesday, amid objections from several parties with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leading the anti-SIR offensive in West Bengal with a rally in Kolkata and alleging 'silent, invisible rigging' through the exercise.
Nitin Nabin's selection is a bold political decision by the Two Gujaratis. When Rahul Gandhi has resurrected the issue of social justice, the BJP and the Two Gujaratis are sticking to their plan and agenda, explains Sheela Bhatt.
Jan Suraaj Spokesperson and one of the key architects of the Party, Pavan Verma, levelled serious allegations that funds from the World Bank meant for some other project were diverted for the Bihar Assembly elections by the central government and distributed to women voters in the state.
The empty cartridges found at Pahalgam and those after test firing by the recovered guns were matched by the forensic lab, Shah said. The ballistic report is with him, he added.
A Delhi court has sought responses from Sonia Gandhi and the police on a plea challenging a magistrate's order refusing a probe into allegations that she was included in electoral rolls before acquiring Indian citizenship.
The Supreme Court has ruled that non-disclosure of a conviction in a nomination form will lead to the disqualification of an elected candidate. The ruling came on an appeal filed by a former councillor who was unseated for failing to disclose her conviction in a case.
Top leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi, including Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar head Sharad Pawar along with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray, will lead the Opposition's November 1 protest march in Mumbai against alleged irregularities in voters' lists.
The stage is set for the crucial first phase of the assembly elections in Bihar on Thursday, as 3.75 crore voters will decide the electoral fate of 1,314 candidates, including top leaders such as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance's (INDIA's) chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Congress will launch a nationwide campaign against the repeal of the United Progressive Alliance-era rural employment legislation Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on January 5, similar to the pushback against the three farm laws which eventually forced the Narendra Modi government to rollback its decision, party president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
A 30-year-old man in West Bengal's Howrah district died allegedly by suicide on Tuesday, as he was reportedly distressed over errors in his identity document amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a police officer said.
Voting is underway for the second and final phase of the Bihar assembly elections across 122 constituencies. Key candidates and political dynamics are in focus as the state decides its next government.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that a 'systematic vote chori' method, evolved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission to 'kill Indian democracy', will be deployed in the Bihar assembly polls as well.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accuses the Election Commission of being complicit in 'vote theft' in Bihar, alleging manipulation of voter lists and preventing people from voting. He claims the EC officials are committing 'treachery against the Constitution'.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order retroactively lowering tariffs on a range of agricultural imports, including beef, tomatoes, coffee and bananas, with the change taking effect from November 20, CNN reported.
The Congress on Friday posted its second worst performance in Bihar's electoral history, managing to win only six of the over 50 seats it contested and losing deposits in most seats as its 'vote chori' pitch failed to make any impact on the ground.
Rahul alleged that 25 lakh votes were stolen in Haryana through 5.21 lakh duplicate voters, 93,174 invalid voters, and 19.26 lakh bulk voters.
The Supreme Court expressed concern over threats to election officials in West Bengal and other states, urging the Election Commission to take action. The court also addressed the lack of cooperation from state governments in electoral roll revisions.
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 likes of Sengottaiyan can help Vijay navigate it better and faster -- but not necessarily to his goal, which is farther, and can move towards or away from him as well in the weeks and months to come, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor believes migrant workers who stayed back after Chhath Puja are influencing the Bihar assembly elections.
The rally is being organised to protest against alleged electoral roll manipulation in the Maharashtra assembly elections, with opposition parties alleging that there were around 96 lakh fake votes which had been added in the 2024 assembly elections.
The Election Commission released a copy of the electoral rolls showing his details, confirming that he was listed at a booth in the Veterinary College in Patna.
The Sindhudurg police on Saturday registered an FIR against Nilesh Rane, an MLA of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, for "trespassing" into a BJP supporter's house. The Shiv Sena leader had 'raided' the BJP supporter's home and claimed to have found bags of cash meant for distribution to voters ahead of civic polls.
In a first, the Bihar assembly polls this time saw no voting day deaths and no re-polling being ordered in any constituency.
The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Centre and others on a plea challenging the validity of a provision of the Income Tax Act that allows political parties to receive "anonymous" cash donations below Rs 2,000.
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