The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced that it will set up mobile phone deposit counters at polling stations to ensure that voters do not have to carry their phones inside the polling booth. This decision was taken after it was observed that several voters were concealing their phones in their clothes due to the absence of a facility to deposit it. The ECI has also rationalized the permissible norms for canvassing in line with the electoral laws to 100 meters from the entrance of the polling station.
The IMD has warned of heatwave to severe heatwave conditions in parts of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh during the next five days.
First-time MLA Rekha Gupta will be the new chief minister of Delhi, capping 11 days of suspense over who will get the top post after the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power after over 26 years ending the 10-year rule of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party.
Is the unusually and unbearably scorching Sun and the general laxity, bordering on laziness, among voters, responsible, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lost his temper and made a gesture by raising his hand at a police officer during a protest rally in Belagavi. The incident occurred when a group of people, allegedly BJP workers, attempted to disrupt his speech by displaying a black flag and shouting slogans. Siddaramaiah, visibly upset, summoned the police officer to the stage and instructed him to remove the disruptive individuals. The incident sparked a heated exchange between the CM and BJP leaders, with both sides accusing each other of disrupting rallies and resorting to violence.
Wearing white caps with a red cross on the words 'SIR' and "vote chori", the protesting MPs started their march from Parliament's Makar Dwar raising slogans against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar and "vote chori" while carrying placards and banners.
A fierce competition among parties to offer freebies and guarantees, a scramble for tribal, OBC, women votes and a touch of Hindutva -- all have combined to make the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls a high-stakes battle with main rivals BJP and the Congress pulling out all the stops to gain power.
While the major fronts, the CPI-M led LDF and Congress-led UDF have given three and one seat respectively to women, the BJP-led NDA has set aside five seats for their female politicians in the upcoming LS polls.
The male-female turnout gap was wide in Bihar and Jharkhand. While in Bihar, the male turnout was 52.42 percent, the female turnout was 61.58 percent.
Telangana has 3,17,17,389 voters: 1,58,71,493 male voters; 1,58,43,339 female voters; 2,557 third gender voters.
Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief Vijay launched his state-wide campaign in Tiruchirappalli, encountering an audio glitch. He criticized both the central government and the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, stating his intention to serve the people, not to amass wealth.
Chouhan, who stepped down as CM earlier this week, was also seen getting emotional and in tears as women encircled him and raised slogans in his praise while he was on his way to a famous Hanuman temple in Vidisha, around 55 km from Bhopal, on Thursday.
Just 10 days ahead of the Election Day, the United States presidential race remained very tight with both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a dead heat for the popular votes in most swing states.
According to the report, there are 16 sitting MPs and MLAs who have declared cases related to rape under Indian Penal Code Section 376, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years and can be extend to life imprisonment.
Dahi Handi celebrations in Mumbai were marked by fervor, injuries, and political campaigning ahead of local elections. One participant died, and several others were injured during the event.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded candidates in all 200 constituencies while the Congress has fielded 199 candidates.
The Election Commission of India has set up more than 200 polling stations within housing societies in the urban areas of Uttar Pradesh to increase the voter turnout in the politically crucial state.
'The long term strategy is that this government wants to create a second class citizen list.'
'Money power was deployed like an army in a war.' 'None of the MVA parties had that kind of money.'
There are 218,442 voters over 100 years on the electoral rolls.
This was the first general election in the valley after the abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the EC said in a statement.
'BJP's last resort to win the election is to divide people into caste, religion, creed. but it doesn't happen in Maharashtra.'
For people with disabilities, a mobile application called 'Saksham' has been introduced, which they can login to and choose the option to vote.
It also said over two crore young electors in age group of 18 to 29 years have been added in the voters' list.
62 per cent of respondents across various demographics, including villages, towns, and cities, perceived a greater difficulty in securing employment compared to the previous five years, shows pre-poll survey by Centre for Study of Developing Societies.
100 of the 1,198 candidates are women.
Despite the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance throwing all its weight to snatch Jharkhand from the hands of a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-headed coalition, the saffron camp suffered a debacle leaving the party's rank and file wondering what had gone wrong.
Shinde said the Opposition has described the Mukhya Mantri Ladki Bahin Yojana as "deceptive and a false assurance", but the scheme has received an overwhelming response from women.
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.
Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the proposed scheme would be a game-changer as it will provide comprehensive health coverage to families, covering medical expenses for critical illnesses, hospitalisations, and treatments.
Kumar was apprehended with the help of sketches and CCTV camera footage, senior superintendent of police Anurag Arya said.
As leaders in both the BJP and Congress concede, neither has within their parties a leader to match Arvind Kejriwal's charisma in Delhi.
However, scores of displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu were unable to vote on Monday due to their names missing from the electoral rolls.
The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday increased the polling time for the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana by an hour in view of heatwave conditions prevailing in the state.
Dominic Xavier wonders whether Bihari women will remember what Nitish Kumar has done for them or whether electorate amnesia will set in.
INDIA bloc parties are set to raise issues such as the Pahalgam attack, US President Trump's claims of brokering a ceasefire, and concerns over electoral roll revisions in Bihar during the Parliament's Monsoon session.
The ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra is heavily banking upon a six to 10 per cent shift in voters -- mostly women -- in its favour to return to power with anywhere between 160 and 170 assembly seats, say four MLAs belonging to Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.
In doing so, it further cemented the community's determination to support the opposition. But at the same time, it consolidated its Hindu vote bank like never before.
'When our daughters, wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Vignesh Phogat, were protesting at the Jantar Mantar, the police kicked them with their shoes.'
The record voter turnout in Rajasthan has forced politicians and psephologists to junk their pre-poll calculations. Now, all eyes are on the December 8 counting, says P B Chandra
