Six states and two UTs vote in fifth phase Bihar: 5 seats Jammu and Kashmir: 1 seat Jharkhand: 3 seats Ladakh: 1 seat Maharashtra: 13 seats Odisha: 5 seats Uttar Pradesh: 14 seats West Bengal: 7 seats The fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections takes place today, with 49 constituencies from six states and two union territories voting, including India's financial capital Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow. Over 8.95 crore people, including 4.26 crore females and 5,409 third-gender electors, ar

LUCKNOW: Taking cognizance of an incident related to alleged fake voting flagged by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, a formal first information report (FIR) was lodged in Farrukhabad on Sunday. A video of the incident had gone viral on social media. In the video, a youth is seen casting his vote eight times by pressing a button in front of BJP candidate Mukesh Rajput's photo on the ballot unit at different time intervals with different government identification cards. The video shows that t

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday claimed the BJP is rattled since the INDIA bloc would come to power at the Centre after Lok Sabha polls and the AAP, a constituent of the alliance, would ensure full statehood for the national capital. Addressing a street meeting in Kalkaji in support of the party's South Delhi Lok Sabha candidate Sahi Ram Pahalwan, he said, The BJP is rattled by the fact that it will suffer defeat when Lok Sabha poll results are declared on June 4. (PM N

NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday wrote to the Election Commission alleging poll code violations by BJP leaders, and claimed more and more leaders of the saffron party are now esorting to inciting hatred using anti-Muslim tropes. Yechury, in a post on X, shared a copy of his complaint to the EC, and said the poll panel must act immediately. The ECI must act immediately. ECI cannot consciously remain silent which is tantamount to the betray

HAMIRPUR: The nation will be doomed and become a colony of foreign forces if the Congress-led INDIA bloc is allowed to rule, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said on Sunday. He addressed several election meetings in the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency. The nation will be doomed and become a colony of foreign forces who are busy destabilising the integrity and unity of India if Congress-led INDIA bloc is allowed to rule, he said. He gave a clarion call to the people to join hands with the BJP, re

PRAYAGRAJ/JAUNPUR: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) belongs to India and we will take it back. Addressing rallies in Prayagraj and Jaunpur districts of Uttar Pradesh to seek votes for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates, he also said we need a strong prime minister who can give a befitting reply to Pakistan. Accusing the Congress of preserving Article 370 of the Constitution for 70 years, Shah hit out at the president of the party, Malli

AYODHYA: As Ayodhya gears up to vote for the first time after the Ram temple consecration, Muslim voters in the pilgrim town say mandir-masjid (temple-mosque) is not an issue for them and employment and development are their primary concerns. Some, including Iqbal Ansari, who was a litigant in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, give the BJP due credit for the development of Ayodhya while others feel much needs to be done to ensure that the gains percolate to all parts of the temple town. Whe

LUCKNOW: Voting for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh , which will decide the fate of five Union ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, will be held on Monday. The seats going to polls in the fifth phase are Mohanlalganj (SC), Rae Bareli, Amethi, Jalaun (SC), Jhansi, Hamirpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Kaisarganj and Gonda. Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow) and Minister for Women and Chi

KOLKATA: A day after he snubbed West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for questioning TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's loyalty to the INDIA bloc, several posters and hoardings of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge were defaced with ink in front of the party's state headquarters here on Sunday. Unidentified persons also wrote 'agent of Trinamool Congress' on Kharge's posters and hoardings. Sources in the Congress said that Chowdhury, who is in his hometown Baharampur, expressed disple

JAIPUR: Former chief minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot on Sunday attacked the BJP government in the state over a public notice of auctioning farmers' land for not repaying loans in Hanumangarh district. Gehlot demanded that the chief minister should immediately halt the auction and relieve the farmers. In a post on X, Gehlot shared a photo of the notice published in a newspaper and said, These advertisements published in the newspapers of Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan to auction the land of

GWALIOR: A female cheetah strayed out of the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur district and reached the neighbouring Gwalior on Sunday, an official said. The KNP management has stepped up vigil, and the local forest department has alerted farmers in villages along the forest of Gwalior and Morena district, the official said. Female cheetah Veera has also hunted a goat in a village in Gwalior district, he said. Veera ventured out of KNP and has reached the forests of Gwalior an

MENDHAR/JAMMU: Three National Conference (NC) workers were injured when unidentified persons attacked them with knives at an election rally in Mendhar in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Sunday, officials said. NC president Farooq Abdullah was present at the rally organised by the party in support of its Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat candidate Mian Altaf in Mendhar. The rally continued without any disruption. Officials said there was a clash between two groups over some issue during the

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were forced to leave a public meeting venue hastily following a stampede-like situation. The incident was reported at Padila in Phulpur parliamentary constituency, Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. According to reports, the supporters who have gathered for the rally went berserk creating a stampede-like situation. #WATCH | Uttar Pradesh: A stampede-like situation took place in the joint public meeting of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and

PM Modi pans Mamata for her remarks against RKM, Bharat Sevashram Sangha

Bifurcation blues: 10 years later, several issues remain unresolved between AP, T'gana

Delhi Police team at Kejriwal residence, seizes CCTV digital video recorder

Phase five LS polls: EC asks city dwellers to turnout in higher numbers

DEHRADUN: Amdist the surge of devotees for the Char Dham Yatra over the past 48 hours leading to disruptions among several other concerns including the safety of the pilgrims, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has personally intervened. Dhami emphasized that it is our collective responsibility to guarantee that every pilgrim entering the state in the hope of visiting the pilgrimage sites can access the revered shrine. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, reviewing the arrangements fo

BENGALURU: An Air Indian Express IX 1132 from Bengaluru to Kochi had a miraculous escape after one of its engines caught fire. All 179 passengers including six crew members and two infants on board were evacuated safely. The flight which took off from Terminal 2 of from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at 10.49 pm returned to Bengaluru shortly and had an emergency landing on the South Runway at 11.12 pm. According to a spokesperson of airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limit

BUDGAM: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has said people are identifying themselves with his party's campaign as it is talking about factors important to them: the sense of etrayal since August 5, 2019 and their issues remaining unaddressed in the absence of a popular government since 2018. Abdullah, who is contesting from the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, accuses the BJP and agencies of riding multiple horses in this race to see which one can ultimately damage the National Conference. Over

SC to hear PIL against three new criminal laws on Monday

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Sunday announced the onset of Southwest monsoon, the lifeline of India's farm-based economy, over the Nicobar islands and South Andaman sea. The southwest monsoon season commences in June and lasts till September. The IMD announced the advance of Southwest Monsoon into some parts of Maldives & Comorin area and some parts of South Bay of Bengal, Nicobar Islands and South Andaman Sea. According to the IMD, the strength of Westerly winds in the lower tro

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court allowed five-day custodial interrogation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar in the Swati Maliwal assault case, sing the police remand was a ecessity in the matter. Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal was hearing the application of Delhi Police which was represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava. The police had sought seven day custody. It is alleged that Kumar, who is Kejriwal's personal assistant, assaulted AAP MP Swati Maliwal at

ASHOK NAGAR: An elderly Dalit couple has been allegedly beaten up and made to wear garlands of shoes in Madhya Pradesh's Ashok Nagar district, police said on Sunday. The couple's son had allegedly been involved in an eve-teasing incident, they said. A case has been registered against 10 persons who were at large in connection with the incident of thrashing the couple which took place on Friday in Kilora village under Mungaoli police station limits, an official said. The couple's son had been all

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday claimed the BJP has launched a campaign, Operation Jhaadu to crush the Aam Aadmi Party as the saffron party sees the AAP as a challenge. Addressing party workers and leaders ahead of the AAP's proposed protest march to the BJP headquarters here , he said there will be bigger challenges ahead and asked the cadre to be prepared to face them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is worried about the rise of the AAP. The party has risen too fast. The

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday claimed that the Modi government's Forest Conservation Amendment Act had undid the progress of the historic Forest Rights Act of 2006 and accused the BJP of diluting tribal rights. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his rally in Jharkhand's Jamshedpur. Why do the people of Jamshedpur still suffer from poor connectivity? Why is it that the 2As and their tempo-loads of black money roam free, while Jhar

NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal on Sunday said that she wouldn't have to get embroiled in the current controversy had former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia been there. I wish they [AAP] had used this much force for Manish Sisodia ji. If he had been here, maybe this bad thing wouldn't have happened to me!, Maliwal conveyed through X. , 12 CCTV Phone format ? ! pic.twitter.com/kXAAMLgPcg Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) May 19, 2024 The parliamen

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday issued a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, as he plans to march towards the BJP's headquarters in the capital on Sunday, daring them to send anyone you want to jail. This escalation in tensions between the two parties follows the arrest of Bibhav Kumar on Saturday in connection with the alleged assault on AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal at the Chief Ministers residence. Meanwhile, t

IMPHAL: One person was killed and two others were injured after unidentified assailants shot them at Naoremthong area in Manipur's Imphal West district, police said. The incident took place around 8 pm on Saturday outside their rented accommodation, a police officer said. The deceased has been identified as Shree Ram Hangsada (41) from Jharkhand, he said. The injured are undergoing treatment at RIMS Hospital in Imphal. Police have registered a case and started an investigation to ascertain the r

BARGARH: With the Bargarh Parliamentary constituency going to polls in next 48 hours, candidates from various political parties left no stone unturned to woo voters before campaigning came to a close on Saturday. A charged yet chaotic atmosphere prevailed in the district as parties were seen making last ditch efforts to win the election scheduled on May 20. To avoid last-minute confusion, Congress had organised a well-coordinated rally on Friday evening aimed at leaving a lasting impression on t

SAMBALPUR: Home voting process for elections in Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency is underway in full swing with over 701 votes collected so far from PwD and senior citizens aged 85 years and above. The district is set to go for polls on May 25. Sub-collector-cum-returning officer of Sambalpur, Puspanjali Panda said the first phase of home voting was held from May 13 to 16 and the second phase from May 17 to 18. Until now, home voting is over in Sambalpur and Rengali Assembly constituencies. The

ROURKELA: Union Minister for Railways, IT, and Telecommunications, Ashwini Vaishnaw, returned to Bonai in Sundargarh district on Saturday, nearly three decades after serving as the sub-collector.He struck a personal chord with the local population while campaigning for the BJP. Speaking at a well-attended Vijay Sankalp Samavesh at the Babu Nuagaon playground, Vaishnaw expressed his nostalgia and deep emotional connection with the people of Bonai. He recalled his time as Bonai sub-collector in 19

BALASORE: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan lambasted the BJD government for its alleged neglect and demolition of religious sites in Odisha during a BJP workers meet here on Saturday. Pradhan, also the BJPs Lok Sabha candidate from Sambalpur, claimed that monks in the state have lost faith in the BJD due to its monopolistic practices over the past 25 years, which have purportedly led to the destruction of mathas and temples in Puri and other areas. He accused the BJD of distributing benefits of

PURI: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) intensified its campaign for the Puri Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday, with star campaigner VK Pandian addressing multiple public meetings to garner support for its Lok Sabha candidate, Arup Patnaik and Assembly nominee Umakant Samantaray. Pandian spoke at Krushna Prasad and Kerandia in the Brahmagiri Assembly segment, as well as Pipili, Chilika, and Ranpur. At Kerandia, Pandian criticised the Opposition parties for their alleged false promises and highlighted

Former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh and leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur believes that the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government in the state will survive only till parliamentary polls. It is very difficult for them to survive given the situation they (Congress) are in, he told Harpreet Bajwa in an interview. Excerpts: In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won all 4 seats in Himachal Pradesh but in the by-election, it lost the Mandi seat. How do you see the party perform

RAIPUR: The BJP has reached out to former Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh to campaign against its arch-rival candidate Kumari Selja at Sirsa Lok Sabha constituency in Haryana. Interestingly, most of these ex-Congress leaders have worked with former union minister Selja when she was the party in-charge in Chhattisgarh and now will campaign against her. The saffron party has roped-in at least a dozen leaders who deserted Congress and joined the BJP after the Assembly poll debacle in December last

NEW DELHI: As the campaign for the phase five of the Lok Sabha elections ended on Saturday evening, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made her final pitch for Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma who is locked in a fierce battle against Union minister and BJPs incumbent MP Smriti Irani. With elections two days away, enthusiasm among the Congress workers was palpable as the cavalcade of the Congress general secretary reached Amethi to hold a roadshow along with Sharma. Priyanka has been camp

LUCKNOW: Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a 2-km road show in Amethi on Saturday as the Lok Sabha constituency, known to be the bastion of Gandhi family, has turned out to be a battle of prestige for the BJP and the Congress. Addressing the crowd in the roadshow, Shah refuted the Congress claim that Amethi and Rae Bareli were their family seats. In a democracy it is the people, not a family, who send the candidate to Parliament, he said questioning if any of the Gandhi family members turned up

KOLKATA: The ruling Trinamool Congress is contesting all seats except one on a stronger wicket since it won the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 with a comfortable margin. Barrackpore is an exception because BJPs Arjun Singh won the seat in 2019, but he switched to the TMC in 2022, but was back in the saffron fold before the 2024 polls. Seven parliamentary seats are up for grabs in the May 20 elections. They are Bangaon, Barrackpur, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampur, Hooghly, Arambagh. In Bangaon, the bat

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat BJP has launched a campaign to attract voters from Uttar Pradesh. Thousands of migrant workers living in Surat are calling up their relatives in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, urging them to vote for the BJP. During these conversations, they highlight the Gujarat model of development. As an incentive, participants will have the opportunity to meet state BJP chief CR Patil for lunch or dinner. The innovative campaign strategy is credited to Patil. During the campai

MUMBAI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and other INDIA bloc leaders on Saturday called upon the Election Commission to take action after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders repeated claims that the opposition would run bulldozer over Ram temple if voted to power. Speaking at a press conference in Mumbai, Kharge, NCP-SP leader Sharad Pawar and former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray responded to questions on Modis charge that the INDIA bloc will bulldoze the Ram temple, dilut

RANCHI: Whether Chatra Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand will get a local parliamentarian for the first time is a major poll buzz in the constituency as all MPs elected from here since 1957 were outsiders. Sensing the long-standing demand of the locals, the BJP for the first time has fielded a local candidate, Kalicharan Singh, from the seat. The Congress has given ticket to senior leader and former Daltonganj legislator KN Triparthi, an outsider. In the 2019 general elections, despite anti-outsider s

CHANDIGARH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped up his attack on the Congress, saying it was his dhakad (strong) government that brought down the wall of Article 370 in Kashmir which is now moving ahead on the path of development. He emphasized the the progress made by his government and praised Haryanas spirit: Haryana means himmat (courage) and hausla (high morale). Like Haryana, Modi has run the government for 10 years in a dhaakad manner, he said. Addressing his first election rally in the

NEW DELHI: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday claimed that India is currently at a dangerous crossroads and the fight in this Lok Sabha election is to save the nations democracy and constitution. The senior AAP leader alleged that the BJP leaders are blinded by power. They dont realize this country is not anyones personal property. It belongs to 140 crore people. Our freedom fighters sacrificed their lives for the sake of this country, he said. Campaigning for AAP candidate in Harya

NEW DELHI: A day after he was attacked outside the AAP office in New Usmanpur, Kanhaiya Kumar, the Congress candidate for the North East Delhi Lok Sabha seat accused the constituencys sitting MP Manoj Tiwari of being behind the attack on him. During a press conference on Saturday, Kumar said that Tiwari orchestrated the attack out of fear of losing the support of the constituencys residents. He alleged that Tiwari was spreading false rumours and circulating manipulated videos to undermine his ca

NEW DELHI: East Delhi is among the countrys larger and more populated Lok Sabha constituencies, comprising parts of the national capital on either side of the Yamuna. The constituency is home to people from different walks of life, students, aspirants, employed, displaced, migrated, slum dwellers and those in unauthorised settlements. There is a large concentrations of residents in areas like Seelampur, Shahdara, Gandhi Nagar, Preet Vihar, among others. Okhla, with pockets of residential complex

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday claimed the entire country is seething in anger against the BJP and will end its dictatorial rule on June 4, the counting day of the Lok Sabha polls. Addressing a street meeting in West Delhis Najafgarh area, he claimed the BJP would soon arrest AAP leaders such as Raghav Chaddha, Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj to crush the opposition. The AAP national convener made the comments on the day his aide Bibhav Kumar was arrested in connection

NEW DELHI: The latest exercise of home voting by the Delhi poll body for the Lok Sabha elections has generated an interest, with many political stalwarts opting to cast their votes from the comfort of home. Former Vice President Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Union Ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Lal Krishna Advani have availed this facility and casted their votes from their residences in the New Delhi constituency. The exercise, which started from Thursday, has

CHANDIGARH: At least nine people, including six women, were burnt alive and more than 15 injured when a moving bus carrying devotees from Punjab caught fire near Tauru in Haryanas Nuh district early on Saturday, police said. The incident occurred on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway around 2 am when around 60 people, all residents of Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana, were returning in the bus after visiting pilgrim towns of Ujjan and Mathura-Vrindavan, police said. Nine people, including six wom