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Polling begins in Delhi for seven LS seats

April 10, 2014

New Delhi, Apr 10: Polling began today for the seven Lok Sabha constituencies in the country's capital where BJP, Congress and newbie AAP are engaged in a three-cornered electoral battle.

The voting began at 7 AM at over 11,500 polling stations out of which 327 have been declared critical and 90 hyper critical.

A total of 1.27 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise which include over 3.37 lakh first-timers. A total of 150 candidates are in the fray.

Polling_begins_in_DelhiThe Congress had won all seven seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

The prominent contenders in the fray include Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Krishna Tirath, Delhi BJP Chief Harsh Vardhan, Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken, journalist-turned-politician Ashutosh, Sandeep Dikshit, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Rajmohan Gandhi, and BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi.

Nearly 50,000 security personnel, apart from 161 flying squads of police and video surveillance teams have been deployed as part of arrangements to ensure fair and peaceful polls.

In a bid to boost voter turnout, a number of 'model' polling stations with spruced-up infrastructure have been set up for the first time.

In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the overall voting percentage stood at 52.3 per cent, which increased to 66 per cent in the 2013 Delhi assembly election.

Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev has said he was hopeful of even a better polling percentage in this election and appealed to Delhi voters to come out and vote.

The entry of Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has changed the dimension of the elections as almost all constituencies are likely to witness a three-cornered fight.

For AAP, the election assumes a greater significance as it will be an acid test for the new party's perceived erosion of support base.

AAP created history in the December 4 assembly polls here, wresting 28 of the 70 seats and formed the government.

Kejriwal had faced severe criticism for quiting from the government after remaining in power for 49 days. Both Congress and BJP had mounted a shrill attack on Kejriwal accusing him of running away from responsibilities.

BJP's campaign was centred around Narendra Modi and the election will determine whether the 'Modi wave' had any impact or not. If the party performs well, then it may press for early assembly polls. The BJP had won 31 seats in the assembly polls but refused to form the government.

After its massive defeat in the assembly polls in December last year, Congress through its campaign tried hard to win back support of the people through rallies and house-to-house contact programme.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Mar 28: A 69-year-old patient, hailing from Chullikal in Ernakulam District, passed away at Kalamasserry Medical College at 8:00am.

The patient had come from Dubai recently and was quarantined.

He arrived in Kerala on March 16 and was tested positive for Coronavirus on March 22, Medical College nodal officer A Fathahudeen said.

He was undergoing treatment for heart ailment and blood pressure. He had earlier undergone a bypass surgery.

Forty nine passengers in the flight he came are under quarantine.

A close relative and the driver who picked him up from the airport are coronavirus positive.

Since the deceased had no contact with any others in the state since his arrival, his route map was not processed.

Kerala reported 39 fresh cases of coronavirus on Friday, taking the total number of people under treatment to 164. The total number of confirmed cases from the state is 176, but, of this, 12 had recovered.

Of the 39 cases, 34 are from the worst affected northernmost district of Kasaragod, two from Kannur and one each from Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kollam.

With a positive case being reported from Kollam, all 14 districts in the state have been affected by the pandemic.

The worst affected Kasaragod has 76 positive cases, the highest and most of the affected are Non Resident Keralites from the Gulf.

A total of 1,10,299 people are under surveillence and 616 are in isolation wards of various hospitals.

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Agencies
July 27,2020

New Delhi, Jul 27: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said he is not going to lie about Chinese transgressions in eastern Ladakh even if it costs him politically, asserting he will say the truth as far as Indian territory is concerned.

Gandhi made these remarks in a tweet, along with an over-a-minute-long video, as part of a series launched by him on the India-China face-off along the Line of Actual Control(LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Asked in the video how he would react to people who say his questions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on China weakened India, the former Congress chief said, "If you want me to lie that the Chinese have not entered this country, I am not going to lie. I will simply not do it. I do not care if my whole career goes to hell. I am not going to lie."

"This disturbs me. Frankly, it makes my blood boil. How can some other nation just come into our territory?"

"Hiding the truth is anti-national. Bringing it to people's attention is patriotic," Gandhi said.

"So frankly, I do not care if it costs me politically. I do not care if I have no political career at all after that. But I am going to say the truth as far as Indian territory is concerned," he added.

Gandhi has been repeatedly attacking the prime minister and the government over Chinese transgressions on the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

"As an Indian, my number one priority is the nation and its people," he said on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has hit back at Gandhi over his attack on the government on the Ladakh face-off, alleging he is seeking to politicise defence and foreign policy matters and "wash their past sins of 1962 and weaken India".

BJP president JP Nadda has also alleged that for years, a dynasty has been trying to destroy Modi, while adding that those who want to destroy the prime minister will only end up causing further damage to their own party.

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News Network
June 20,2020

Bhopal, Jun 20: A senior BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh tested COVID-19 positive hours after he cast his vote for the Rajya Sabha polls in the state and attended party meetings, an official said on Saturday. The legislator's wife has also tested positive for the infection, he said.

Voting for three Rajya Sabha seats in the state took place on Friday.

The couple's test reports came on Friday night and the news of the MLA's infection triggered panic among other MLAs with some of them reaching hospitals to get themselves tested.

"The MLA and his wife were found infected with COVID- 19 in the tests conducted by a private laboratory. We are examining their condition and making a decision whether they need to be hospitalised or home quarantined," a health department official told.

He said that the MLA's contact tracing has been initiated.

"Further tests are also being conducted," he said.

He is the second legislator in Madhya Pradesh, who was tested coronavirus positive.

Earlier, a Congress MLA was found infected. He had voted for the Rajya Sabha polls on Friday after reaching the state assembly complex wearing a PPE suit.

Talking to , a member of the BJP MLA's family said that the medical team was called on Friday afternoon for the COVID-19 test after the legislator's wife complained of uneasiness.

"The MLA and his wife gave the samples to the medical team for the COVID-19 tests on Friday afternoon and they were told at night that both of them have tested positive for the infection," he said.

After the news of BJP MLA testing positive spread, a senior BJP MLA from Mandsaur, Yashpal Singh Sisodiya, reached government-run J P Hospital here along with two other party MLAs.

Talking to reporters, Sisodiya said, "I came here along with two other MLAs from our division- Dilip Makwana (Ratlam Rural) and Devilal Dhakad (Garoth)- after we came to know through media and social media that one of the MLAs from our division has tested positive for COVID-19."

"We don't have any symptoms, but came to test for COVID-19 as a precautionary measure," he said.

Dhakad said that he came for testing as he had dined with the MLA two days back.

Talking to , Madhya Pradesh State Assembly's Principal Secretary A P Singh said that all the precautionary measures were taken during the Rajya Sabha polling.

"All employees were in safety gears during the Rajya Sabha election process. The assembly campus was being sanitised every 15-20 minutes during the polling process...We are now going through the CCTV footage to trace those who had come in his contact," he said.

Congress MLA and former minister P C Sharma said that those who came in contact with the BJP legislator should be traced and quarantined.

"The employees and MLAs who came in contact with him during the voting process should be tested," Sharma said.

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