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Another major round of Lok Sabha polls tomorrow

April 23, 2014
jayaNew Delhi, Apr 23: Stakes will be high for Congress and BJP and a number of other parties like AIADMK, DMK, NCP and Shiv Sena when 117 constituencies will go to polls tomorrow in yet another substantial round of polling in the Lok Sabha elections.

Over 18 crore voters in 11 states and union territory of Puducherry will be able to vote in the sixth of the nine- phased elections tomorrow in which there are 2076 candidates.

It will decide whether BJP, which has cobbled a rainbow coalition of six parties, will be able to break the citadels of dravidian parties DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. 39 constituencies in the state and the lone seat in Puducherry will complete voting on a single day.

DMK has 18 seats and AIADMK 8. Congress, whose success in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the last two general elections in alliance with DMK is unlikely to retain any of the eight seats it has.

Among the prominent candidates in the field in Tamil Nadu are former minister Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), former Telecom Minister A Raja (Nilgiris), DMK leader T R Baalu, Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti (Sivaganga), DMK leader Vaiko (Virudunagar) and Union Minister V Narayanasamy (Puducherry).

Another prestige contest tomorrow will be the elections in Maharashtra where polling will be held in 19 seats, including six in Mumbai, all of them held by Congress and its ally NCP.

Important candidates in fray are Union Minister Milind Deora (Mumbai-South), Priya Dutt (Mumbai-North Central), Gurudas Kamath (Mumbai-North West), AAP candidates Medha Patkar (Mumbai North East) and Meera Sanyal (Mumbai-South).

In the battleground states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, polling will be held in 12 seats and 7 seats respectively.

The fourth phase of polling in UP will decide the fate of 187 candidates, including SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri), his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav in Kannauj and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid (Farrukhabad).

Jayant Chaudhary, son of RLD chief Ajit Singh, is locked in a stiff contest with BJP candidate and Bollywood star Hema Malini in Mathura.

In Bihar, BJP's Shahnawaz Hussain, party's lone Muslim face in the outgoing Lok Sabha (Bhagalpur), NCP General Secretary Tariq Anwar (Katihar), former Union Minister and RJD leader Mohd Taslimuddin and former Home Secretary R K Singh (Supual-BJP) are in the fray.

Polling will be held in six constituencies in the second phase of polling in West Bengal where President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit and Mamata Banerjee's bete noire Deepa Dasmunshi are among the candidates.

Abhijit had won the Jangipur seat by a slender margin of 2,536 votes in a 2012 by-election when his father Pranab Mukherjee vacated the seat to become the President of India.

While five of the six seats - Raiganj, Maldaha Uttar, Maldaha Dakshin, Jangipur and Murshidabad - were won by the Congress in 2009 general elections, which it fought in alliance with the TMC in West Bengal, the Balurghat seat was won by the RSP.

Tomorrow's election will also decide fate of Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha) and BJP veteran Sumitra Mahajan, who is eyeing a record eighth consecutive victory in Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

Four constituencies will go to poll tomorrow in the third and last phase of Lok Sabha election in Jharkhand where a total of 72 candidates are in the fray.

Former chief ministers Shibu Soren (JMM) and Babulal Marandi (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantric) are among the prominent candidates contesting from Dumka. Also in the fray from Dumka is BJP's Sunil Soren.

In the third and final phase, six constituencies will go to poll tomorrow in Assam to decide the fate of 74 candidates.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been representing Assam in the Rajya Sabha since 1991, and his wife Gursharan Kaur are scheduled to arrive here tomorrow and cast their votes at Dispur Government Higher Secondary School.

In minority-dominated Dhubri constituency, the contest is expected to be between AIUDF Chief and sitting MP Badruddin Ajmal, Congress candidate Wazed Ali Choudhury and BJP's Debamoy Sanyal.

An interesting battle is on the cards in the Kokrajhar (ST) constituency with six candidates in fray including Assam Tourism minister Chandan Brahma of BPF and sitting BPF MP S K Bwismuthiary who was denied a ticket by the party and is now contesting as an independent bidding to win for the fifth consecutive term.

In Jammu and Kashmir, polling will be held in Anantnag Lok Sabha seat against the backdrop of the killing of four political workers. 12 candidates including NC's Mehboob Beg, sitting MP, and opposition PDP president Mehbooba Mufti are in fray in the constituency in which over 12 lakh voters are eligible to vote.

The fate of 81 contestants including two Union Ministers and a former cricketer will be decided in the second and last phase of Lok Sabha polling in five constituencies in Rajasthan tomorrow.

Former cricketer Mohd Azharuddin, who has shifted from Moradabad in UP, is facing a triangular contest against BJP's Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria, and NPP's Jagmohan Meena (brother of KL Meena).

In Chhattisgarh, polling will be held in the remaining seven of the 11 seats in which among the prominent contenders are Karuna Shukla, niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Congress) and Union Minister Charan Das Mahant (Korba)- lone Congress MP from the state.

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Agencies
August 6,2020

New Delhi, Aug 6 : With a single-day spike of 56,282 new COVID-19 cases and 904 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 tally reached 19,64,537 on Thursday.

With the increase of 904 deaths, the toll due to the disease now stands at 40,699 in the country, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

The COVID-19 count includes 5,95,501 active cases and 13,28,337 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Meanwhile, as per the MoHFW, the percentage of discharged patients stands at 67.62, while the active cases are at 30.31 in the country as of today.

The deaths reported due to the infection are currently at a little above two per cent of the total confirmed cases in the country.

Maharashtra with 1,46,268 active cases and 3,05,521 cured and discharged patients continues to be the worst affected. The state has also reported 16,476 deaths due to the infection.

Tamil Nadu has 54,184 active cases while 2,14,815 patients have been discharged after treatment in the state. 4,461 deaths have been reported due to COVID-19 in the state.

Andhra Pradesh with 80,426 active cases is the third on the list. There are 1,04,354 cured and discharged patients and 1,681 deaths reported from the state.

The national capital's active cases tally once again crossed the 10-thousand mark with 175 new cases being reported. Delhi now has 10,072 active cases and 1,26,116 cured and discharged patients. 4,044 people have lost their lives due to the disease in the Union Territory so far.

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News Network
January 18,2020

New Delhi, Jan 18: The Supreme Court Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking conferment of 'Bharat Ratna' on Mahatma Gandhi saying that people hold the father of the nation in “high esteem”, beyond any formal recognition.

A bench, comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, however asked petitioner Anil Dutta Sharma to give representation to the central government in this regard.

“Mahatma Gandhi is the father of nation and people hold him in high esteem, beyond any formal recognition,” the bench said.

The issue of directing the government to award Bharat Ratna to the father of the nation was not a “justiciable issue”, it said.

The bench however said that it agreed with the sentiments of the petitioner for granting official decoration to Mahatma Gandhi.

Disposing of the petition, the top court said, “We will allow you to give a representation to the Centre in this regard.”

Sharma, in his PIL, had sought a direction to the government to give “official decoration” to Mahatma Gandhi to honour him for the contribution to the nation.

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Agencies
May 31,2020

New Delhi, May 31: The fourth phase of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, which began on May 18, saw 85,974 COVID-19 cases till 8 am on Sunday, which is nearly half of the total cases reported in the country so far.

Lockdown 4.0, which will end on May 31 midnight, has accounted for 47.20 per cent of the total coronavirus infection cases, number crunching from the Union Health Ministry data reveals.

The lockdown, which was first clamped on March 25 and spanned for 21 days, had registered 10,877 cases, while the second phase of the curbs that began on April 15 and stretched for 19 days till May 3, saw 31,094 cases.

The third phase of the lockdown that was in effect for 14 days ending on May 17, recorded 53,636 cases till 8 am of May 18.

The country had registered 512 coronavirus infection cases till March 24.

India is the ninth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic as of now.        

The first case of COVID-19 in India was reported on January 30 from Kerala after a medical student of Wuhan university, who had returned to India, tested  positive for the virus.

India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Sunday, with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,82,143, while the death toll rose to 5,164, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 47.75 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior Health Ministry official said.

With the fourth phase of lockdown ending on Sunday, the Home Ministry on Saturday said 'Unlock-1' will be initiated in the country from June 8 under which the nationwide lockdown will be relaxed to a great extent, including opening of shopping malls, restaurants and religious places, even as strict restrictions will remain in place till June 30 in the country's worst-hit areas.

While announcing the extension of the lockdown in containment zones across the country, the Home Ministry said temples, mosques, churches and other religious places and shopping malls will be allowed to open in a phased manner from June 8, while a decision on opening of schools and colleges will be taken in July in consultation with states.

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