India

New Delhi, Apr 8: In a setback to the Aam Aadmi Party, former High Court judge Fakhruddin, who was named the party's candidate in Rae Bareli against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, today withdrew from the fray. AAP sources said that the judge has withdrawn his candidature. However, the reasons for his withdrawal are not yet known. Justice (retd) Fakhruddin has served as judge in Madhya Pradesh

New Delhi, Apr 8: The Election Commission has said that it might cancel the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal if the state government doesn’t comply with its order on transfer of the officials. Banerjee had on Monday had defied EC orders, saying she would “not remove a single officer” and was ready to face the consequences. Mamata’s remarks came hours after the poll panel ordered the transfer of

New Delhi, Apr 8: Over Rs. 195 crore of cash has been seized so far by Election Commission (EC) appointed teams, with Andhra Pradesh topping the list. According to official data prepared till today, the EC-appointed Election Expenditure Observers have so far seized a total of Rs. 118 crore cash in Andhra Pradesh, Rs. 18.31 crore in Tamil Nadu, Rs. 14.40 in Maharashtra, Rs. 10.46 crore in Uttar

New Delhi, Apr 8: The Congress is likely to announce its candidate for Varanasi Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday, amid strong indications that Ajay Rai may get the party nod to take on Narendra Modi. Rai is Congress MLA from Pindra near Varanasi and belongs to Bhumihar community. Former party MP from Varanasi, Rajesh Mishra, is the second name on the second name on what the party circles called the

Agartala/Guwahati, Apr 7: Over 80 per cent of the electorate in Tripura cast their votes for one seat and 72 per cent Assam in five seats as the massive nine phase Lok Sabha elections began peacefully today from the Northeast. Election department sources in both the states said that the percentage might increase after final computation. In Assam, Tezpur recorded 73 per cent voting, Jorhat 75 per

Guwahati, Apr 8: Over 63 per cent of the 64,41,634 voters exercised their franchise till 3:30 p.m. today in five Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam where four persons clashed with CRPF personnel demanding that they be allowed to cast their vote first in Kaliabor constituency. With a large turnout of voters, long queues were seen in front of the 8,588 polling stations one hour before voting began at

Bhopal, Apr 4: BJP vice-president Uma Bharati on Sunday said that while the issue of Ram temple is a matter of faith for the party, the issue of development and backwardness is a major plank in the Lok Sabha elections. "Ram Temple is a matter of faith for us. But development and backwardness is a major issue in these elections," Bharati told reporters at her official residence here before leaving

Sirsa (Haryana), Apr 6: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on opposition BJP over its “double-standard” attitude towards corruption and attempt to “divide the society on communal lines”. Addressing an election rally in Sirsa on Sunday afternoon, Mr. Gandhi, referring to re-induction of tainted former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa into BJP, said

Hyderabad, Apr 6: As per the deal, the saffron party would contest five Lok Sabha and 15 Assembly constituencies in Seemandhra and eight parliamentary and 47 Assembly seats in Telangana A fortnight-long, alliance and seat-sharing exercise came to an end around noon on Sunday with the Telugu Desam conceding to give the Bharatiya Janata Party 47 Assembly and eight Lok Sabha seats in Telangana and 15

Aligarh, Apr 6: Narendra Modi on Sunday attacked Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav accusing them of indulging in vote bank politics and “misleading” Muslims in the name of secularism. He also sought to blame Ms. Gandhi and Mr. Yadav for the communal clashes, saying “700 riots took place right under the nose of Madam Soniaji in the last one year and 250 of them took place