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Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar on Saturday said the parental mapping of 75 per cent of voters with that of the 2003 electoral rolls has been completed in the run-up to the SIR exercise, scheduled to begin on June 20 in the state. The list of all unmapped voters will be displayed at all polling booths from Saturday, he said. All mapped voters would not need to submit any additional documents for the ensuing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. Jharkhand now has 2.64 crore voters. "The parental mapping of 75 per cent voters in Jharkhand with that of the electoral rolls in 2003, when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was last held, has been completed so far. The list of all unmapped voters will be released starting today (May 23) at all polling booths across the state," the CEO said. He appealed to the electors to visit their respective polling centres and check their names in the unmapped voter list, he said. Kumar said people whose names appear in the unma
The Election Commission on Friday announced polls for 24 Rajya Sabha seats on June 18. In a statement, the EC said the elections for the Rajya Sabha seats will be held in 10 states where the incumbents are retiring on different dates beginning June 21 to July 19. The Rajya Sabha elections will be held in four seats each in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka, three seats each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, two seats in Jharkhand and one seat each in Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. The last date for filing nominations is June 8.
Voting began on Thursday morning for the re-election to the Falta assembly seat in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, amid tight security, officials said. More than 2.36 lakh people, including 1.15 lakh women and nine belonging to the third gender, are eligible to cast their votes across 285 booths in this re-election, which commenced at 7 am, they said. The repoll was ordered due to "severe electoral offences and subversion of the democratic process" on April 29, when voting in Falta was held in the second phase of the assembly elections, the officials said. A total of six candidates are in the fray, including TMC's Jahangir Khan, who announced he was withdrawing from the race on Tuesday. Even as Khan announced pulling out from the contest, his name remained on the EVMs as he couldn't officially withdraw his candidature. Among other candidates are Debangshu Panda of the BJP, CPI(M)'s Sambhu Nath Kurmi, and Congress' Abdur Razzak Molla. A total of 35 companies of the Centra
The Election Commission has ordered a probe into the allegations of foreign nationals "deceitfully" voting in the April 23 Tamil Nadu Assembly election, an official said on Saturday. The EC's action follows a report submitted by the police recently after they arrested ten foreign nationals who attempted to board a flight. The airport officials became suspicious when they noticed indelible ink on their index fingers and alerted the police. The Chennai police said ten foreign nationals were arrested in nine cases for allegedly casting votes in the Tamil Nadu 2026 Assembly polls. They were detained at the Chennai and Madurai airports. Police enquiry revealed that these nationals were from Sri Lanka, the UK and Canada. "They had used fraudulent Indian ID documents to cast the votes. The indelible ink was noticed on their fingers when they attempted to fly out," the police official said. The police Central Crime Branch registered cases and is probing, the official said and added that as
The EC will conduct a month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Odisha from May 30, an official said on Friday. The exercise will continue till June 28, while the final electoral rolls after the revision will be published on September 6, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha R S Gopalan said. He said training of booth-level officers (BLOs) and booth-level agents (BLAs) will be conducted between May 20 and 29, following which BLOs will undertake door-to-door verification from May 30 to June 28. He informed that rationalisation of the polling stations will also be completed by June 28. The draft electoral rolls will be published on July 5, and claims and objections can be filed till August 4. After disposal of the objections, the final electoral rolls will be published on September 6, he said. Currently, Odisha has 38,123 polling booths, and the number will increase to 45,255 after completion of the exercise, the CEO said. As part of the revision process,
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Delhi's electoral rolls will begin from June 30, officials said Thursday, adding preparations for the exercise covering over 1.5 crore voters have been completed. The Election Commission earlier in the day announced the rollout of SIR in 16 states and three Union territories, including Delhi, in a phased manner beginning May 30. "We have already finished preparations for SIR in Delhi, including training. Further, refresher training will be imparted to the personnel, including the booth level officials (BLOs) for the exercise beginning June 20," said an official of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office. The final electoral roll of Delhi, following the completion of SIR, will be published on October 7. Over 13,000 BLOs will take part in the door-to-door verification exercise under SIR, he added. An awareness campaign will be launched from Monday to educate voters about verifying and matching their names with the 2002 voter list. The
West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal on Wednesday met Governor RN Ravi at Lok Bhavan to complete the statutory formalities of handing over the gazette notification containing the names of elected members of the new Assembly following the recently concluded state polls. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Agarwal said the Election Commission's role in the Assembly elections is over except for the completion of the pending poll process in Falta constituency. "I had come to complete the statutory work to submit the gazetted notification, which is done after any election. The list of elected MLAs has been handed over," the CEO said. "Now, constituting the Assembly is the work of Lok Bhavan. The EC role has ended except for completing the Falta poll," he added. The handing over of the gazette notification is a mandatory constitutional norm after the declaration of results, paving the way for the Governor to initiate the process for the constitution of the n
Incidents of arson and vandalism at offices of the Trinamool Congress were reported across West Bengal on Monday as BJP workers celebrated their landslide victory in the state. Police said TMC offices in Kolkata's Tollygunge and Kasba, in Baruipur, Kamarhati, Baranagar in the suburbs, and in Howrah and Baharampur in the districts were vandalised by mobs since Monday afternoon. An Election Commission official said strict action will be taken against those involved in the rampage and assault, and reports have been sought from the local police to initiate follow-up action. BJP Leader Rahul Sinha, however, rejected the charge that any of his party's workers were involved in vandalism, saying it might be the handiwork of rival factions within the TMC, who were letting out their frustration at party leaders following the election results. At the Bijoygarh-Netajjnagar area in Tollygunge, the election office of TMC candidate and former minister Aroop Biswas was seen vandalised by a mob. So
West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal said no rallies celebrating the victory of candidates will be allowed in the state on Monday as the counting of votes for 293 assembly seats was underway. He said the counting is going fine and no violence has been reported in the state. "We have directed all DMs not to allow any victory rallies today. These victory processions will be allowed from tomorrow. We don't want any post-poll violence and appeal to everyone to stay calm and maintain peace," the CEO said. Political parties need to take permission from local police stations to bring out victory rallies, he said. "There has been no incident of violence. Any poll-related death was reported from anywhere in Bengal," Agarwal said. The poll panel was looking into complaints that agents of different parties were unable to reach the counting centres, special observer Subrata Gupta told reporters earlier in the day.
The Supreme Court on Saturday said no further order was necessary on the TMC's plea challenging the Calcutta High Court's dismissal of its petition against an Election Commission circular on the deployment of central government personnel for vote counting in West Bengal. A special bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi said the Election Commission (EC) can choose counting personnel and its April 13 circular cannot be said to be incorrect. The poll body said the circular is very clear that there will be a mix of central and state government employees and the apprehension of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of any wrongdoing is misplaced. The EC assured the court that the circular would be implemented in letter and spirit. At the outset, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the TMC, said the circular was dated April 13, but they came to know about it on April 29. The bench, which held a special sitting, said that the EC can choose counting personnel from only one pool
The TMC on Saturday said it has filed a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging unauthorised sorting of postal ballot covers at an EVM strongroom in Kolkata. TMC workers, who have been camping outside the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, alleged that eight trunks of postal ballots were brought in at 4 am and were taken to a room, which has no CCTV coverage. "We have been demanding that every single millimetre of space where EVMs and postal ballots be under CCTV surveillance. But as these trunks were taken inside, it was clear that they were taken to a room not under CCTV cover. Why should this happen," a TMC member asked. Voting machines from several assembly segments of northern and eastern Kolkata are stored at the strongroom at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra. As TMC activists were demonstrating, BJP's Shyampukur candidate Purnima Chakraborty reached the spot with her supporters, escalating tensions. Both sides started shouting slogans as police stood between them, attempting to b
Voting began on Saturday at 15 booths in two assembly constituencies in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, where the Election Commission ordered repolls a day ago, following reports of electoral malpractices, an official said. The repolls were ordered in 11 polling stations of Magrahat Paschim assembly constituency and four in Diamond Harbour. Voting began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm, the official said. Polling in these two assembly constituencies was held in the second phase of the state elections on April 29. The repoll order was based on reports received from returning officers and observers of the two constituencies and "material circumstances", the Election Commission official said. The BJP had alleged rampant electoral malpractices in certain polling stations of both the assembly seats under the Dimanod Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, which is represented by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. The EC had deputed its special observer, Subrata Gup
The Election Commission on Friday ordered repolling on May 2 in 15 polling stations in West Bengal, where voting was held on April 29 in the second phase of the assembly elections. In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer of Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) said the repolling has been ordered based on inputs received from the state poll machinery and voting will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. While 11 polling stations are in the Magarhat Paschim assembly constituency, four are in Diamond Harbour. A report about complaints relating to the Falta constituency is awaited. A large number of complaints was received from the constituency. This is the first time that repolling has been ordered in the present set of assembly polls in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. No repolling was recommended in the first phase of the West Bengal polls held on April 23.
West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on Friday asserted there is no scope for wrongdoing at the counting centres, stating that round-the-clock CCTV monitoring of strong rooms was in place. TMC spokesperson and Beleghata constituency candidate Kunal Ghosh said that party workers and poll aspirants were keeping a vigil at the counting centres, where the EVMs are stored in strong rooms, as per the direction of party supremo Mamata Banerjee. "There is no scope for any wrongdoing given the arrangements made," CEO Manoj Agarwal told reporters. Stating that round-the-clock CCTV monitoring of the strong rooms is underway, he said people can watch the monitors from outside. "One should have reason and evidence for making allegations," he said, maintaining that the complaints are baseless. A senior police officer said enhanced security arrangements have been made at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra, the counting centre for several assembly seats in north and east Kolkata housing