India's political landscape is ablaze with activity! From the ongoing debates surrounding the new farm bills and their impact on rural India, to the upcoming state elections shaping the national narrative, the stakes couldn't be higher. Key political figures are maneuvering strategically, with alliances shifting and power dynamics constantly in flux. The opposition's challenge to the ruling party is intensifying, sparking vigorous debates on crucial policy matters including economic reforms and social justice initiatives. Parliamentary proceedings are filled with heated exchanges, reflecting the deep divisions within the nation. This evolving political climate directly impacts the lives of every Indian citizen, influencing everything from economic opportunities to social welfare programs. Stay informed about the latest developments in Indian politics, from crucial legislative decisions to grassroots movements, by exploring Abtak.com for in-depth analysis and breaking news updates. Understanding the intricacies of our political system is crucial; stay engaged, stay informed, and stay ahead.
Kolkata: The Election Commission is set to finalise dates for special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in several states, at a meeting with various CEOs including that of Bengal in Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday. Officials indicated that SIR would be launched in Bengal by mid-Nov at the latest. Officials hinted that it could even be the first week of Nov.If launched in mid-Nov, SIR will be completed by mid-Feb next year, since the process requires at least 100 days, said sources. Poll announcement in Bengal is likely to take place by early March, officials hinted."Most BLOs have been appointed. Of 81,000 BLOs in Bengal, around 80,000 have already been trained," an official said. The BLOs are to play a crucial role in SIR as they will hand over prefilled enumeration forms to voters. For new voters, if the names of their parents figured in the 2002 list, inclusion of new names would be easy. However, sources say, many voters with EPICs issued in 1995 and 2002 have been unable to trace their names on the voter list.About the matching of 2002 SIR data with 2025 voter list, officials said it has been completed in only seven districts. The matching was not done in Bihar, and if it takes further time, EC might go ahead with SIR without the mapping, said an officer.SIR will also involve the removal of names of deceased persons, those who have shifted permanently and those who have multiple entries, a source said.According to official sources, SIR is going to be held in three phases. After the around 30-day-long enumeration phase, the EC will publish the draft electoral roll.The second phase will last another month, allowing voters to rectify errors. In the third phase, EROs will verify data from all submitted forms and resolve claims and objections. After the verification process and a week after the third phase is done, final electoral rolls for Bengal are likely to be published, a source said.Officials feel that during Wednesday's meeting, the Bengal CEO is likely to confirm that the state was ready for the SIR.
The Election Commission introduces new rules for voter enrollment. Voters enrolled after 2003-04 must now provide proof of citizenship. This includes a self-attested declaration and supporting documents. The move aims to remove illegal immigrants from the electoral roll. Bihar will be the first state to implement the special intensive revision. Other states will follow soon.In a move to identify and remove illegal immigrants wrongly included in the electoral rolls, the Election Commission has man ...Read More >
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], June 27 (ANI): A female student was allegedly gang-raped inside a law college in Kolkata's Kasba on Wednesday evening. The police have arrested all three accused within 24 hours. The three accused, named as Monojit Mishra (31), Zaib Ahmed (19), and Pramit Mukhopadhyay (20), were former students or staff members of the same law college. Also Read | Student Gang-Raped at South Kolkata Law College: Police Arrest 3 Youths for Sexually Assaulting Young Woman Inside Law College. According to the police, the accused named in the FIR will be produced before the A.C.J. ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: Despite their protests over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of Bihar's electoral roll, the state's opposition parties have already joined the exercise in full strength, deploying over 56,000 booth level agents (BLAs) to monitor every stage of the process.RJD has appointed 47,143 BLAs, making it second only to BJP that has positioned 51,964 BLAs in the field. Congress has appointed 8,586 BLAs, CPI(ML) (Liberation) 233, CPM 76, and BS.BJP allies JDU, Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party have appointed 27,931, 2,457 and 264 BLAs, respectively, taking the total ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], July 5 (ANI): The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar is underway in full swing with the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), BLO Supervisors, all the election officials, BLAs appointed by the political parties and the volunteers working tirelessly at the grassroots level to ensure that no eligible elector is left out, according to a press release by the Election Commission of India's (ECI). As per the release, as of today at 6.00 PM, 1,04,16 545 Enumeration Forms, i.e. 13.19 per cent of the total of 7,89,69,844 (nearly 7.90 crore) electors in Bihar who are enrolled as of Jun ...Read More >
Kochi: Edison Babu's neighbours in Muvattupuzha knew him as the quiet engineer who had returned home during the pandemic. The 35-year-old former auto industry professional seemed to lead an unremarkable life in this sleepy Kerala suburb, occasionally visiting the local post office with packages: nothing unusual for someone running what appeared to be a small online business. What they didn't know was that their mild-mannered neighbour had built India's most sophisticated darknet drug empire, one that relied heavily on the very government postal service that was meant to serve the community. ...Read More >
Patna (Bihar) [India], July 6 (ANI): The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign of the electoral rolls in Bihar is progressing rapidly and recognizing the efforts of the Polling station officials, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar has announced a special incentive of Rs 6,000 for each. This additional honorarium is aimed at acknowledging their hard work and commitment during the intensive revision process. Also Read | PM Narendra Modi, Argentine President Javier Milei Agree to Diversify India-Argentina Trade Basket, Vows to Expand Cooperation in Defence, Security and Mine ...Read More >
Ludhiana, Jun 8 (PTI) Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Sunday asserted that his party will win the Ludhiana West assembly bypoll, scheduled to be held on june 19, with a "record margin". "Congress practically has no competition here", he claimed. Warring, who is also the Ludhiana MP, said that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was badly mistaken that the Congress would allow it to abuse power and misuse the official machinery for the elections. "First of all, we will not let any misuse of the official machinery and second, in case any official is found to be misusing ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday extended the term of the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Ravi Agrawal by one year, an official notification said.The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the re-appointment of Agrawal, an IRS officer of the 1988 batch, as CBDT chairman for one year from July 1 this year to June 30, 2026, on contract basis.Agrawal took over as the CBDT chairman from Nitin Gupta in June 2024 after Gupta's extended tenure ended. Agrawal has been a member of CBDT. He was member administration and had served as DG investigation in Delhi. The gover ...Read More >
Kolkata: A two-member National Commission for Women team on Sunday visited the south Kolkata law college where a student was allegedly gang-raped last week.The team, accompanied by a videographer, was initially denied entry and asked to produce a formal order. After an hour-long discussion at the college entrance, the team, led by Archana Majumdar, was allowed in under two conditions -- no access to the crime scene and no videography permitted.The visit lasted 10 minutes. "We were denied access to the crime scene and other floors. I will include this in my report," said Majumdar, who was the f ...Read More >
Chandigarh: Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Tuesday said the state govt was consistently working to provide better resources to the doctors and quality healthcare services to the citizens.He mentioned that medical colleges were being established in every district.While there were only six medical colleges in 2014, the number has now increased to 15, and nine new colleges are under construction. As a result, MBBS seats in the state increased from 700 in 2014 to 2,185, at present. The state govt aims to increase the MBBS seats to over 3,400 by 2029, said Saini.The CM was addressing a ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], July 4 (ANI): The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise being undertaken in Bihar ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections is progressing smoothly on the ground, with Booth Level Officers (BLOs) completing their first round of visits to nearly 1.5 crore households across the state. According to official data, more than 87 per cent of Enumeration Forms have already been distributed during the door-to-door verification drive, which is being carried out as part of the Election Commission's ongoing efforts to update and verify the electoral rolls. According to the Election ...Read More >
Patna: The Election Commission (EC) said on Saturday that enumeration forms have been distributed among 93.57% of the electors so far.According to a press statement issued by the EC, as of 6pm on Saturday, 1,04,16,545 enumeration forms, which is 13.19% of the total 7,89,69,844 electors in Bihar enrolled till June 24, were received. "The percentage of the forms distributed has also gone up to 93.57%," the EC said, noting that a total of 7,38,89,333 forms had already been distributed.The special intensive review (SIR) is underway in full swing in the state, with booth level officers (BLOs), BLO ...Read More >
Gyanesh Kumar NEW DELHI: With enumeration forms distributed to 93.7% of Bihar's 7.9 crore electorate so far and 13.2% electors already submitting the completed and signed forms, EC officials Saturday told TOI that documents can be added or uploaded by electors whose enumeration forms were submitted with incomplete documentation, right until July 25. July 25 is the last date for submission of the filled-up enumeration forms."As of Saturday 6pm, over one crore enumeration forms (13.2% of Bihar's electors) have been received. The percentage of forms distributed has also gone up to 93.6%, with 7.4 ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: The special intensive revision of electoral roll in Bihar, and eventually rest of India, will not only exclude people added as electors after 2003-04 on grounds of non-submission of documents to prove Indian citizenship, but also migrants who avoid being registered as electors in the constituency where they are ordinarily residents, only to retain their vote in their "native" place and state or where they own a house. "For example, if you ordinarily reside in Delhi but own a house in Patna, your vote should be registered in Delhi," CEC Gyanesh Kumar told TOI.It is a common practice ...Read More >
New Delhi: The Railway's decision to limit the passenger waiting list to 25 per cent of the capacity of each class has been flagged by reservation supervisors, ticket booking clerks and some senior commercial officers as uneconomical for the railways and inconvenient for travellers. The ministry, however, has justified the decision, saying less than one-fourth of the total number of waiting passengers get confirmed berths on an average and the 25 per cent cap has been placed in view of that. "The decision was made after meticulously studying the waiting list confirmation pattern," said Dilip ...Read More >
Digha: A day after Rath Yatra, the festive fervour continues in Digha as the seaside town is now gearing up to host Ulta Rath or the return journey of the deities from the 'Masir Bari' or the old Jagannath temple. On July 5 -- the Ulta Rath day -- hotels are hoping for fresh tourist influx. Though the deities are currently in Masir Bari, a large queue of devotees visited the newly-constructed Jagannath temple on Saturday. They offered prayers to the stone idol permanently installed there. It is the wooden idols of Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra that have taken the chairot rides. Bipradash Cha ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], July 3 (ANI): Noting that the Election Commission 'undermined' the basis of the democratic system in the last six months, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh accused that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the poll body will 'destroy' the country's democracy. Ramesh, who is also Congress' General Secretary in charge of Communications, drew a parallel between the demonetisation in 2016 and SIR by the Election Commission, stating that the PM's 'notebandi' destroyed our economy and the ECI's 'VOTE-Bandi', as reflected in the SIR, will destroy our democracy. In a post on X, Ramesh ...Read More >
Patna: The Congress on Thursday accused the Election Commission of attempting to disenfranchise nearly 20% of voters in Bihar under the garb of the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls. Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar claimed that the EC had made up its mind to deny voting rights to large sections of the population, especially migrant workers who stay outside the state under compulsion but return home during elections to cast their votes."It seems the EC has already made up its mind to deny voting rights to Bihar people," he said, ...Read More >
Upendra Kushwaha, RLM leader and NDA ally, voiced concerns about the ECI's SIR exercise in Bihar, emphasizing the need to ensure no genuine voter is excluded. He suggested the ECI should have started the revision earlier, given the large population and migrant worker base. Kushwaha highlighted fears among migrant voters and those lacking required documents about potential voter list exclusion.Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) leader and NDA ally Upendra Kushwaha on Friday raised concerns regarding the S ...Read More >
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday raised questions over the fresh electoral roll revision guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) ahead of Bihar assembly polls scheduled this year. Expressing apprehensions, Banerjee said that these fresh guidelines might be implemented in Bengal ahead of the assembly polls in 2026. Speaking to ET, Banerjee said that she has apprehensions that these guidelines may be even worse that National Register of Citizens (NRC), if implemented. "How will poor people get documents? Are they doing this to establish the NR ...Read More >
NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Friday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, accusing them of trying to erase the names of poor and marginalised voters from the electoral rolls."The Election Commission has suddenly announced a special intensive revision. This means that the voter list published in February, which had the latest additions and deletions, has now been set aside."He said that the entire list of eight crore Bihari voters has been sidelined, and now a fresh voter list will be created from scratch.He raised doubts over why this ...Read More >
Kargil , Jul 2: Pursuant to putting in place a comprehensive legal framework to ensure fair, inclusive, and transparent recruitment to public services, the Administration of the Union Territory of Ladakh has initiated a large-scale recruitment drive for 359 Gazetted posts through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). This marks the first-ever recruitment of Gazetted posts through UPSC since the formation of the Union Territory, officials said. This follows the establishment of a unique and dedicated legal framework specifically designed for Ladakh. The framework ensures maximum local re ...Read More >
Patna (Bihar) [India], July 4 (ANI): Independent MP from Bihar's Purnia, Pappu Yadav, on Friday accused the Election Commission (EC) of trying to disenfranchise poor, Dalit, and migrant workers through its ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. Speaking to ANI, Yadav alleged that the EC is demanding proof of citizenship dating back to before 1987, documents he claims most Dalits, Adivasis and migrant labourers do not possess. 'Are we not Indians? Are we from Nepal or Bangladesh? You released all the lists six months ago--what's the point now, after 22 years ...Read More >
Mumbai, June 29 (SocialNews.XYZ) It was a belligerent, brilliant, and breathtaking performance from the Chennai Bulls, who were crowned the first ever champions of the Rugby Premier League, here in Mumbai, at the Shahaji Raje Bhosale Sports Complex. The Chennai Bulls thrashed the Delhi Redz by a scoreline of 41-0 in the final, to clinch the title. In fact, the margin of victory is the biggest across Season 1 of the GMR RPL. Meanwhile, the Hyderabad Heroes, who had finished top of the table in the league stage, came away with a third-place finish, after they won 17-12 against the Bengaluru Bra ...Read More >
New Delhi [India], July 5 (ANI): The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar is underway in full swing with the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), BLO Supervisors, all the election officials, BLAs appointed by the political parties and the volunteers working tirelessly at the grassroots level to ensure that no eligible elector is left out, according to a press release by the Election Commission of India's (ECI). As per the release, as of today at 6.00 PM, 1,04,16 545 Enumeration Forms, i.e. 13.19 per cent of the total of 7,89,69,844 (nearly 7.90 crore) electors in Bihar who are enrolled as of Jun ...Read More >
In my Parliament speech on February 3, and in a subsequent press conference, I had expressed my disquiet about the conduct of the November 2024 Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections. I have doubted the fairness of Indian elections, not every time, not everywhere, but often enough. I am not talking of small-scale cheating, but of industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of our national institutions. But if some earlier election outcomes seemed odd, the outcome of the 2024 Maharashtra Vidhan Sa ...Read More >
Digvijaya Singh, a senior Congress leader, has threatened legal action by the INDIA bloc if the Election Commission of India (ECI) doesn't address their concerns regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Singh alleges the NDA government is attempting to disenfranchise marginalized voters ahead of the state elections through this drive.Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Sunday said all constituents of INDIA bloc may knock the door of judiciary against the o ...Read More >
Pune: Passengers on board a Goa to Pune SpiceJet flight (SG-1080) had a scare on Tuesday evening when a window panel was found dislodged while the plane was mid-air.The airline played down the incident, saying the window part that had come off was "a non-structural trim component, fitted onto the window for the purpose of shade".But a person on board the plane -- a Bombardier Q400 -- told TOI the incident triggered anxiety among the passengers. "Two to three layers of the window panel just came off," said Aatish Mishra, the passenger."There was no depressurization, but this shouldn't have happ ...Read More >
Madurai: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday chaired the core committee meeting of Tamil Nadu BJP unit here and said that the people of the state are fed up with the "massive corruption" of the DMK government. The BJP top leader was in the temple city to review the preparedness of the party to face the Tamil Nadu Assembly election next year and devise a strategy to fight polls. "The people of Tamil Nadu are fed up with the massive corruption of the DMK govt. The BJP Karyakartas will reach out to every locality, neighborhood, and home with Modi Ji-led NDA's vision for a prosperous and deve ...Read More >
New Delhi: The second match of the five-match Test series between India and England will be played at Edgbaston in Birmingham. It will start on July 2. In this Test, Shubman Gill has a chance to create history. Actually, the Indian team has not been able to win on this ground so far. Team India played the first match on this ground in 1967. Be it Virat Kohli or Dhoni or Dravid or Sourav Ganguly, no Indian captain has won here in 58 years. However, Gill will have a chance to get his name registered in the history books. If he manages to end the drought of 58 years, he will become the first Indi ...Read More >