THE HEADLINES :
- India gears up for second phase of Lok Sabha Elections; Voting to take place for 88 seats in 12 States and a Union territory tomorrow.
- Filing of Nomination for fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls ends this evening.
- Election Commission issues notice to BJP and Congress over violation of model code of conduct, seeks response by 11 AM on 29th April.
- US President Joe Biden signs bill to ban Tiktok.
- Severe heat wave likely to grip East India and Southern Peninsula for next five days, says IMD.
- And In IPL Cricket, Sunrisers Hyderabad to take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in Hyderabad this evening.
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Preparations are in full swing for the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections where voting will be held tomorrow, the 26th of April. Campaigning for this phase ended last evening.
Elections will be held for 88 Lok Sabha seats in 12 States and a Union Territories including the remaining part of the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha constituency. Twenty seats of Kerala, 14 seats of Karnataka, 13 seats of Rajasthan, eight seats each of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, six seats of Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each of West Bengal and Chhattisgarh and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir will go to polls in this phase.
The polling for the Betul (ST) Parliamentary Constituency of Madhya Pradesh which was scheduled in the second phase will now be held in the third phase due to the demise of the BSP Candidate.
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Senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that BJP is a party that runs on the mantra of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. For BJP, nothing is bigger than the country. Addressing the gathering in support of the BJP candidate at the Police Parade Ground in Morena, Madhya Pradesh, Mr Modi said that the government is giving free ration to crores of needy people without any discrimination of caste and religion. He said, the government gave permanent houses to 4 crore poors. These houses have been given to people of every religion without any discrimination. Similarly, drinking water connections were provided to 11 crore houses and no casteism was allowed.
Mr Modi said that the demand of One Rank One Pension was implemented as soon as the government was formed. He added that the soldiers were given free rein. Mr. modi also highlighted the role of Self Help Group.
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Filing of nomination for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls will end today. The nominations will be scrutinized tomorrow and the candidates cleared will be allowed to withdraw their candidature by the 29th of this month. 96 Lok Sabha seats spread over nine States and a Union Territory will go to polls in this phase on the 13th of May.
In this phase, the states where voting will be held include Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Jammu and Kashmir.
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The Election Commission of India has taken cognizance of alleged the model code of conduct violations by BJP and Congress. The ECI has sent letters to BJP President JP Nadda and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to seek response by 11 AM on 29th of this month.
In the letters, ECI has directed that all star campaigners to set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of MCC in letter and spirit. In their complaints, Congress, CPI and CPI(M) had raised objections on the speech made by Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi during his election speech in Baswara, Rajasthan. While, in their complaint, BJP had raised objection on the election speech made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at Kottayam in Kerala.
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Congress today alleged that BJP is misquoting Congress’s manifesto. Senior party leader Jairam Ramesh in a press briefing in New Delhi said, Congress has prepared its manifesto after listening to the voice of the people during ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ and ‘Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra’. He also accused BJP of raising points that are nowhere mentioned in Congress’s manifesto.
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In the series of key Lok Sabha constituencies of the country, let us talk about the Rajgarh Lok Sabha seat of Madhya Pradesh today. More from our correspondent:-
Situated on the ghats of Newaz and Kali Sindh River, Rajgarh lok sabha seat is one of the important seats of Madhya Pradesh. A total of 15 candidates are in the fray in this seat. There are more than 18 lakh 69 thousand voters in Rajgarh parliamentary constituency. The Election Commission has set up 2 thousand 236 polling stations in Rajgarh. Rajgarh includes 8 assembly constituencies in three districts, two of which are held by Congress and the rest by BJP. Rajgarh has been in the hands of persons associated with royal families eight times out of 18 elections held so far for this seat. Congress candidate Digvijay Singh is also a member of the Raghogarh royal family and was elected MP from Rajgarh in 1984 and 1991. But the picture has changed in Rajgarh since 2014. In 2014, BJP’s Rodmal Nagar had won the election by 2 lakh 28 thousand votes, whereas in the 2019 elections, his victory margin has increased to 4 lakh 31 thousand votes. -Sanjeev Sharma, Akashvani News, Bhopal.
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Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar administered oath to the elected Members of Rajya Sabha in the Parliament House today. He administered the oath to Devendra Pratap Singh, Tejveer Singh, and Mahendra Bhatt.
Aam Aadmi Party today held a protest in New Delhi against the arrest of CM Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. The party has been campaigning under the ‘Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se’ slogan and will launch its campaign song today for the Lok Sabha elections.
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US President Joe Biden has signed a 95 billion US dollar package of aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
He also signed a bill that could ban TikTok. China’s ByteDance has been given nine months to remove the tik-tok app from the market or sell the app to a US company. The law was passed in response to worries that TikTok might provide the Chinese authorities access to user data. The US Senate approved the controversial landmark bill yesterday.
TikTok called the law unconstitutional and said, it will challenge the same in court.
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National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has emphasized that India will continue to cooperate in countering misuse of information and communication technologies by terrorists and criminals for resisting terror funding. Mr. Doval said this while participating at the 12th International Meeting of High Ranking Officials Responsible for Security Matters in St Petersburg, Russia.
In his intervention at the plenary session on Ensuring Information Security in the Polycentric World, Mr. Doval underscored India’s policy to use digital technology for inclusive economic development. He called for international cooperation for an open, stable, secure, reliable and inclusive framework for ensuring information security.
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In Telangana, ten persons died in road accidents that took place at separate locations. Four youths died when a bike hit a private bus on Warangal-Khammam highway last night. Police informed that three of them died on the spot while one person passed away during treatment.
In a separate incident that took place early this morning at Durgapuram Stage in Suryapet district, six persons died and four were injured when a car hit a standing truck on the national highway. According to primary information, the truck was kept on the side of the highway due to breakdown.
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India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that heat wave to severe heat wave conditions are likely to continue over East and south Peninsular India during the next five days.
Heat Wave Conditions are likely over Bihar, Jharkhand, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and East Uttar Pradesh. IMD said the maximum temperatures will rise by two to three degrees Celsius over central and East India. Taking to Akashwani IMD Scientist RK Jenamani said that heatwave conditions are likely to prevail over coastal Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal and Bihar.
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Keeping in view the huge demand for more trains from Mumbai to the North during the summer season, Railways have decided to run 28 additional summer special train services between Mumbai and Gorakhpur to clear the extra rush of passengers. As per the information provided by the railways Gorakhpur-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus-Gorakhpur Specials will have 28 trips.
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In IPL Cricket, Delhi Capitals defeated Gujarat Titans by four runs in high scoring thriller at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi lastnight. Chasing the mammoth target, Gujarat finished at 220 for 8 in their 20 overs with the help of Sai Sudarshan’s 65 off 29 and David Miller’s 55 off 23. For Delhi, Rasikh Salam picked up three wickets.
In today’s fixture, Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad at 7:30 pm.
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Deepanshu Sharma won the gold medal in the men’s javelin throw while three other Indian athletes bagged silver on the opening day of the Asian under-20 Athletics Championships in Dubai.
In the men’s javelin throw, Deepanshu clinched the gold medal with a throw of 70.29 meter, while Rohan Yadav claimed silver with a distance of 70.03 meter. In men’s 1500 meter, Priyanshu secured silver medal. Ritik Rathee became the first athlete to win a medal for India at Championships after bagging the silver medal in men’s discus throw with a best throw of 53.01 meter.
A total of 60 Indian athletes as many as 31 men and 29 women are competing at the Championships in Dubai. The Championships is also a qualifying event for the World under-20 Athletics Championships which will be held in Lima, Peru in August this year.
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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN::
- India gears up for second phase of Lok Sabha Elections; Voting to take place for 88 seats in 12 States and a Union territory tomorrow.
- Filling of Nomination for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls ends this evening.
- Election Commission issues notice to BJP and Congress over violation of model code of conduct, seeks response by 11 AM on 29th April.
- US President Joe Biden signs bill to ban Tiktok.
- Severe heat wave likely to grip East India and Southern Peninsula for next five days, says IMD.
- And In IPL Cricket, Sunrisers Hyderabad to take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in Hyderabad this evening.
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