THE HEADLINES:
- Voting underway for seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections; Over 40 percent polling recorded till 1 PM.
- Polling also taking place for 42 assembly seats in Odisha.
- Counting of votes for assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim to be taken up tomorrow.
- Oil marketing companies slash prices of commercial LPG cylinders by 69 rupees 50 paise per unit; Jet fuel price reduced by 6.5 percent.
- And, Pakistan government admits before Islamabad High Court that PoK is a foreign territory and not under its jurisdiction.
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Voting is underway for the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections. In this phase polling is being held in 57 Parliamentary Constituencies spread over seven States and one Union Territory. These include 13 seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, nine in West Bengal, eight in Bihar, six in Odisha, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and one Parliamentary Constituency in Chandigarh. The voting began at 7 this morning and will conclude at 6 in the evening.
Over 40 percent voter turn out was recorded till 1 PM.
Statewise polling percentage is:
- Himachal Pradesh, nearly 49 per cent
- Jharkhand, nearly 47 per cent
- West Bengal over 45 per cent
- Chandigarh, over 40 per cent
- Uttar Pradesh over 39 per cent
- Punjab and Odisha, nearly 38 per cent
- Bihar, nearly 36 per cent
A total of 904 candidates are in the fray in this phase. Prominent among them are: Prime Minister and Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi, party leaders Anurag Thakur, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kangana Ranaut, Congress leader Manish Tiwari and Vikramaditya Singh, RJD leader Misa Bharti, and Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee.
Over 10 crore 60 lakh voters are eligible to vote in this phase.
Simultaneously, polling is being held for remaining 42 seats of Odisha Assembly in the fourth phase. In addition, Assembly by-elections for six constituencies in Himachal Pradesh and one seat each in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are also taking place.
This seventh phase will mark a grand finish to the world’s largest polling marathon that began on 19th of April and has already covered 486 Lok Sabha seats.
As the nation braces for the end of this electoral marathon, anticipation mounts for the momentous day of reckoning when the fate of political leaders will be determined. Preparations are in full swing for the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.
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All preparations are in place for the counting of votes for the Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim assembly elections to be held tomorrow. The term of the two Assemblies is ending on 2nd of June.
Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the two north-eastern states were held simultaneously on 19th of April.
The counting will start at 6 am. It will commence with the counting of the postal ballots and electronically transmitted postal ballot system. In Arunachal Pradesh, twenty-four centres have been set up across the state for the purpose. Over 2000 election officials will take part in the counting process.
Arunachal Pradesh has 60 Assembly constituencies, out of which BJP has already won 10 seats uncontested.
In Sikkim, polls were held to elect 32 members to the State Legislative Assembly.
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Oil marketing companies have slashed the prices of commercial LPG gas cylinders by 69 rupees 50 paise per unit. The Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) announced that the retail price of a commercial LPG gas cylinders is now 1 thousand 676 rupees in Delhi. The price of commercial LPG cylinder has dropped by 72 rupees in Kolkata, 69 rupees 50 paise in Mumbai and 70 rupees 50 paise in Chennai. The price reductions will come in effect by today itself. Jet fuel or Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) price has been reduced by a steep 6.5 per cent.
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Pakistan government has admitted before Islamabad High Court that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) is a foreign territory. Pakistan Additional Attorney General told the court that Kashmiri poet and journalist Ahmed Farhad Shah is under police custody in PoK and he cannot be produced before the Islamabad High Court as PoK is a foreign land which does not come under Pakistan’s jurisdiction. The court was hearing a petition filed by Shah’s wife after he was abducted from his residence in Rawalpindi by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. Shah has been missing for the past two weeks and it was recently found that two cases have been lodged against him by the police in PoK.
Islamabad High Court asked if PoK is a foreign territory and not an integral part of Pakistan, then how did the Pakistani military and Pakistani Rangers enter the land. During the hearings, high Court judge Mohsin Akhter Kayani criticised Pakistan’s intelligence agencies for continuing the practice of forced abductions of people.
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In Kerala, heavy rains pounded the northern parts of the State since last evening, throwing normal life out of gear at several places. IMD has issued orange alert in the districts of Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad, indicating the likelihood of very heavy rainfall. Yellow alert has been issued for the remaining districts except Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam.
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In Badminton, Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand crashed out of Singapore Open after losing in the women’s doubles Semi Final today. The world number 30, Indian duo lost to Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida of Japan. Treesa and Gayatri stunned Korean duo, world no. 6 Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong in the quarterfinal yesterday. They were the only Indians left in the BWF Super 750 Badminton tournament.
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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN::
- Voting underway for seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections; Over 40 percent polling recorded till 1 PM.
- Polling also taking place for 42 assembly seats in Odisha.
- Counting of votes for assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim to be taken up tomorrow.
- Oil marketing companies slash prices of commercial LPG cylinders by 69 rupees 50 paise per unit; Jet fuel price reduced by 6.5 percent.
- And, Pakistan government admits before Islamabad High Court that PoK is a foreign territory and not under its jurisdiction.
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