Thiruvananthapuram, April 16 (IANS) Shashi Tharoor, the Congress candidate for Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, cast his vote here Thursday morning. But his visit to the polling booth generated controversy with police forced to take action after opposition workers protested against him attracting media attention.
The former UN undersecretary general arrived with his mother at the polling station in L.P. School at Jawahar Nagar and expressed confidence that he will win. (Read more...)
Raipur, April 16 (IANS) Armed Maoist rebels created panic at six polling stations in Chhattisgarh's southern restive Bastar region by opening fire soon after voting for the parliamentary elections began Thursday morning, police said.
'The rebels fired at six booths in Dantewada and Narayanpur districts but no one was injured,' Chhattisgarh Additional Director General of Police Girdhari Nayak said. (Read more...)
New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) Indians began voting Thursday morning to pick a new 545-seat Lok Sabha in the first phase of staggered elections widely expected to throw up a split verdict.
Polling centres opened at 7 a.m. in 124 constituencies across 15 states and two union territories amid tight security, Election Commission officials here said.
About 143 million of India's 714 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the first of five rounds in 185,552 polling centres. A total of 1,715 candidates are in the fray. (Read more...)
New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) Concentrate on the base of your spine, focus on your breath and avoid spicy food. Thus go the tips from gurus as their politician disciples get into the heat and dust of electioneering in an Indian summer.
The men who tend to the spiritual needs of politicians are suggesting restraint and introspection to tide over the rough and tumble of changing political fortunes. (Read more...)
Bangalore, April 15 (IANS) Congress president Sonia Gandhi Wednesday stepped up her attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party and L.K. Advani for calling Manmohan Singh a weak prime minister, saying every one knows who are 'slaves' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevek Sangh (RSS).
'People know who functions as slaves of the RSS,' Gandhi said at an election rally in Bidar, around 670 km from Bangalore. (Read more...)
New Delhi, April 15 (IANS) The Congress Wednesday criticised Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani for skipping Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's dinner for outgoing Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee and said it indicated his scant respect for parliamentary democracy.
'It is shocking that Advani boycotted the prime minister's farewell dinner for the outgoing speaker Somnath Chatterjee. It is very clear from the disgraceful act what little respect the BJP and its leader have for parliamentary democracy,' Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan told reporters here. (Read more...)
