LIVE: While boasting on air strikes, Modi insulted war strategy, says Cong

Narendra Modi will address public meetings in Punjab and Himachal today. Catch LIVE updates on Lok Sabha elections 2019 campaigns

10:50 AM

Shivraj takes a dig at Digvijaya Singh for not voting

BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a dig at Congress leader Digvijaya Singh for failing to caste vote during the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls that were held on Sunday.

 

"Diggy Raja (Digvijaya Singh) behaved in a strange manner. He was so panicked that he did not go to cast his vote. Voting is our supreme duty in a democracy. For a person, who was Chief Minister for 10 years, failing to poll his votes shows his attitude towards democracy," Chouhan said while addressing a gathering. "I think another reason is that "Diggy Raja" does not trust Kamal Nath. That is why he kept visiting polling stations himself," Chouhan added.

10:49 AM

Lok Sabha elections 2019: Why popularity is not a guarantee for winning seats

In the cut-throat election contest in India, political parties are focused on turning votes into winning seats. The reason -- history shows that a party can form a government by garnering support from just a quarter of the total electorate.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Rahul Gandhi’s main opposition Congress party are trying to raise vote shares -- the percentage of total votes polled -- in their favour as the country's election moves into its final phase.

 

In India's first-past-the-post system, with a large number of contenders for each seat, the winner just needs to get enough votes to win. The person doesn't need to get most of the popular votes. For instance in 2014, Bhujan Samaj Party garnered 4.2% of the votes but failed to win a single constituency, while the Communist Party of India lured 0.79% of the votes and managed to wrest 1 seat. The BJP with 31.3% vote share won 282.

10:46 AM

More Rahul Gandhi's election than Modi's: The lad becomes a leader, writes Bharat Bhushan

In many ways this general election has been more about the arrival of Rahul Gandhi as a national leader than about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election. Bean counters would say that such a judgment would depend entirely on the number of Lok Sabha seats that the Congress manages to win. To do that would be to miss out on Rahul Gandhi’s personal and political transformation. He has clearly shed the image of a novice and emerged as an indefatigable and dogged political campaigner who is here to stay. Read on...

10:39 AM

Pollsters suggest BJP slowdown in Dangal 2019 but no UPA gain

A survey of voters undertaken by institutions and calculations by independent psephologists have indicated a surprising unanimity of possible scenarios post May 23 when the results of the Lok Sabha elections are declared -- they show that the NDA is likely to have a pared down performance compared to 2014 while the UPA might not move into areas possibly vacated by the BJP-led alliance unless it finds new allies. Read on...

10:24 AM

BJP announces protests over 'denial' of permission to Amit Shah's rally in West Bengal

Accusing the West Bengal government of not allowing its president Amit Shah's rally in Jadhavpur, the BJP said Monday the Election Commission has become a "mute spectator" to the Trinamool Congress's alleged undemocratic means to target the saffron party.

 

BJP media head and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni said his party will hold protests and also move the EC.

9:26 AM