India

New Delhi, Apr 17: Moderate to brisk voting was today recorded in the first five hours of polling across 12 states covering 121 constituencies in the fifth phase – the biggest of the nine-phased Lok Sabha polls amidst Maoist violence in Jharkhand where rebels injured a CRPF jawan, blew up a railway track and exploded ten bombs. About 30 per cent of 16.61 crore cast their vote till noon in this

Pune, April 17: Early morning voters, including many senior citizens, were bewildered when an electronic voting machine (EVM) reportedly "transferred" all votes to the Congress. The incident happened at a polling booth at Shamrao Kalmadi School in the city when voters found that whichever button was pressed on the EVM, only the Congress light blinked. Some of the alert voters brought this to the

Baramulla (JK), Apr 16: Union Minister Farooq Abdullah today claimed that BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi wants to "eliminate" Muslims but expressed confidence that Congress will not allow him to succeed in his designs. "I do not fear Modi but his intentions, which he has for India. He wants to eliminate Muslims if you want to hear the truth," Abdullah, also president of ruling

New Delhi, Apr 16: A day after he asked Congress to account for its sins before it sought apology from him for the 2002 Gujarat riots, Narendra Modi on Wednesday clarified again, saying that he was never silent on the issue. In an interview to a news agency, Modi said, “I was not silent, I answered every top journalist in the country from 2002-2007.” “...but noticed there was no exercise to

New Delhi, Apr 16: The international media has been largely unsparing towards BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi. The most recent issue of The Economist had the PM hopeful on the cover, with a strongly worded editorial inside that said: "This newspaper cannot bring itself to back Mr Modi for India's highest office. "While the piece created ripples among Modi supporters in India, it comes in a series

London, Apr 16: A millions lives would improve thanks to Supreme Court of India's recognition of transgender people's human rights, a right body has said. "This ruling has the potential to significantly alter the lives of people who have suffered oppression for years," Programmes Director of Amnesty International India Shashikumar Velath said. A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court yesterday ruled

New Delhi, Apr 16: Congress and BJP on Tuesday sparred over Rajnath Singh's meeting with Muslim clerics in Lucknow with the ruling party accusing BJP of "double-speak" and the opposition party hitting back. Attempting to reach out to Muslim community, Singh had met some prominent Muslim religious leaders yesterday in the UP capital from where he is fighting the Lok Sabha election. "Congress wants

Amethi, Apr 16: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra delivered a scathing appraisal of her estranged and younger cousin Varun, who filed his nomination papers as the BJP candidate from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh. "Anybody... no matter how close they are, as blood relations... if they are going to be on that side of the ideological spectrum... then these are my beliefs. I feel it is a betrayal of my family," she

Varanasi, April 15: The climb from the ghats of Varanasi to New Delhi's 7 Race Course Road is proving to be steep and replete with roadblocks for Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi, veteran Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organizers admit. "The BJP and RSS have given us the target of securing a victory margin of three lakh votes for Modi. He would be lucky if he

Varanasi, Apr 15: As political pitch gets stronger in this city of temples and weavers with the arrival of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, leaders across party lines are fearing a highly polarised scenario on religious lines ahead of Lok Sabha polls next month. While senior leaders from BJP dismiss the impact of any anti-Modi polarisation among Muslims, who account for about 18 per cent votes here and