India

Srinagar, Apr 12 (PTI) PDP president Mehbooba Mufti Friday accused BJP chief Amit Shah of shaking the country's foundations with his recent controversial statements, and asked him to apologise to the people.

She was reportedly referring to Shah's speech at Raiganj in West Bengal on Thursday.

Calling illegal migrants from Bangladesh "termites", the BJP president had said that his party would throw them out after coming to power at the Centre for a second consecutive term

New Delhi, Apr 12 (PTI) A voter turnout of 69.43 per cent was recorded in phase one of Lok Sabha elections held Thursday, the Election Commission said Friday night.

A total of 91 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states and two Union territories had gone for polls in the first phase.

Over 14.20 crore people were eligible to vote to decide the fate of 1,279 candidates in the 91 constituencies.

Dehradun, Apr 13 (PTI) A voter turnout of 61.50 per cent was recorded in Uttarakhand which went to polls in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday.

According to final polling percentage released by the Election Commission after collating data received from remote corners of the hill state late on Friday night a total of 61.50 per cent of the 78.56 lakh voters exercised their franchise on the polling day.

Lucknow Apr 12 (PTI) Alleging that EVM malfunction during the first phase of polling resulted in votes cast going in BJP's account, BSP chief Mayawati asked the Election Commission to take a serious note of this and initiate steps to check its recurrence in the remaining six phases of the general elections.

She said that if the poll panel does not initiate any strict step, the ongoing election process "would be of no use" and hoped that something concrete will be done in this regard.

New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) The purpose of art is to "question and provoke" but there is a growing intolerance in society and organised groups pose a serious danger to the right to free speech and expression, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.

The observation was made in a judgement in which the apex court imposed Rs 20 lakh fine on the Mamata Banerjee government over not allowing the screening of satirical film "Bhobishyoter Bhoot" in West Bengal.

New Delhi, Apr 11 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party Thursday held talks with Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) to discuss seat sharing in Haryana for the Lok Sabha elections after talks with the Congress on a tie-up in the state was called off recently.

Sources said AAP is eyeing the Faridabad, Gurgaon, Karnal and Ambala seats in Haryana in a 4:6 ratio but the JJP is proposing a seat sharing equation of 3:7.

Raipur, Apr 11 (PTI) A Naxal was killed and a Special Task Force (STF) jawan suffered injuries in a gun-battle in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh on the day of polling for the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday, police said.

The encounter took place at around 4:20 pm when the ultras attacked a team of security forces out on an area domination-cum-search operation in a forest near a helipad in the Orchha area, Deputy Inspector General (Anti-Naxal Operation) Sundarraj P told PTI.

Ahmedabad, Apr 11 (PTI) Election authorities in Gujarat Thursday gave a warning to BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava, accused of violating the model code of conduct by threatening voters during a rally in Vadodara district on April 3.

Vadodara collector and district election officer Shalini Agarwal said she has also directed the district superintendent of police (DSP) to conduct a further inquiry into the matter.

Srivastava is the sitting BJP MLA from Waghodia in Vadodara district.

Patna, Apr 11 (PTI) An estimated 53.06 per cent voter turnout was recorded in four Lok Sabha constituencies of Bihar which went to the polls in the first phase on Thursday, a top election official said.

Altogether 70.52 lakh voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the four Lok Sabha seats which had 44 candidates in the fray.

Mumbai, Apr 11 (PTI) A 38-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment by a POCSO court here for sexually assaulting his two minor step-daughters multiple times in the absence of their mother.

Judge C A Nathani found the man guilty under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and IPC sections 376 (rape) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of IPC