A delegation of Punjab BJP met the State Election Commissioner on Wednesday and demanded withdrawal of the decision to conduct voting through ballot papers instead of EVMs in the upcoming local body elections. Punjab BJP President Sunil Jakhar led the delegation, which included State Working President Ashwani Sharma, senior leaders Vijay Sampla, Som Prakash, Manoranjan Kalia, Avinash Rai Khanna, Rakesh Rathore and Vineet Joshi.

While talking to reporters, Jakhar alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in collusion with the State Election Commissioner has implemented the rule of voting through ballot papers as part of a conspiracy to manipulate the local body elections. He alleged that the ruling party had used the same method in the elections of Panchayat Raj institutions also.

Jakhar said that local body elections have traditionally been conducted through EVM machines, but after the announcement of the elections, the State Election Commission suddenly decided to conduct the elections through ballot papers overnight, allegedly on the instructions of the government. He claimed that it has always been a tradition to hold meetings with all political parties before elections, but this time it did not happen.

He said that recently the Local Government Minister had also said that voting would be done through EVMs, but “sensing its defeat” the AAP government changed the decision so that the elections could be “looted” by manipulating the counting of votes and weakening the democracy.

Voting for 105 municipal bodies including eight municipal corporations in Punjab will be held on May 26, while the counting of votes will be done on May 29.

Bengal Election 2026: Leader of Opposition in West Bengal, Subhendu Adhikari cast his vote in Nandigram on Thursday morning and praised the arrangements made by the Election Commission.

The officials reached booth number 79 at Nandnayakbar Primary School in Purba Medinipur district shortly before 8 am and exercised their franchise.

Talking to journalists after voting, the officer urged people to vote peacefully.

“I pray for peaceful voting,” he said. They (Trinamool Congress) could not and will not be able to do much wrong. The night before voting is usually decisive. Prima facie, the Election Commission and central forces should be thanked.

Apart from contesting re-election from Nandigram, Adhikari is also contesting against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhawanipur where voting will be held in the second phase on April 29.

Trinamool Congress candidate from Nandigram, Pavitra Kar, also cast his vote at Shambhunath Primary Education House.

Also read: West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026: Huge ruckus during voting in Murshidabad, Humayun Kabir and TMC workers clashed, country-made bomb also thrown

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kharagpur Sadar candidate Dilip Ghosh also cast his vote at booth number 263 of Serosa Stadium located in the industrial town of Paschim Medinipur district.

Speaking to reporters after voting, Ghosh said that he will stay at home and will come out only when necessary. He said, ‘I don’t think there is any need for much movement. People are voting peacefully. The situation is normal. Voting is going on in 152 constituencies of 16 districts amid unprecedented security arrangements.

Also read- Tamil Nadu Election 2026: Owaisi’s big appeal – Vote for DMK alliance, bring Stalin back to power

Bengal Assembly Election 2026: An interesting trend is emerging in the West Bengal Assembly elections 2026. A large number of migrant laborers are returning to their home districts to cast their votes. According to ground reports, workers working outside different parts of the state are now returning to take part in the voting.

Migrant laborers returning to Bengal to vote

A large number of people from districts like Malda, Murshidabad, North and South Dinajpur of West Bengal go to other states for employment. Their return at the time of elections is not new, but this time their numbers and organized return have attracted the attention of political parties. Just before the first phase of voting, a large number of migrants are returning home ahead of voting on 152 seats in 16 districts. Trains from many states including Delhi, Bihar, Sikkim are reaching Siliguri. From there people are going to different districts of North Bengal by buses.

Political rhetoric on this issue has also intensified. BJP state president Shamik Bhattacharya said, “71 trains are coming. Migrant laborers are reaching Kolkata by boarding them… everyone is coming.”

Are they migrant laborers or voters from other states?

While BJP is excited about this comeback, senior Trinamool Congress leader Arup Roy raised questions on it. He said, ‘Are these migrant laborers or voters from other states?’

The same picture was seen a few months ago during the Bihar Assembly elections. Migrant workers working in different parts of the country were returning in trains full of laborers. As soon as the voting was over, he again left for work. Now the same pattern is visible in West Bengal also.

Railway sources claim that the central government has arranged for special trains to bring migrant laborers home before the elections. These trains are being run as ‘Summer Special’. Most of the people returning say that they have come only to vote and after casting their vote they will return to their work.

Workers’ resentment for employment opportunities

However, many migrant laborers have also expressed their displeasure over the lack of employment opportunities in the state. They say that due to lack of work they have to go out, but at the time of voting they definitely return to exercise their right.

West Bengal Assembly elections are being conducted in two phases. The first phase will be held on April 23, in which voting will be held on 152 seats in 16 districts. The second phase is scheduled for April 29, when voting will be held on 142 seats in the remaining 7 districts.

There are a total of 294 assembly seats in the state and the counting of votes will take place on May 4. The Election Commission has made extensive deployment of central forces across the state to ensure free and fair voting. Along with this, strict code of conduct and security related rules have been implemented, so that the election process can be completed in a peaceful and transparent manner.

Also read- West Bengal Elections ED Raid: Who all are on ED’s radar including Nusrat Jahan in Bengal, rapid raids within 24 hours, Kolkata’s DCP missing

After becoming the BJP President, Nitin Naveen gave his first TV interview to ABP News, in which he candidly answered all the questions since becoming the BJP President. During this, he fiercely targeted the opposition. He made serious allegations against Mamata Banerjee regarding the electoral state of West Bengal. He said that Bangladeshi infiltrators came and settled on Indian soil, now they will be deported. Along with this, he also surrounded former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and SP MP Akhilesh Yadav.

What did Nitin Naveen say by taking the name of Rahul Gandhi?
When he was asked how Akhilesh Yadav forced BJP to get less seats in the Lok Sabha elections, how do you see it? In response to this question, BJP President Nitin Naveen said that everyone knows what Akhilesh Yadav has given to the public during his rule. Being young, earlier too he used to take out big processions with Rahul Gandhi, what happened to them? They will issue further also, but nothing will happen from all this.

Nowadays I have reduced my wearing of cap a little – Nitin Naveen
He further said that Akhilesh Yadav uses words like PDA, DPA, which shows what kind of mentality he has. He further said that earlier these people used to go anywhere wearing caps. Nowadays wearing a cap has been reduced a bit.

Why don’t people with caps vote, what did Nitin Naveen say?
When he was asked whether you people do not like people with caps, he said that we do not like those who pretend. There is no problem with people wearing caps, there is a problem with those who wear caps during the rainy season. Then he was asked why the Topi people do not vote for him, to which he said that after the triple talaq, see how many mothers and sisters have voted for us.

read this also

‘The question of opposing women’s reservation does not arise’, Mamata Banerjee’s first reaction to PM Modi’s address, said- This is very unfortunate…

According to initial trends, Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP) is leading on 23 seats in Nepal, while Nepali Congress and CPN-UML are leading on three seats each. The counting of votes started late on Thursday night. It is expected that the counting of votes will be completed by tonight.

Voting is being held in Nepal today on Thursday (5 March) to elect the new government. This general election is the first to be held in the country after the violent youth-led protests in September 2025, which led to the fall of the government. Since then, an interim government is running in this Himalayan country under the leadership of former Chief Justice Sushila Karki.

According to the BBC report, Nepal’s Election Commission has promised to release the results of 165 seats directly within 24 hours of the start of counting, but it takes at least a day to collect the ballot boxes from the hilly areas and bring them to the counting centres. Officials said that counting of voting results may take 2 to 3 more days. In such a situation, if the Election Commission fulfills its promise, it will be very different from the normal time taken to announce results in the country.

What did Nepal’s election officials say?
Nepal’s Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari says that he is committed to complete the counting of votes by March 9. During the last election of 2022, it took almost 2 weeks for the results to be declared. The reason for this is that some polling stations are located in inaccessible, hilly areas. More than 80 percent of Nepal is hilly areas, from where collecting ballot boxes is a challenging task.

According to Nepalese law, citizens are required to vote in their registered constituency, which is their birthplace. Counting of votes, which is done manually, also takes a lot of time. Each political party sends its representatives to the counting centers and they inspect each open ballot paper cast before counting.

how many voters in nepal
About 19 crore people in Nepal, including about 10 lakh first-time voters, are registered to elect 275 members of Parliament. Of these, 165 members will be elected through the first-past-the-post system, which means the candidate with the most votes will win the seat. The remaining 110 MPs will be elected through the proportional representation (PR) system, in which the proportion of votes received by a political party is taken into account.

Due to this dual system, it becomes difficult for any one party to win outright, hence whichever party comes on top in the elections may have to form a coalition government.

how many candidates are in the fray
According to the Election Commission, this time there are a total of 6,541 candidates. Of these, about 3,406 candidates are contesting directly elected seats, of which more than 1,000 candidates are below 40 years of age, while 3,135 candidates are contesting under the PR system. Voting will start at 7:00 am local time and continue till 5:00 pm. In some parts of the country, polling stations may remain open till late so that all interested voters can cast their vote. In the last elections, voting in some constituencies continued till 9 pm local time.

read this also

How dangerous is Kuwait’s FA-18 Hornet? Claim to have shot down F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet

Voting for general elections is taking place in Bangladesh today (12 February). A large crowd of people is being seen at the polling stations. People can vote till 4:30 pm on 12th February. In Bangladesh, a country with a population of approximately 17 crores, more than 12 crore people are eligible to vote. Voting is taking place in 299 out of 300 parliamentary seats in the country. A total of 1,981 candidates are in the fray.

Along with the elections, a referendum is also being held in Bangladesh on a complex 84-point reform package. This time the main contest is believed to be between Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its former ally Jamaat-e-Islami. Earlier, the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus had dissolved Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League last year and banned the party from contesting elections.

What did Mohammad Yunus say?
Counting of votes is expected to begin immediately after polling ends and the official results are likely to be declared tomorrow i.e. on 13th February. Mohammad Yunus has said that he will soon hand over power to the elected government. He has appealed to all political parties, candidates and concerned parties to maintain restraint, tolerance and democratic behavior during voting.

You can see the results of Bangladesh elections here

live TV: https://news.abplive.com/live-tv

ABP Live (Hindi): https://www.abplive.com/

ABP Network YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyd-xznCpJc

ABP Live (English): https://news.abplive.com/

Apart from this, viewers will also be able to watch the complete live broadcast of the result on the social media platforms of ABP News.

ABP News Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abpnewstv/

ABP Live Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abplivenews/

ABP Live X: https://x.com/abplive

The general elections being held in Bangladesh are also being called Gen Z elections. According to the data of the Election Commission of Bangladesh, out of about 12.7 crore voters, 3.58 percent are first time voters. These youth became eligible voters to vote only after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government. Apart from this, for the first time in the country, about 8 lakh registered migrant Bangladeshis will be able to vote through IT based postal ballot system.

read this also

Maulana of Azamgarh Madrasa kept taking salary while sitting in Britain, went to Pakistan several times, ED raid

The results of voting held in two phases for Bihar Assembly elections will come today on Friday (14 November). Counting of votes will start at 8 am. There are 243 seats in Bihar Assembly and the majority figure is 122.

The ruling NDA at the Center is expected to again come to power in Bihar, which is currently led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Although he had joined the Grand Alliance twice for a short period. Nitish’s rule and his schemes were the main issues in this Bihar election. The image and publicity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi also remained a major part of NDA’s strategy.

Will Tejashwi change the game?
Tejashwi Yadav, son of Lalu Yadav, who was once a political associate of Nitish, has been declared the face of the Chief Minister by the Grand Alliance. Tejashwi has tried to present himself as a big change maker. It has even promised to provide a job to every family. Strategist turned leader Prashant Kishore has presented himself as an alternative. Like every time in Bihar elections, this time too caste has been an important point for all the parties in promises, ticket distribution and general influence among the voters.

Bihar’s future captured in double-lock system
The Election Commission (EC) has kept all the EVMs and VVPATs safe in a double-lock system inside the strong room. The security of these complexes is under a two-tier security cordon, in which central paramilitary forces are deployed on the inner part and state police are deployed on the outer part. 46 counting centers are being continuously monitored through CCTV.

Most exit polls had predicted an easy victory for the JD(U)-BJP led NDA, with the majority projected at 121-209 seats as against the majority figure of 122 seats. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav rejected these projections, saying that based on his party’s internal feedback, the grand alliance will form the government with an “overwhelming majority”.

What will happen to Jan Suraj Party?
No exit poll has given more than 5 seats to Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party. Anyway, PK has said that his party will either form the government or will remain below ten. He tried to contest elections on youth issues and mass unemployment. Initially there was speculation that if the assembly’s decision was not decisive, he could play the role of kingmaker.

read this also

Bihar Election Result 2025 Reactions Live: This time Kekar ​​Bihar, Mrityunjay Tiwari said – NDA is a guest for a few hours

The election bugle has sounded in Bihar. After the announcement of the dates, all political parties have intensified their election campaigning. Prashant Kishor’s party Jan Suraj has contested the assembly elections for the first time. Prashant Kishore’s entry has created a stir in political circles, because he is said to be very popular among the youth.

During a discussion in a podcast, he said that I seriously tell the Muslims that if you want to vote for RJD then do so, believe or not what Prashant Kishore says, but what your Prophet Sahib has told, what has been said in Islam, about political matters… at least pay attention to that.

What did Prashant Kishore say while quoting Quran?
Quoting the Quran, Prashant Kishor said that the Prophet has said that a community which does not understand its leaders, is given Musallat (imposition, imposition) by cruel rulers. Now if Muslims are saying that today’s rulers are cruel, then consider the words of Prophet Sahib, in which he has said that cruel rulers will be imposed on you only when you choose wrong leaders. When you yourself say that Rahnuma is cruel, it means that you yourself have made a wrong choice.

‘Voting for lantern due to fear of BJP’
Prashant Kishore, founder of Jan Suraj, further said that the first word at the beginning of the Quran is Iqra. Which means read and acquire knowledge. The community whose most sacred book begins with the word ‘Read’, is not even worrying about the education of its children today. Good upbringing of your children and justice to them. This is the order of Allah for Muslims, but those who have made your children illiterate laborers are voting for Lantern out of fear of BJP without caring about those children. Prashant Kishore says that Muslims in Bihar vote for RJD only out of fear of BJP, whereas Muslims say that we are not afraid of anyone except Allah.

read this also

Big action after death of 16 children in cough syrup case, Srisan Pharmaceuticals owner Ranganathan Govindan arrested

India voted in favor of the proposal in the United Nations General Assembly, which supports the peaceful solution between Israel and Palestinians and the New York Declaration for the two-state solution. The proposal introduced by France was passed by an overwhelming majority of 142 countries.

India was also included in the countries that voted in favor of Palestine. All the Arab countries of the Gulf supported the proposal, while Israel, the United States, Argentina, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga voted against the proposal.

What was said in the manifesto?

The manifesto calls for the Israeli leadership to express clarity towards the two-state solution. In this, there has been a demand from Israeli to abolish violence and provocative violence against Palestinians. Apart from this, all types of settlements, land acquisition and acquisition activities in the authorized Palestinian region including Eastern Jerusalem have also been called to stop and end the violence of settlers.

India’s voting in the United Nations indicates a clear change from its earlier stance on Gaza. In recent years, the Modi government has been avoiding supporting the proposals demanding ceasefire in the struggle. India has kept itself away from the proposal of the United Nations General Assembly demanding a ceasefire in Gaza four times in three years.

Statement of Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman

Israel has strongly criticized it. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorastein said in a post on X, “Once again, it has been proved that the Mahasabha is a political circus away from reality. This proposal does not mention even once in dozens of sections of the manifesto supported by this proposal that Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

America protested

The US mission at the United Nations said in a statement that the United States opposed the New York announcement, just as it opposed the high-level international conference and the proposal supporting the implementation of the Palestinian question and the proposal supporting it.

American diplomatic Morgan Ortagas has described it as a political show. He said, “There is no doubt that this proposal is a gift for Hamas.”

Also read

‘The purpose of the Sangh and Brahmakumarij is one, the road is different’, Mohan Bhagwat said on the 7th crescent day of World Shanti Sarovar