Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: ‘Do not get misled by the BJP,’ SP chief Akhilesh Yadav tells party workers

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: In an interaction with news agency ANI, Congress leader Pawan Khera weighed in on exit polls by TV channels and the party’s decision to not be a part of it.

He said “What’s the point of speculation? Why should we indulge in meaningless speculation just to increase the TRPs of channels or to there is some force? There are some forces which are involved in betting. Why should we be a part of that? Everybody knows who he or she has voted for. Parties will get to know how many votes they got on the 4th of June. Why should we speculate?.. We are poised to win this election. INDIA alliance will be forming the government after the 4 June.”

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Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: According to the Election Commission of India, the voter turnout in the first six phases was 66.14 %, 66.71%, 65.68%, 69.16%, 62.2% and 63.36 % respectively.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Friday said suspended JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, facing allegations of sexually abusing several women, was arrested after completing due process, and further legal procedures will follow, reported news agency PTI.

“Prajwal Revanna landed around 12.40 am -12:50 am from Germany’s Munich. As there was an arrest warrant against him, SIT accordingly arrested him and took him into custody and further legal procedures they will follow today. I’m yet to discuss with our officials,” Parameshwara said.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: 13 poll personnel in UP’s Mirzapur have died following fever, high BP. Exact reason is being ascertained, said Medical college principal Raj Bahadur Kamal, reported news agency PTI.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Polling is scheduled in all 13 seats of Punjab and four of Himachal Pradesh, 13 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight in Bihar, six in Odisha and three seats in Jharkhand besides Chandigarh. Polling for the remaining 42 assembly constituencies of Odisha and bypolls to six assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh will also take place simultaneously.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Over 53.23 lakh voters will decide the fate of 52 candidates in three Lok Sabha seats in the Santhal Pargana region of Jharkhand, where polling will be held in the last phase on Saturday, officials said, reported news agency PTI.

Tight security arrangements have been made for conducting the elections to Dumka, Rajmahal and Godda seats.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday asked his party workers, candidates and office-bearers to remain “vigilant” against the “lies” of the BJP and “its exit polls,” reported news agency PTI.

In an appeal in Hindi on X, Yadav wrote, “Today I am making an extremely important appeal to you. All of you should remain fully alert, vigilant and cautious during the voting tomorrow and also in the days after the voting, till the counting of votes is over and you receive the certificate of victory. Do not get misled by the BJP.”

Yadav went on to allege that the BJP will start spreading lies once the polling is over on Saturday.

“Actually I am making this appeal because the BJP people have made a plan that as soon as the elections are over tomorrow evening, they will start getting their ‘media group (media mandali)’ to say on various channels that the BJP has got a lead of around 300 seats, which is completely false,” Yadav wrote.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief V D Sharma on Friday expressed confidence that the party would win all 29 seats with a historic majority in the Lok Sabha Election 2024, reported news agency ANI.

“Just as the people of MP blessed us in the state assembly poll last year, we will get a historic success in the Lok Sabha election in the state as well. We all have campaigned together with team spirit for the Lok Sabha poll in the state. Today, I am proud to say that BJP will win all 29 seats with a historic majority in the state,” Sharma said while addressing a press conference in Bhopal.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: The seven-phase Lok Sabha election will conclude on Saturday, with polling on as many as 57 parliamentary constituencies across seven states and the Union territory of Chandigarh. The Varanasi Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, from where Prime Minister Narendra is two-term and incumbent MP, will vote in the seventh phase, with one of the candidates being the Prime Minister himself. Ahead of the last round of polling, dry days have been declared in some states, meaning that liquor shops in these states will remain shut. Dig Deeper

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Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: In an interaction with news agency ANI, Uttarakhand CM and BJP leader Pushkar Singh Dhami said, “Last time also PM Modi did meditation at the cave in Kedarnath Dham. This time also he will be meditating at the place where Swami Vivekanand did meditation…Opposition is against the Sanatan. They consider it Dengue and Malaria…They keep criticising PM Modi and by doing this they become ‘desh virodhi’…”

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Fourteen people, including 10 polling personnel, have died due to heatstroke in Bihar in the last 24 hours, officials said on Friday afternoon, reported news agency PTI.

In a statement issued by the Disaster Management Department, most of the fatalities were reported from Bhojpur, where five officials on election duty died of heatstroke.

Three election officials died in Rohtas, and one each died in Kaimur and Aurangabad districts, it said. Four other people died in different parts of the state, it added.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva has jibed at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal over the latter seeking extension of interim bail citing problems to health.

“Delhi CM (Arvind Kejriwal) has said that he has a serious disease. I agree with what he has said. He has a disease of lying. He did the election campaigning. However, when now the time has come for him to go (to jail), he is reminding everyone of his diseases,” says Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: A section of voters in the Ara Lok Sabha seat in Bihar are nursing a hope that after the elections, efforts will be made by the new dispensation to include Bhojpuri language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, reported news agency PTI. Bhojpuri is spoken in several parts of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Ara, the headquarters of Bhojpur district, is a historic city and culturally-rich region, and Bhojpuri the dominant language of this region earlier known as Shahabad, which includes current districts of Buxar, Rohtas, Kaimur and neighbouring areas.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Narendra Modi (Varanasi), Afzal Ansari (Ghazipur), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Patna Sahib), Pawan Singh (Karakat), Kangana Ranaut ( Mandi), Manish Tewari (Chandigarh) are some of the key candidates contesting in the final phase of the polls tomorrow.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Around 70,000 security personnel, including central forces, have been deployed in the wake of polling in 13 Lok Sabha seats on June 1, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C said on Friday, reported news agency PTI.

Besides, 1.20 lakh polling staff have been deployed for the voting in the state, he said. Polling for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will take place from 7 am till 6 pm on Saturday.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: Bank holiday on June 1: The seventh phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections is scheduled for June 1 after six phases were held on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20 and May 25. Owing to polling on June 1, banks in various cities will be closed. For phase 7 of the Lok Sabha Election 2024, banks will remain closed in Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Chandigarh. Dig Deeper

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: On Saturday, the seven-phase Lok Sabha election will conclude with polling on 57 parliamentary seats across seven states and the Union territory of Chandigarh. Once polling ends, all eyes will be on exit polls that would predict which alliance might form the country’s next government – the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) or the Congress-led opposition INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc. Dig Deeper

Lok Sabha Election 2024 LIVE Updates: EVMs and other polling materials are being handed over to poll parties ahead of tomorrow’s voting in Kolkata, West Bengal, reported news agency PTI.

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Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge says, “He (PM Modi) is from Gujarat, and if a person from Gujarat doesn’t know about Mahatma Gandhi and also doesn’t promote him, what can I say?… Being a member of RSS, you propagated its ideology and principles but you did nothing for Mahatma Gandhi. What have you done in the last 23 years when you were the CM of Gujarat for 13 years and now the PM?… You liked it to be with Godse but not with Mahatma Gandhi…”

Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee from Guna parliamentary seat in Madhya Pradesh, Jyotiradtiya Scindia on Friday expressed his hope that every citizen of the country would exercise their voting rights in the last phase of Lok Sabha election.

The seventh and final phase of polling for Lok Sabha election 2024 is scheduled to be held on June 1.

“Tomorrow is the last stage of the festival of democracy. I hope that every citizen will exercise their voting rights, which is the biggest right in democracy, to build the future in the final phase of the Lok Sabha poll. Let there be good polling,” Scinida told reporters.

He further added, “When the results come on June 4, India’s flag will be hoisted on the world stage in the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We all will move ahead with PM Modi’s resolution of making India the third largest economy in the world by 2027 under his leadership.”

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla voiced sharp criticism against the Congress and the INDIA bloc on Friday, accusing them of opposing Hindu practices in their efforts to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his ongoing meditation at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanniyakumari.

“Today, it is evident that in opposing Modi, a new dimension of opposition to Sanatan Dharma has emerged, where they (Congress-INDI alliance) don’t even want a Sanatani Hindu to meditate or practice austerity,” Poonawalla said.

Poonawalla questioned the basis of the opposition’s claims, stating, “What has happened to the Congress party or the INDI alliance? If the Prime Minister says something, they have a problem. Now, if the Prime Minister goes to Kanyakumari and meditates at the Vivekananda Rock, they still have a problem. It seems that the Prime Minister’s meditation is causing them complete frustration.”

While the electioneering stopped on Thursday across the state for the seventh and final phase of poll on June 1, the showdown between the education department and the state varsities, which started ahead of election announcement and brought the Raj Bhawan and the department face to face, did not.

All through the electioneering, one striking aspect was the way education remained a big issue, with the matter of higher education turmoil reaching the Patna High Court and still remaining unresolved, leaving thousands of teachers and employees as also guest teachers without salary and retired ones without pension for over four months.

The schools, too, witnessed resentment all through the period over timing and later running of classes in extreme heat wave, prompting intervention from the Governor and the CM after several students fainted and the Opposition as well as the NDA alliance partners went on the offensive.

Patna native Sahil Kumar, a graduate from a city-based college, has channelised his frustration about not getting a job into a tea-selling venture with a quirky name, ‘Berozgar Chaiwala’, more to serve a social message than the popular beverage.

His brother Suraj Kumar, a partner in the small business, quips it is a “start-up”. He also points out the irony of the situation as loudspeaker-mounted campaign vehicles run by various candidates blare out their list of promises, including jobs.

These vehicles pass daily by their pushcart stationed along a roadside near the popular Dakbungalow Chouraha in the heart of the city.

On election preparation in Punjab, Chief Election Officer, Sibin C says, “In Punjab, there are a total of 24,451 polling stations…Approximately, 1.25 lakh polling staff have been deployed…According to the Election Commission of India, minimum facilities have been ensured at all polling stations….In view of the heat wave, proper arrangements have been made…I appeal to the voters of Punjab to vote in large numbers and achieve the target of more than 70% voter turnout”…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded the Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll campaign on May 30, and is currently on a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu. PM Modi commenced his meditation break in Kanniyakumari on Thursday, at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial.

On PM Modi’s visit to Tamil Nadu for meditation, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale says, “…The PM believes in meditation. The PM has gone there to think about what to do next for the country and society. The opposition is accusing him of wrong things. The opposition reacts to every action of the PM. This is not right…”

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi meditates at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanniyakumari, BJP leader CR Kesavan said that PM Modi’s meditation is not for personal salvation but for the upliftment of India.

“Currently, PM Modi is meditating and praying at the divine feet of our Bharat Mata at Kanyakumari in the Vivekananda rock memorial. PM Modi is meditating and praying not for personal salvation but for the uplifting of Bharat,” Kesavan said.

Kesavan emphasised that PM Modi is following in the footsteps of Swami Vivekananda, making this meditation a milestone event in Indian history.

“PM Modi following in the footsteps of Swami Vivekananda to meditate will be a milestone event in our history, and on June 1st, after he completes 45 hours of meditation, he will come out with a renewed resolve and faith to serve the people of Bharat,” Kesavan said.

It is a battle between a politician who fought a poll over four decades back and an electoral debutant in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra Lok Sabha constituency.

Making his debut in this general elections at the age of 62, Dr Rajiv Bharadwaj of the BJP is contesting against Congress leader and former Union minister Anand Sharma in the parliamentary seat made up of 13 assembly segments of Kangra district and four of Chamba district.

While Bharadwaj has the legacy of his uncle and former chief minister Shanta Kumar and his popularity as a grassroots BJP worker and doctor to bank on to connect with the electorate, Sharma held a spirited campaign along with local and national Congress leaders to woo voters.

The Congress candidate last contested a poll from the Shimla assembly seat in 1982 and lost. He was a Union minister as a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Polling for 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab and the lone Chandigarh seat will be held on Saturday, with INDIA bloc allies Congress and AAP contesting separately and the SAD and BJP also deciding to test the poll waters alone.

Prominent candidates in the fray are four-time MP Preneet Kaur, former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, three-time MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Ravneet Singh Bittu.

The BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal are contesting the Lok Sabha polls on their own for the first time since 1996 while two INDIA bloc parties – the Congress and AAP have fielded their own candidates.

The Sukhbir Badal-led party walked out of the NDA in 2020 over the now-repealed farm laws.

Besides the Congress, AAP, SAD and the BJP, two other parties –Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and the Bahujan Samaj Party have also fielded their candidates.

Among the prominent faces, BJP nominee and four-time MP Preneet Kaur is seeking re-election from the Patiala parliamentary constituency.

The Income Tax Department has achieved a record seizure of ₹1100 crore in cash and jewellery during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, sources told ANI.

As per the sources, by the end of May 30th, the department had seized approximately ₹1100 crore worth of cash and jewellery, marking a 182 per cent increase compared to the ₹390 crore seized during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into force on March 16, the day the Election Commission of India announced the dates for the Lok Sabha elections. Since then, the Income Tax Department has been vigilant in monitoring and seizing unaccounted cash and valuables that could potentially influence voters.

Narendra Modi swept to power a decade ago on promises to transform India’s economy, and it would be hard to argue he hasn’t made strides. As he seeks a third term as prime minister, the country’s economic growth is the envy of the world, its stock markets are booming, and new buildings and highways are popping up everywhere.

There are cracks in the facade, though, that his political challengers hope to benefit from, including high unemployment, persistent poverty and the sense that only a small portion of India’s 1.4 billion people has been able to cash in on the good fortune.

“You have a booming economy for people higher up on the socioeconomic ladder, but people lower down are really struggling,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

PM Narendra Modi meditates at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanniyakumari, where Swami Vivekananda did meditation. He will meditate here till 1st June.

As the voting date inches closer, politicians in Himachal Pradesh are letting go of no opportunity in trolling their rivals, more often than not choosing as their weapon the social media and its memetic powers.

A scramble for gaffes is on between the two key political parties in the fray here – Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party –, whose followers have been posting slip-ups and blunders of their rivals, in some cases, to cut them down to size, in others, to bring to fore internal cracks.

A peep into the official accounts of both parties reveals that they are big on using bytes of the general public, especially those with a flair for a good rant.

War rooms have been set up for cyber-rattling to catch opponents on the wrong foot.

For instance, the BJP has uploaded a video showing Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge mispronouncing the name of the town where he was addressing a rally, as well as the names of the party colleagues from the state.

India’s six-week long national election is in its final phase, with voting concluding on Saturday, and financial markets are keenly awaiting the verdict after counting scheduled for June 4.

Pollsters and political analysts differ on the possible outcome of the election, with lower voter turnout and apathy seen as risks for the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP and its allies won 352 of the 543 seats in India’s lower house of parliament at the last election in 2019 with the BJP alone winning 303 seats.

The BJP on Thursday termed Manmohan Singh’s remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi “laughable” and said that despite having quit active politics, the former PM has not given up his habit of misleading the people of the country.

In a letter to voters of Punjab ahead of the seventh phase of the Lok Sabha polls on June 1, Manmohan Singh accused Modi of lowering the dignity of public discourse and the gravity of the office of the prime minister by giving “hateful speeches” during the election campaign.

He also accused Modi of attributing some false statements to him.

Hitting back, BJP national spokesperson R P Singh said in a post on X, “The nonsense that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has stated suddenly in his letter on the last day of the Lok Sabha election campaign is not only laughable but it also does not suit the person who held the post of country’s prime minister.”

The Congress controlled the narrative during the Lok Sabha polls and placed a new vision for the country before the people, former party chief Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday, exuding confidence that the INDIA bloc will form the next government.

In his message to the people and Congress workers at the end of the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi said, “We were successful in fighting the elections on real issues related to the people and despite the repeated attempts of the Prime Minister to mislead, we raised the voice of farmers, workers, youth, women and the deprived.”

“I bow before the great people of the country and confidently say to the workers of Congress that an INDIA bloc government is going to be formed,” he said in his video message in Hindi.

Odisha chief minister and Biju Janta Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik on Thursday refuted the claims of his close aid and ex-bureaucrat VK Pandian being the former’s successor, saying that his successor would be decided by the people of Odisha.

“I have said repeatedly that the successor will be decided by the people of the state. That is the natural result of these things,” Patnaik said in an interview to news agency ANI.

The BJD chief further dismissed claims of top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, that Pandian is “controlling the state”, saying saffron camp’s allegations are ridiculous and hold no significance.

Bahujan Samaj Party’s Chandigarh candidate Ritu Singh on Thursday came down heavily on Congress and claimed that the party is standing against the reservation of backward communities like SC and ST.

In a face-to-face debate with Manish Tiwari in front of the media, Ritu Singh questioned the Congress candidate on how he would save the Constitution.

She said, “How the Constitution will be saved? On the poor people, you state that the reservation of SC, and Backward Class should be done on the basis of financial condition and should not be done based on caste and creed.”

Manish Tewari in his reply to Singh, said, “In the Constitution, the reservation of SC and ST is ensured…As far as the question of reservation…My stand is absolutely clear. My stand is with the Indian National Congress.”

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pabitra Margherita slammed the Congress party for opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled meditation at Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari on Friday.

“Only the Gandhi Vadra family knows what their agenda is. A citizen of India can go anywhere for meditation, and this has been India’s culture for a long time. I consider it pathetic for the Congress party. When the Pran Pratishtha was held, Rahul Gandhi was roaming in sensitive areas. He opposed it. And now, when the Prime Minister, or any citizen goes for meditation or perform puja or yoga, what is wrong with it? Nobody can answer this question. Only Rahul Gandhi and his family know it. What is Congress doing?” Margherita said while speaking to ANI on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meditate from Friday until June 1 evening, throughout the day and night, at the Dhyan Mandapam, which happens to be the same place where Swami Vivekanand meditated.

Notably, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election too, PM Modi took a similar trip to the Kedarnath shrine before the final phase of the elections and meditated at a cave.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday offered prayers at Ram temple in Ayodhya and recalled his visit to the holy city as a young ‘kar sevak’ during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement and in the 1980s and 1990s.

“I am very happy that I have come here first time today after Ram Lalla is ‘virajmaan’ in Ram temple. Before this, I came here when the work (for the construction of the temple) was underway. I also came here as a Kar Sewak. So what I watched on television on January 22, I am able to witness today with my eyes. It’s a dream come true, and I am very happy,” he said.

Fadnavis is on a two-day poll-cum-pilgrimage to Varanasi and Ayodhya ahead of the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha polls on June 1.

The visit assumes political significance as 13 constituencies, including the high-profile Varanasi seat where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is contesting, in Uttar Pradesh are going to polls on June 1.

As battleground Sandeshkhali gets ready for polls in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission shared a picture of polling personnel on the move from the dispersal centre to the polling station at the riverine island on a boat.

“Polling Personnel on the Move in Dhamakhali, Sandeshkhali AC, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal,” the Election Commission posted on ‘X’.

The Chief Electoral Office in West Bengal also shared a few pictures of polling personnel being transported to the North 24 Parganas island.

Calling the BJP and BJD partners, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the Congress will uproot the BJD-BJP partnership government in Odisha as it did in Telangana where BRS was working for the BJP.

Addressing a public meeting in Balasore Lok Sabha constituency on the last day of the campaigning, Gandhi said BJP has lodged 24 cases against him, sentenced him to to years of jail in defamation case, took away his Lok Sabha membership, his government quarter and got him interrogated by ED for 50 hours.

“But why no cases have been filed against Naveen Patnaik who is claiming to be fighting BJP. There has been no interrogation, no raiding because Naveen Patnaik works for BJP. These two(BJD and BJP) are one and the aim of the partnership is to steal the wealth of the people of Odisha, the mines and make billions from it,” alleged Gandhi.

Campaigning for the final phase of elections to the Lok Sabha seats and Odisha assembly ended on Thursday with 99.6 lakh voters set to exercise their franchise in 6 Lok Sabha and 42 assembly constituencies on Saturday.

Six Lok Sabha constituencies such as Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapra, Mayurbhanj and Jagatsinghpur will go to the polls along with the 42 Assembly segments in their jurisdiction on June 1. Voting has already ended for 15 Lok Sabha and 105 assembly constituencies with 74.52 % of the 2.36 crore voters exercising their franchise between May 13 and May 25. The voting percentage is a tad better than 2019 election when 72.83 % of the electorate had cast their vote.

In the final phase of polling, the fate of leaders like BJP’s state president Manmohan Samal, former PCC president Niranjan Pattnaik, BJP senior vice president Baijayant Panda and former union minister Shrikant Jena in the fray. Tjere are 460 candidates in the fray in the final phase of election for both assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

In another major bureaucratic reshuffle since Lok sabha elections that commenced on March 16 and are set to end on June 4, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet made a series of appointments and premature repatriation of officers at the Joint Secretary or Joint Secretary equivalent level.

The order said,”In view of declaration of elections to the Lok Sabha, if any of the officers mentioned in the instant communication are on election related duty, they may kindly be relieved after due clearance from the Election Commission of India to take up their new assignment.”

In the Ministry of AYUSH, Sachidanand Prasad, an Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts & Finance Service(IP&TA&FS)officer from 1994 batch, has been appointed as Secretary of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM). The centre canceled Binod Kumar, ICAS (1993) appointment as the Secretary which it had announced in March this year, Kumar has been given the tenure till next year. The appointment is effective until Prasad’s superannuation on December 31, 2027, or until further orders.

On the preparations for the seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state, Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer K. Ravi Kumar says, “Campaigning ended at 5 pm in Rajmahal, Godda, Dumka…The total number of booths is 6258, out of which all polling parties at 241 booths are women…In view of the heat, basic facilities are available at all booths, full security arrangements have been made and adequate security forces have been deployed…”

At least 19 people have died as Bihar experiences intense heatwave conditions, with temperatures exceeding 44 degrees Celsius.

In Bihar’s Aurangabad, the death toll due to heat wave conditions has reached 12, while four people died in Kaimur district, including a worker on election duty, on Thursday and three people have died in Bihar’s Arrah in Bhojpur district after suffering from extreme heatwaves in the region.

Dr Sahil Raj, a doctor at Kaimur’s Mohania sub-divisional hospital, said that on Thursday, a total of about 40 people had come to the hospital who had been affected by heat stroke.

“Among them, two persons, including polling personnel, had come to me who died due to heat stroke. 30 to 40 people, including police personnel, are undergoing treatment. Many have been sent home after treatment, while others are undergoing treatment,” he said.