142 million voters go to polls today in 20 states—  here’s a look at the key issues in every state

Checkout West Bengal winner candidate list in Lok Sabha election 2019

<table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none;"></colgroup></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-right:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.75pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt;">West Bengal </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-right:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.75pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt;">Leads - 42/42 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-right:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.75pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#ffffff;padding:2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt;">TMC </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-right:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.75pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt;">24 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-right:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.75pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#ffffff;padding:2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt;">BJP </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-right:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.75pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt;">17 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-right:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.75pt;vertical-align:bottom;background-color:#ffffff;padding:2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt;">INC </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-right:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 0.75pt;border-top:solid #000000 0.75pt;vertical-align:bottom;padding:2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt;">1 </td></tr></tbody></table> The <keyword id="399454" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="All-India-Trinamool-Congress">All India Trinamool Congress</keyword> (TMC) was ahead of the BJP in early trends in West Bengal with nine seats, according to Election Commission. The <keyword id="58687" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharatiya-Janata-Party">Bharatiya Janata Party</keyword> leading on 17 seats. The Times Now Exit Poll Predictions had said Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress might not do as well as it did in 2014 elections. The projections forecast TMC winning from 28 out of 42 seats in West Bengal. Though the vote share of TMC might remain the same in 2019 <keyword id="6355187" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="lok-sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> election result as it was in 2014, the predictions presuppose that the TMC’s seats might be down by about 6 this time. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC got 34 seats out of 42. The remaining 8 seats were distributed among the other contesting parties at the rate of 2 for BJP, 4 for the Congress party and 2 for the left front led by the CPI (M). If the Times Now Predictions match with the actual turnout after the results are announced, the BJP might be winning 11 seats from West Bengal in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while the party could get only 2 seats during 2014 general elections from this state. The TMC contested from all the 42 constituencies in West Bengal. While choosing the candidates to represent the party in 2019 elections from this state, Mamta Banerjee had decided to drop 10 sitting MPs and getting in 18 new candidates. Besides the 42 seats in West Bengal, TMC contested from 3 seats in Jharkhand, 2 seats in Odisha, 2 seats in Bihar, and 1 seat in Andamans. TMC has also decided to let its candidates try their luck from 10 assembly constituencies in Odisha as the state of Odisha is going for assembly and Lok Sabha 2019 polls simultaneously. The Party’s sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamta Banerjee, the TMC chief faced the elections once more from Diamond Harbor, his winning constituency. The celebrity candidate of TMV Mimi Chakraborty contested from Jadavpur. Yet another star candidate of TMC Nusrat Jahan fought from Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency.

TMC lok Sabha Election result 2019: BJP is putting up a tough fight in West Bengal

NEW DELHI: A long and bruising election season will end on Monday with polling in 41 <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> seats that could have a crucial bearing on BJP's final tally. Today also marks the last chance for regional heavyweights Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party to check the saffron advance. 
 The 18 seats in east Uttar Pradesh that go to polls include Varanasi, where BJP’s prime ministerial candidate <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> is locked in a blockbuster battle with Aam Aadmi Party chief <keyword id="260213" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Arvind-Kejriwal">Arvind Kejriwal</keyword> and <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword>'s local challenger Ajay Rai. 
 
The temple town has turned into a fortress with over 45,000 security personnel being deployed to ensure free and fair polls today. Senior police officers have descended here to personally assess the situation. Central paramilitary forces have been deployed in all the 1,562 polling stations which are also under CCTV coverage. 
 
The election took a bitter turn after BJP accused the DM and returning officer, Pranjal Yadav, of bias and demanded his removal after he controversially refused permision to Modi to hold a rally in the Muslim-dominated locality of Beniabagh. The EC strongly defended the officer but eventually appointed a special observer for the poll, whose result will be keenly watched across India. 
 
Also in the fray today is SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, looking to make a statement in Azamgarh, a constituency with a large number of Yadav and Muslim voters. 
 
Contest in UP could be highly polarized 
 
The contest in UP could be highly polarized with BJP accusing Mulayam of nurturing a “base of terror” — a thinly disguised code for minority appeasement while the SP boss has urged voters to remember all that he has done for them. 
 
BJP is hoping for a strong performance in the closing phase of the election as this will be essential to meet its target of 50 seats in the populous state. By the same measure, it is an opportunity for SP and BSP to work traditional caste equations in order to check Modi fair and square. 
 
In next door Bihar, similar calculations are at work on six seats with estranged allies BJP and Janata Dal (U) holding two seats each. This time JD(U) seems squeezed out of the contest and the clash is between BJP and the RJD-Congress combine. The seats include Gopalganj, the ancestral home of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. 
 
Of the seats in UP, SP holds six seats, followed by BSP with five, BJP with four and Congress with three. In West Bengal, 17 seats go to polls and of these, Trinamool Congress holds 14 seats, while Congress, CPI and Independent have one each. 
 
Stakes are fairly high for Trinamool that has to defend its seats and hopes to gain a few though it must contend with urban constituencies where there is a perceived drift away from it and BJP has emerged a new party of choice for voters. 
 Prominent leaders in the fray in the three stated include Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary (Behrampur, West Bengal), <keyword id="6356617" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="bjp-leader">BJP leader</keyword> Jagdambika Pal (Domariyaganj), Union minister RPN Singh (Kushi Nagar, both UP) and former minister and RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (Vaishali, Bihar). 
 
There has been a record turnout of voters, surpassing the previous record in 1984, as 66.27% voting was reported in 502 Lok Sabha seats where polling has been conducted in eight phases that began on April 7. 
 
In West Bengal, prominent TMC candidates in the race are Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Dinesh Trivedi and Saugata Roy besides celebrities like actors Dipak Adhikari (Dev) and Tapas Paul. 
 Trinamool Yuva <keyword id="2540" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="President">president</keyword> Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, is also in the fray.

2014 Election Potboiler Heads For Grand Climax In Varanasi

The <keyword id="20000743" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="RJD" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="RJD" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="RJD">RJD</keyword> on Tuesday afternoon claimed that Bihar Chief Minister <keyword id="19907431" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nitish-Kumar" source="keywords">Nitish Kumar</keyword> and Telugu Desam Party president <keyword id="19926151" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chandrababu-Naidu" source="keywords">Chandrababu Naidu</keyword> "shared a dislike for vendetta politics" which could lead them away from the BJP-led <keyword id="19938590" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NDA" source="keywords">NDA</keyword>. RJD national spokesperson Manoj <keyword id="20785661" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kumar-jha" source="keywords">Kumar Jha</keyword> also recalled the forecast of Kumar, who heads the JD(U), that "those who came to power will be ousted in 2024", and the efforts he made in laying the foundation of the <keyword id="19895684" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="INDIA-bloc" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="INDIA bloc" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="INDIA bloc">INDIA bloc</keyword>. "We have been, formerly, in alliance with both Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu. We know they share a dislike for vendetta politics which the <keyword id="19894848" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="BJP" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="BJP" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="BJP">BJP</keyword> stands for. Narendra Modi seems to be on his way out. We are hopeful that the two leaders will play a crucial role in the change of guard at the Centre," Jha told reporters here. He also made it clear, "I am making no appeal to Nitish Kumar or Chandrababu Naidu. I am only expressing my hope, given the understanding I have of their temperament". Notably, the JD(U) has put up a better than expected performance in <keyword id="19895394" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha" source="keywords">Lok Sabha</keyword> polls, establishing a lead in 14 out of the 16 seats it had contested, surpassing the BJP which had fought 17 but was trailing in five of these. In Bihar, the INDIA bloc was leading in only eight out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats but Jha was confident that the numbers would look up for the coalition in the state, even as he complained about the tardy pace of counting. "We have written to the Election Commission drawing attention towards the extremely slow pace of counting. Only 3-4 lakh votes have been counted till afternoon in most seats in Bihar where, on an average, about 10 lakh people have exercised their franchise in each constituency," said Jha. "We are confident that as the counting progresses, in many seats where we are trailing by slender margins, the picture will change. But we urge the Election Commission to carry out the exercise as per the rule book and not act on any telephone calls they may be getting from Delhi," said the Rajya Sabha MP, who has been alleging that the poll panel has often acted under pressure from the ruling BJP at the Centre. "To all our cadres in the INDIA coalition, I would appeal not to let their guard down. Counting may continue till late in the evening. We must remain vigilant," said Jha. Among the INDIA constituents in Bihar, RJD had contested 23 seats, out of which it was trailing in all but four, while Congress, which got nine seats, was leading in two. The CPI(ML) Liberation, which had contested three seats, was leading in two.

Nitish, Naidu may dump NDA, help INDIA bloc form govt: RJD

Patna, Former Bihar CM <keyword id="20102182" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rabri-devi" source="keywords">Rabri Devi</keyword> on Monday filed nomination papers for election to the state legislative council, besides three other candidates of her RJD and one of alliance partner CPI(ML) Liberation. Three candidates of the BJP, including former minister and state unit chief Mangal Pandey, also filed their nomination papers. Rabri Devi reached the Vidhan Sabha secretariat along with her husband Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, and sons <keyword id="19916246" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tejashwi-yadav" source="keywords">Tejashwi Yadav</keyword> and <keyword id="20196796" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tej-pratap-yadav" source="keywords">Tej Pratap Yadav</keyword>. The other RJD candidates who filed nomination papers were Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Syed Faisal Ali and Urmila Thakur. CPI(ML) Liberation's Shashi Yadav also filed nomination papers. Tejashwi Yadav, a former Deputy CM and the leader of multi-party <keyword id="19941767" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mahagathbandhan" source="keywords">Mahagathbandhan</keyword>, told reporters, "It is a matter of delight that our coalition has fielded three women." While Yadav's mother is seeking re-election to the upper house for a third consecutive term, Siddiqui, a veteran leader, has had a three-year-long stint in the council in the 1990s, besides having been elected to the assembly several times. The other Mahagathbandhan candidates will be making their debut in the Vidhan Parishad. Yadav, however, declined to take questions on former Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan, who is in the NDA but has dropped hints that he could switch sides if he got a better deal. CPI(ML) Liberation legislative party leader Mehboob Alam told reporters, "Let Chirag make clear his stand. His late father Ram Vilas Paswan had been our ally. If he, too, decides to junk the BJP, we shall welcome him." Congress legislative party leader Shakil Ahmed Khan, who was also present on the occasion, was asked about some leaders of his party expressing dissatisfaction that "despite having 17 MLAs", it was not fielding a candidate for legislative council polls. Notably, elections are being held for 11 seats, the terms of which are to end in May. Of these, one seat was held by senior Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra. However, Khan said, "Our party is democratic and all people are allowed to express their opinions. But this is not an issue. We got our candidate elected to the Rajya Sabha recently. We are now helping our alliance partner (CPI-ML)." After the Mahagathbandhan candidates, it was the turn of Mangal Pandey, besides BJP debutantes Anamika Singh Patel and Lal Mohan Gupta to file their nomination papers. They filed their nomination papers in the presence of Samrat Choudhary, Deputy Chief Minister and state BJP president, besides Jitan Ram Manjhi, ex-CM, whose HAM is an NDA partner and whose son Santosh Suman is also seeking re-election to the legislative council. Suman, who is a minister in the <keyword id="19907431" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nitish-kumar" source="keywords">Nitish Kumar</keyword> cabinet, filed his nomination papers last week, along with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and JD(U) MLC Khalid Anwar. The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is March 14 and voting, if required, will take place on March 21.

Rabri Devi among 8 candidates to file nomination for legislative council polls on last day

India’s ongoing elections is a battle for dominance inside the Parliament. The incumbent government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seen as the strongest outfit, even after five years in power. The party is projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an invincible candidate with solutions for the millions of problems that plague India’s economy and society, much like Thanos. On the other hand, unlike the two-party structure in the US, there is a motley crew of political parties with equally big egos but very diverse ideologies, and varying degrees of charisma. However, individual prospects of success, if they were to take on Modi by themselves, can be called uncertain at best. Therefore, there is a clamour for a grand anti-Modi coalition-- in India they call it ‘<keyword id="2838249" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mahagathbandhan">Mahagathbandhan</keyword>’-- much like the Avengers. What is missing is the equivalent of a S.H.I.E.L.D that can put together an optimal team. Yet, efforts towards forming a coalition are constantly underway. Some analysis [hyperlink] suggest that it will remain a strong possibility even after the elections. In academic terms, the phenomenon is called ‘index of opposition unity’. In all the Parliamentary elections since 2002, 45% of the seats have been won due to low ‘index of opposition unity’, according to data analysed by veteran psephologists Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwala in their recent book ‘The Verdict’. In other words, the winning party converted low votes into a seat because the rival parties were fragmented. However, it is easier said than done for parties to forge friendships given their troubled past with each other. Most parties have been part of different alliances, led either by BJP or the Congress, at some point or the other. The ideologies have been far more malleable than their egos. The contenders 
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 There are 12 regional and local parties from 10 states that have come together for now. Leading the coalition from the front is the Bahujan Samajwadi Party and Samajwadi party in Uttar Pradesh. The political landscape changed in the western parts of Uttar Pradesh when <keyword id="6388951" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rashtriya-Lok-Dal">Rashtriya Lok Dal</keyword> joined hands [hyperlink] with Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party to gear up against the rise of BJP in Uttar Pradesh. The RLD is a former ally of the <keyword id="190679" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-National-Congress">Indian National Congress</keyword>, the only other national outfit after BJP. Congress itself is not part of this alliance, at least not yet. The Congress itself has stitched together a different clique comprising of other regional satraps like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) from Tamil Nadu, the <keyword id="54794" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nationalist-Congress-Party">Nationalist Congress Party</keyword> (NCP) in Maharashtra, and the <keyword id="123786" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rashtriya-Janata-Dal">Rashtriya Janata Dal</keyword> (RJD) in Bihar, among others. While some of the communist outfits are in the Congress clique, the biggest of all the red parties, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI(M) as it’s popularly known, is still largely fighting on its own in different parts of the country. As it stands, CPI(M) cannot form a government on its own, it has to offer its support to one coalition or the other. The party’s state unit in Punjab has already offered its support to the Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh. The fight between Modi’s challengers is to decide who shall lead the pack and who shall become the Prime Minister. So while the different packs are non-committal to a common cause right now, a post-poll consensus is still very likely after some of the egos are cut to size by the election results. But Modi is not Thanos However much the BJP would like Modi to be all-powerful and invincible like Thanos, he isn’t. Even in the thumping victory of 2014, the BJP and allies, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had just 31% of the country’s votes. The parties backing Modi, too, have mostly been fair-weather friends at best. The Janata Dal (United) led by <keyword id="6358190" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nitish-Kumar">Nitish Kumar</keyword> in Bihar has been in and out of the NDA at will in the past. Bickering is a constant feature between the BJP and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, an alliance that has survived 25 years with breaks in between. While the two parties are fighting together this election, the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray recently called Modi ‘a thief’ just days before sealing the deal with the BJP. Realpolitik, the German word for politics that is more practical than ideological, comes alive every five years, around the Lok Sabha election, in India. As in The Avengers Endgame, the challengers will have to sacrifice ego and embrace realpolitik to stay relevant.

The Avengers Endgame has a lesson for Narendra Modi’s rivals in India – NO SPOILERS

Pulwama terror attack and how it has changed India in just a year

<ul><li>Singer Babul Supriyo, the BJP MP from Asansol in West Bengal swears into Modi’s cabinet. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh was also sworn in as a Minister of State.</li><li>Former Power and Railways Minister Dr Arvind Sawant from Mumbai South who defeated Milind Deora of Congress too has taken oath. </li><li>Among those who have taken oath include Thawar Chand Gehlot, S Jaishankar (former Foreign Secretary), Ramesh Pokhriyal, Arjun Munda, Dr Harsh Vardhan (former Science Ministry), Prakash Javadekar (former HRD minister), and Piyush Goel (former coal minister).</li><li>Narendra Modi has taken charge as the Prime Minister of the country for the second time in a swearing in ceremony that just concluded.</li></ul> Update at 09:05 pm Debut MP Debasree Chaudhuri of Raiganj in West Bengal takes oath as Minister of State in Modi’s cabinet. Sanjeev Balyan, Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao, Anurag Singh Thakur from Hamirpur, Suresh Angadi, Nityanand Rai, Rattan Lal Kataria, V Muraleedharan, Renuka Singh Saruta, Som Prakash, Rameshwar Teli, Pratap Sarangi, Kailash Chaudhari, Debasree Chaudhuri were also sworn in as Ministers of State. Update at 08:30 pm Ramdas Athawale from Maharashtra’s Sangli district was sworn in as Minister of State, along with Parshottam Rupala. Update at 08:25 pm Secunderabad BJP MP Kishan Reddy takes oath. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gen V K Singh, Krishan Pal Gurjar from Faridabad, and Raosaheb Danve too were sworn in. Update at 08:10 pm Prahlad Patel, Raj Kumar Singh from Arrah constituency, Hardeep Singh Puri, Mansukh Mandavia, Faggan Singh Kulaste also take oath. Update at 08:02 pm Shripad Yesso Naik from North Goa is inducted into Modi’s cabinet. Dr Jitendra Singh, the current MP of Haridwar is also sworn in. Update at 08:00 pm Rao Inderjit Singh BJP’s MP from Gurugram, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Santosh Kumar Gangwar from Bareily in Uttar Pradesh were sworn in. Update at 07:55 pm Giriraj Singh from Bihar’s Begusarai who defeated Kanhaiya Kumar, the former student leader and a candidate of Communist Party of India (CPI) was also sworn in. Update at 07:50 pm Former Power and Railways Minister Dr Arvind Sawant, Shiv Sena MP from Mumbai South who defeated Milind Deora of Congress too has taken oath. Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey, former Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (former Minority Affairs Minister), Pralhad Joshi, too have taken oath. Update at 07:40 pm Piyush Goel and Prakash Javadekar take the oath. Update at 07:35 pm Smriti Irani who won at Amethi against Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi as its MP, also took oath to cheering public. She was the textiles minister in the earlier cabinet. Update at 07:25 pm Narendra Singh Tomar (formerly Rural Development Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad (former Telecom and Law Minister); Harsimrat Kaur Badal (former food processing minister) too have taken oath. Update at 07:19 pm Ram Vilas Paswan also takes the oath of office and secrecy. Update at 07:16 pm Incumbent Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also takes the oath. Update at 07:12 pm Shri Rajnath Singh follows Modi to take oath. He was home affairs minister in the last cabinet. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah has also taken oath. He did not hold a portfolio in the last cabinet Update at 07:07 pm Narendra Modi takes charge as India’s PM for the second time Update at 07:00 pm <keyword id="6354814" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="prime-minister-narendra-modi">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</keyword> has also arrived at the event. As many as 50 ministers of the cabinet will take oath after the PM today. The ceremony will start at 7 PM. Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut have already arrived at the event at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid along with his first lady too arrived at the event. Update at 06:30 pm Dignitaries and top industrialists like Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani; along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah have already arrived at the venue, to view Narendra Modi take the oath as the Prime Minister for the second time. It’s a big day for India and Narendra Modi who will once again take oath as India’s Prime Minister for a second consecutive term. The master communicator, who has stormed back to power with yet another thumping majority, will once again use the moment and the stage as effectively as it can be. The oath taking ceremony will be held at 7 pm on Thursday (May 30), ensuring that all the attention of prime time television viewers are solely on him. He gave <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/full-text-of-modi-speech-lok-sabha-election-2019/articleshow/69467611.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">over an hour long victory speech</a>, again on prime time, after the election results were declared on May 23. Run up to the event Modi has kickstarted his oath-taking day, early this morning by saluting his heroes. He paid a tribute at the National War Memorial in the morning. The PM from Guajrat won a second consecutive term with a thumping majority, also paid tribute to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s prominent former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This charismatic former Prime Minister was instrumental in creating the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 1998. Modi who hails from Gandhinagar which was also home to father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, also visited Rajghat today to pay homage. The newly elected PM’s oath taking ceremony promises to be interesting as <a data-type="tilCustomLink">8,000 guests</a> from within and outside the country are expected to pour in for the event. It is being touted as the biggest ever event that takes place at Rashtrapathi Bhavan. The event also promises to be star-studded as many Bollywood celebrities including Vivek Oberoi who played the role of Modi, in a now-released movie ‘Modi’, are expected to attend the event. Invites have also gone in for <a data-type="tilCustomLink">BIMSTEC leaders</a>—which includes Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan. However, it is now known that leaders from Kyrgyzstan and Mauritius will be attending the event. The swearing in ceremony is striving to make Modi’s guests from his constituency in Varanasi feel special. A special gallery called ‘Kashi Sankul’ is being set-up to accommodate 250 special guests from Uttar Pradesh. The event however is not without its controversies. The winning party BJP invited the families of those killed in the West Bengal political violence which erupted just before the last phase of polling. This move angered Mamata Banerjee the chief minister of the state and the head of Trinamool Congress, who declined an invitation to the attend the ceremony. BJP’s ally in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena slammed Banerjee for this move, in an editorial published in its mouthpiece Saamna. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/modis-swearing-in-ceremony-is-set-to-be-the-biggest-event-ever-with-8000-guests/articleshow/69571352.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Modi's swearing in ceremony is set to be the biggest event ever, with 8,000 guests</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/full-text-of-modi-speech-lok-sabha-election-2019/articleshow/69467611.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Full text of Modi’s first speech after historic election victory</a>

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142 million voters go to polls today in 20 states— here’s a look at the key issues in every state

Dilsher

Sriram

Checkout West Bengal winner candidate list in Lok Sabha election 2019

BI India Bureau

TMC lok Sabha Election result 2019: BJP is putting up a tough fight in West Bengal

BI India Bureau

2014 Election Potboiler Heads For Grand Climax In Varanasi

Times Of India

Nitish, Naidu may dump NDA, help INDIA bloc form govt: RJD

PTI

Rabri Devi among 8 candidates to file nomination for legislative council polls on last day

PTI

The Avengers Endgame has a lesson for Narendra Modi’s rivals in India – NO SPOILERS

Sriram Iyer

Pulwama terror attack and how it has changed India in just a year

Sriram Iyer

Narendra Modi Oath Taking Ceremony Live Updates: Amit Shah enters Narendra Modi’s cabinet; Smriti Irani welcomed with loud cheers

BI India Bureau