Missing actor Gurucharan Singh of 'Taarak Mehta...' fame returns home

"Polling in the seventh phase of General Elections 2024 which commenced across 57 PCs recorded an approximate voter turnout of 59.45 per cent, as of 8.45 p.m.," the poll panel said in a statement.

"The approximate voter turnout figures of 59.45 per cent, as of 8.45 pm, will continue to be updated State/PC/AC wise on the Voter Turnout App of ECI. This will also give aggregate phase wise figures in addition to the State/PC/AC wise figures," it said, adding that it will issue another press note with voter turnout figures at around 11.45 pm.

As per the EC, the maximum turnout was recorded in West Bengal (9 seats) at 69.89 per cent and the lowest in Bihar (50.79 per cent). Jharkhand (3 seats) reported 69.59 per cent, Himachal Pradesh (4 seats) logged 67.53 per cent, the UT of Chandigarh 62.80 per cent voting in its sole seat, Punjab (13 seats) 55.86 per cent, and UP (13 seats) 55.6 per cent.

There were 908 candidates in the fray, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Varanasi) heading the list of prominent candidates. Other top BJP candidates included Union Ministers Anurag Thakur in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur and Pratap Sarangi from

Odisha's Balasore, former Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib and Preneet Kaur from Patiala, actress Kangana Ranaut in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, and ex-IFS officer and former envoy to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu (Amritsar).
Congress candidates included former Union Ministers Manish Tewari in Chandigarh and Anand Sharma from Himachal's Kangra, former Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh's son Vikramaditya Singh in Mandi, Ajay Rai in Varanasi, former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi from Jalandhar, and state unit chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring from Ludhiana.

Other significant candidates were West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, seeking to retain his Diamond Harbour seat, SAD leader and former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal from Bathinda, Samajwadi Party's Kajal Nishad from Gorakhpur, where the Bhojpuri actress took on industry star and sitting BJP MP Ravi Kishan, CPI-M's Sujan Chakraborty against sitting Trinamool MP Sougata Roy in Dum Dum, and Saira Shah Halim against sitting Trinamool MP Mala Roy in Kolkata Dakshin.

"The Election Commission of India extended its deepest and most profound gratitude to voters, all the stakeholders including polling personnel, law enforcement agencies, security and paramilitary forces, volunteers, Indian Railways and Indian Air Force, amongst many who made this mammoth exercise a grand success."

"Stringent security measures were in place creating a conducive environment for voters to cast their vote without fear or intimidation, it said, adding that with meticulous advance planning and rigorous training of election officials, elections this time have seen a drastic reduction in the number of repolls demonstrating the robustness of the election process," the EC said in its statement.

Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha election is slated for June 4, along with counting for the Andhra Pradesh and Odisha Assemblies. Vote counting for Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim Assembly polls is slated for Sunday.

(IANS)

Read more: Election news

With the qualifiers heading to the business end, India still have three opportunities to add another Paris Olympic berth to the one Nishant Dev secured Friday and Jaismine would be high on confidence after dominating Switzerland’s Milisic in all three rounds. Jaismine will next face Mali’s Marine Camara in the quarterfinals and a win will assure her a quota at the Paris Olympic Games.

But there was a setback for the Indian contingent in the men’s 57kg despite Sachin putting up a spirited performance against Paalam. The 2024 Strandja Memorial gold medallist took the fight against the Olympic silver medallist in Round 1 and landed a few jabs and hooks and lost the round only by a whisker. But Paalam then increased his pace and grabbed a decisive advantage in Round 2 and consolidated his position in the final round to win 5:0.

With just three Paris Olympic quotas on offer in the men’s 57kg category, Sachin will now face Kyrgyzstan’s Munarbek Seiitbek Uul in the playoffs. India has so far bagged four Paris berths. While Nishant clinched his quota place in Thailand, Nikhat Zareen (women’s 50kg), Preeti (54kg), and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) had confirmed their respective berths by medals at the 2022 Asian Games.

(IANS)

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In the match played on Court 7, Balaji and Reyes-Varela, who made it to the main draw as Alternates following the withdrawal by another pair, defeated French wildcards Dan Added and Theo Arribage 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in front of a partisan and hostile French crowd Saturday.

The Indo-Mexican pair broke their opponent's serve in the seventh game of the first set to take a 4-3 lead and went on to win the set 6-4. They continued the good work by breaking serve in the first game of the second set and held their serve to take a 2-0 lead. The French pair, however, broke back serve in the sixth game to make it 3-3 and went on to win the next three games to win the set 6-3.

In the decider, games went with serve till 3-2 when the Indian/Mexican pair broke serve in a hard-fought lengthy game and surged 4-2 ahead. Balaji and Reyes-Varela held their serve and broke the French pair's service again to seal victory in one hour and 42 minutes.

Balaji and Reyes-Varela served well, putting in 69 percent first serve and won 36 of 55 points on that. They hit 39 winners while their rivals committed 24 unforced errors compared to 19 by the Indian/Mexican pair.

In the third round, Balaji and Reyes-Varela are likely to face Australian Open champions Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden if the Indo-Australian pair gets past their second-round opponents.

(IANS)

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