Breaking News, November 21 | Live Updates

Ahead of the counting of votes for the Jharkhand Assembly Elections,  state Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar at a press conference said, "The counting will begin at 8 am. At first, the postal ballots will be counted and the EVM counting will begin from 8.30 am. At around 9.30 am, the first round of result will be declared. Similarly, the results for the other rounds will be declared at intervals of 20 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively." 

Ahead of the counting of votes for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, state Congress chief Nana Patole said, "It is clear that Maha Vikas Aghadi will come to power and we will form the government on 25th November. We will make sure what happened in Haryana does not happen in Maharashtra...The youth, women and the unemployed have voted in large numbers. BJP will suffer due to issues of inflation and unemployment..."

A day after Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma first announced the cabinet's decision to rename Karimganj district in the state to Sribhumi, the Assam government on Thursday (November 21) issued a notification giving official approval to the move.

The Jammu Development Authority has demolished a dozen shops belonging to displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu city, allegedly without issuing notices, sparking protests from various sections that demanded action against the officials. The demolition drive was launched on Wednesday, targeting shops built by displaced Kashmiri Pandits near the Muthi camp three decades ago, officials said. The old shops were located on land belonging to the Jammu Development Authority (JDA). Relief Commissioner Arvind Karwani visited the area to assess the situation and assured the affected families that new shops would be constructed for them in the area.

Khilli Ram Meena has been appointed as the new chief secretary of Mizoram, an official said on Thursday. Meena, a 1993-batch officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, and Union Territories) cadre, served as an additional secretary in the Ministry of Minority Affairs before he was repatriated to his parent cadre recently.

Police have registered a case against around 40 persons after they allegedly vandalised three polling booths at Ghatnandur in Maharashtra's Beed district and damaged some EVMs when voting for the assembly polls was underway a day ago, officials said. Some police personnel were injured in the attack by the accused, who carried wooden sticks and sharp-edged weapons with them, they said. The case was registered at Ambajogai Rural police station, around 220 km from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, for the incidents that occurred at Ghatnandur in Parli assembly constituency, an official said.

The Gujarat BJP government has declared 'The Sabarmati Report' Hindi film, based on the Godhra train burning incident of 2002, as tax-free in the state, officials said on Thursday. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel took the decision after watching the movie at a multiplex here on Wednesday night, an official release said. Patel watched the film along with its producer Ekta Kapoor, veteran Bollywood star Jitendra, movie's actress Riddhi Dogra and Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi, it said.
"The chief minister has praised the movie and made it tax-free in Gujarat," the release said. Gujarat is the fifth BJP-ruled state to give tax-free status to the Vikrant Massey-starrer film, which released in theatres last week.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday carried out raids at several locations across the Jammu region, including Reasi, Udhampur and Ramban, in connection with its probe into terrorist infiltration cases, official sources said. The searches are being conducted following the registration of cases involving the infiltration of Pakistani terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir, they said, adding that raids are underway at nine places in the division. "NIA raids are going on at various locations in Reasi, Doda, Udhampur, Ramban and Kishtwar in cases related to terrorist infiltration," a source said.

Former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday inaugurated an exhibition here organised as part of LokManthan-2024, a colloquium of "nationalist thinkers". Speaking on the occasion, Naidu said the underlying idea of this event is to decolonise the minds of Indians and to foster a sense of pride and commitment to Bharatiya intellectual discourse, culture, heritage, music and dance. "That is the purpose of this programme.It's a noble idea behind the programme," he said. Union Minister G Kishan Reddy was also present.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday carried out raids at several locations across Jammu region in connection with terrorist infiltration cases, official sources said. The raids are underway at nine different places in the division, they said. The searches are being conducted following registration of cases involving the infiltration of Pakistani terrorists into J-K, they said. The NIA officials are being assisted by the police and paramilitary CRPF in this operation.

At least seven people were killed and several others injured on Thursday after a Patna-bound bus with passengers on board overturned in Jharkhand's Hazaribag district, police said. The incident occurred near Gorhar Police Station area, around 50 km away from district headquarters, when the bus overturned while it was taking a turn, a senior officer said.

Delhi High Court to hear plea by Arvind Kejriwal challenging a trial court's order taking cognisance of a chargesheet filed by ED against him in the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam. Delhi HC will also hear plea on non-regulation of deep fake technology.

Amid an escalation in violence in Manipur, eight companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) have reached the state capital Imphal, and these forces will be deployed in sensitive and fringe areas, an official said. These forces arrived in Imphal on Wednesday, a day after another batch of 11 companies of CAPF reached the state. "Four companies each of CRPF and BSF will be deployed in sensitive and fringe areas of the state," the official said. Of the CRPF companies, one belongs to the Mahila Battalion.

Police seized 10,080 kg of silver from a truck in Maharashtra's Dhule district on the day of polling for the state assembly elections, an official said. Polling for 288 assembly constituencies in Maharashtra was held between 7 am and 6 pm on Wednesday. The seizure was made from the truck headed towards Nagpur under Thalner police station limits at around 6 am on Wednesday during a routine check-up, Special Inspector General of Police, Nashik, Dattatray Karale said.

The ED and the CBI ramped up their investigations against Bitcoin Ponzi 'scam' suspect Gaurav Mehta, a day after the BJP made public voice notes to allege that Congress and NCP (SP) leaders were trying to encash cryptocurrency to influence Maharashtra assembly polls. The allegations were refuted by NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule and Congress leader Nana Patole who termed the voice notes released by the BJP on the eve of polling as fake.