Lok Sabha Election 2024 Live: DMK names candidates for 21 seats for April 19 polls, releases manifesto

- As the first of the seven-phase 2024 Lok Sabha elections went underway on Wednesday with the Election Commission issuing notification to begin the nomination process, here is a look at how the political parties fared in the 2019 parliamentary polls in the key state of Uttar Pradesh.

- In a state that sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the BJP bagged 62 seats and its ally Apna Dal got two in the last general elections. The Congress managed just one seat, with Sonia Gandhi retaining Raebareli.

- The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party had forged an alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) supporting them. But they did not fare well. BSP got 10 seats, the SP five while the RLD drew a blank.

- The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Tuesday postponed the civil services preliminary examination to June 16 from May 26 due to the Lok Sabha elections.

- The civil services examination is conducted annually by the UPSC in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview -- to select officers for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.

- "Due to the schedule of the impending general election, the commission has decided to postpone the civil services (preliminary) examination-2024 which also serves as screening test for Indian Forest Service examination, 2024, from 26-05-2024 to 16-06-2024," it said.

- After the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) parliamentary party meeting, party chief Chirag Paswan said, "...It is certain that I will be the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate, the NDA candidate, from Hajipur - which was the 'karmabhoomi' of my father."

- "He (Pashupati Kumar Paras) is welcome (to contest from there). I have bravely faced all challenges. I have never been scared of any challenges...I accept this challenge too. Uncle (Pashupati Kumar Paras) has to ultimately make a decision," he added.

- He also said, "...We will now head to Bihar. In the time to come, we are heading towards a major battle. Our goal is to win more than 400 seats. Under the alliance, for this goal of PM Modi all of the allies will win together. We are confident of this..."

- "I think that in the next 2-4 days, consensus will be reached on the names of candidates for all 5 seats. Names will be announced in the next 4-5 days," he added.

- Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, BJP MLA from Jharkhand Jai Prakash Bhai Patel joined the Congress on Wednesday and vowed to strengthen the INDIA bloc.

- Patel joined the Congress at the party headquarters in the presence of AICC in-charge of Jharkhand Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur, Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam and party's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera.

- Patel is an MLA from the Mandu assembly constituency that falls under the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha segment. Earlier he had been an MLA of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

- The opposition AIADMK in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday named the first set of 16 candidates for the April 19 Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu.

- In the list released by party General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, the AIADMK has nominated former MP J Jayavardhan and ex-MLA, Dr P Saravanan.

- The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday released the list of candidates for 21 seats for the April 19 Lok Sabha polls, retaining among other sitting MPs, Kanimozhi, TR Baalu and A Raja.

- It has allotted the rest 18 seats to its allies--Congress, Left parties and VCK among others.

- The party also released its manifesto for the polls, touching upon other subjects like appointment of Governors and abolition of Article 356.

- Of the 21 names the ruling party fielded, 11 were new faces, even as three women, including sitting South Chennai MP Tamizhachi Thangapandian were named.

- The process of filing nomination papers for the Puducherry Lok Sabha constituency began on Wednesday with the issuance of notification for the poll.

- The Returning Officer of Puducherry Parliamentary seat A Kulothungan issued the statutory notification today setting in motion the process of election to the lone LS seat in Puducherry. Nominations might be filed at the office of the Returning Officer located in the District Collectorate complex, it said.

- RJD and Congress leaders meet at the residence of Congress General Secretary Mukul Wasnik in Delhi, over seat-sharing.

- Congress MP Dr Md Jawaid says, "...We hope that our alliance will win the maximum seats, I can tell you this..."

- As many as 11,682 defacements, including wall writings, posters and banners, were removed in Gautam Buddh Nagar district within 72 hours in line with the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha election, according to official data.

- Of the total defacements removed, 9,361 were on public properties and 2,321 on private spaces across the district, data on the status of enforcement of poll code, accessed by PTI, showed.

- According to data on the status of model code of conduct enforcement in Gautam Buddh Nagar, local election authorities removed defacements, including wall writings, posters and banners, from 9,361 public and 2,321 private properties across the district from March 17 to March 19.

- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has rescheduled its exam dates in view of the Lok Sabha elections, according to officials. While the chartered accountant exams will be conducted in the month of May as decided earlier, the dates have been rejigged.

- While the chartered accountant exams will be conducted in the month of May as decided earlier, the dates have been rejigged.

- According to the revised schedule, the intermediate course exam for Group 1 will be held on May 3, 5 and 9. Earlier, the exam was scheduled on May 3, 5 and 7. For Group 2, the intermediate course exam will be held on May 11, 15 and 17. Earlier, the exam was planned on May 9, 11 and 13.

- The notification for the first phase of polls to the five Lok Sabha seats in Assam on April 19 was issued on Wednesday, an election office official said.

- Elections to the 14 Sabha constituencies in Assam will be held in the first three phases on April 19, 26 and May 7.

- In the first phase, Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur will go to the polls on April 19.

- AIADMK releases its first list of 16 candidates for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

- In the AIADMK alliance, DMDMK is to contest in 5 seats, SDPI in 1 seat and Puthiya Tamilagam in 1 seat, from Tenkasi constituency, said AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami

- Tamil Nadu CM and DMK chief MK Stalin said, "It is DMK which makes the manifesto before elections and continues to do what we say, this is what our leaders taught us. As Kanimozhi said we went all over the state and listened to various people. It is not only a DMK manifesto but the people's manifesto."

- "When the BJP came to power in 2014, they destroyed India. None of the election promises were fulfilled. We have formed the INDIA alliance and we will form our government in 2024. In our manifesto, we have announced special schemes for TN and schemes for every district are given in this manifesto," he added.