LUCKNOW May 28: Even as the polling for the high-stakes by-elections to Kairana and Noorpur assembly constituencies is underway, the opposition has raised concerns about the reported malfunctioning of voting machines in some areas.

"Upchunav mein jagah jagah se EVM kharab hone ki khabrein aa rahi hain, lekin phir bhi apne matadhikar ke liye zaroor jayen aur apna kartavya nibhayan," Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said on Twitter.

It loosely translates to "getting reports of problems in EVMs in the by-election, but still voters should go out and vote".

SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said 140 EVMs were tampered with in Noorpur and that similar reports have come in from Kairana.

"BJP wants to avenge their defeat in the earlier bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur anyhow and win the ongoing polls," he said. RLD spokesman Anil Dubey echoed the Samajwadi Party's claims.

He said there were reports of EVM malfunctioning in both the constituencies, especially areas dominated by the RLD-SP combine.

"We (RLD and SP) are going to meet the chief electoral officer to lodge a formal complaint in this regard," Dubey added.

courtesy : economictimes.indiatimes.com

 

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New Delhi, Nov 5: The mega auction ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.

This is the second successive year the auction is being held overseas as Dubai hosted the previous one ahead of the IPL 2024.

The player registration officially closed on Monday and a total of 1,574 cricketers (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) have been signed up for the auction, which will clash with the third and fourth day’s play of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth, which begins on November 22.

Each franchise will be able to form a maximum squad of 25 players (including respective retained players), and a total of 204 slots will be up for grabs from the auction.

The list includes 320 capped players, 1,224 uncapped players and 30 players from the Associate Nations.

Among capped players, 48 are from India. Moreover, 965 uncapped players of the country will also be part of the auction.

This year’s auction will feature some high-profile India stars such as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh.

The 10 franchises will collectively have around Rs 641.5 crore to spend for the available 204 slots.

Out of those 204 slots, 70 are earmarked for overseas players.

As of now, 46 players have been retained by the 10 franchises with cumulative expenditure of Rs 558.5 crore.

Each franchise was allocated Rs 120 crore to build their squads but after the retention process, which was announced on October 31, Punjab Kings have the biggest purse -- Rs 110.5 crore.

The Punjab outfit retained just two uncapped players -- Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 9.5 crore.

Rajasthan Royals, under Sanju Samson, have the smallest purse of Rs 41 crore after retaining six players.

The Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained six players but they have a remaining purse of Rs 51 crore.