The Election Commission of India (ECI) has stepped up efforts to ensure peaceful elections in West Bengal, a state notorious for its history of election-related violence.

Senior TMC leader Shashi Panja, who is the state’s Women and Child Development Minister, claimed that the PM visits West Bengal only before elections.

The names come amid the offer of 17 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress, which is an ally of the INDIA bloc. 

Pakistanis will vote on Thursday to elect a new government to rule the cash-strapped country amid a spree of violence including deadly blasts on the eve of elections in which the front-runner former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is believed to have the backing of the powerful military.

The blast happened outside the office of independent candidate Asfandyar Khan Kakar located in Khanozai area of Pishin district in Balochistan. Police said that the bomb was apparently left in a bag outside the election office of the candidate and was later detonated by a remote timer.

Pakistani authorities have said that they have completed all arrangements for holding general elections on February 8, including the printing of over 260 million ballot papers for all constituencies of the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies.

Despite a protracted crackdown on his political party, a buoyant Imran Khan made claims about the surprise ‘Plan C’ while speaking to reporters at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. The reporters had gathered to cover the proceedings of cases, including the cipher case, underway against him in prison on Tuesday.