Overview
- Counting starts at 10 a.m. across 23 centres with only two wards tallied at a time—46 wards initially—using 2,299 staff and CCTV-backed, computerised systems.
- The State Election Commission rejected opposition claims that polling ink was easily removable and warned that attempts to erase marks to vote again are a punishable offence.
- Mumbai’s municipal commissioner directed staff to apply ink on the skin rather than just the nail, and authorities cautioned that statewide trends for all 227 wards will emerge more slowly under the phased process.
- Amid nationwide unrest in Iran and an airspace closure that forced Air India and IndiGo to reroute and cancel some services, India has advised its nationals to depart and activated contingency flights.
- Government sources indicated the first repatriation flight could operate as soon as Friday, with an estimated 10,000–12,000 Indians in Iran, and media-cited allegations of a ‘bullet fee’ remain unconfirmed by authorities.