An FIR against seven to eight people has been lodged in the matter, the police said, adding that no arrests have been made so far

Poll body Election Commission, which is conducting the seven-phase exercise over the next 43 days, said in a statement, “The Election Commission is working strenuously to ensure a smooth, transparent, and inclusive electoral process in the subsequent phases of General Elections 2024”.
Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, two states which also elected their assemblies today, recorded 68 and 68.3 per cent turnout. In 2019, 81.4 per cent people voted in Sikkim, 65.1 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh.
Tamil Nadu, one of the rare states that had a single-day election, saw 67.2 per cent voting, down from 72.4 per cent in 2019. Rajasthan, which along with Tamil Nadu accounts for half of the 102 seats that went to polls today, recorded 57.3 per cent voting — down from 64 per cent.
At 7 pm, Uttar Pradesh recorded 59.5 per cent voting and Madhya Pradesh 66.7 per cent. One of the biggest turnouts, 77.6 per cent, was recorded in Bengal, where the BJP is hoping to close the gap with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress. In 2019, the BJP won 18 of the state’s 42 seats.
The BJP-dominated northeastern states saw high turnout — Assam 72.3 per cent, Meghalaya 74.5 per cent, Manipur 69.2 per cent Arunachal Pradesh 67.7 per cent and tiny Tripura a whopping 80.6 per cent.
In Bengal, Trinamool Congress and BJP workers clashed in Cooch Behar and accused each other of violence, intimidating voters and assault on poll agents, news agency PTI reported. The police denied any violence took place. In Manipur, a burst of gunfire was reported from a polling station in Bishnupur. In Imphal East district, a polling station was vandalised. In Tamil Nadu, two elderly people — one a 77-year-old woman — died at polling booths in Salem district.
The BJP, which has been projecting huge confidence about a third consecutive term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had won only 50 per cent of the seats up for grabs today in the last general election. The NDA had won 41 of these seats and the UPA 45. Six of the seats have been redrawn as part of delimitation.
For its target of 370 seats, the BJP is heavily banking on south, Karnataka and especially Tamil Nadu — where it is yet to open its account — and Bengal. In an exclusive interview to NDTV today, Union minister and the BJP’s chief strategist Amit Shah said PM Modi’s popularity “will translate into our best showing in the south”.  
The Congress, pushed out of much of north India, insists it is on the cusp of a comeback. Senior leader KC Venugopal has said the party will post improved performance in most northern states – including the BJP bastions of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. With assembly poll victories in Telangana and Karnataka, and the alliance with DMK in Tamil Nadu, it projects huge confidence about the results in the south.
The counting of votes will be held on June 4.

A person set themselves on fire on Friday outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s historic hush-money trial was taking place, according to CNN.

CNN reporters said they saw a man engulfed in flames for more than three minutes. “I see a totally charred human being,” one of them said on air.

The shocking development came shortly after jury selection for the trial was completed, clearing the way for prosecutors and defense attorneys to make opening statements next week in a case stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.

The 12 jurors, along with six alternates, will consider evidence in a first-ever trial to determine whether a former US president is guilty of breaking the law.

The jury consists of seven men and five women, mostly employed in white-collar professions: two corporate lawyers, a software engineer, a speech therapist and an English teacher. Most are not native New Yorkers, hailing from across the United States and countries like Ireland and Lebanon.

Trump is accused of covering up a $130,000 payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says they had a decade earlier.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and denies any such encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in three other criminal cases as well, but this is the only one certain to go to trial ahead of the Nov. 5 election, when the Republican politician aims to again take on Democratic President Joe Biden.

A conviction would not bar him from office.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)