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Added on the 21/01/2021 12:54:02 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
The poll is the first in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a strict virus lockdown in late March that led to millions of poor migrant workers, many from Bihar, losing their jobs with some having to walk for days or weeks back home. The state, one of India's poorest, has been ruled by an alliance of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the regional Janta Dal United party for over a decade. But opinion polls indicate disquiet with the incumbent regime. The state, one of India's poorest, has been ruled by an alliance of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the regional Janta Dal United party for over a decade. IMAGES
Election officials at a polling station in the northern city of Shamli pack and seal electronic voting machines as the first of seven voting stages closes in the world's biggest election. IMAGES
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says that Israel's military campaign in Gaza has turned the territory into the world's "greatest open-air graveyard". Borrell's comment comes as he arrives in Brussels for a meeting of EU foreign ministers. SOUNDBITE
Indian riot police fire tear gas at hundreds of protesting farmers seeking to breach heavily guarded roadblocks and march on the capital to demand guaranteed crop prices. IMAGES
Speaking in New Delhi, French President Emmanuel Macron underlines the importance of internal cooperation, saying, "we have to work together to provide solutions to the rest of the world on what makes sense." "We have to resist the fragmentation of this world," he adds. SOUNDBITE