 "modi, rahul, lok sabha")
Lok Sabha elections 2024: With just a few days remaining for the announcement of Lok Sabha elections schedule by the Election Commission of India (ECI), all political parties have geared up in poll mode to contest the high voltage battle in 543 constituencies across the country.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with an ambitious target of winning 400 seats as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), named some big guns in its second list of 72 candidates on Wednesday. The party included nine union ministers in its latest list, including popular leaders Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal among others. With this, the party has crossed the halfway mark in announcing poll candidates at 60 per cent of seats (436) it contested in the last polls.
10 major developments on Lok Sabha polls:
What is NDA doing?
1) The BJP is also holding talks with its NDA partners to finalise seat-sharing deals in various states. Bihar ally Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan said on Wednesday that the two parties have finalised the seat-sharing deal in Bihar. As a member of the NDA, today in a meeting with BJP National President JP Nadda, we have together finalised the seat sharing in Bihar for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. The same will be announced in due course," Paswan posted on X.
2) Amid speculations that the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) might come together after years in Odisha, the ruling state party will hold a key meeting today. If formed, the surprise partnership would be an interesting watch since both parties are the main political competitors in Odisha.
Modi's first NDA rally in Andhra
3) On the campaign front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold the first NDA rally in Andhra Pradesh on March 17. This comes just days after his massive 10-state tour across India, in which he launched development projects worth thousands of crores and attended many key events, including the first visit to Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 on March 7. Notably, the Centre also notified the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on March 11, triggering a major political row as the Congress charged it with attempting to "polarise voters" a month ahead of the polls.
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What is the INDIA bloc up to?
4) INDIA or Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance partners Rahul Gandhi, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) president Sharad Pawar, and other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders on Thursday attended farmers' meetings at Krushi Utpanna Bazar Samiti in Nashik, Maharashtra. The MVA, a state-level alliance of the Congress, NCP, and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, is yet to finalise its seat-sharing agreement in the state.
5) Gandhi joined the event as his ongoing campaign 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' entered Nasik on its 61st day on Thursday. The farmers, women, youth and tribal communities are central to the Opposition's poll plank as they charge the Narendra Modi government with "grave injustice" to different population segments while benefiting industrialists during its 10-year tenure. In a bid to cement their vote share, the Congress has also announced promises, including 'Yuva Nyay', 'Nari Nyay' and 'Adivasi Sankalp' with a promise to address issues of unemployment, education, reservation, paper leaks, land acquisition laws among others.
6) On the alliance front, the Opposition partnership of over two dozen parties is making all efforts to heal its internal cracks to put up a collective fight with the NDA. The bloc has announced plans to form coordination committees in different states to synchronise the campaigns of all allies. So far, it has stitched up alliances with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Haryana, Goa and Gujarat. In the days to come, an announcement is also expected on seat-sharing deals with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand, among others.
7) Like the BJP, the Congress (only party in the alliance with a pan-India presence) has also announced two lists of candidates for the polls. The Congress has so far fielded candidates on 82 seats.
ECI's poll schedule announcement soon
8) The ECI is due to announce the election schedule any day now. "We are ready for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. We will ensure free and fair elections across the country. We request voters across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, to enthusiastically take part in the 'festival of democracy," Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Wednesday. The elections will likely be scheduled in April-May.
9) The election body is also tasked with unravelling the details of the electoral bonds by sharing the State Bank of India's (SBI) data on its website. The electoral bonds scheme was introduced by the Centre in 2019, allowing anonymous donations to political parties. On February 15, the Supreme Court scrapped the scheme and directed the SBI to share the details of the scheme with the EC by March 12. "The SBI was supposed to submit the data by March 12. They gave us the details on time. I will go back and look at the data (and) would definitely disclose it in time," Kumar said.
PM-led meeting on ECI vacancy
10) Notably, a PM-led panel is set to meet at noon today to discuss the two top vacant spots in the election body. The development comes days after Election Commissioner Arun Goel stepped down from the position in a surprise move, leaving CEC Kumar as the lone member in the panel. Another Election Commissioner, Anup Chandra Pandey, retired last month.
