Page 33 - Election Commission Of India

Step-motherly treatment dished out by Modi govt to Jharkhand, alleges Cong

The Congress on Saturday claimed that the Centre owed Jharkhand lakhs of crores of rupees in coal royalties and central scheme benefits, and alleged that the Modi government dished out a "step-motherly treatment" to the state. Congress general secretary posed questions to the prime minister ahead of his rally in Palamu, Jharkhand. "Why is the PM not releasing 1.36 lakh crores due to Jharkhand? Why is the PM denying 8 lakh people of Jharkhand the homes they were promised? What happened to the Mandal Dam?" Ramesh said in a post on X. In Jharkhand, coal mines are operated by subsidiaries of Coal India Limited, which owes huge sums of money to the state government, he said. "There is an outstanding of Rs 1,01,142 crore for non-payment of land compensation, Rs 32,000 crore under common cause dues head, and Rs 2,500 crore under washed coal royalty head. Sadly, given the BJP's track record in opposition-ruled states, the step-motherly treatment being dished out to Jharkhand is hardly a ..

LS polls: AAP's campaign song gets poll body approval after modifications

The Delhi CEO's office has approved AAP's Lok Sabha elections campaign song after the party made modifications to it, officials said on Friday. AAP MLA Dilip Pandey, who penned and voiced the song, confirmed that the song has been approved. The party had claimed on April 28 that the Election Commission "banned" its campaign song "Jail ka jawab vote se denge". Delhi poll body officials, however, had said AAP was asked to modify the contents of the song since it violated the Election Commission's guidelines and advertising codes. An official said the party resubmitted its proposal to the Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office after making the modifications, following which the song was approved. The song was released last month. In a post in Hindi on X, Pandey said, "Truth can be troubled, not defeated! 'Jail ka jawab vote se' is not just a campaign song of AAP but it is the essence of the sentiment going on in the minds of the common people of the country. That is why, in the end,

Lok Sabha polls: 1,717 candidates to contest elections in phase 4, says ECI

The poll body further mentioned that the average number of contesting candidates in a parliamentary constituency for the fourth phase is 18

Why India's voter turnout is low and improving it will be complicated

Its numbers trail those of several developing countries like Indonesia and Brazil

Pvt helicopter going to pick Shiv Sena (UBT) leader tilts in Maha's Raigad

The pilot of a helicopter was injured after it tilted during landing in Maharashtra's Raigad district on Friday, a police official said. The chopper was scheduled to pick Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare for a public rally in connection with the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, he said. The helicopter got tilted when the pilot tried to land on a makeshift helipad at Mahad around 9.30 am, he said. While the pilot suffered injuries, the helicopter's rotor blades got damaged in the incident, he said, citing preliminary findings.

Would want a Gandhi to contest the seat, says Cong's Amethi bet KL Sharma

Congress's Amethi candidate Kishori Lal Sharma on Friday said he would rather a Gandhi fight from the seat, but he cannot refuse the party's order which asked him to fight the election. Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, has been fielded by the Congress from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat a longstanding bastion of the Gandhi family, breached in 2019. "Even today, I want the Gandhi family to contest the election from Amethi. But I consider it my duty to accept the order given by the family," Sharma told PTI at the Gauriganj Congress office here. "I have always been a 'sevak' of the Gandhi family and whatever responsibility the Gandhi family has entrusted to its sevak, I will fulfil it," he said. After days of suspense, Congress on Friday fielded Sharma, a representative of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and before them, Rajiv Gandhi, in Amethi, as its candidate for the seat. Sharma is scheduled to visit the Collectorate later in the day and file his nomination papers before ...

Lok Sabha polls: EC is 'extremely biased', says BRS leader K T Rama Rao

Against the backdrop of the Election Commission barring former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao from campaigning for 48 hours, his son and BRS working president K T Rama Rao on Thursday alleged that the poll body has been "extremely biased". He said the poll panel has been "looking the other way" when it comes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, but that is not the case with other leaders in the country. Talking about the EC ban on KCR, Rama Rao said that there was possibly a small emotional outburst when the former chief minister was speaking about the farmers and weavers (for which the action was taken by the EC). All that the EC could have done was probably censure KCR and ask him to not repeat, but it went on to ban him for 48 hours, he said. On the other hand, when Prime Minister Modi "goes about to the extent of disturbing the social harmony by saying very, very strange things against the Muslims having more children" and

Model Code of Conduct violations that ECI has flagged this election season

While it may ban a candidate from campaigning for a while, the ECI has no judicial arm for enforcement

LS polls 2024: AAP delegation meets EC over its LS polls campaign song

A delegation of senior AAP leaders on Tuesday met the Election Commission (EC) over the Delhi poll panel asking the party to modify its campaign song, and asserted that there was "nothing objectionable" in its lyrics. The party on Sunday had claimed that the commission has "banned" its Lok Sabha campaign song "Jail Ka Jawab, Vote Se Denge", but officials of the Delhi poll body had said the AAP was asked to modify the contents of the song since it violated EC's guidelines and advertising codes. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) delegation included Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi, national secretary Pankaj Gupta and senior leader Dilip Pandey. After meeting the EC, Bharadwaj said they told the commission that many objectionable hoardings had been put up by the BJP all over Delhi for about a month. "In these hoardings, opposition leaders, especially (AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister) Arvind Kejriwal, have been shown in an objectionable manner through pictures. We ha

Hearing in 2018 defamation case against Cong leader Rahul Gandhi postponed

Hearing in a 2018 defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his alleged objectionable remark targeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah will now be held on May 14 as no judge was assigned to the MP-MLA court. According to Gandhi's counsel Kashi Prasad Shukla, the hearing was scheduled for Thursday but could not be held as a judge was yet to be assigned to the court. The MP-MLA court fixed May 14 as the next date of hearing in the matter, he added. The defamation complaint against Gandhi was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra six years ago. Last December, the court issued a warrant against Gandhi. Subsequently, Gandhi halted his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Amethi on February 20, appeared in the court and was granted bail. The complaint was filed here on August 4, 2018, against Rahul Gandhi for his alleged objectionable comments against Shah made at a press conference in Bengaluru in May that year during the Karnataka elections. The complainant referred to Gandhi's comment

49 Lok Sabha, 318 Assembly candidates withdraw nominations in Andhra: CEO

Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena on Tuesday said 49 Lok Sabha candidates and 318 Assembly candidates have withdrawn their nominations for the May 13 simultaneous elections in the state. Consequently, the number of candidates contesting the 25 Lok Sabha seats got pruned to 454 and the 175-member Assembly to 2,387 candidates, the CEO said. "Following the withdrawal of nominations on Monday, April 29, 454 candidates will contest from the 25 Parliament constituencies and 2,387 from the 175 Assembly constituencies, said Meena in a press release. After the scrutiny of nominations on April 26, the Election Commission rejected 183 out of 686 Lok Sabha nominations and 939 out of 3,644 Assembly nominations. It accepted 503 Lok Sabha and 2,705 Assembly nominations which now stand at 454 and 2,387 after the withdrawals.

LS polls 2024: PM Modi's gurarantee vs Mulayam's legacy in Mainpuri

Even as a BJP wave swept through Uttar Pradesh in the last general elections, the Mainpuri constituency elected Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. With the saffron party determined to conquer the SP citadel this time, the fight is between 'Modi ki guarantee' and Mulayam's legacy. Around 220 km from the state capital Lucknow, Mainpuri is a pocket borough of the SP with the party retaining the seat for nearly three decades. It was among the five seats that the SP won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which it had fought in an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). After the death of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2022, his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav bagged the seat in a bypoll. Toiling hard to retain the seat, Dimple Yadav is pinning her hopes on the work done by the veteran SP leader, while reminding people at election meetings that her sole aim is to carry forward "Mulayam Singh's legacy" by following in his footsteps. Dressed in a saree, Dimple Yadav can be seen .

Lok Sabha polls 2024: Shahabuddin's widow to contest as independent

Former Bihar assembly Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary has entered the fray on a RJD ticket from Siwan, the lone parliamentary seat where the party did not formally announce its candidate. Choudhary, who has been a multiple-term MLA from Siwan, filed his nomination papers on Tuesday in the presence of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, son and heir apparent of party supremo Lalu Prasad. Choudhary, who is a few months shy of 70, had lost the Speaker's post in February after he was voted out following a no-confidence motion moved by the NDA upon realignment with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president. The Siwan Lok Sabha seat is currently held by JD(U), which has dropped sitting MP Kavita Singh and announced the candidature of Vijaylaxmi Devi who joined the party recently. The pitch has been queered for both parties with Hina Shahab, the widow of multiple-term former MP Mohd Shahabuddin, filing her nomination papers as an Independent. Following the conviction of her husband in a num

Congress, TMC critique EC over delay in sharing phase 1, 2 voting data

The Congress, CPI(M) and the TMC on Tuesday criticised the Election Commission over the delay in publishing the final voter turnout figures for the first two phases of the Lok Sabha polls. The commission in the evening made public the voter turnout of the first and second phases of polling held on April 19 and April 26. Voting for the general elections is being held in seven phases, the remaining are on May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1. Counting of votes will be taken up on June 4. "Finally, ECI (Election Commission of India) has put out the final voter turnout figures for the first two phases which are substantially, not marginally as is normal, higher than the initial figures," Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on X. "But why are the absolute numbers of voters in each parliamentary constituency not put out? Percentages are meaningless unless this figure is known," he said. Yechury alleged that apprehensions of manipulation of resul

LS polls: EC to hand out diamond rings to Bhopal voters to boost turnout

Concerned about the low turnout during the initial phases of the Lok Sabha elections, election officials in Bhopal have decided to conduct a lucky draw every two hours on voting day

LS polls 2024: Battle lines drawn between ex-allies Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP

The Osmanabad Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra will witness a contest between former allies Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The Sena (UBT) has fielded sitting MP Omprakash Rajenimbalkar against Archana Patil, who is making her poll debut with the NCP. Home to the famous Tulja Bhavani temple that attracts lakhs of devotees from all over the state, Osmanabad -- now called Dharashiv -- is the seventh-largest city in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. Although the state government has rechristened the district as Dharashiv, in the records of the Election Commission, the Lok Sabha constituency is still known by its old name of Osmanabad. The constituency comprising Osmanabad, Tuljapur, Omerga, Lohara, Kalamb, Bhoom, Paranda and Washi assembly seats will go to polls on May 7 in the third phase of the general elections. Former minister Rajenimbalkar won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with a significant vote margin by defeating Ranajagjitsinha Patil, who contes

LS polls 2024: PM Modi to address poll rally in Telangana's Medak today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing a poll rally at Chilver Village in Medak district of Telangana on Tuesday, BJP sources said. This is Modi's second meeting in the state after the poll schedule was released last month. Telangana is one of the southern states on which the BJP is pinning its hopes to win a considerable number of seats to achieve its ambitious target of 370 in the Lok Sabha polls. Senior BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier set a target of winning double digit seats out of the 17 in Telangana. Shah will be campaigning on May 1 for the party's Hyderabad contestant Madhavi Latha, who has been fielded against sitting MP Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM. The BJP won four seats in the last elections in 2019. Barring Soyam Bapurao (Adilabad), the party gave tickets to the sitting MPs in the other constituencies. BJP Telangana chief and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, the party candidate for Secunderabad, National general Secretary Bandi Sanjay Kuma

Delhi High Court rejects plea to bar PM Modi from elections for six years

The petition alleged that the Prime Minister had violated the Model Code of Conduct by invoking 'god and place of worship' in his recent speech in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh

Battleground 2024: Rivals misusing tech to spread fake videos, says PM

In Delhi, a BJP delegation, led by Union minister Ashwani Vaishnaw, complained to the EC alleging that the Congress circulated a "deep fake and morphed" video of Amit Shah to derail the poll process

Probe 'terrible mismanagement' of Lok Sabha polls in Kerala: Congress to EC

Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly V D Satheesan said the elections in Kerala were "grossly mismanaged", leading to considerable delays in numerous polling booths