Page 38 - Election Commission Of India

LS elections: Sarbananda Sonowal files nomination for Dibrugarh seat

Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday filed his nomination as the BJP candidate for the Dibrugarh parliamentary constituency in Assam, an official said. Sonowal, accompanied by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, filed his nomination papers before Returning Officer Bikram Kairi. Polling for the Dibrugarh constituency will be held on April 19 in the first phase of the general elections. Assam has 14 Lok Sabha seats. Besides Sarma, Sonowal was accompanied by Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president Atul Bora, United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) leader Promode Bodo, sitting BJP MLA and Union minister Rameswar Teli and state party president Bhabesh Kalita. Sonowal, the Union Minister for Shipping, Ports, Waterways and Ayush, who had represented the constituency in 2004 as an AGP candidate, will contest against United Opposition Front, Assam (UOFA) nominee Lurinjyoti Gogoi. Gogoi is also scheduled to file his nomination later on Tuesday. Braving inclement weather, BJP supporters ca

Lok Sabha polls 2024: ECI issues advisory for voter safety against heatwave

Following the heatwave alert issued by the IMD, the Election Commission has asked officials to take precautionary measures to tackle the heat wave impact during polls

Politicians can't be restrained from participating in political acts: SC

Granting of bail preconditioned on the premise of politicians not participating in political activities would be violative of fundamental rights, said the apex court

LS polls: Kerala enrols over 300,000 young voters to electoral roll

As many as 3,11,805 new voters have registered since the release of the draft Electoral Roll on October 23, 2023

LIVE: Congress releases sixth list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls

Lok Sabha elections 2024 latest news: Catch all the latest updates on the announcements related to General Elections here

Highlights: BJP releases new list for LS; Kangana, Naveen Jindal nominated

From AAP's plans to launch protests across the capital to Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari complaining to EC against TMC, catch all the latest updates from around the world here

J-K's lithium reserve will be plundered, 'gifted' to firms by BJP: Mehbooba

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday charged the lithium reserves in Jammu and Kashmir will be gifted to companies that will later donate a part of the "illicit proceeds" to the ruling party at the Centre. The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister was reacting to a news report which said the government will again auction the lithium blocks in Jammu and Kashmir "Now J&Ks lithium reserves too are being plundered & gifted to dubious companies who will then donate a part of these illicit proceeds to the ruling party as 'party fund'," she charged in a post on X. The former chief minister also said that the "nexus between BJP and crony capitalists" explained why the Centre was not taking note of legitimate demands of Ladakhi people for inclusion under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. "Now that the nexus between BJP & crony capitalists stands exposed it offers the perfect explanation why GOI continues to ignore the legitimate demands of Ladakhis. Disturbing visuals of .

Highlights: PM Modi, other BJP leaders meet to pick candidates for LS polls

From Kejriwal's arrest to portfolio allocation in Haryana govt, catch all the latest news from around the world here

PM Modi, other BJP leaders meet in Delhi to pick candidates for LS polls

The BJP's Central Election Committee met here on Saturday to finalise the party's candidates in several states for the Lok Sabha polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president J P Nadda were joined by other CEC members as they went over the list of probables to take a final call. The states for which candidates were tipped to be discussed include Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The CEC has met twice earlier and has named candidates for 291 Lok Sabha seats so far, including in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Telangana among others. The BJP is yet to announces candidates for many seats in some of these states. At least three of the declared candidates, including Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh, have withdrawn from the fray after their names drew some controversy or other. The names of the leading figures of the party, including Modi, Shah, Rajn

Punjab BJP urges EC to order investigation into state's excise policy

A delegation of the Punjab BJP on Saturday urged the Election Commission of India to order an ED probe into the state excise policy, which it claimed was tailored along the lines of the one for Delhi. The delegation led by Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar comprised Union Minister Som Parkash, former union minister Vijay Sampla, former state unit chiefs Ashwani Sharma and Manoranjan Kalia, MLA Jangi Lal Mahajan, national executive member Harjit Singh and state general secretary Parminder Brar. The delegation handed over a memorandum to Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C, seeking a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the state excise policy. This came after Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an excise policy-linked money-laundering case on Thursday. Speaking to reporters here, Jakhar said Punjab's excise policy was framed on the lines of the Delhi excise policy because of which ...

Union minister Pramanik has 14 criminal cases against him: Affidavit

Union minister Nisith Pramanik, who has been renominated by the BJP in Cooch Behar seat for the Lok Sabha elections, has 14 criminal cases pending against him, according to an affidavit filed by him along with his nomination paper. Of the 14 cases pending against the Union Minister of State for Home, nine were registered between 2018 and 2020. The other cases were filed between 2009 and 2014, as per the affidavit. He joined the BJP in 2019 after he was expelled from the Trinamool Congress in 2018 over allegedly putting up several independents in that year's panchayat polls in the state against party-nominated contestants in Cooch Behar district. Claiming that the criminal cases were politically motivated, a district functionary of the BJP said that most of the FIRs against Pramanik were registered after he cut off ties with the ruling TMC in West Bengal and thereafter joined the saffron party. The cases registered against the Union minister range from attempt to murder and rioting

Intention behind electoral bonds was good, all parties need funds: Gadkari

Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said it was not possible to run a political party without funds, and added that the Centre had introduced the electoral bonds scheme, now struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in 2017 with a "good intention". The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said all political parties need to sit together and deliberate if the Supreme Court gives any further direction on the matter. He made the comments at an event organised by a media house in GIFT City near Gandhinagar on Friday. "When Arun Jaitely was (Union finance) minister, I was part of that discussion (regarding electoral bonds). No party can survive without resources. In some countries, governments fund political parties. There is no such system in India. Thus, we chose this system of financing political parties," said Gadkari on a question about electoral bonds. He noted the main intention behind introducing electoral bonds was that political parties get funds directly, but th

Interfering with appointment of ECs would lead to chaos, says Supreme Court

"Suspension of legislation pending consideration is an exception and not the rule," the Supreme Court observed on Friday while dismissing pleas challenging the appointment of election commissioners under a 2023 law, saying interfering with the selection process would lead to "chaos and a virtual constitutional breakdown". A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, which pronounced the order dismissing the pleas against the appointment of election commissioners (ECs) Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu on Thursday, gave detailed reasons for its findings. It, however, expressed concern on the procedure adopted for the selection of ECs and said such selection should be made with full details and particulars of the candidates circulated among all members of the selection panel comprising the prime minister, leader of the largest opposition party in Parliament and a Union minister nominated by the prime minister. "Procedural sanctity of the selection process requires a fair

Electoral bonds worth Rs 9.6 crore purchased by 33 entities expired

Before the Supreme Court declared the electoral bonds illegal, they were valid only for 15 days from the date of issue to be encashed

41 companies facing probe by central agencies in electoral bond list

Forty-one companies facing probe by the CBI, ED and the I-T Department gave Rs 2,471 crore to the BJP through electoral bonds, and Rs 1,698 crore of it was donated after raids by these agencies, civil society activists who challenged the poll funding scheme in the Supreme Court claimed on Friday. Addressing the media after the Election Commission made public a fresh data set of electoral bonds, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioners in the court, said at least 30 shell companies purchased electoral bonds worth over Rs 143 crore. He said 33 groups which have got 172 major contracts and project approvals from the government also made donations through electoral bonds. "They have got a total of Rs 3.7 lakh crore in projects and contracts, in exchange for Rs 1,751 crore electoral bond donations to the BJP," he alleged. Bhushan also claimed that 41 companies which faced raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the .

Electoral bond disclosures: Jalan group bonds well with political parties

Financial records of two group companies show that the donations gave are disproportionately high compared to the of the firms, at least in the years they purchased the bonds

Intention behind bringing electoral bonds scheme was good: Nitin Gadkari

Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said it is not possible to run a political party without funds and added the Centre had introduced the electoral bonds scheme, now struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in 2017 with a "good intention". The senior BJP leader said all political parties need to sit together and deliberate if the Supreme Court gives any further direction on the matter. He made the comments at an event organised by a media house in GIFT City near Gandhinagar. "When Arun Jaitely was (Union finance) minister, I was part of that discussion (regarding electoral bonds). No party can survive without resources. In some countries, governments fund political parties. There is no such system in India. Thus, we chose this system of financing political parties," said Gadkari on a question about electoral bonds. He noted the main intention behind introducing electoral bonds was that political parties get funds directly, but the names (of donors) are not ...

BJP biggest beneficiary of Aurobindo Pharma's Rs 52 cr electoral bonds

Aurobindo Pharma, one of whose directors was arrested in the Delhi liquor scam, had bought electoral bonds for a total of Rs 52 crore with more than half of it going to the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to data released by the Election Commission. The Hyderabad-based firm had purchased electoral bonds between April 3, 2021 to November 8, 2023 and Rs 34.5 crore was donated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rs 15 crore to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and Rs 2.5 crore to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The drug maker purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore on November 15, 2022 five days after one of its directors, P Sarath Chandra Reddy was arrested for involvement in money laundering linked to the controversial Delhi excise policy, which has been scrapped. Comments from the company could not be obtained. As per the Election Commission data, BJP encashed this sum on November 21, 2022. Last year in June, Reddy turned approver in the case after a Delhi court allowed him to

Bharti Airtel, subsidiary donated Rs 234 cr to BJP via electoral bonds

Bharti Airtel and its subsidiary Bharti Telemedia bought around Rs 235 crore of electoral bonds and donated all but about Rs 1 crore to the ruling BJP, according to data released by the Election Commission. Bharti Airtel donated nearly Rs 197.5 crore to BJP, Rs 50 lakh to J&K National Conference, and Rs 10 lakh to Rashtriya Janata Dal. Bharti Telemedia, which is a subsidiary of the Sunil Mittal-led telecom firm Bharti Airtel, donated bonds worth Rs 37 crore to BJP, the data showed. In all, the two Bharti Group entities donated about Rs 234 crore to BJP, via electoral bonds. A mail sent to Bharti Airtel for comments did not elicit a response. Meanwhile, in a sharp contrast to big corporate houses that gave large sums to political parties, IT companies in India donated just around Rs 15 crore to various political parties through electoral bonds, as per the data. In the IT pack, Cyient contributed the most - donating Rs 10 crore to BJP, while Zensar Technologies contributed Rs 3 ...

FIR against BJP MP Tejasvi Surya for alleged hate post on social media

An FIR has been registered against BJP MP Tejasvi Surya over an alleged hate post on social media, Election Commission officials said on Friday. The move comes after a complaint filed by officials of the poll body and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) that the Bengaluru South MP, who is also the President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, had in a post allegedly targeted a minority and spread enmity between two communities. He also made a similar post on March 19 on 'X' and YouTube which got one million views, 587 comments, 5400 retweets and 13 likes. He has 1.3 million followers on X, thereby influencing the voters and disturbing the communal harmony between the communities, it further alleged. Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered at Halasuru Gate police station on March 20 under sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295