Page 48 - Election Commission Of India

BJP discusses seat sharing agreement for Maharashtra with Sena, NCP

Union Home Minister Amit Shah held discussions for seat sharing in Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with coalition partners Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde and NCP president Ajit Pawar. Shinde and Pawar -- chief minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra -- held talks with Shah here late Friday. Senior BJP leader and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was also present in the meeting. Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Pawar-led NCP and the BJP will contest the Lok Sabha elections in alliance in Maharashtra which sends 48 members to the lower house of Parliament. BJP had won 23 of the 25 seats it had contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while its then alliance partner -- undivided Shiv Sena -- won 18 seats of the 23 seats it had contested. The undivided NCP, as part of the opposition alliance, had contested 19 seats and managed to win four. The Shiv Sena, which had joined hands with the Congress and the NCP to form a coalition government after the ...

LS elections: Days before it announces polls, EC to meet top MHA officials

Days before it announces schedule for the Lok Sabha polls, the top brass of the Election Commission has called senior Home ministry officials to review security preparedness for the democratic exercise. Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla will meet Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and fellow Election Commissioner Arun Goel on Friday to discuss deployment of central forces in states, sources said. The meeting also comes days before the Commission's Jammu and Kashmir visit to review poll preparedness. The EC has sought 3.4 lakh Central Armed Police Force personnel for Lok Sabha and four assembly polls. With nearly 97 crore voters, the EC would set up approximately 12.5 lakh polling stations across India.

SC to hear SBI plea seeking more time for Electoral Bond details on Mar 11

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against the State Bank of India for not complying with the top court's direction

BJP chief Nadda attacks Cong govt, party on 'pro-Pak slogan' issue

Targeting the Congress government in Karnataka and its leadership over the 'pro-Pakistan slogan' issue, BJP national President J P Nadda on Tuesday questioned whether they were running the party to speak Pakistan's language and if they were representatives of the neighbouring country in India. Congress leader Syed Naseer Hussain's supporters allegedly raised "Pakistan zindabad" slogans, while celebrating his victory in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27 at Vidhana Soudha, the seat of state legislature and secretariat. A purported video of the incident was telecast by TV news channels and it also had gone viral on social media. Police on Monday arrested three persons in connection with the incident, following the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report confirming that the slogans were indeed chanted. "The Assembly assembly poll results have not come in our favour, but you might have realised by now and also the people of Karnataka that the government they have elected is cheating

No place for violence in polls, bureaucracy must be impartial: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday said strict instructions have been issued to the West Bengal bureaucracy to ensure a level playing field for all political parties, and asserted that any form of violence will not be tolerated during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Kumar, addressing a press conference here, said the goal of the Election Commission is to ensure a free, fair and violence-free elections in the state. "There is no place for fear or intimidation in elections. Partisan approach of the bureaucracy will not be tolerated; we have made this clear," he said. Kumar said sufficient number of central forces will be deployed in West Bengal, and it will be done in an impartial manner. "The SPs have been repeatedly told that if there is any complaint of intimidation, they should take immediate action. They have assured us that it will be done. If they don't act, we know what needs to be done to make them act. Police officials have been instructed to be impartial an

SBI seeks time until June 30 to share electoral bonds information

SBI noted that due to the strict measures taken to ensure the anonymity of the donors, "decoding" the electoral bonds and matching the donors to the donations made would be a complex process

LS polls: EC full bench arrives in West Bengal to oversee preparations

The full bench of the Election Commission (EC) arrived in West Bengal on Sunday to oversee the preparations for the Lok Sabha elections in the state, officials said. During the three-day visit, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioner Arun Goel will meet representatives of all political parties in the state, and hold a meeting with district magistrates and superintendents of police, they said. It will also meet Chief Electoral Officer Aariz Aftab, and is also slated to hold a meeting with Chief Secretary BP Gopalika and DGP Rajeev Kumar. The visit is primarily aimed at taking stock of the law and order situation in the state, and overseeing the preparations for the Lok Sabha polls, officials said.

Don't seek votes on basis of caste, religion, language: EC to parties

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission on Friday asked parties and their leaders to refrain from seeking votes on the basis of caste, religion and language, and not insult the devotee-deity relation or make any suggestion of a divine censure. In an advisory warning the parties, candidates and star campaigners of stern action for any violation of Model Code of Conduct instead of the previous practice of only 'moral censure', the poll panel also said that temples, mosques, churches, gurdwaras or any other place of worship should not be used for poll propaganda or electioneering. It said that the star campaigners and candidates who have received notices in past will face stern action for repeat violation of model code. The advisory comes days before the model code is expected to come into effect with the announcement of the Lok Sabha and four state assembly polls later this month, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had recently emphasised that political parties sho

LS elections: First phase of CAPF companies to be mobilised from March 1

The first phase of deployment of more than 3.4 lakh central armed police forces (CAPFs) for the upcoming general elections in the country and assembly polls in few states will begin from Friday, official sources said Thursday. According to the plan, about 2,000 companies will be mobilised as part of the pre-poll deployment in sensitive and hyper-sensitive constituencies beginning March 1. About 1.5 lakh personnel will move through roads and rail as part of this mobilisation, the sources told PTI. The first CAPF units will start reaching the states affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), apart from West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir, later this week, they said. The second phase of inducting the poll companies will be initiated from March 7, followed by some last units moving in their designated locations in the second and third week of March, they said. The commanding officers of these units have been issued the movement orders and directed to familiarise their troops about the areas

Law panel likely to propose 'one nation, one election' by mid-2029

The Law Commission is likely to recommend adding a new chapter to the Constitution on 'one nation, one election' and holding the gigantic democratic exercise of simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies across the country by mid-2029, sources said on Wednesday. The Commission, under Justice (retd) Ritu Raj Awasthi, would recommend an amendment to the Constitution to add the "new chapter or part" on simultaneous elections, the sources said. The panel would also recommend synchronising the terms of legislative assemblies in "three phases" in the next five years so that the first simultaneous polls could be held in May-June 2029 when elections for the 19th Lok Sabha are due. The new chapter in the Constitution would include issues related to "simultaneous election", "sustainability of simultaneous elections" and "common electoral roll" for Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies, panchayats and municipalities so that the three-tier simultaneous polls could be

BJP demands polling booths in housing societies, high-rises for LS polls

Party slams EC's media monitoring committee's functioning as erratic and whimsical

Banks, post offices to help ECI step up voter education ahead of LS polls

Lok Sabha elections: The initiative is part of the Election Commission of India (ECI)'s ongoing efforts to increase electoral awareness across the country

Seeking to plug loopholes, ECI tweaks policy on transfer of officers

The Election Commission has asked states to ensure that officers who are transferred out of a district ahead of polls as part of its policy are not posted in any district within the same parliamentary constituency. By tweaking its policy on transferring officers ahead of elections, the EC has sought to plug loopholes being exploited by state governments. The move comes after the poll authority took "serious note" of cases in which officers were being transferred in adjacent districts within the same parliamentary constituency by state governments. According to the policy of the Election Commission (EC), all officers who were either posted in their home district or have completed three years at a place are transferred out ahead of Lok Sabha or assembly polls to ensure they do not disturb the level-playing field in favour of a candidate or a party. "...the commission has strengthened its existing transfer policy to ensure that officials are not able to disturb the level-playing field

ECI winds up Bihar tour ahead of LS polls, voices concern over low turnout

The Election Commission of India on Wednesday asserted that low voter turnout was a cause for concern in Bihar, known as the land that gave birth to democracy and still inhabited by politically aware citizens. Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar made the averment at a press conference here, before concluding his three-day tour of the state for reviewing preparedness ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. "Bihar is known as the mother of democracy," said Kumar, in an apparent reference to the ancient republic of Vaishali. Even though people of the state are known to be politically aware, the voter turnout here has been "poor", he said. "In 2019, it was not just below the national average, but second lowest in the country. Only Jammu and Kashmir had registered a lower voting percentage," Kumar said. The CEC said several steps were being taken to ensure improvement in turnout with a special focus on those segments where this was particularly low. "We have noted that the voting percentag

Assam's electorate registers 11% jump to 24.3 mn from 21.8 mn in 2019

Assam's electorate has risen to 24.3 mn which is a jump of 11 per cent from 21.8 mn in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

A vote for disclosure

Scrapping electoral bonds is an opportunity for reform

State Bank of India to follow SC's verdict on electoral bonds scheme

5-judge bench of SC, comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, on Thursday barred SBI from any further issuance of electoral bonds

Maharashtra politics: Congress, MVA eye stronger comeback ahead of LS polls

Ashok Chavan on Tuesday announced his decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party asserting to work for the "constructive development of Maharashtra"

EC team visits Sikkim, reviews preparedness for LS, Assembly polls

An Election Commission of India team headed by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Dharmendra Sharma visited Sikkim and held meeting with state government officers to review the preparedness for Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls to be held later this year, an official said on Tuesday. The EC team held a meeting with the Chief Secretary, DGP, Special DGP, Chief Electoral Officer, State Police Nodal Officer, Home Secretary and other senior officials. In the meeting, the overall preparedness of the state for the conduct of general elections was discussed in detail, he said. On Monday, the EC team also held a meeting with all District Collectors and Superintendents of Police to review the preparedness and plan of action of the district administration. All DCs and SPs made a detailed presentation on the matters relating to the electoral roll, printing of EPIC, identification of critical/vulnerable polling stations, availability and training of manpower, arrangements for establishment o

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar at crossroads as party split sparks uncertainty

As founder of NCP, Sharad Pawar is a man in a hurry, torn between rebuilding from the wreckage or aligning with the BJP for a last shot at political survival