Page 22 - Election Commission

INDIA bloc crosses halfway mark, on track for over 350 seats: Congress

As the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls concluded on Saturday, the Congress claimed the BJP's fate is "all but sealed" with the INDIA bloc having already crossed the halfway mark of 272 seats and is on course for a tally of over 350 seats in total. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also claimed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is set to sweep the NDA away. "With six phases of the elections now concluded, voting for 486 seats is over. As the outgoing PM starts figuring out his retirement plans, here's the round-up of the campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections: The BJP's fate is all but sealed. It has become clear that they are South mein Saaf, aur North, West, and East mein Half," Ramesh said in a post on X. He claimed the INDIA bloc has grown from strength to strength since Phase 1 and after polling in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and now Delhi, "we are seeing the incredible chemistry that has been built between coalition partners". "Th

LS polls: Does it behove PM to speak like this: NCP(SC) on 'mujra' remark

NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) on Saturday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for accusing the INDIA bloc of performing "mujra" for its vote bank, and asked whether it behoved him to make such a statement. Speaking at election campaign rallies in Bihar, the prime minister said he would foil the alleged plans of the INDIA bloc to rob SCs, STs and OBCs of their rights and divert these to Muslims. "They may remain enslaved and perform 'mujra' to please their vote bank," Modi added. NCP (SP) Clyde Crasto asked on social media why the PM had a fascination for words starting with the alphabet 'M', referring to his earlier comments. "What is this fascination with the alphabet 'M'? Musalman, Machli, Mangalsutra, Mutton... now '#MUJRA'. Does this behove well for the Prime Minister of India to speak like this?" Crasto said in a post on X.

LS polls phase 6: Dignitaries, politicians, wrestlers queue up to cast vote

Several dignitaries, including President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, and politicians cast their vote in the national capital, while in Haryana, many prominent wrestlers like Babita Phogat and Yogeshwar Dutt exercised their franchise in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday. In the penultimate round, 58 parliamentary constituencies in eight states and Union Territories went to polls. Simultaneously, polling was also held for 42 assembly seats in Odisha. Here are snapshots of the day: ** President Murmu cast her vote at an all-women polling booth -- decorated in pink and white colours -- inside the President's Estate while Vice President Dhankhar voted at the polling station at the CPWD service centre in Delhi's North Avenue. ** Several politicians, including Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, were seen at polling stations in Delhi along with their family members. Chief Election Commissione

Ranchi provides free ride to urban voters in bid to up polling percentage

In a bid to increase polling percentage in urban booths of Ranchi, the district administration tied up with a bike-taxi aggregator, to provide free pick-and-drop facilities to urban voters, an official said on Saturday. The service will be provided in Ranchi's 181 polling booths across the city. As many as 2,377 polling stations have been set up for the election on Ranchi Lok Sabha seat. Of which, 949 were urban booths and 1,428 were rural polling booths. "I appreciate the initiative of the Ranchi administration for providing free pick-and-drop facility during the election. I just applied the 'vote now' code on the Rapido application and received the service from home free of cost," said Sumit Kumar, a voter. Rapido Jharkhand Head, Jay Kumar Gaur, told PTI, "Around 800 motorbikes were put into service of the voters by the Rapido. The service was aimed to bring the voters to polling booths and contribute in enhancing the polling percentage." Assistant Returning Officer (ARO), Ranc

LS polls: PoK belongs to India and we will take it, says HM Amit Shah

Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is a part of India and "we will take it", Home Minister Amit Shah asserted on Saturday as he castigated the Congress for trying to "frighten us" by saying that the neighbouring country possesses atom bombs. "The Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) hamara hai, hamara rahega aur hum ise lekar rahenge (PoK is ours and it will remain ours. We will take it," Shah told a rally at Amb in Una district in support of Union minister Anurag Thakur, the BJP candidate from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat. Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already won 310 seats in the first five phases of Lok Sabha polls and the target of '400-paar' would be achieved in the sixth and the last phases, while Congress Rahul Gandhi would be restrained at just 40 seats. He also mocked the Congress by asking the crowd at the rally as to who will be the prime minister, if the grand old party comes to power. He also appealed to people to make the BJP victorious in the six assembly seat ..

We need to dispel doubts, suspicions around electoral processes: CEC

Kumar commited to addressing concerns about the integrity of the electoral process

LS polls: All you need to know about India's monumental election logistics

The voter rolls for all 543 parliamentary constituencies are available online, ensuring transparent stakeholder verification

LS polls: SC refuses to issue EC direction to upload voter turnout data

The Supreme Court on Friday refused an NGO's plea to issue the Election Commission directions to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website during the Lok Sabha polls, saying it would be difficult for the poll panel to to mobilise manpower. A vacation bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said it cannot issue any such directions at the moment as five phases of polling have concluded and two remain. The top court adjourned the interlocutory application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) to be listed before the regular bench after the elections and pointed out that prima facie it appears the prayers in the application are similar to the main petition pending since 2019 on the issue. The bench said it would be difficult for the poll panel to mobilise manpower for uploading the voter turnout data on its website. Granting any relief in IA will amount to granting relief in the main petition which is pending, the bench said. On M

Lok Sabha elections: What is Form 17C that EC has refused to make public

The ECI's decision has sparked controversy, especially amidst concerns over delays in releasing final voter turnout data and discrepancies between provisional and final figures

Lok Sabha polls Phase 6: List of constituencies, key candidates. Details

Lok Sabha elections: Eight states and UTs including Delhi and Haryana will go to polls in the sixth phase on May 25

Campaigning ends for 6th phase of LS polls in 58 seats, voting on May 25

Voting will take place on all seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi and Haryana which BJP clean-sweeped in the 2019 polls

15.2 mn voters to exercise their franchise at 13,641 booths in Delhi: CEO

Reiterating that double voting chances are less, the CEO said that all adequate steps have been taken to avoid these kinds of incidents

EC partners with Rapido, Zomato, Swiggy to encourage voter turnout in Delhi

Delhi Chief Electoral Officer P Krishnamurthy said on Thursday that over one lakh polling personnel have been deployed for the conduct of polls on May 25 while several steps have been taken to protect people from the intense heat wave. Highlighting special initiatives to enhance the voting experience, he said they have set up 70 pink polling stations across Delhi, one in each assembly constituency, which will be entirely operated by women polling staff, according to a statement. Additionally, 70 model polling stations will feature enhanced facilities. For the first time, each parliamentary constituency will have a polling station fully staffed by persons with disabilities (PwD), he added. "We have meticulously planned and executed all aspects of election management, including manpower, logistics and transport management," he said. He emphasised that based on the directives from the Election Commission and the IMD forecast of an intense heat wave, comprehensive measures have been ..

Publishing polling booth-wise data will 'vitiate' electoral space: EC

The Election Commission has opposed in the Supreme Court an NGO's demand to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of the conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections, contending it will "vitiate" the electoral space and cause "chaos" in the poll machinery in the midst of the general elections. A vacation bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma is scheduled to hear the plea of NGO Association for Democratic Reforms', which has also sought direction to the poll panel that scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded) of all polling stations be uploaded immediately after the polls. In its counter affidavit, the poll panel said there is no legal mandate to provide Form 17C to any person other than the candidate or his agent. It said that public posting of Form 17C - which gives the number of votes polled in a polling station - is not provided in the statutory framework and could lead t

PM Modi doesn't understand pain of farmers, poor: Priyanka in Haryana

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, accusing him of not understanding the pain of farmers and the poor and alleging that his government frames policies only for his "billionaire" friends. She also hit out at the BJP-led Centre over the issues of "Agniveer" and female wrestlers. Addressing a Lok Sabha poll rally in Panipat district of Haryana after holding a roadshow in Sirsa, Gandhi announced that once the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) forms its government at the Centre, farmers will get a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for crops and their debts will be waived. "One thing that has become clear in 10 years is that Modiji does not understand the pain of farmers, the poor, middle class, women and youngsters," she said. Panipat falls under the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency, from where Haryana Youth Congress president Divyanshu Budhiraja is contesting the polls against former chief .

Lok Sabha polls: 11 candidates older than 80 years, 537 in 25-30 age range

Eleven candidates older than 80 and 537 in the 25-30 age range are contesting the Lok Sabha elections, according to an analysis of election data gathered by the Association for Democratic Reforms. The analysis looked at data of 8,337 of the 8,360 candidates contesting the elections. According to the analysis, 505 candidates aged between 25 and 40 contested the elections in the first phase. There were 849 candidates aged between 41 and 60, 260 between 61 and 80, and four over 80 years. During the second phase, 363 candidates in the 25-40 age group were in the fray, followed by 578 aged between 41 and 60, 249 between 61 and 80, and two over 80 years. In the third phase, 411 candidates in the 25-40 age range contested the elections while 712 were aged between 41 and 60. There were 228 candidates aged between 61 and 80 and one aged 84. During the fourth phase, 642 candidates in the fray were aged between 25 and 40, 842 in the 41-60 age range, and 226 between 61 and 80 years. In the

LS polls: 60,000 personnel, cameras to ensure peaceful voting in Delhi

With 60,000 personnel, including 51 companies of paramilitary forces and 13,500 home guards from Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and drones and CCTV cameras, the Delhi Police is all prepared to conduct the Lok Sabha polls in the city. The voting for all seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi is scheduled on May 25 in the second last phase of the elections. These seven seats include East Delhi, New Delhi, North East Delhi, North West Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi and Chandani Chowk. Deputy Commissioner of Police (election cell) Sanjay Sehrawat told PTI that an elaborate arrangement has been made to ensure peaceful elections in the national capital. Around 60,000 police personnel will be deployed in Delhi on the polling day and at least 33,000 of them will be guarding voting centres, DCP Sehrawat said. "There are a total of 2,628 voting centres of which 429 are sensitive. Extra paramilitary personnel with drones and CCTV cameras will be deployed in these sensitive poll centres,"

Congress, AAP responsible for crisis of credibility in politics: Rajnath

Senior BJP leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday attacked opposition INDIA bloc partners Congress and AAP, alleging that they are responsible for the crisis of credibility in Indian politics. Singh made the remarks while addressing an election meeting in favour of BJP's West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency candidate Kamaljeet Sehrawat, hours before campaigning for the May 25 round of polling ended. Targeting Congress and AAP, which are contesting the general elections in the national capital under a seat-sharing arrangement, he said, "The leaders of the Congress and the AAP have contributed the most to the crisis of credibility in the politics of India." While the AAP is contesting four seats, the Congress has fielded candidates from three seats. The seven Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi go to polls in the sixth round of the seven-phase general elections. Taking a swipe at Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on continuing on the post despite being ..

EC wrong in directing Cong not to 'politicise' Agnipath scheme: Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday said the Election Commission was "egregiously wrong" in directing his party not to 'politicise' the Agnipath scheme, asserting that it is the right of an Opposition party to criticise a policy of the government. The Election Commission Wednesday came down heavily on the ruling BJP and opposition Congress, asking them to desist from campaigning along caste, community, language, and religious lines. The EC also asked the Congress not to politicise defence forces and make potentially divisive statements regarding the socio-economic composition of the armed forces. The Commission was referring to remarks made by top Congress leaders on the Agnipath scheme. In a post on X, Chidambaram said the ECI is wrong in directing the Congress party not to 'politicise' the Agnipath scheme. "What does 'politicize' mean? Does the ECI mean 'criticise'? Agniveer is a scheme, a product of the policy of the government. It is the right of an Opposition ...

Indiscriminate disclosure of voter turnout data online to cause chaos: EC

The Election Commission on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that "indiscriminate disclosure" of polling station-wise voter turnout data and posting it on website will cause chaos in the election machinery which is already in motion for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The poll panel said that public posting of Form 17C - which gives the number of votes polled in a polling station - is not provided in the statutory framework and could lead to mischief and vitiation of the entire electoral space as it increases the possibility of the images being morphed. The EC also dismissed as false and misleading the allegation that the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections saw an increase of "5-6 per cent" in the voter turnout data released on the day of polling and in the subsequent press releases for each of the two phases. The Election Commission stated this in an affidavit filed in response to a plea of an NGO seeking a direction to the poll panel to upload polling station-wise voter .