Page 35 - Election Commission

EC reaches remotest corner to ensure 'no voter is left behind': CEC

Traversing jungles and snow-capped mountains, wading through rivers with life jackets on, trekking for miles and carrying EVMS on horseback and on elephants, Election Commission teams reach the remotest corner and the most inaccessible spot to ensure no voter is left out. Fanning out across the length and breadth of India, right from the world's highest polling station at 15,000 feet above sea level to a booth in a shipping container in an islet, the EC could well be moving mountains to conduct elections in the world's largest democracy. The idea, said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, is that no voter is left behind. "We will walk the extra mile so that voters don't have to. We will go in the snowed mountains and jungles. We will go through horses and helicopters and on the bridges and even ride on elephants and mules just to ensure everyone is able to vote," Kumar said earlier this month while announcing the schedule for 18th Lok Sabha polls this month. In the upcoming Lok

EC to ensure 100% webcasting of all polling booths in Punjab: CEO Sibin C

Sibin C said that they have introduced a revamped NextGen District Information System for Elections (DISE) this time

Summer heat: EC asks poll officers to ensure facilities at polling stations

The Election Commission has sought "strict compliance" of its directive of providing assured minimum facilities at polling stations, including drinking water, shade and medical kit, for the Lok Sabha elections in the backdrop of the IMD predicting a harsh summer. It has also shared with its state chief electoral officers a set of 'dos and don'ts' issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to minimise the impact of the impending heat wave. In a letter sent out to its CEOs on March 16, the day it announced schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, the EC reminded them about its earlier set of instructions on assured minimum facilities at polling stations. According to the June 2023 instructions on assured minimum facilities, which have been circulated afresh, during summer, every polling party shall be supplied with oral rehydration salts (ORS) for their own use as well as for any voter needing the same due to heat-stroke. "A hand bill on 'Dos and Don'ts' in case of heat

Sikkim Assembly elections: BJP releases second list of nine candidates

There are 32 seats in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly and one Lok Sabha constituency

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

Election officer shuts Twenty20 pharma shop in Kerala for MCC violation

The District Election Officer (DEO) here on Monday directed the Twenty20 Association, linked with the Twenty20 political party run by business group Kitex, to shut down a recently opened medical shop offering substantial discounts, for violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The district collector, who is also the returning officer, pointed out that the private company, the registered association and the political party all share the same logo and the same set of executives. The order came on a complaint filed by two residents, that the medical shop opened next to the Bhakshya Suraksha Market, run by the Kizhakkambalam Grama Panchayat ruled by the Twenty20 party, was in violation of the MCC. "Prima facie, it is revealed that there is a violation of section 4.4.2B(i) of the manual on MCC, and there is a case here which may influence the voters in freely exercising their right to vote by inducement through gratification," the order read. The DEO said, "It is a unique case where th

BJP inducing voters by offering bonus for poll survey: DMK in plaint to EC

The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu on Monday accused the BJP of inducing voters by offering a bonus for a poll survey on its website for the ongoing Lok Sabha election, and urged the Election Commission of India to take appropriate action on saffron party. Offering bonus/gifts to those who participated in the poll survey amounts to bribing the voters, DMK Organisation Secretary R S Bharathi argued, and said that the Model Code of Conduct was equally applicable to candidates and their parties during elections. "A national party advertising election bonus is certainly an inducement to the voters, much less direct offering of money to the voters to vote in favour of the BJP," Bharathi said in a petition to the ECI and also to Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo. He said that the advertisement admittedly issued by the BJP with the heading 'BJP Election Bonus' on the party website is a clear violation of section 123 (1A) of the Representation of People Act, 1951. Sharing a few

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

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

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

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 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

Electoral bond disclosures: Small, unrecognised parties reap benefits

Most unrecognized parties had disclosed their share of electoral bonds received as 'nil', as per the electoral bonds disclosure in digitised form on 17 March 2024

Cong's 3rd list for LS polls: Kharge's son-in-law to contest from Gulbarga

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury would contest from Baharampur in West Bengal

Election Commission publishes electoral bond data with matching numbers

The 552 page list of parties that redeemed these bonds is of the duration April 12, 2019 to January 24, 2024. The EC said it has uploaded the data received from the SBI on "as is where is basis"

EC transfers police chiefs who are kin of politicians in Punjab, Assam

The Election Commission on Thursday transferred district police chiefs in Assam and Punjab, who are kin of prominent politicians, and shunted out "non-cadre" district magistrates and superintendents of police in some states. The poll body said the non-cadre district magistrates (DMs) and superintendent of police (SPs) have been shunted out as the posts are meant for IAS and IPS officers. The EC said it has adopted a tough stance against posting of non-cadre officers at leadership positions by transferring eight non-encadred SPs/SSPs and five non-encadred DMs in Punjab, Odisha, Gujarat and West Bengal. Wherever relatives of prominent politicians were holding charge as DM or SP, have also been transferred, it said, adding SSP Bathinda (Punjab) and SP Sonitpur (Assam) have been transferred. The EC said the officials in these two districts have been transferred as a "pre-emptive measure" to dispel any apprehensions of administration being biased or perceived to be compromised. The mov

Poll calendar: Election 2024 date sheet for most populous urban centres

Andhra Pradesh, which will also hold its Assembly elections simultaneously with the LS polls, and Telangana will go to polls in a single phase on May 13

LS polls: Over 11,600 political hoardings removed within 72 hours in Noida

As many as 11,682 defacements, including wall writings, posters and banners, were removed in Gautam Buddh Nagar district within 72 hours in line with the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha election, according to official data. Of the total defacements removed, 9,361 were on public properties and 2,321 on private spaces across the district, data on the status of enforcement of poll code, accessed by PTI, showed. According to the Election Commission's guidelines on model code of conduct, all wall writings, posters, papers, cutouts, banners, flags or defacements in any other form, including cutouts, hoardings, banners, among others, on government properties should be removed within 24 hours from the announcement of elections. Additionally, all "unauthorised political advertisement" in similar forms on public properties and public spaces such as railway stations, bus stands, airports, railway bridges, roadways, government buses, electric or telephone poles, municipal and local ...