Page 11 - Election

Cong's poll body meets to finalise 1st list of candidates for LS elections

The top leadership of the Congress is attending a meeting in the national capital on Thursday to finalise the party's candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi and general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, as well as other senior leaders who are part of the Congress' Central Election Committee (CEC) were present at the meeting. Finalising candidates for Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Telangana, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim and Manipur, among others, is expected to be discussed during the meeting. The Congress has not declared any candidate so far. Last week, the BJP came out with its first list of 195 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Congress sources said the party is likely to declare its first list of candidates soon to enable the candidates to start their poll campaign. Speculation is rife over Rahul Gandhi's candidature from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's from Rae

LS polls: Cong to hold discussion on candidates for 10 States in CEC meet

According to sources, the states of Chattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim and Manipur will be put for discussion

Congress to give final shape to manifesto for LS polls, to focus on justice

The Congress is likely to wind up internal deliberations for giving final shape to the party manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and is likely to come up with some innovative measures like an apprenticeship scheme to deal with unemployment. The party's manifesto committee, which is headed by former finance minister P. Chidambaram and has senior leaders like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Shashi Tharoor and Anand Sharma, among others, is likely to wind up discussions on the manifesto on Tuesday. The key members of the panel met at the party headquarters on Tuesday afternoon and gave final shape to the document. The key members of the panel also met here on Monday. "The committee will hold the last round of talks before finalising the party manifesto today and will make its final recommendations," a sources said. The 50-page document will be presented before the party top leadership and then the Congress Working Committee for final approval. Among those who participated in the ...

Obscene video: Won't contest election till proven innocent, says Rawat

A day after an obscene video allegedly involving him surfaced on social media, BJP MP Upendra Singh Rawat who has been fielded again by the party from Barabanki on Monday said he will not contest any election till proven innocent. He also demanded an investigation into the matter. In a post on X in Hindi, Rawat said, "A fake video of mine generated by deepfake AI technology is being made viral, for which I have lodged an FIR." He said he has requested the party president to get it investigated. "I will not contest any election in public life until I am proven innocent," the first-time MP said. An obscene video purportedly involving Rawat emerged on social media, police said on Sunday. The video surfaced a day after the BJP fielded him as its candidate from the Barabanki Lok Sabha seat. On the basis of a complaint by MP's personal secretary Dinesh Chandra Rawat, a case has been lodged against an unknown accused, Kotwali police station in-charge Aditya Tripathi had said. It was a

Unwarranted: India's response to UNHR High Commissioner's comment on polls

India on Monday said that the concerns" raised by the UN's top human rights official over its electoral process are unwarranted and do not reflect the reality of the world's largest democracy, as New Delhi highlighted that many across the globe seek to learn from its electoral experience and aspire to emulate it. India's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Arindam Bagchi said Delhi has noted comments by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk about the country's forthcoming general elections. In his global update to the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Turk voiced concern by "increasing restrictions on the civic space with human rights defenders, journalists and perceived critics targeted as well as by hate speech and discrimination against minorities, especially Muslims. However, his concerns in this regard are unwarranted and do not reflect the reality of the largest democracy in the world, Bagchi said. Bagchi underlined that in

Free and fair Lok Sabha polls would be ensured in J&K, says CEO Pole

Jammu and Kashmir's Chief Electoral Officer P K Pole on Saturday said free and fair Lok Sabha polls would be ensured in the Union Territory. Pole reviewed the preparations for the polls in the Anantnag Parliamentary constituency in south Kashmir. "The notification for Lok Sabha polls would be issued in 10-12 days. Election is definitely a challenging task, but our officers are experienced. Our endeavour is to have a peaceful, transparent, free and fair election and improve the voter turnout compared to the last elections," Pole told reporters. Asked about the security arrangements, the CEO said the security environment has become better over the last few years but there were some challenges. "The challenges are still the same and so we have flagged the requirement for forces. The locally available forces and those who come from outside will be deployed according to the norms of the election commission whether it is on polling station duty or area domination or other duties. We will

Google partners with news publishers to curb deepfakes ahead of elections

The company added that fact-checks in multiple Indian languages and formats, including videos, will be shared and amplified via partnering news publishers

BJP's manifesto on defence

From an arms importer, India now ranks among the top 25 arms-exporting nations. BJP's 2024 manifesto must include a coherent policy to increase defence exports

Artificial intelligence chatbots not ready for election prime time: Study

All of the models performed poorly. The results found that just over half of the answers given by all of the models were inaccurate and 40% were harmful

RS polls: Cong wins 3 seats in Karnataka; BJP bags lone seat in HP, 8 in UP

The ruling Congress in Karnataka won three seats and the BJP one in the Rajya Sabha elections in Karnataka on Tuesday. Those who were elected to the Upper House are Ajay Maken, G C Chandrasekhar and Syed Naseer Hussain, all belonging to the Congress, and Narayansa K Bhandage of the BJP. Five candidates were in the fray for the four seats in the elections, including JD(S) contestant D Kupendra Reddy. The elections were marred by cross-voting. While one of the BJP MLAs, S T Somashekar, voted for the Congress's Maken, the other, A Shivaram Hebbar, abstained.

Elections, manifestos, and the infra agenda

Manifestos should clearly indicate the thrust areas planned to be addressed

Rajya Sabha polls highlights: BJP wins 8 seats out of 10 in UP

Rajya Sabha polls latest updates: Catch all the latest news on the Rajya Sabha elections here

RS polls: BJP accuses CM Sukhu of violating model code of conduct Shimla

He demanded that his vote should not be counted till a decision in this regard is taken by the election commission

Campaign launched to encourage 1st-time voters to exercise their franchise

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Centre on Tuesday launched a national campaign to encourage first-time voters to exercise their franchise and make the poll process more participative. The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Union Ministry of Education launched a jingle -- "Banega Desh Mahan, Jab Vote Karenge Hum" -- aimed at about 1.85 crore first-time voters in the country who are eligible to vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. "Let us make our electoral process even more participative. I call upon people from all walks of life to spread the message, in their own style, among first time voters," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X, using the #MeraPehlaVoteDeshKeLiye hashtag. "As the nation gears up for its biggest festival of democracy, I urge all of you to join the #MeraPehlaVoteDeshKeLiye campaign and encourage young voters to exercise their democratic right," Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said. Union Educat

Pakistan EC holds open hearing of SIC's plea on reserved seats' allocation

Another 60 seats are reserved for women and 10 for minorities, and are allotted to the winning parties based on proportional representation

2024 Lok Sabha playbook: BJP may field new faces to beat anti-incumbency

Party sources said the BJP is in talks with a top Hindi movie star to contest from Delhi's Chandni Chowk seat

A deep threat to election integrity

Deepfakes pose a daunting challenge for India and, if not tackled, they could undermine the 2024 elections

CPI announces LS poll candidates in Kerala, Annie to contest from Wayanad

The Communist Party of India (CPI), the second-largest coalition partner in Kerala's ruling Left Democratic Front, has announced the names of its candidates for four crucial seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Notably, senior party leader Annie Raja has been nominated to contest from the pivotal Wayanad constituency, a seat presently held by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Party veteran and former MP Pannian Raveendran will contest from Thiruvananthapuram, another crucial seat represented by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. The announcement was made by Party State Secretary Binoy Viswam at a press conference. Former agriculture minister V S Sunil Kumar and the party's youth wing AIYF's leader C A Arunkumar will be fielded from Thrissur and Mavelikkara seats respectively, he added.

TDP-Jana Sena releases first list of candidates for Andhra Assembly polls

While the TDP announced its candidates for 94 seats in the first list, the Jana Sena declared the candidature of five of the total of 24 seats that the party is going to contest in the alliance

Kovind committee on simultaneous elections holds another progress review

The high-level committee on 'one nation, one election' headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday reviewed the progress made by it since it was set up in September last, an official statement said. The committee at its meeting on Saturday "reviewed its various activities", the statement said. The panel has been reviewing the progress made by it since it was set up in September last year. The committee is mandated to examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities and panchayats keeping in view the existing constitutional framework. While the ruling BJP and other parties, including the Shiv Sena and the Janata Dal (United), have supported the concept of simultaneous polls, the opposition parties, including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), have rejected the idea.