Page 22 - Elections

Ceiling for LS polls expenditure: District poll panels fix menu, rates

Candidates in Punjab's Jalandhar can spend Rs 15 for a cup of tea and the same price for a samosa they offer to people during public meetings and campaign trails in the Lok Sabha elections. However, those in Madhya Pradesh's Mandla can spend Rs 7 for a cup of tea and another Rs 7.50 for a piece of samosa, considered a staple snack in many parts of the country. With polls to elect the 18th Lok Sabha approaching, district poll panels are fixing the rates for expenses as part of the election expenditure monitoring process. The candidates will have to manage their expenditure within the prescribed limit. These rate cards often become a subject of "meme-fest" on social media about the prices not being in sync with the current inflation level. In most states, including Andhra Pradesh, the expenditure ceiling for a Lok Sabha candidate is set at Rs 95 lakh. However, in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Sikkim, the limit is slightly lower at Rs 75 lakh per candidate. Similarly, for Union territori

LS elections: Varun Gandhi pens emotional note for Pilibhit after BJP snub

Gandhi was replaced with former Congress leader Jitin Prasada in the party's fifth list of candidates to contest from Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit seat

LS polls: Notification issued for 2nd phase of polling in 3 Bengal seats

The Election Commission on Thursday issued notification for the second phase of polling in three parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal on April 26. Voting will take place in the Darjeeling, Raiganj and Balurghat Lok Sabha constituencies in the second phase. "The notification for the three Lok Sabha constituencies going for polls in the second phase has been issued today," an EC official told PTI. The notable candidates in the second phase are BJP's West Bengal president and sitting MP from Balurghat, Sukanta Majumdar, who is pitted against TMC's Biplab Mitra. In the Darjeeling constituency, the TMC has nominated Gopal Lama against BJP MP Raju Bista. BJP's Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma, however, has announced that he would contest as an independent candidate against the party's official nominee from the Darjeeling seat. Sharma had earlier told PTI that he would remain within the BJP while contesting as an independent, and the party can take any disciplinary action it des

Centre notifies 3-10% hike in MGNREGA wage rates for FY25 ahead of polls

Wage rates in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are set to experience the lowest increase at 3% for FY25 compared to FY24, while Goa will see the highest increase at 10.6%

LS polls: Congress releases list of 14 candidates for UP, Telangana, MP

It also fielded Pratap Bhanu Sharma against former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Vidisha. Tarvar Singh Lodhi has been nominated from Damoh

I do not have the kind of money to contest LS elections: FM Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said she declined the offer of the BJP to contest elections pleading that she did not have the 'kind of funds' required for fighting the Lok Sabha polls. The minister said that the BJP President (J P Nadda) gave her the option to contest either from Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. "After thinking over a week or ten days, I just went back to say... maybe not. I do not have that kind of money to contest. I also have a problem whether it is Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. It's also going to be a question of various other winnability criteria that they use...Are you from this community or are you from that religion? Are you from this? I said no, I do not think I am going to able to do it," she said. Sitharaman was speaking at the TIMES NOW Summit 2024 here. "I am very grateful that they accepted my argument...So I am not contesting," she added. When asked why even the finance minister of the country does not have enough funds to fight Lok S

Lok Sabha elections second phase: Schedule announced for filing nominations

The Election Commission announced kept April 4 as the last date for filing nominations, while the candidates can withdraw their candidacy till April 8

LS elections: TMC complains against BJP MP Dilip Ghosh for violating MCC

TMC moved the Election Commission after the BJP MP from Medinipur constituency, Dilip Ghosh, made personal remarks about Mamata Banerjee's ancestry, calling it a violation of the model code of conduct

LS elections: Congress invites Varun Gandhi to join the party post-BJP snub

In its fifth list of candidates released on Monday, the BJP replaced the sitting Pilibhit MP with ex-Congress MP Jitin Prasad for the upcoming elections

LS polls: Congress-Kangana row boils, BJP's solo bet in Punjab. Updates

Lok Sabha polls: The BJP has intensified its attack on the Congress over the objectionable remarks on Kangana Ranaut, made via the social media account its spokesperson Supriya Shrinate

LS elections: Kerala BJP chief Surendran to take on Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad

K Surendran was named in the BJP's fifth list of candidates and faces a tough task to challenge the Left-Congress dominance in Kerala

LS polls: BJP announces candidates for 17 Bihar seats, drops 3 sitting MPs

The BJP on Sunday announced its candidates for 17 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, dropping three sitting MPs, including Union Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey. According to the list released by the party in New Delhi, Choubey, who was elected from Buxar for the second consecutive term in 2019, was replaced by Mithilesh Tiwari, a senior BJP leader and a former MLA. The party also dropped its incumbent MPs Chedi Pawasan and Ajay Kumar Nishad from Sasaram and Muzaffarpur constituencies respectively. The BJP fielded former MLA Shivesh Ram for Sasaram, while Raj Bhushan Nishad, a greenhorn in the Lok Sabha polls, will contest the Muzaffarpur seat on a party ticket. Vivek Thakur, a Rajya Sabha member, was fielded from Nawada, where the BJP would be contesting this time, instead of its ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). All the remaining 14 candidates are sitting MPs, who will seek re-election from their respective seats.

LS polls: Mining baron Janardhana Reddy to rejoin BJP on March 25

Mining baron and lone MLA of Karnataka Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) G Janardhana Reddy on Sunday said he would rejoin BJP on March 25. The KRPP founder said he took the decision to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister again for the third time. "After consulting my supporters, I took the decision. Tomorrow at 10 am I am rejoining BJP," he told reporters here. Reddy said he would support the BJP candidate from Ballari Lok Sabha constituency, B Sriramulu, whom he called a boy raised by him. Sriramulu, a former minister, lost the assembly election from Ballari assembly segment in 2023. Reddy was a minister in the BJP government headed by B S Yediyurappa and was jailed in the mining scam. He had distanced himself from the BJP and founded the KRPP. In the 2023 assembly election, he was instrumental in the defeat of his two brothers, G Karunakara Reddy and G Somashekara Reddy, who were BJP candidates from Harapanahalli and Ballari City respectively. Reddy fielded his wife Aruna Laksh

LS polls: Rs 1.88 cr cash, liquor worth Rs 87.19 lakh seized in Karnataka

The Election Commission on Sunday said Rs 1.88 crore cash and liquor worth Rs 87.19 lakh were seized in the last 24 hours in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka. The general elections in Karnataka will be held in two phases on April 26 and May 7 for 28 constituencies. The Election Commission said the Static Surveillance Team seized Rs 1.44 crore cash at Hiriyur in Chitradurga parliamentary constituency and the remaining from other places. In the same constituency at Challakere, the Excise Department seized 14,688 litres of India Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL). According to EC officials, since the MCC came into force, the flying squads, static surveillance teams and police authorities have seized Rs 17.66 crore cash, Rs 18.85 lakh worth of freebies, 7.69 lakh litres of liquor worth over Rs 24.25 crore, 87.04 kg narcotic substances worth over Rs 75 lakh, gold worth Rs 1.27 crore, silver worth Rs 21.47 lakh and diamond worth Rs nine lakh have been seized. The total seizure made

Our bank accounts frozen, BJP murdering democracy: Congress slams PM Modi

Alleging an assault on the democracy of India, Congress said that they have been unable to advertise in print or electronic media in the past month over I-T notices going back to FY1994.

Nomination process for 102 constituencies for 1st phase of LS polls begins

The nomination process for 102 parliamentary constituencies spread across 21 states and Union territories, where polling would be held in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 19, began Wednesday with the issuance of a notification. In the first phase, polling will be held in Arunachal Pradesh (2 seats), Assam (5), Bihar (4), Chhattisgarh (1), Madhya Pradesh (6), Maharashtra (5), Manipur (2), Meghalaya (2), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Rajasthan (12), Sikkim (1), Tamil Nadu (39), Tripura (1), Uttar Pradesh (8), Uttarakhand (5), West Bengal (3), Andaman and Nicobar (1), Jammu and Kashmir (1), Lakshadweep (1) and Puducherry (1). The last date for filing nomination papers is March 27. However, due to a festival, March 28 is the last date for filing nominations for the Lok Sabha seats in Bihar going to polls in the first phase. Voting in four out of 40 seats in Bihar will be held in the first phase. Nomination papers will be scrutinised on March 28. For Bihar, it would be d

MP Public Service Commission postpones two exams due to LS elections

In view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) has postponed the State Service Preliminary Examination 2024 and State Forest Service Examination 2024, a senior official of the commission said on Wednesday. These examinations will now be held on June 23 instead of April 28, the official said. Due to the Lok Sabha elections, the schedule of both the recruitment examinations has been changed and the admit cards of these examinations can be downloaded through the MPPSC website from June 12. Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held in four phases between April 19 and May 13 on 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh, while counting will take place on June 4.

Speculations rife after Raj Thackeray arrives in Delhi; may join NDA

Hours after a meeting between Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and BJP's top leadership over seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Thackeray arrived in Delhi to meet Amit Shah

Poll positions

Enforcing the model code of conduct could be a challenge

Ballot boxes for Malvides' polls to be placed in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia

The ballot boxes for Maldives' upcoming parliamentary elections will be placed in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, after around 11,000 Maldivians submitted re-registration requests to relocate their polling stations, the country's election commission announced on Sunday. The six-day window for people to relocate their voting stations for the April 21 parliamentary elections expired on Saturday, media reports said, citing an Elections Commission notification. The top electoral body said that ballot boxes for the island nation's elections will also be placed in Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), the capital of Kerala, Sri Lanka's Colombo and Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur after at least 150 people re-register to vote in each of the three countries. "As previously, enough people registered in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. And since 150 people had registered in Trivandrum, India, we have decided to set up a ballot box there," web portal adadhu.com quoted EC's secretary-general Hassan Zakariyya as ...