Page 28 - Elections

Cong leader Sonia Gandhi elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan on Tuesday, officials said. Bharatiya Janata Party's Chunnilal Garasiya and Madan Rathore were also elected unopposed to the Upper House from the state, Assembly Secretary Mahaveer Prasad Sharma said. Tuesday was the last day for withdrawing nominations. As no other candidates were contesting, the three leaders were elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed, the officer said. The tenure of Rajya Sabha members Manmohan Singh (Congress) and Bhupendra Yadav (BJP) is ending on April 3. The third seat fell vacant after the BJP MP Kirodi Lal Meena resigned from the House in December after being elected MLA. The BJP has 115 members and the Congress 70 in the 200-member assembly. There are 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan. After the results, Congress has six members and the BJP four.

BJP supporters should understand how party is winning elections: Akhilesh

The returning officer who conducted the Chandigarh mayoral polls "accepting the crime of rigging" the elections shows how hungry the BJP is for power, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Monday after the Supreme Court came down heavily on the officer for allegedly defacing ballot papers. BJP supporters should understand how the party is winning every election through "theft and scams". Neither the country nor the future of their own children is safe in the hands of such people, Yadav said in a post on X in Hindi. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court posed searching questions to Returning Officer Anil Masih and said that putting a mark on ballot papers cannot be allowed in an electoral democracy. During the hearing, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud voiced displeasure over the way the January 30 mayoral polls were held and told Masih that he could be prosecuted in case of any falsehood. "The (pro-)BJP presiding officer's accepting the crime of rigging the Chandigarh .

Pak court suspends election result of three constituencies in Islamabad

The general elections were held on February 8 and the results were delayed which caused widespread concerns that the delay was on purpose to change the results

Highlights of the day: Cong dismisses Kamal Nath's BJP switch speculation

Latest news updates: Catch all the latest updates from around the world here

Congress dismisses speculation of former MP CM Kamal Nath switching to BJP

The Congress on Monday dismissed as "misinformation" the speculation over party leader Kamal Nath's possible switch to the BJP and asserted that the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister will participate in the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in the state. The assertion by Congress general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh Jitendra Singh came amid speculation that Kamal Nath and his son Nakul Nath, a Lok Sabha MP, may cross over to the ruling BJP. "Kamal Nath ji is a senior leader of our party. All these speculations have been made by the BJP and the media. I spoke to him yesterday and the day before yesterday also and we discussed the preparations of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra," Singh told reporters at the Congress headquarters here. "I am going to Bhopal tomorrow and meetings are taking place with MLAs, various committees and MPs. Kamal Nath ji will also join those meetings and his suggestions for the yatra's passage will be taken note of. Kamal Nath will prominently .

Pak's major parties struggle to form coalition after inconclusive election

Monday's talks will be the fifth such round after former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was named by his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party to lead the country again

In global election year, Indian women have less political heft than peers

Around 64 countries are going to polls in 2024

Bilawal Bhutto rejects power-sharing formula for the post of Pakistan PM

Bhutto revealed that the PML-N suggested a time-sharing formula, proposing that they lead the government for three years, with the PPP taking over for the remaining two years

Hold LS, assembly polls together but not with local body: JD(U) to panel

Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) on Saturday supported holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies but not with local body polls. The party told the high-level committee on 'one nation, one election' that it supports holding Lok Sabha and state assembly polls together. It also said that all local body polls -- municipalities and panchayats -- should be held together. However, the local body polls should not be held alongside elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, it underlined. "... JD(U) would like to extend its support of having simultaneous elections in House of People (Lok Sabha), state legislature together and the election for the third tier, that is, Panchayats and Municipalities should be held simultaneously but separately and not with House of People and state legislature," the JD(U) told the panel headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind. Set up in September last year, the committee is mandated to examine and make recommendations for

Ghulam Nabi hints at not contesting LS polls, says will campaign for DPAP

Senior political leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday indicated that he would not be contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as he would be campaigning for the candidates of his newly formed Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) candidates. Azad, who has refrained from contesting Lok Sabha elections after his defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, asked his party men to gear up as 2024 would be the election year for Jammu and Kashmir. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in Nagrota, Azad, who resigned from Congress after decades of association, also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resolve the issues of agitating farmers "once for all" as the protest is neither good for the government nor the farmers. "Parliament election is 100 percent taking place on its time and I can only guess about the assembly polls (in J&K) as I have no contact with the Election Commission or government. But it (assembly elections) has to take place as the Supreme Court has set .

OpenAI, Meta, other tech cos sign accord to fight AI election interference

Technology to identify AI-generated content or certify its origin could include watermarking or embedding metadata, the companies said

Pakistan polls to be remembered for biggest voter fraud: Imran's party

Independent candidates - a majority backed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) - won 93 of the 265 National Assembly seats that were contested in the February 8 election

Pakistan Army & art of elections

This is the first time in its history that Pakistan's people have risen to vote against the Army and defeat it. If this isn't a win for democracy, how would you describe it?

Day after swapping smiles, Lalu Yadav says doors open for ex-ally Nitish

Lalu Prasad Yadav's remark came a day after he was spotted exchanging greetings with Nitish Kumar at the Bihar Assembly. Lalu was accompanied by his son Tejashwi Yadav

Imran's PTI announces nationwide protests on Feb 17 against poll 'rigging'

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced "peaceful" protests across the nation on February 17 against the alleged rigging in the general elections conducted on February 8

RS nomination filling window ends, many set to get elected unopposed

BJP chief J P Nadda, new party entrant Ashok Chavan and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi are among those in the fray for the Rajya Sabha elections with the deadline for filing of nominations ending Thursday. The biennial elections are scheduled on February 27 in 56 seats - 10 in Uttar Pradesh, six each in Maharashtra and Bihar, five each in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, four each in Gujarat and Karnataka, three each in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Odisha, and one each in Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. However, a majority of the candidates are likely to get elected unopposed. February 20 is the last date of withdrawing candidature. Voting is scheduled to take place from 9 am to 4 pm on February 27 and the counting will be held on the same day from 5 pm onwards. In Uttar Pradesh, eight BJP candidates have filed nominations - former Union minister R P N Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, state party general secretary Amarpal Maurya,

Shehbaz may become next Pak PM as coalition set to cross majority mark

Shehbaz Sharif is expected to become Pakistan's new prime minister as the coalition of leading political parties led by him is set to comfortably cross the simple majority mark to form the next government, ending speculation about the future of the administration after elections produced a split mandate. Shehbaz Sharif along with Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan Peoples Party, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) met at the residence of Shujaat Hussain of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) for a consultative meeting and Tuesday night and agreed on government formation. Today we have united to tell the nation that we all accept the split mandate. I am thankful to Zardari and Bilawal (Bhutto) that they decided for their party to vote for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), he said and thanked the other gathered leaders as well. PML-N Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that party supremo Nawaz Sharif has nominated the party president a

Congress announces candidates from 3 states for Rajya Sabha elections

Earlier today, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha election from Rajasthan

Tech companies plan to sign accord to combat AI-generated election trickery

At least six major technology companies are planning to sign an agreement this week that would guide how they try to put a stop to the use of artificial intelligence tools to disrupt democratic elections. The upcoming event at the Munich Security Conference in Germany comes as more than 50 countries are due to hold national elections in 2024. Attempts at AI-generated election interference have already begun, such as when AI robocalls that mimicked US President Joe Biden's voice tried to discourage people from voting in New Hampshire's primary election last month. "In a critical year for global elections, technology companies are working on an accord to combat the deceptive use of AI targeted at voters," said a joint statement from several companies on Tuesday. "Adobe, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok and others are working jointly toward progress on this shared objective and we hope to finalize and present details on Friday at the Munich Security Conference." The companies .

Rajya Sabha elections: Sonia Gandhi likely to file nomination from Jaipur

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi are likely to travel with Sonia to Rajasthan's capital city where she will file her nomination, party sources said on Tuesday