Page 78 - Lok Sabha

Cong like well-established firm with fluctuating mcap; BJP startup: Jairam

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh likened his party to a "well-established company" whose market capitalisation keeps fluctuating and asserted that it will stage a comeback. In an interaction at the PTI office here, Ramesh also dismissed suggestions that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charisma that was responsible for the BJP's electoral performance and stressed on the importance of organisational strength. The idea of a charismatic leader was a "dangerous concept" to believe in as one doing so, automatically believes in a "demagogue", the Congress general secretary in charge communications asserted. Talking about the need for bringing in new faces, Ramesh, however, noted that this was difficult in the Congress because people have been in the party for long. "It's easier for the BJP. Because, you know, the BJP is a startup in many states. You look upon the BJP as a startup. The Congress is not a startup. The Congress is a well-established ...

BJP MP, Vadodara LS seat candidate Ranjan Bhatt pulls out of poll race

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Lok Sabha member from Vadodara, Ranjan Bhatt, who was renominated by the party from the same seat for the upcoming parliamentary elections, on Saturday pulled out of the poll race citing personal reasons. "I, Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt, am unwilling to contest the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 due to my personal reasons," she announced on X. Her move comes days after banners criticising the BJP's decision to renominate her from the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat came up at different spots in the city. Some local BJP leaders had also expressed their displeasure over Bhatt's nomination. BJP national women's wing vice president Jyotiben Pandya resigned from the party and all posts after Bhatt's name was announced as a candidate for the third time from Vadodara. Bhatt had won the 2014 by-election after Prime Minister Narendra Modi vacated the seat. She also won the Lok Sabha election in 2019, and was announced as BJP's candidate for the upcoming poll.

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

LS polls: BJD announces to go solo in Odisha polls after BJP breaks ties

Earlier in the day, Odisha BJP chief Manmohan Samal categorically stated that his party will be contesting in all the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the state alone

History of 2004 will repeat itself: Cong leader Jairam Ramesh on LS polls

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday rejected the BJP's claims that the 2024 poll results are a foregone conclusion, saying "tiger mein abhi bahut jaan hai" and the opposition bloc will repeat the history of 2004 when the saffron party was unseated from power despite its 'shining India' campaign. The Congress general secretary in-charge communications also said his party is going into the Lok Sabha polls with its "five nyays" and "25 guarantees", and has full confidence that the opposition INDIA bloc will get a clear mandate. In an interaction at the PTI office here, Ramesh also said the Congress' guarantee is not of one person but of the party and its "ghoshna patra (manifesto)" will be called the "nyay patra" which will focus on Yuva Nyay, Nari Nyay, Shramik Nyay, Kisaan Nyay and Hissedari Nyay and the 25 guarantees under these. Asked if the polls will be about "Modi ki Guarantee" versus the Congress' "nyay" guarantees, he said, "Our guarantee is not of one person. We ar

LS elections 2024: TN CM Stalin to launch campaign from Trichy on Friday

DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will launch his party's campaign for the April 19 Lok Sabha polls, from this central district on Friday. Stalin, a key leader of the opposition INDIA bloc, will canvass votes for the party-led bloc's Tiruchirappalli candidate, MDMK leader Durai Vaiko and the DMK's Arun Nehru in nearby Perambalur, according to the tour schedule of the ruling party chief. The DMK leads the multi-party Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA), which had swept the 2019 elections. It had won 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu then, besides the neighbouring Puducherry segment. Durai is the son of MDMK founder Vaiko and the Tiruchirappalli constituency has been allotted to the party by the DMK as part of the poll pact. Congress' Su Thirunavukkarasar represents the segment in the outgoing House. After launching his poll campaign from here, Stalin will embark on a state-wide tour, covering all 39 LS seats in the state, besides Puducherry, in the comin

BJP scared of Oppn, acting out of panic: Cong on Kejriwal's arrest

Soon after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest by the ED on Thursday, the Congress alleged that the BJP is scared of the outcome of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and creating all kinds of problems for the opposition out of panic. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that the "arrogant" Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making false claims of an electoral victory every day and trying to weaken the opposition by indulging in "illegal means" ahead of the polls. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that a "scared dictator" wants to create a dead democracy and the INDIA bloc will give a befitting reply to such designs. "A scared dictator wants to create a dead democracy," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X. "While capturing all the institutions, including the media, breaking up parties, extorting money from companies, freezing the accounts of the main opposition party were not enough for the 'devilish power', now the arrest of elected chief ministers has also become a .

LS polls: BJP releases third list, former Telangana guv among candidates

The BJP plans to contest 20 of Tamil Nadu's 39 seats. Its allies such as GK Vasan's Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar), is likely to contest three seats, the Pattali Makkal Katchi will contest 10 seats

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress announces new list of candidates

The Congress on Thursday announced five more candidates from Rajasthan, including AICC secretary Kuldeep Indora from Ganganagar and former minister Pramod Jain Bhaya's wife Urmila Jain from Jhalwar-Baran seat, for the Lok Sabha elections. The party has left the Sikar parliamentary seat for the Communist Party of India (Marxist). All five Congress candidates are fresh faces and will be contesting the Lok Sabha elections for the first time. Apart from Indora and Urmila Jain, the other candidates include Congress leader and chairman of a private university Sunil Sharma from Jaipur city, Sangeeta Beniwal from Pali and Umeda Ram Beniwal from Barmer. Umeda Ram Beniwal had earlier contested the assembly election on a Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) ticket and had recently joined the Congress. Sangeeta Beniwal was the chairperson of the Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The party on March 12 announced the names of 10 candidates from Rajasthan while the BJP has ..

How Delhi CM Kejriwal's arrest may dent AAP's prospects in Lok Sabha polls

The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday night could not have come at a worse time for the Aam Aadmi Party, which is already grappling with the absence of its top leadership from action. The party is eyeing at expanding its footprint across the country and has tied up with the Congress to contest the Lok Sabha polls against the BJP in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat. Kejriwal is the fulcrum of the party's Lok Sabha campaign and its star campaigner. The party is already feeling the pinch of the absence of its senior leaders like Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Sanjay Singh. Now the arrest of Kejriwal has landed the ruling party of Delhi in the doldrums. On earlier occasions, whenever this question rose, the party maintained a tough stance saying it will fight it out, but there is no denying the fact that AAP's think tank won't find it easy to wriggle out of this problem. The party's campaign in Delhi, where it is contesting on four seats and in Gujarat, where it ha

Congress to finalise Himachal LS list soon, options open for rebels: Kimta

The Congress leader further said, "We have implemented the Old Pension Scheme and provided an honorarium of 1500 rupees to the women

Lok Sabha polls: How GenAI is rewriting political campaigning strategies

GenAI is being widely employed by political parties and candidates for a personalised approach to voters

Highlights: Systematic effort to cripple Congress financially, says Sonia

Lok Sabha elections 2024 updates: Catch all the latest updates on the announcements related to General Elections here

LS polls: 'Modi-Aurangzeb' row, 200k political ads axed in Delhi. 10 points

Lok Sabha polls 2024: Several developments related to the Lok Sabha elections will take place on Thursday, including a key Supreme Court hearing on political parties promising freebies during polls

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

Use of unaccounted money during elections: EC's fight to continue

Nearly Rs 3,400 crore in cash and other items were seized in the elections in 2022-23, an increase of 835 per cent over 2017-18, the data showed

NEET PG rescheduled to June 23 due to Lok Sabha election schedule

In view of the Lok Sabha elections, the National Medical Commission (NMC) on Wednesday rescheduled medical entrance exam NEET PG to June 23. The NEET PG 2024 was scheduled to be held on July 7. The decision was taken during a meeting held by the Post Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of the National Medical Commission with Medical Counselling Committee, Directorate General for Health Sciences and National Board of Examinations for Medical Sciences, a public notice said. The result will be announced by July 15, while the counselling for admission will be held from August 5 to October 15. The cut-off date for the purpose of eligibility to appear in the NEET PG 2024 will remain unchanged at August 15, 2024, the notice said. The new academic session will start on September 16 and the last date of joining would be October 21.

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.

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Delhi Police tightens security in border areas

The Delhi Police has intensified checking at the national capital's borders to prevent the illegal supply of liquor and the movement of unaccounted for cash after the Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha elections came into effect, officials said on Wednesday. Police in the border areas have been directed to keep an eye on the movement of suspicious vehicles, a senior officer said. The Election Commission on Saturday announced several strategies to deal with the four-fold challenge of the 4Ms -- "muscle, money, misinformation and Model Code (of Conduct) violations". In one of the first actions, the Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested a man identified as Ajay (22), a resident of Haryana's Sonipat, for allegedly illegally transporting 20 cartons of liquor. The vehicle used to carry the liquor and two number plates were also seized. Senior officers in the districts have been asked to take regular stock of the patrolling, the officials said. Additional Commissioner of Police (Eastern