Political parties may campaign against corruption and criminality, but it's the selection of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls that tells the real story.
Political parties may campaign against corruption and criminality, but it's the selection of candidates for the upcoming assembly polls that tells the real story.
More than 2,000 candidates will fight for 117 seats on what is set to be the second busiest day of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Know their details.
It is bad enough that we have leaders with pending criminal charges against them. But what happens when the very same leaders get guns from the government?
A report by the Association for Democratic Reforms states that none of the 60 newly-elected MLAs of the Manipur Assembly, has declared criminal cases against him/her.
The income of these parties from "unknown" sources was Rs 689.44 crore, which is 53 per cent of their total income.
The story of Uttar Pradesh in the third phase of the assembly elections is no different from phase-II polls. One hundred and twenty one candidates out of the 317 have criminal candidates pending against them. Vicky Najappa reports.
A recent report put out by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch revealed that 47 per cent of the newly-elected Uttar Pradesh assembly has candidates with criminal cases pending against them.
The Foundation for Democratic Reforms and Lok Satta, along with some organisations will arrange a round table conference in New Delhi on April 24. The conference is for a consensus on the creation of a powerful and independent Lok Pal at the national level and Lokayuktas in states.
The manner in which Members of Legislative Assembly spent their funds during the recent four-state assembly elections is something that needs to be looked into.
When it comes to financial contributions/donations, political parties in the country seem to benefit a lot by them as a significant part of their income depends upon them.
Twenty-three per cent or 244 candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, it said. Serious criminal cases are non-bailable offences with over five years of imprisonment.
The union territory of Puducherry has the dubious distinction of having the laziest legislators in India. A report shows that in comparison to the other four poll-bound states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam -- the legislative assembly in Puducherry had the lowest number of sittings in the past 5 years.
Waving flags and playing musical instruments, tens of thousands of Egyptians on Friday packed Cairo's Tahrir Square, the hub of the 18-day revolt that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, for a "victory march" and to keep up pressure on the new military rulers to carry out democratic reforms.
In spite of the Election Commission's repeated pleas against the criminalisation of politics, few political parties have paid any heed to it and have continued to field candidates with a dubious record in the forthcoming Bihar assembly polls.
According to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms, 59 per cent of the MLAs (or 141 MLAs out of 241) in the Bihar assembly have criminal records pending against them. Comparatively, the percentage of tainted legislators in the last assembly was 35 per cent
Andhra Pradesh's Chandrababu Naidu has emerged as the wealthiest chief minister with declared assets worth over Rs 177 crore, followed by Arunanchal Pradesh's Pema Khandu (over Rs 129 crore) and Amarinder Singh of Punjab (over Rs 48 crore).
'No Indian political party functions in a democratic way.'
With China emerging as the second largest economy after overtaking Japan, the ruling Chinese Communist Party made a surprise promise to loosen its firm grip on power structure saying that the gains made out of the economic reform would be lost without political reforms.
The United States on Friday said it wants India to work for encouraging democratic reforms in Myanmar and suggested that New Delhi has already begun playing an active role in the South East Asian country.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat's asset saw an increase of over Rs 1 crore from 2012 to 2017, ADR said.
The analysis of the 37 candidates done by the Association for Democratic Reforms states that Subu Kechu, an independent candidate from Arunachal West, has declared a case against him in which he allegedly caused a loss of Rs 50.
China remains the elephant in the room and has to be tamed, which the United States alone is unable to do and therefore calls allies to come on board.
The survey conducted jointly by Association for Democratic Reforms and UP Election Watch to study impact of demonetisation on poll expenses said, "Demonetisation will have no impact in the campaigning or the poll expense."
All you need to know about the Himachal Pradesh elections.
The general elections are round the corner and there is a great deal of activity where the fielding of candidates is concerned. What we have noticed in the past few elections that there is a great deal of debate regarding the background of a candidate. The Association for Democratic Reforms has managed to create an awareness among the voters regarding the candidates that they have been voting for.
Thirty seven-year-old Jindal not only appeared on the Fox News channel on Tuesday challenging the health care policy of Obama, but also came out openly against the popular US President by writing an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal.
Six national parties collected 86.91 pc (Rs 1,041.80 crore) of their total income from voluntary contributions for 2017-18.
'Unknown' location advertisement spends were nearly 74% higher than the next biggest spender, Uttar Pradesh.
The party's steady flow of money from industrialists has all but dried up, leaving a cash crunch so serious that it's been forced to crowd-fund for a candidate.
The Association for Democratic Reforms, in association with the National Election Watch, has compiled the list of the poorest Members of Parliament. The list is based on the assets declared by the candidates, before the Election Commission, when they had filed their nominations for the Lok Sabha polls.
'The number of candidates in Karnataka with a criminal background has come down by five per cent when compared to the 2004 election,' says Professor Trilochan Sastry of Karnataka Election Watch.
The Karnataka Election Watch Committee of the Association of Democratic Reforms has found that several leaders, including former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and his brother H D Revanna, have not declared their PAN numbers while submitting their affidavits to the returning officer at the time of filing their nominations. 240 candidates from various parties in Karnataka have failed to declare their PAN numbers at the time of filing their nomination papers.
In a landmark decision the Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that the income tax returns of political parties will come under the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI). The move will, it is hoped, enable the public to get details on the funding sources of political parties.
Legal educator N R Madhava Menon mentioned, "We require more democracy to solve our problems." The notorious backlog in the Indian system makes access to "timely justice hard." In more recent times, "Judicial activism is generating governance from the bench." Ultimately, in such a situation, there must be "accountability from the judiciary."
The total income of seven political parties from unknown sources was Rs 2,512.98 crore in 2018-19.
The average assets of an MP are now 345.8 times that of an annual income of a tax-filing individual, reports Sachin P Mampatta.
The survey also found that employment opportunities, transport and women empowerment are key issues in the Himachal Pradesh assembly polls.
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