"The Election Commission's press conference should be welcomed because it is a good step to clear public doubts regarding the SIR process (in Bihar) and other issues," Rawat told PTI in Indore.
'The EC should not have let the initiative go into the hands of the political leadership. By allowing this to happen, they have opened a Pandora's box.'
The None of the Above (NOTA) option once again found few takers, with 0.75 per cent of the electorate pressing the button in Maharashtra and 1.32 per cent in Jharkhand. Votes for the assembly elections in these two states were counted on Saturday.
All 13 candidates in the fray in Indore against Lalwani, who won by a potentially record margin votes, lost their security deposit, indicating they were clearly rejected by the voters. If a candidate gets fewer than one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency, his/her security deposit is seized by the EC.
He had won the polls from the Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand.
If constitutional institutions are allowed to work independently, they can work in a better way, Kejriwal said. He said that no officer and no constitutional body was bad, instead, politics was bad.
'They have all committed that during campaign period, they will not allow anything which is adversely effecting level playing field be allowed on their platforms'
EC said as per the Supreme Court, the outer limit for holding fresh polls after dissolution of a house is six months, that is May, 2019.
The CEC said the chief electoral officer of Assam will give a factual report in the coming week on various aspects arising out of the publication of the final draft NRC.
The tallying of VVPAT slips with the votes cast and stored in the EVMs will be done to demonstrate that the voting system has been working perfectly.
Amit Malviya, however, tweeted that he had only quoted a news channel.
A committee was set up after the Bharatiya Janata Party's IT cell chief announced in a tweet the schedule for the Karnataka assembly polls before the official declaration on March 27.
The term of the 224-member Karnataka assembly ends on May 28 this year.
The announcement came days after it issued a formal direction that VVPAT will be used at polling stations in all future elections where polls are held using EVMs.
Rawat also said a legal framework is needed to be in place for holding simultaneous polls.
The Chief Election Commissioner said a legal framework was required to implement the idea of holding simultaneous polls.
The CEC said when people lose elections, they blame their defeat on EVMs, but when they win they don't do so.
In a first, central paramilitary forces will be deployed at all 62,779 polling stations during the 5-phase Bihar assembly polls, the Election Commission said on Monday.
In Kolkata, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala accused the prime minister of "putting pressure" on the EC to delay its press conference. He also said the CEC's explanation is "preposterous" and wondered whether Bharatiya Janata Party is the "super EC".
'Even if something appears to be wrong, we can always request the government and Parliament to make amends.'
Polling in Madhya Pradesh was marred by complaints of faulty EVMs and voter verifiable paper audit trail machines.
'If there is lesser number of elections, populism will naturally be restricted.' 'Decisions will be taken speedily because there won't be the spectre of adverse electoral impact of the decisions because elections will be held once in five years or maximum two times in five years.'
The schedule for Gujarat will be announced separately.
From triple talaq to simultaneous polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday touched upon the various issues n his monthly 'Mann ki Baat' radio address.
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