Polls for assembly constitutencies will begin with the first phase beginning on November 17 and the seventh and last phase of election on December 24.
Incidentally, Rao's wife Nirupama Rao is India's ambassador to China. With the appointment of Meera Shankar as ambassador to the United States, Nirupama Rao's chances of becoming foreign secretary are quite bright once the incumbent, Shiv Shankar Menon, retires
Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami is a stickler. For rules. For details. For discipline. For principles. For values. For him, there is only one way of doing things: The right way. He is known to make copious notes about how every hour of his day passes. "He jots down details in a tiny diary. Even if you speak to him on the phone for a few minutes, your name and details of the conversation go into that tiny diary," revealed a friend who has known the CEC for 20 years.
The majority of the International Cricket Council's Board members on Saturday voted in favour of restructured revenue sharing model including rollback of the Big 3 formula despite vehement opposition from Board of Control for Cricket in India's representative Vikram Limaye.
"We have submitted a petition to the CEC as per the directions of the Supreme Court seeking removal of Navin Chawla, as he has been favouring a particular party in his decisions," Arun Jaitley said.
Talking to reporters at a media briefing, 33-year-old Sreesanth said his name has been cleared by the court in a match-fixing case and he is, therefore, not worried about any Opposition attack on him regarding the controversy.
India will start their World Cup campaign on June 5 as the BCCI will have to maintain a mandatory 15-day gap between the IPL final and international assignment as per the Lodha Committee recommendations.
According to the CEC, while Tripura will go to polls on February 23, the elections in Meghalaya will be held on March 3 and in Nagaland on March 5. The elections in all the three states will be held in a single phase and electronic voting machines will be used this year. While counting of votes for Tripura and Meghalaya is scheduled to be held on March 7, in Nagaland, the counting will take place a day later.
The chief election commissioner also said he did not see an early evolution of a two-party system in the country, saying the idea favoured by Kalam is "too difficult at this stage".
He was responding to a question on whether Gujarat polls would also be staggered like the seven-phased UP polls. The term of the present Assembly in Gujarat expires on December 26.
Racial abuse at cricket matches may result in fans being ejected or banned for life from venues in line with anti-racism laws adopted by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan and BCCI chief Sharad Pawar are not in favour of the ICC holding a World Twenty20 Championship.
The CEC needs to have powers to disqualify a candidate or impose penalties in the event of any violations, the chief election commissioner said.
'Religious sentiments should not be used for political purposes," Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurty said. 'This applies to all political parties.'
The governor has also asked for security arrangements to be beefed up.
"Based on the ground realities in West Bengal, we decided on a five-phase poll schedule,'' CEC B B Tandon said.
Senior National Democratic Alliance leaders urge the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioner to keep a watch on Bihar's bureaucratic reshuffles
Concerned over the dubious handling of politically sensitive cases by the Central Bureau of Investigation, a group of eminent citizens has written to agency chief Ranjit Sinha seeking to know whether his force really needs autonomy.
Tandon said, after the review meeting at Madurai and Chennai on Tuesday, they would decide on the Tamil Nadu election date.
Chawla, who was to retire in June this year, will get a five-year tenure as election commissioner.
Recognising the malaise of paid news, the Election Commission has proposed to the government to make it an electoral offence even as it continues to tackle it itself by monitoring the expenditures of candidates.
The International Cricket Council asked an internal panel to suggest harsher punishment for ball-tampering and other misbehaviour by players in its bid to establish a "culture of respect".
A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said like the Indian Cricket Board, AIFF can also be asked to frame an amended constitution incorporating the suggestions of the Delhi high court.
One of the key issues will be tax exemption sought by the ICC for the future global events in India like the 2021 Champions Trophy and the 2023 World Cup.
Besides the various political parties, the election commission is also getting into poll mode.
He will take over from chief election commissioner-designate T S Krishnamurthy on February 8.
The term of the 224-member Karnataka assembly ends on May 28 this year.
'There is a need for debate in improving the electoral system,' says former CEC T S Krishnamurthy.
The ICC had rejected the proposal to grant official status for the three one-day matches and the six-day Super Test.
The chief election commissioner said that the dates for the Himachal Pradesh election would be announced soon.
'EVMs are absolutely credible, they are robust.' 'It's only a calculator with certain instructions. And the sim card inside an EVM is burnt and cannot be reprogrammed.' 'Besides, the machines are circulated among various states. No machine is allowed to remain in one state after an election.' 'By far, it is one of the finest innovations India should be proud of.'
He also said there was no politician in the country who was committed to democracy and welfare of the people.
Chidambaram told SC that to assure accuracy in the voting process, paper trail is needed as there were chances of tampering with EVMs.
Election Commissioner V S Sampath announced that Delhi will go to polls on February 7.
A decision on the seats from where Narendra Modi and L K Advani will contest in Gujarat will be taken on Wednesday when the Bharatiya Janata Party's Central Election Committee considers the party's another list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls.
The Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI has proposed six major amendments to the existing constitution which was adopted last year keeping in tune with the reforms suggested by the Justice Lodha committee.
The Election Commission on Saturday gave a clean chit to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the allegation that he had violated secrecy of voting by entering the enclosure of the Electronic Voting Machine in one of the polling booths in Amethi on May 7.
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