The Supreme Court of India has asked petitioners in two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) to make representations to the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding their demand for uploading polling booth-wise voter turnout data on the ECI website. The PILs, filed by TMC MP Mahua Moitra and NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, seek a direction for the ECI to upload the data within 48 hours of the conclusion of polling in Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The ECI, represented by senior advocate Maninder Singh, expressed willingness to deliberate on the matter and suggested a meeting with the petitioners to address their concerns. The court has adjourned the hearing to the week of July 28.
Outgoing Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has expressed concerns about long-pending cases questioning electoral processes, arguing they fuel distrust and should be scheduled with consideration for election periods. He also advocated for enhanced transparency in political promises, with clear disclosures on financial viability and impact on state finances. Kumar further stressed the need for a totaliser system to maintain polling station-wise voting confidentiality and urged the empowerment of NRIs to vote remotely. He highlighted the potential of biometric authentication and technology to address issues like impersonation and multiple voting.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
The other three crore -- nearly 40 percent -- will have to provide one of the 11 listed documents to establish their place or date of birth.
The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha is preparing his excuses for future defeats in the upcoming assembly elections, including Bihar, Fadnavis said in his articles published in the Indian Express and Marathi daily Loksatta.
The NGO challenges the validity of a provision of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023.
'Militants are taking over the administration. Fundamentalists have been released from jail.'
'The government does not want to be transparent or accountable. Therefore, they do not want to appoint information commissioners.'
The bench asked senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Congress leader Jaya Thakur, who sought a stay on the new law, to serve a copy of the petition to the Centre's counsel.
The Election Commission is considering advancing the polls by a month to avoid the May heat, reports R Rajagopalan.
The revised salaries of MPs are significantly lower than the salaries drawn by top bureaucrats in the country.
'One of the principles of the MCC that you should not make hate speeches and create hatred between communities on the basis of religion was violated on a scale that was never seen before.' 'Religious symbols were very liberally used and speeches were made to polarise people on the basis of religion.'
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta issued notice to the Centre on a plea filed by an NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms, and listed the matter along with other pending petitions on the issue for hearing in April.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Udvav Thackeray launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party and said that anyone who spreads communal disharmony 'can't be a Hindu', while also affirming that the 'Hindutva' of his party is 'clean'.
These officers will oversee the entire poll processes as eyes and ears of the commission on the ground to ensure free, fair and voter-friendly elections.
The State Election Commission in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday imposed restrictions on conduct of exit polls till the last of the eight-phase District Development Council election is completed.
Besides disclosing in their affidavits, candidates have to prominently declare criminal cases they are facing, if any, thrice in newspapers in print as well on television, he said, adding that political parties too have to publish within three days of nomination why a candidate with criminal background was selected. "You (political parties) have to tell the public whether you did not get any (other) candidate and why was it necessary to select them (those with criminal background)," he said.
Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls, the Election Commission on Monday directed the state government to transfer Director General of Police Rashmi Shukla with immediate effect following complaints from political parties, including the Congress, sources said.
The Election Commission of India has announced that the Delhi Assembly elections will be held on February 5, 2023, with the counting of votes scheduled for February 8. The last date to file nominations is January 17, and the scrutiny of nominations will be done by January 18. Candidates can withdraw their nominations until January 20.
In a heinous terror attack, two Indians were killed while one was abducted in the Dosso region of Niger, as noted by the Indian Embassy in Niger.
The poll panel said the seizures made since the polls were announced on October 9 are over seven times (Rs 239.15 crore) the seizures made in the previous assembly elections in these states in 2018.
'There was no financing or even promise of finance involved in MoU, forget X or Y amount'
Banking on the Budget's tax relief, the BJP seeks to energise Delhi's middle class; the AAP is doing its bit too. But will their outreach mobilise this politically crucial yet disengaged electorate?
'The people of Gujarat are more religious than people of other states, this gives the BJP an advantage.'
Former foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, Kerala BJP leader C Sadanandan Master and Delhi-based historian Meenakshi Jain have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
It is learnt that Ottawa is yet to send an invitation to the Indian prime minister for the summit, but Modi, in any way, would have skipped it as such a visit would have required a lot of groundwork considering the current state of ties between the two sides, said the people cited above.
'This is total fraud. You are showing me the slip of my vote but not counting it so this is fraud.'
Sources said the party has also tasked its senior leaders to be observers at the meeting of the Congress Legislature Party in Haryana to elect its new leader.
'No Indian political party functions in a democratic way.'
Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases from September 18 while Haryana will go to polls in a single phase on October 1, the Election Commission announced on Friday.
The meeting will focus on the current internal security scenario in the state, with a special emphasis on anti-Maoist operations, the release added.
India and Canada have agreed to restore High Commissioners to each other's capitals at an early date, the first in 'calibrated steps' to restore stability to the 'very important relationship', Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.
'Unlike in the sporting arena, where sports federations moved from partisan to impartial referees, in Indian democracy's biggest festival, it appears we are moving backward from unbiased and objective to one-sided and partisan,' observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The elections in the country should be held within the stipulated time of 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly.
Congress leaders were seen giving media bytes at various places at the headquarters, arguing that the trends would change by 1 PM but it did not happen.
Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal went to the Election Commission's office in New Delhi on Friday and furnished his reply to the poll body over its notice to him on his 'poison mixed' in Yamuna water remark.
Meanwhile, the Congress' data analytics department chairperson Praveen Chakravarty on Tuesday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, seeking assembly-wise voter rolls in excel sheet format for the Lok Sabha elections and the assembly polls in Maharashtra.
The Congress party in India has alleged "serious and grave inconsistencies" in the data relating to the polling and counting processes for the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections. The party has sought an in-person hearing from the Election Commission to present evidence of alleged discrepancies, including the arbitrary deletion and addition of voters and inexplicable increases in voting percentages. The Congress leaders claim these irregularities benefited the ruling BJP-led alliance, which won a decisive victory in the polls.
Kumar said the increase was due to Outer Manipur being counted twice, since polls will be held there in two phases.
'VS was a man who devoted every moment of his life, from the beginning till his death at the age of 100, to the struggle against the injustices inflicted upon land, nature and the common man.'
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