The 38th edition of the National Games will be held in Uttarakhand from January 28 to February 14 next year, the Indian Olympic Association announced on Wednesday.
Although the BJP won the recent elections, Dhami himself could not save his own Khatima seat
The Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday passed the Uniform Civil Code Bill, which may serve as a template for other Bharatiya Janata Party-run states to enact similar legislation.
Bhandari, a three-term Congress legislator who was also a minister in the state in the past, joined the BJP in the presence of its senior leaders, including Union Minister Piyush Goyal and the party's national general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam.
Uttarakhand has become the first state in India to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), fulfilling a key promise made by the ruling BJP ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami unveiled the UCC notification and launched a portal for mandatory online registration of marriages, divorces, and live-in relationships. The UCC aims to create equal laws for all citizens regardless of their religion, marking a historic moment in the state's legal landscape.
A mathematical model is used to calculate how seat distribution will be altered as sentiment/percentage of votes towards a contesting political party changes.
While assembly polls in Goa and Uttarakhand were completed in a single phase, for Uttar Pradesh, Monday was the second of a seven-phase election.
'The move to appoint a person with a profile, markedly lower than the leader Nitin Nabin will replace, has the potential to put the brakes on the careers of several others in the party and government in the positions they currently hold,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has announced that the state will become the first in independent India to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), with the date of implementation to be announced soon. The UCC, which aims to unify personal laws for all citizens, has been approved by the state cabinet and preparations for its implementation are almost complete. Dhami stated that the training process for UCC implementation is nearly finalized and the government is aiming for a swift rollout. Speculation is rife that the UCC could be implemented on Republic Day, coinciding with the conclusion of municipal elections. The UCC includes provisions related to marriage, divorce, annulment of marriage, succession, and live-in relationships. The state government has introduced a dedicated portal for online registration of related matters and has authorized Common Service Centers (CSC) to simplify access for citizens. In remote areas, CSC agents will provide door-to-door services. The Gram Panchayat Development Officer will serve as the Sub-Registrar for registration work in rural areas. The government has also implemented Aadhaar-based registration to make the process easier. Citizens can track their application status through email and SMS, and an online complaint portal has been set up. Dhami dismissed Congress allegations of divisive politics, emphasizing that the UCC provides a uniform system and law for all.
'Previously, contributing only 25 per cent of material costs, states now face burdens of 40 per cent to 100 per cent of total costs, ensuring poorer states will curb project approvals, directly stifling work demand.'
Sarma said his government was looking forward to the legislation on the Uniform Civil Code, which will be considered during a special four-day session of the Uttarakhand assembly that is starting from February 5.
The Election Commission is expected to initiate a phased, pan-India special intensive revision (SIR) of the voters' list, prioritizing states with upcoming assembly elections. This cleanup exercise aims to weed out illegal foreign migrants and ensure accurate electoral rolls.
'If this was not tokenism, why is the central government not bringing the UCC, why is a small state like Uttarakhand doing so?'
The Election Commission is ramping up preparations for a special intensive revision of voter lists across India, assessing the progress made on mapping current electors with voters as per the last SIR in different states.
This time's Uttarakhand polls are a lot more than just the traditional Congress vs BJP battle. About a dozen rebel candidates, who could upset all calculations, are contesting as Independents. A look at the state's political dynamics before polling begins on February 15.
'The Bihar assembly polls will open the eyes of everyone once the Gau Bhakts receive votes.'
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 15 assembly seats spread across Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Uttarakhand. The bypolls, however, will not have any direct impact on the respective legislative assemblies. The results will be declared on November 23. In Uttar Pradesh, polling will be held in Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. Ninety candidates are in the fray in these seats with the maximum of 14 in Ghaziabad. This will be the first electoral test of the INDIA bloc as well as the NDA in the politically-crucial state after the Lok Sabha elections. In Punjab, bypolls will be held in four assembly seats - Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC) and Barnala. The bypolls were necessitated after MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha. Polling will also be held for the Palakkad seat in Kerala and Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
Once implemented, Uttarakhand will be the second state after Goa in the country to implement it .
Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are due in 2026.
Each leader will look after six assembly constituencies.
Most of these leaders are known for their organisational skills and successful management of elections in their respective states.
The Uniform Civil Code bill was passed by the state assembly and also received the presidential assent recently after which it has become a law.
The final voter turnout figures in the state were released by the EC on Wednesday after addition of data from the polling parties deployed in remote areas of the hill state.
'We will tell people how BJP put an end to a 2500 year old tradition to constitute the board infringing upon our rights'
Justice Surya Kant is set to become the 53rd Chief Justice of India, bringing extensive experience and a record of significant verdicts on key issues.
The Uttarakhand assembly on Wednesday passed a stricter anti-conversion Bill making unlawful conversion a cognisable and non-bailable offence punishable with imprisonment for a term of at least three to a maximum of 10 years.
Prohibitory orders banning the assembly of people have been clamped in Nandanagar in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district where tension prevailed over a man allegedly making an obscene gesture towards a teenaged girl, a senior official said on Tuesday.
Political parties have fielded sons, wives and daughters-in-law of legislators who quit after being elected to the Lok Sabha.
Moderate to high turnout was recorded in 13 assembly constituencies across seven states where bypolls were held on Wednesday amid sporadic incidents of violence in Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
This is the third meeting of CEOs after Gyanesh Kumar took over as the chief election commissioner in February. However, Wednesday's day-long meeting assumes significance as the preparedness of a pan-India SIR are being discussed, officials said.
While many exit polls have given either the Bharatiya Janata Party or Congress a majority in Uttarakhand, several of them have predicted a close fight between the two major players or a hung assembly -- a scenario in which the role of winning independents and candidates of regional outfits like the Aam Aadmi Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal will become significant in government formation.
The Uttarakhand assembly poll result has presented the Bharatiya Janata Party with a dilemma of sorts as it weighs various options after outgoing chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami who was tipped to continue in the post lost the election even as the party stormed back to power.
In a major crackdown, police arrested 39 people, including local cleric Tauqeer Raza Khan, in connection with the violence during the 'I love Muhammad' campaign after Friday prayers in Bareilly, while authorities suspended internet service in the district for 48 hours beginning Saturday.
Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' will also participate in Uttarakhand BJP legislative party meeting in Dehradun later on Wednesday.
The Maharashtra government plans to introduce a stringent anti-conversion law in the winter session of the legislature, with provisions stricter than those in other states.
The Election Commission of India is preparing for a nationwide special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, following a Supreme Court ruling. This move aims to update voter lists and address concerns about illegal migrants.
Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.
Does voter deletion controversy expose critical gaps in ECI verification procedures and safeguards protecting electoral roll integrity?
The electoral exercise, the first since the Lok Sabha elections, will decide the fate of many veterans and some debutantes including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's wife Kamlesh Thakur.
Before forcing arguably the tallest Congress leader from Uttarakhand to bite the dust in the polls to make his maiden entry into the state assembly, Bisht had only won a zila panchayat poll in 2019.
Coming down hard on the Election Commission for its response on 'vote theft' allegations, former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Sunday said the poll body should have ordered a probe into Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's charges instead of 'shouting' at him in a language that was 'objectionable and offensive'.
