Nearly 4,800 elected MPs and MLAs will vote on Monday to elect the 15th President of India, with National Democratic Alliance candidate Droupadi Murmu having a clear edge over Opposition's Yashwant Sinha as over 60 per cent votes are expected to be cast in her favour.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana agreed to hear next week the EC's plea after senior advocate Vikas Singh submitted a large number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail machines (VVPATs) are still being preserved and need to be released.
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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee keen on framing a stringent act to prevent malpractices by chit fund firms.
Laws in several states are inconsistent with the model Bill passed by Parliament.
Stating that at least 16 people of different political parties have lost their lives in the post-poll violence in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying unable to digest defeat in the state elections they were sending central ministers to incite unrest in Kolkata.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to former Left Front minister and Communist Party of India - Marxist Member of Legislative Assembly Susanta Ghosh. While granting bail, a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Gyan Sudha Misra imposed the condition that Ghosh will not visit any part of West Bengal's West Midnapore district other than his assembly constituency Garbeta. The apex court had allowed his appeal against the denial of bail by the Calcutta high court.
On March 30, West Bengal will elect five new members to Rajya Sabha. The ruling Trinamool Congress with its 185 members of Legislative Assembly in the state legislative assembly is in a position to elect three members to Rajya Sabha with ease.
As the Centre pushes reforms in the power sector, especially for the beleaguered electricity distribution segment, several states, especially those ruled by Opposition parties, are clamouring against it. Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerela have voiced their reservations against the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003. The irony is the states opposing the amendments on the ground of threat of privatisation already have private partnerships in power supply. The proposed Bill was slated to be placed on the floor of Parliament in the Monsoon session. But it still awaits Cabinet approval amid several states complaining that they have been not consulted on the issue.
Is it is necessary to play divisive politics to succeed in the next general elections? asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
'You may be an MP or an MLA; when we go to Bengal, we go as cadre.'
Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Anisur Rahman has triggered a controversy by allegedly making derogatory remarks against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her cabinet colleagues, drawing angry reaction from Trinamool Congress leaders on Sunday.
The statement came after chief ministers of West Bengal, Punjab, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh announced that the law is "unconstitutional" and has no place in their respective states.
According to sources in the Congress, eight legislators are likely to be sworn in as ministers along with them.
Probodh Panda and Atul Kumar Anjaan are among 39 candidates declared by the Communist Party of India for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as the party said that it would fight on 60 seats in 24 states.
The ruling Left Front and the opposition Trinamool Congress and the Congress on Friday united against the demand by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha for a separate Gorkhaland on the lines of Telangana. "We don't want division of Bengal," Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, said in Delhi.
Counting of votes for the high stakes assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry began on Thursday morning with trends expected to be available by 11am.
The legislator from West Bengal claimed that there were several incidents where people across the country had been attacked by "cow vigilantes" over rumours of eating beef and smuggling cattle.
Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary and Member of Legislative Assembly Subal Bhowmick on Monday alleged that a group of Congress activists had assaulted Abhijit Mukherjee, a Congress MLA from West Bengal and son of President Pranab Mukherjee, on Thursday at Bamutia, nearly 35 km from Agartala.
BJP president Amit Shah, while kickstarting 'Ganatanatra Bachao Yatra' in Bengal, vowed to overthrow the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in the state.
The EVMs are based on a technology where they work as aggregator of votes in direct elections such as the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
If the process becomes completely online, there will be no intervention from a state government at any level.
Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim said that if the provision for reduction in taxes did not exist in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, an amendment had to be passed in the Assembly before the waiver of taxes came into force.
Unfazed by the protests against the Act, Shah challenged protesters to oppose the legislation as much as they can. He also asked students who are opposing the legislation to read it properly and understand its meaning.
A day after Communist Party of India-Marxist member of legislative assembly Sushanta Ghosh was apprehended by the Criminal Investigation Department in a murder case, the West Bengal Assembly on Friday witnessed uproarious scenes on the issue with the ruling bench demanding the arrest of former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Rajiv Shukla, Mukul Roy and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley were on Thursday elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha even as Non-resident Indian businessman Anshuman Mishra in Jharkhand and Congress leader Abdul Mannan in West Bengal withdrew from fray.
The recently concluded assembly polls in the four states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and one Union Territory -- Puducherry saw a blatant use of money power. But interestingly, the newly elected members of Legislative have claimed in their expense statements submitted to the Election Commission that their expenditure was well below the prescribed limit.
The EVMs, officials explained, are not designed to register this system of voting.
Cracking the whip after tough talk, the Congress on Tuesday suspended 12 rebel candidates including three sitting legislators who defied the party line and filed nominations as independents against 'official' nominees of Trinamool and Congress alliance in West Bengal.
Postal ballot facility for eligible overseas Indian electors cannot be extended for the upcoming assembly polls as the matter is still under discussion with the Ministry of External Affairs to iron out logistical challenges in implementing the proposal, Lok Sabha was informed.
In his resignation letter, Kishor stated that as he decided to take a temporary break from an active role in public life, he will not be able to discharge his duties as the principal advisor to the Punjab CM.
West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan on Monday said he had thought that the Singur legislation did not require Presidential approval, three days after the Calcutta high court ruled it as constitutionally invalid and void.
Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, said in a sarcastic way that personnel of security forces such as the CRPF, BSF, CISF and the Army are present at convoys of every BJP leader visiting West Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress on Monday lost five more sitting MLAs and the control of the Malda Zilla Parishad to the Bharatiya Janata Party as defections continued to rock West Bengal's ruling party ahead of the assembly polls.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on December 6 the plea of a Congress leader challenging a recent notification by which the sale of electoral bonds has been extended by 15 more days in the year of general elections to legislative assemblies of states and Union territories (UTs) with a legislature.
'The power sector accounts for much of the financial burden of state governments in India.'
Although the credit for acquiring the technological skill must be given to India's outstanding nuclear scientists, the decision to go nuclear was a political one that entailed clarity of vision, courage and resolve, points out Rup Narayan Das.
The bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
In a setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, Calcutta High Court had ruled on June 23 that the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, introduced by her government to recover land leased to Tata Motors in Singur for its small car project was constitutionally invalid and void.
The Telangana issue assumed centre stage on Thursday night as Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily held consultations with Congress members of Legislative Assembly and members of Parliament. Though a lot of hope was pinned by the Telangana leaders on this meeting there was absolutely no decision taken on issue of statehood, say insiders. However, the mass resignation programme by these elected representatives will be put on hold till the assembly elections in five states.
As state minister Suvendu Adhikari, along with other functionaries, openly air grievances against the Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation, senior leaders are frantically looking for ways to pacify the rebels.
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