The confrontation between the Election Commission and the West Bengal government escalated by a few notches on Tuesday, with Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath asking West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to transfer five superintendents of police and one district magistrate (North 24-Parganas) by 2.30 pm on Tuesday, after Opposition parties complained against these officers and accused them of being biased.
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
With the election campaign in Karnataka witnessing a bitter war of words between the BJP and the Congress, both the parties rushed to the Election Commission, seeking ban on electioneering by top leaders of the other side.
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".
If the present Lok Sabha completes its five-year term, Chawla would be the CEC in charge of conducting the next general elections.
There was no move to advance elections to the assembly in Kerala which would be held in the mid-May next year, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said on Tuesday.
Please promise, especially those millions who trust you with their hard-earned money, never to let your voting preferences determine your actions on the markets. The most appalling and scary phenomenon was fund houses and brokerages going out on election yatras and writing copious reports promising more than 300 for the BJP. That was your wish as voters. Your investors are paying for it now, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The satta market is accepting bets on how many times Modiji will mention Nehru at his election rallies, says A Ganesh Nadar with a wink.
The term of the 15th Lok Sabha ends on May 31.
The dates for the crucial assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have been finalised and will be announced by the Election Commission on Wednesday.
The full bench of the Election Commission will visit West Bengal on Thursday to oversee the poll preparedness for the last three phases of the assembly polls. Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and the other two Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and HS Brahma will arrive in Kolkata in the morning and hold meeting with the representatives of the political parties.
Certification of Election of Pranab Mukherjee as President of India has been handed over to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday.
President Droupadi Murmu will administer the Oath of Office to the elected Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar at Rashtrapati Bhavan at 11.45 am on Thursday.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged in a post on X that the woman had arrived in Lucknow for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's "janata darbar" but her failure to be heard forced her to take the step.
'Democracy cannot be taken for granted. It has to be fiercely guarded.'
In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, political parties are extensively using social media to propagate their achievements and seek support from voters.
It has met 20 such delegations and members of the public from Ramban, Rajouri, Poonch, Kishtwar, Kathua and Doda districts.
The CEC said 7.2 crore single-use gloves for voters to press electronic voting machine buttons, more than seven lakh units of hand sanitiser, about 46 lakh masks, about six lakh personal protection equipment (PPE) kits, 7.6 lakh units of face shields have been arranged.
In many ways, Shashi Tharoor pointed out, COVID-19 saved the country as the Narendra D Modi's entire legislative momentum was stalled by the urgent need to tackle the pandemic.
Tata Sons will likely choose Singapore as a "key partner" for its semiconductor plans, a senior minister from the city-state said on Friday. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran earlier in the day, Singapore's minister for home affairs and law K Shanmugam said semiconductors was a "big discussion" point during the meeting. "If they (Tatas) want to, they can do business with anybody in the world.
A complaint has been lodged with the Election Commission against Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra for allegedly filing false election affidavits and tax evasion.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
The Congress on Saturday wrote to the Election Commission seeking action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his 'Congress shielded terrorism for vote bank' remark and said he has crossed the 'lakshman rekha'.
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 move comes in the wake of Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalawami's contention that he has the power to initiate action against an election commissioner.
Hari Shankar Brahma, who took over as the 19th Chief Election Commissioner on Friday, said his priority and "mission objective" is to ensure free and fair conduct of Delhi assembly polls.
India has provided 1,935 electronic voting machines to Bhutan for the country's second national elections to be held on Saturday.
Asked if she will continue her political role, Kejriwal replied, "When I was arrested, she was a bridge between me and Delhi's residents. It was a temporary phase.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday questioned the ED slapping a money laundering case against him in the MUDA 'scam' and once again ruled out his resignation over the issue.
The election is likely to witness a three-cornered contest involving the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.
The schedule for the Bihar assembly polls, which will be held in five phases, is likely to be announced by Saturday. Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and Election Commissioner V S Sampath held detailed meetings with Home Secretary G K Pillai and chiefs of central police organisations to discuss the deployment of forces in the state during the polls.According to sources, the poll schedule is almost ready and it is being given its final touches.
Amid a debate on the freebies, the Election Commission on Tuesday proposed amending the model code to ask political parties to provide authentic information to voters on the financial viability of their poll promises.
The Election Commission on Saturday cautioned political parties over hate speeches and said it is closely monitoring social media posts to ensure clean assembly polls in five states.
'The second Covid wave spread due to the irresponsibility of the Election Commission of India and now they are committing the same mistake.'
A day after Election Commission rejected his claim that Electronic Voting Machines are not tamper-proof, former bureaucrat Omesh Saigal on Tuesday stuck to his charge that a particular software can be used to rig the polls.
Pronouncing the judgement, Justice Khanna said the court has rejected all the petitions, including those seeking resorting back to ballot papers in elections.
The chief adviser alleged elections held under Hasina's regime were "rigged blatantly and generations of young people grew up without exercising their voting rights."
The Election Commission on Wednesday put a lid on the standoff with Law and Minorities Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid after he expressed regrets over his "defiance" of the poll body over his remarks on subquota for minorities in government jobs in Uttar Pradesh.
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