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'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
A senior SP leader requesting anonymity said that the party chief had called a meeting to brief the MLAs about the voting process of the Rajya Sabha elections.
The Election Commission has decided to set up a panel to identify the experiences and shortcomings during the recently-held five assembly polls.
Suvendu Adhikari, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate against Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram, Monday said he has sought rejection of the nomination of the West Bengal chief minister for not declaring six criminal cases against her while filing her papers.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said his party would pull off a spectacular victory in the state assembly elections, but evaded a direct reply to a question whether he would be the chief minister for the fifth time, as he just said 'Bharatiya Janata Party Zindabad'.
About 54 per cent of 1.03 crore electors cast their votes on Thursday in 48 constituencies that went to polls in the third phase of the Bihar Assembly elections which passed of by and large peacefully.
'Gyanendra back on the throne would be bad news for the Nepali people. He may not have learnt from his experience, but we have.'
All preparations for conducting free, fair and peaceful elections to the 60-member Tripura assembly on Thursday have been completed, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Gitte Kirankumar Dinakarro said.
Gujarat State Election Commission on Wednesday introduced mascots 'Shri Mat' and 'Shri Mati' to create awareness among male and female voters to exercise their right in a free and just manner in the upcoming assembly elections.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Wednesday won the Sitarganj assembly seat by a record margin of 39,954 votes over his nearest Bharatiya Janata Party rival to retain the top post. The victory margin is the highest in all the assembly elections in Uttarakhand so far, officials said
Raising questions about the impartiality of the Election Commission ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said on Wednesday the EC should prove by its deeds that it was a neutral body.
Poll preparations for Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Delhi have begun, and the preliminary conference of chief electoral officers of these states will be held in Delhi in the first week of June.
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.
TMC claimed that the new instructions were made with a "mala fide intention to benefit the candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party".
In instructions for polling issued on Saturday, Congress central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry had said Pradesh Congress Committee members 'will mark '1' on the ballot paper against the name of the candidate and fold the ballot paper to put it into the ballot box'.
The Delhi assembly results have underscored that a section of Arvind Kejriwal's committed supporters abandoned him because they were let down by his refusal to take a stand on crucial issues that impinge on the security and Constitutionally enshrined rights of the people, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
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.
'The government does not want to be transparent or accountable. Therefore, they do not want to appoint information commissioners.'
The PDP looks a distant third in the race, observes Mohammed Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir politics.
Nearly 70 per cent polling was recorded in the Uttarakhand assembly elections, which sealed the fate of 788 candidates including Chief Minister B C Khanduri and state Congress president Yashpal Arya.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Saturday accused the Election Commission of being indifferent to the violation of the model code of conduct by the Trinamool Congress and said it might seek legal recourse.
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer H R Srinivasa said the Election Commission has established a three-tier security system for strong rooms (housing the electronic voting machines) and the counting centres. The inner core is being guarded by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), then there is the Bihar Military Police (BMP) and then the district police, he told reporters.
Pressure is mounting for a resolution to be moved in the assembly when it meets next week for its maiden sitting to demand 'restoration of Article 370 and Article 35A' as committed in the National Conference's election manifesto, reveals Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
In a state, where there is no industry worth naming and no economy other than government offices, the number of crorepatis is surprisingly high.
Real time monitoring of all the 23,000 booths where polling will take place on Monday will ensure a free and fair election, Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer Anita Karwal tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
The Election Commission has declined permission for use of a government college ground near Panaji as the venue for a Congress rally to be addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The CJI also said merits of a case may be quite different from what is shown in the media when asked about the delay in hearing on the bail plea of former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid, lodged in jail in a Delhi riots case.
Chief Electoral Officer M N Vidyashankar said on Sunday an average of 66 per cent polling was registered in the first phase of elections in the segments spread over 11 districts. This is higher than the 65.07 per cent average polled in the 224 assembly segments in 2004 polls.
The election commission on Thursday said it had decided to delete the names of all those against whom non-bailable warrants are pending for over six months from the voters list.\n
The people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and therefore their demand for deployment of central forces, Nayak said.
Spread over 10 districts, polling in these constituencies will be held from 7 am till 6 pm on Thursday.
A senior IAS officer, Mohammed had served as chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh for nearly eight-and-a-half years.
Elections to the 60-member assembly in Tripura began on Saturday morning with the Left Front, which has been in power since 1978 save for a short spell in 1988, contesting for the first time without ally Forward Bloc, which has quit the coalition.
