This election will be remembered for being the first election where the Election Commission failed to take action on gross violations involving the ruling party that repeatedly used religion, communal slurs, lies and undocumented allegations, observes Ramesh Menon.
Saying that the constitutional right to vote is not absolute, the Bombay high court on Friday rejected petitions filed by Nationalist Congress Party leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh seeking temporary release from prison for casting ballot in the June 20 Maharashtra Legislative Council election.
Widespread violence between supporters of the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party over alleged electoral malpractices in strife-torn Sandeshkhali marred the final phase of Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal on Saturday, resulting in injuries to a number of people.
'Secrecy allowed in the electoral bonds scheme legalises anonymity'
The statements the separatists make, the abominable tableaux at their parades, the slogans, posters, and selfies with assault rifles are not India's problem. If they are a nuisance, it should bother their host countries, because they are armed and have their own underworld with deadly gang rivalries. Significantly, none of this happens in the US -- only in snowflaky Canada, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Kejriwal has described his arrest by the ED ahead of the general election as an "unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy" and urged the apex court to release him by declaring the case against him as "illegal".
This was the first general election in the valley after the abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the EC said in a statement.
'I have serious doubts about the longevity of the NDA government and the longevity of the 18th Lok Sabha itself.'
'This might prove to be a temporary gain for the BJP, but at a huge cost to the people of Gujarat and democracy in India.'
An exclusive report on how the electoral process to elect India's next President gets underway soon.
As the numbers stand today, Congress President Sonia Gandhi may not be able to spring another surprise woman candidate for President. Other women leaders will call the shots.
The government on Friday issued rules allowing linking of electoral roll data with Aadhaar, making electoral law gender neutral for service voters and enabling young citizens register as voters four times a year instead of the present one.
To keep their MLAs together, political parties are organising dinner meetings and arranging hotel stays for them ahead of the council elections, which are taking place just three months ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
The Election Commission Wednesday directed the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to refrain from making speeches on religious and communal lines, and opposition Congress from potentially divisive statements on the socioeconomic composition of the armed forces.
Suryavanshi said the personal mobile phone of one Dinesh Gurav, the data entry operator of Jogeshwari assembly constituency, was found in the hands of an unauthorised person and action is being taken in this regard.
If Rashid cannot be the king, he could be the kingmaker after October 8 when the results to the J&K assembly are declared.
'BJP and RSS may have differences over minor issues but their hearts long for one common aim -- that of A Hindu Rashtra.' 'And this time to prove this point the RSS has prepared to help BJP win this election with all its might.'
Sinha said that he was not invited for "any party events, rallies or organizational meetings".
The opposition parties were demanding a division of votes as they had moved a motion to send the Bill to a select committee, which was rejected by voice vote.
'Union Budgets are often used as political instruments and that was the intention of this government too.' 'But while the exercise has settled two fronts, it has left open several others and this has the potential to aggravate with time,' predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Describing the unrest among party members as just the "tip of the iceberg," the report shed light on the underlying discontent within the BJP.
"I condemn is the strongest terms the statement he has made about Sikhs not being able to wear turbans and kadas," the BJP leader from the Sikh community said.
"The voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections published by ECI on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling... on April 19 and four days after second phase of polling... on April 26.
Rule of law prevents a government, brought to power by the strength of ballots, from betraying the trust of citizens and "lapsing into a government of caprice, nepotism and finally despotism", the Supreme Court said on Thursday.
The number of contesting candidates this time is 35 less than the figure in 2018.
Kharge termed the high-level committee constituted by the Centre to examine the feasibility of 'One Nation, One Election' a 'gimmick' and alleged the Modi government wants to slowly replace democracy in India with dictatorship.
The PIL also seeks a direction to the Election Commission to invoke its powers to freeze the election symbols and cancel the registration of such political parties.
No government in the past initiated the process of policy making for its next tenure even before going in for elections. Once the Model Code of Conduct is enforced by the Election Commission, should the government of the day refrain from taking an active interest in policy making for the next five years and let that be the function of the new government?, asks A K Bhattacharya.
'New Delhi has to make up its mind whether it wants to be a friend of the Bangladeshi people or they want to be a friend of a section of people, or one party or one leader'
The Sports Ministry on Tuesday objected to GS Mander's appointment as the Returning Officer for next month's Hockey India elections, saying no one from either HI or the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) could be part of the electoral process.
He also sought framing of a law to identify Kunbis as Marathas, and warned of fielding candidates from all 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra in the upcoming state polls if his demands were not approved.
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
Will Vijay will go the most successful MGR/Jayalalithaa way, or that of Vijayakanth, Seeman or Kamalahaasan, or will he end up as another Rajinikanth who cries wolf at the last minute and quits the scene even before it all had really begun, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
BJP's resurgent performance prompted the state leadership to describe it as a 'saffron strike', while party in-charge Bhupendar Yadav said it has now emerged as the 'only alternative' to the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led regional dispensation with people accepting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brand of good governance.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday said the fresh revision of electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir does not disturb the schedule or conduct part of polls and the poll panel is aware that there is a "vacuum" in the Union territory which needs to be filled.
During a review, the EC found that the performance of some officers was "unsatisfactory" and they were found "complacent, if not complicit" in various matters, including the illegal supply of liquor as a possible poll inducement, sources said.
This will be the first major electoral test after the political realignment that emerged in 2019.
Devaswoms are meant to manage temples, not the faithful. Why didn't they simply stick to their set of responsibilities and execute it well and efficiently?, asks Shyam G Menon.
Sanjay Singh, the Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh loyalist, on Wednesday exuded confidence of sweeping the much-delayed Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) elections, saying the fraternity knows who would be beneficial for the sport and who could inflict damage to it.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav said the mayor, also the returning officer, acted beyond her powers and her decision was impermissible as it was "not based on any material relevant to the issue".
The results of the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are likely to play out during the winter session of Parliament beginning Wednesday.
