'If people don't see you, they might be hesitant, but once they see you, they are confident that this is the person they will vote for,' says political debutant Shambhavi Choudhury, 25, alumnus of the Lady Sriram College and the Delhi School of Economics.
Announcing sops for minorities ahead of the panchayat elections next year in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that her government has ordered a survey for ensuring job reservation for Muslims and would also bring a bill for 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats.
The former chief minister was speaking at 'Vidhik Vimarsh 2023', a gathering of lawyers organised by the state Congress's Legal and Human Rights Cell in Bhopal.
Political observers say that except for a strong anti-incumbency sentiment, there is little that might go against the BJP.
The first phase of the crucial panchayat polls in West Bengal will begin on Thursday even as the ruling Trinamool Congress kept up its attack against the State E1lection Commission.
As the final five phases of polls draw closer, rift among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners, Congress-Left combine and the Trinamool Congress, which are fighting separately has intensified, triggering a fierce contest across half of the remaining 36 constituencies in West Bengal driven by local issues such as Sandeshkhali and the SSC scam.
Security was beefed up on Monday a day after a row broke out over the removal of a saffron Hanuman flag from Keragodu village in Mandya, with protests demanding its restoration and the incident sparking a political confrontation between the Congress government and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (Secular).
Of the 20,831 voters in this assembly constituency, an overwhelming majority of around 18,000 are not tribals.
Banerjee said the Border Security Force must work impartially as the BJP "may not be in power tomorrow".
In an unusually candid admission, the CPI-M blamed corruption and dishonesty among its leaders at the village level for the party's poor show in the recent panchayat elections across the state. "Not everybody in the CPI-M-controlled zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats is honest. We have corruption in our functioning. Even though they are few in number, we have to find out how this happened," CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose said.
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 BJP is not as mighty a political force in Odisha as it is made out to be.'
BRS spokesperson Sravan Dasoju, speaking to PTI, expressed confidence KCR would win from both the constituencies with a thumping majority.
AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday brainstormed with senior Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh on the preparations for next year's assembly polls, as the party resolved to hit the streets against the Bharatiya Janata Party government over issues such as unemployment, price rise and law and order.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, state BJP president C P Joshi and Union minister Bhupendra Yadav welcomed them into the party at its state headquarters in Jaipur.
Wednesday's expansion shows that Modi still has a keen eye on Bengal. The BJP is gearing up for the panchayat elections in Bengal next May and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Around 65 per cent polling was reported in elections to 147 municipal councils and 17 nagar panchayats in Maharashtra on Sunday.
With the announcement, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force in the state.
The poll results show that the BJP has increased its base among the SC, ST communities in the state. However, the party's prominent tribal face and Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste lost the election.
High drama was witnessed during the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet meeting on Saturday with ministers Jagat Negi and Rohit Thakur leaving midway following a 'heated debate' over policy decisions, sources said.
Patel also said that although he had taken up the issue of his harassment with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi many times, no action has been taken to address his grievances.
If the concerns over risking political capital are overcome, the long-term gains for the Indian economy will be immense, asserts A K Bhattacharya.
The state on Thursday reported 104 deaths and 22,439 fresh cases, pushing the fatality count to 9,480 and the total infection number to 7,66,360.
Amid tight security arrangements, polling for the second and final phase of Tamil Nadu local body elections on Wednesday commenced on a peaceful note.
Rebel Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shirsat on Thursday claimed that both the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are trying to eliminate the Shiv Sena politically from Maharashtra and the MLAs made several attempts to inform Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about the mala fide intentions of the alliance partners.
The party also promised reservation to minorities on basis of their population after the caste census.
Eight months after the tsunami, the region will hold the next election to the panchayats on September 24.
In a setback to the West Bengal government, the Calcutta high court on Friday directed that panchayat elections in the state be held in three phases using central armed forces on dates decided by the State Election Commission, observing that primacy of the commission was not negotiable.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday indirectly criticised the West Bengal government's decision yesterday to levy a 10 per cent tax on tobacco products to assuage the growing anger of agents and depositors of the Saradha group.
Though a number of Jat leaders and farmers said they would vote against the BJP in the upcoming panchayat election, slated for April, they remained non-committal on supporting opposition parties in the assembly polls next year.
Police said CPI-M supporters blocked roads with felled trees at Jadurbari Chowk and Bhutar More on Wednesday night apprehending trouble after the Trinamool Congress' resounding victory in the panchayat polls in Nandigram blocks I and II. District CPI-M leader Ashok Guria alleged that TC supporters beat up a CPI-M activist at Sonachura.
How polling officers cope with elections in remote West Bengal villages
Prime Minister Modi said BJP's performance in Parliamentary, assembly and local polls across India over the last few days illustrated that people want all-round progress and will not tolerate corruption and misgovernance.
The Congress leader also lamented the exclusion of current Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge from the committee
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'After a month of working on the new machine, I realised that the black glass on the VVPAT lets the programmer manipulate not just the electronic system, but the paper vote too.' 'And it will not be detected even during the mock poll or the actual voting because of the black glass.'
It said the chief justice-led bench of the high court shall be at liberty to pass appropriate order in the petition after hearing all the objections, if any, of Adhikari both on the merits and maintainability of the plea.
In another display of the politics of threat in West Bengal, a ruling Trinamool Congress Member of Legislative Assembly openly threatened to "behead" a Congress leader in Birbhum district.
However, Rajya Sabha being a continuing chamber is not subject to dissolution, and bills introduced and pending in this House remain on the live register, unless withdrawn by the government.
As many as 71 elected representatives in Gadhiroli, an East Maharashtra district have resigned from their posts till now, apparently due to Naxal threat. Talking to the media, Chief Executive Officer of the Gadchiroli Zilla Parishad.
