The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the Centre over the procedure adopted for the appointment of election commissioners and asked how six names were shortlisted from 200 within a few hours.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
The Kukis have already declared that they are not fielding any candidate in the parliamentary polls as an act of boycott.
All parties in Jammu and Kashmir said the assembly election should be held with the parliamentary polls, but the entire administrative machinery said it cannot be done simultaneously
Nearly Rs 3,400 crore (Rs 34 billion) in cash and other items were seized in the elections in 2022-2023, an increase of 835 per cent over 2017-2018.
The Kirti Chakra awardees are Major Digvijay Singh Rawat of 21st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment (Special Forces), Major Deependra Vikram Basnet from the Sikh Regiment's fourth battalion and Havildar Pawan Kumar Yadav from the 21st battalion of the Mahar Regiment, according to the defence ministry.
Voting was underway on Friday in 102 Lok Sabha seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the world's largest electoral exercise, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging voters to exercise their franchise in record numbers.
A delegation of Congress leaders met the Election Commission and handed over complaints against the prime minister, alleging that he has trampled upon and violated the model code and directions of the poll body.
'One of the principles of the MCC that you should not make hate speeches and create hatred between communities on the basis of religion was violated on a scale that was never seen before.' 'Religious symbols were very liberally used and speeches were made to polarise people on the basis of religion.'
The BJP also wrote to the EC, urging it to postpone the date of counting as Sunday is a sacred day for Christians, and the entire day is devoted to church services throughout the state.
'The Election Commission cannot be regulated by the government.'
From Instagram to X, social media platforms, in the run-up to the polls have seen bitter poster wars and even bitter meme battles for political one-upmanship.
Voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 from third gender. There are as many as 35.67 lakh first time voters, besides 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.
In some states, many women voters had enrolled themselves by their relationship with the male members of their family instead of providing their own names.
Pronouncing the judgement, Justice Khanna said the court has rejected all the petitions, including those seeking resorting back to ballot papers in elections.
She said I treated her like a bachchi. At another moment, she said I had gone to various people and 'bitched' about her. She also threatened to bring the entire matter to the PM's notice. A revealing excerpt from Subhash Chandra Garg's We Also Make Policy: An Insider's Account of How the Finance Ministry Functions.
The Election Commission on Sunday ordered the suspension of Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Anjani Kumar for violation of the model code of conduct amid the counting of votes, sources said.
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.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih told the petitioners, who pointed out that a meeting for the selection of ECs was pre-poned, to file a separate application pointing out the fact.
The three state assemblies have a strength of 60 members each.
The bench said it was not questioning the credentials of the election commissioners appointed but the procedure.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta issued notice to the Centre on a plea filed by an NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms, and listed the matter along with other pending petitions on the issue for hearing in April.
While the Congress is in power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Telangana by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Mizoram by the Mizo National Front.
The CEC said that in the case of Wayanad, the remainder of the term is more than a year.
The state was asked not to publicise the disbursement during the poll code as part of the condition.
The Rajya Sabha has already given its nod to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023.
The BJP has fielded 18 MPs, including four Union ministers, for the latest round of assembly polls so far -- seven each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and four in Chhattisgarh.
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.
Citing convention followed in 2017, the poll panel had not announced the Gujarat poll schedule when it came out with Himachal Pradesh election dates earlier this month.
Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed a bill to regulate the appointment and service terms of Chief Election Commissioner and election commissioners incorporating key amendments like retaining their status at par with Supreme Court judges, upgrading the search committee and inserting a new clause to protect them from court cases while discharging their official duties.
Congress Whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore said the government has deliberately disqualified Rahul Gandhi under a well-planned conspiracy to not allow him to attend Parliament during this budget session.
'BJP's ultimate ambition is to control Bihar independently.'
It said that increased focus on expenditure monitoring was the reason being the seizures, which included freebies such as sarees, 'food kits', pressure cookers and kitchen appliances.
The Election Commission on Friday cited convention followed in 2017 for not announcing the assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat together and underlined that the model code this time has not been "unnecessarily extended".
Bypolls to one Lok Sabha and four assembly seats across four states will be held on May 10 along with the Karnataka assembly polls, the Election Commission announced on Wednesday.
The poll panel has convened a press conference to announce the schedule. The term of the 182-member Gujarat assembly ends on February 18 next year.
The Election Commission on Thursday said that there were 'multiple factors' leading to the delay in the announcement of the Gujarat assembly polls, adding that the recent Morbi bridge collapse tragedy was one of them.
Members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, including nominated members, form the electoral college for the vice presidential election.
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.
India's decision to ban the export of non-basmati white rice has pushed up global prices, prompting multilateral lending agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to call for a reconsideration of the move. Though nothing has been spelled out yet officially, sources said, the government might consider requests for government-to-government sale of non-basmati white rice, especially to West African nations where India is a major supplier. Also, traders and exporters of specialty regional rice varieties like sona masuri or gobindo bhog feel that they have been short-changed.
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