Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami, who has been in the eye of the storm after recommending the removal of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla, is currently on a one-week leave to visit various pilgrimages in Gujarat. During his trip, the CEC is scheduled to visit Somnath, Dwarka and Gandhi Nagar. Gopalaswami, an Indian Administrative Service officer from the Gujarat cadre, speaks the native language fluently and considers the state his second home.
Everyone on election duty for the upcoming polls for five assemblies will be vaccinated against COVID-19 before polling day, the Election Commission said on Friday.
Postal ballot facility for eligible overseas Indian electors cannot be extended for the upcoming assembly polls as the matter is still under discussion with the Ministry of External Affairs to iron out logistical challenges in implementing the proposal, Lok Sabha was informed.
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.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com finds out how the government is seeking to change the RTI Act, and what impact it will have on the Right to Information.
The former information commissioner, who is known for his pro-transparency orders in several high-profile cases, said the proposed changes "seriously undermine" the autonomy of information commissions.
An unofficial and brutal justice system exists parallel to the official one, and it executes many times more of the accused than the official one executes convicts, points out Aakar Patel.
Senior National Democratic Alliance leaders urge the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioner to keep a watch on Bihar's bureaucratic reshuffles
Local trains will be allowed to operate with 50 per cent capacity till 7 pm, while all shopping malls and markets will be allowed to remain open till 10 pm but with half their capacities, he said.
In the all-party meeting on Tuesday, Opposition parties demanded discussions on price rise, unemployment and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota among other issues, sources said.
The decision to repeal the Act was taken at a late-night cabinet meeting on Friday as it is an obsolete pre-Independence Act of the British for the then province of Assam, the CM said.
The counting of votes for the Rajya Sabha elections was delayed on Friday in Maharashtra and Haryana over alleged violation of rules, officials said.
'The diversity of geography and demography of India is truly reflected in the challenges faced during the election process.' 'International observers have never been encouraged in India. The internal system of monitoring by neutral and senior government officers has become time tested and proving to be very useful during elections.' We, at the Commission, have to continuously strive to do things right and make sure that we conduct elections which are credible and transparent,' India's Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath tells Radhika Rajamani/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.
Assembly elections in 288 seats in Maharashtra and 90 seats in Haryana will be held on October 15 and counting will take place on October 19, the Election Commission announced on Friday.
'Whatever the Supreme Court expected, it wasn't achieved in these five years.' 'So, we have made an amendment now to achieve that objective.'
The opposition is likely to put up a joint candidate for the July 18 presidential election despite not having numbers on its side, and consultations in this regard have already begun.
Till he took over, political parties ferrying people to the polling stations was considered quite 'normal', and it was during Seshan's stint that it became impossible with the model code being made sacrosanct.
The chief election commissioner said that the dates for the Himachal Pradesh election would be announced soon.
The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The rally was addressed by BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav.
The voting will be held on November 30, December 7, 12, 16 and 20.
The 18 new members were elected by absolute majority through a secret ballot.
The objection comes against the backdrop of strong rumours and the Bharatiya Janata Party claim that Hemant Soren's wife Kalpana will be the first choice for the chief minister's post in case her husband was arrested.
Former Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy has pitched for single-phase elections and substantially curtailing public campaigning time in future polls.
The seven seats -- Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura -- went to poll on September 5.
'The EC is a sacred institution.' 'In the last few years, more than once, we have found the EC bending over backwards to accommodate the government.'
The top court also postponed the August 28 elections of the AIFF by one week to allow a changed electoral college and the start of the nomination process.
The notification for the President poll will be issued on June 15, the CEC said, and June 29 will be the last date for the filing of nominations.
Justice Joseph, while penning the verdict, gave illustrations where the top court had resorted to giving directions, which had the colour of a legislation, if there was a void in law or no legislation.
The poll watchdog faces two Heruclean tasks -- to produce over a million VVPATs in time for the 2019 elections and also iron out manufacturing tweaks in the machines which are already in use.
Braving scorching sun, voters queued up since early morning in the wards falling under three corporations - South Delhi Municipal Corporation (7), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (4) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (2).
The tallying of VVPAT slips with the votes cast and stored in the EVMs will be done to demonstrate that the voting system has been working perfectly.
Amid rising coronavirus cases in India, the government has asked people not to panic, saying no community transmission of the virus has been observed and there has only been a few cases of local transmission so far and that it is "not a health emergency" in India at present.
'The EC should take permission from the PMO at the earliest and register FIRs against the two,' Kejriwal wrote in the letter.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi said it was sitting in a combination of two and according to a reference order on the matter, it should go before a bench of three judges for disposal.
The parties which lost their registration also include Revolutionary Party of India-Khobragade faction, led by Uttam Khobragade and Uttar Pradesh-based Peace Party.
'The EC seems to have killed the joy of elections by stretching it interminably.' 'Imagine watching Andhadhun in a six-hour format and you will get the point,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
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'.
It said it won't respond to the averment to prove its image.
