'Legalised election betting would drive black money and satta operators out of business while creating a more level and transparent playing field for politics,' argues Devangshu Datta.
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The biopic was originally set to release on April 12, but its producers had advanced it by a week, claiming 'public demand'.
There are of course, other ways to win elections including intimidation of voters, gerrymandering, fiddling electoral rolls, booth-capturing and other creative forms of rigging.
To snatch a state government out of Congress hands is therefore a high-stakes game with national political implications, for it denies the party the essential fuel to run effective election campaigns, notes T N Ninan.
Parties including the Congress, Left, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have written to the Election Commission and the President opposing the advancing of the budget presentation to February 1 before the polls.
'With changing times, elections no longer are won by giving subsidies, doles and gifts before and after.' 'Entitlements, rightful gains of growth and economic development and the like are becoming important for increasingly conscious and demanding voters, especially younger voters,' points out Bheemaiah Krishnan Ravi.
For the first time, Akhilesh is leading the SP almost single-handed into a major election, but he is not the only one running the show Shikha Shalini reports.
Exit polls often go wrong in India because pollsters don't sample voters in the poorest parts of the country or the core support bases of different political parties, explains Professor Atanu Biswas of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
In keeping with the trend seen elsewhere in the country so far, an all-time-high 76.82 percent of the voters exercised the franchise in the two Lok Sabha constituencies of Goa on Saturday.
Nitin Gadkari has a message as much for his party as much purportedly it is for the Opposition. Listening to him, whatever be his reasons and motives, will help, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
For voters in this part of Rajasthan, it is water and farmers' issues which seem to be on the top of their minds as they ponder over whom to elect in the December 4 Assembly polls.
Patnaik's decision would mean that the ruling BJD will field women candidates for at least seven out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Around 40,000 Delhi Police personnel, 190 coys (companies) of Central Armed Police Forces and 19,000 Home Guards have been deployed for smooth conduct of election in the national capital, officials said.
Y V Reddy argues that while the merits of the proposal to hold simultaneous elections to Parliament and all state assemblies appear self-evident, the reality might be very different.
Russia's main gain will be that in geopolitical terms, Ukraine regains its sovereignty and ceases to be a de facto American colony, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Madhya Pradesh unit of Congress has demanded a ban on 'Shivraj App' and 'Modi Run' applications for promoting the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
With boundaries of 60 out of the total 182 constituencies being re-drawn in Gujarat, the fortunes of two main parties -- the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party -- in the 2012 assembly elections, is likely to be hugely influenced by the delimitation process, which will alter several equations including caste and political following.
From Covid to climate change, Shankar Acharya's look at some of the trends and events that might shape 2022.
The 'Yes' campaign won 51.4 per cent of the vote against 48.6 per cent for 'No', the election commission said on Sunday in figures quoted by state news agency Anadolu, in a count based on 99.5 per cent of the ballot boxes.
'In case of multi-phase elections, manifesto shall not be released during the prohibitory periods, as prescribed under Section 126 of the RP Act of all the phases of those elections'
'Anti-incumbency against sitting MPs and the government is a big issue here. We will win all seats in Mumbai'
The Congress surveys, at least until now, have indicated the nationalistic fervour over the Pulwama terror attack is more an effort by mainstream media outlets, like news channels and newspapers, to shape a particular narrative, when the people on the ground are still asking basic questions of livelihood, jobs and better price for farm produce.
'Even though we are very religious and God fearing, we do not subscribe to the kind of Hindutva they practise, a very hierarchical, Brahmanical, Hindutva.'
Back of the envelope calculations put government expense on each of the new schemes promised by the DMK and the AIADMK at tens of thousands of crores. But then, neither party has said how they are going to also address the mounting debt burden either, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Ironically, the BJP, which seeks to unseat the TMC from power, has taken a leaf out of Mamata Banerjee's strategy of soliciting tinsel town's support towards causes and fielding actors in elections.
'Himanta Biswa Sarma has put a lot of effort in demonising Muslims this time.'
Modi said he relied on his 'raw wisdom' to dispel the doubts of the defence experts who had planned the mission.
In a post on Twitter on Wednesday, the 28-year-old also named the Janata Dal-United as a client during the 2010 Bihar elections and brought up some caste surveys carried out in Uttar Pradesh by SCL India -- the parent company of CA.
The ministry has raised five questions in all including whether the personal data of Indian voters and users has been compromised by Cambridge Analytica or any other downstream entity in any manner.
The Election Commission has a fight on its hand as candidates use ingenious methods to smuggle in money to Voters.
In Gujarat's political circles, the appeal was seen as an indirect call to vote against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The apex court said it will hear the matter on Tuesday and possibly can pass an order if the petitioner brings on record that what the film depicts is highly objectionable.
Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Wednesday said that the debate on Lokpal Bill does not have any link with the Election Process as the model code of conduct does not apply to Parliament.
The Congress topped the list of pages with the highest spends for the week ended April 6.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi is now gone. But the mass appeal of fundamentalism among Pakistan's burgeoning, young, illiterate, unemployed and angry population isn't, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'...It won't help the party run a peaceful and equitable India,' warns Vir Sanghvi.
In a complaint to the Election Commission, the Communist Party of India Marxist on Wednesday alleged that Home Minister P Chidambaram and his ministry were trying to "portray" the Left Front as an "aggressor" in West Bengal, thereby violating the model code of conduct in place in the state.The party petitioned to the commission that statements being made by Chidambaram during the course of his campaign for the ongoing assembly elections.
Two presiding officers were removed following allegation of influencing voters and an election agent of Communist Party of India-Marxist detained for interrogation after postal ballots were recovered from him, the sources said in Kolkata.
Modi is seen as exceptional not only on account of his acts but also owing to his style. He appears to sacrifice his life for the people -- like a fakir, a figure he came to epitomize even more in 2020 by growing a long white beard. Charisma is above accountability, and Modi has grasped these dynamics.
