News Analysis India

Tag: assembly polls

  • After Punjab victory, AAP now shifts focus to South; to launch massive membership drive

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to launch a massive membership drive in the southern states to build on the momentum of its stupendous victory in the Punjab Assembly polls.

    The party will start its membership drive in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep, senior AAP leader Somnath Bharti said on Friday.

    “After the thunderous victory of the AAP in Punjab, people from the southern regions have started showing interest in the politics of our party. We are receiving an unprecedented response from southern India,” he told reporters here.

    “Seeing the mood of the people and taking into account the response that our teams in the southern states have been receiving, we have decided to launch membership campaigns throughout the region,” he added.

    Bharti said the membership drive will be carried out by the party’s local teams.

    “These campaigns will actively penetrate deep into Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep,” he said.

    “I call upon all those who feel the need to bring a change in India’s politics to join the AAP and be a part of the revolution,” he said.

    Bharti said the party has also decided to take out foot marches across the southern states in phases.

    “This sequence will begin on April 14 on B R Ambedkar’s birth anniversary with our first foot march in Telangana. We will cover each and every Assembly constituency of the region. Through these foot marches, we will take the politics of (Arvind) Kejriwalji and the ideals of Babasaheb and Bhagat Singh to every resident of the region,” he added.

    Bharti said the party will highlight the difference it has made in the lives of the people of Delhi.

    The AAP has its units in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

    The party had contested the Karnataka and Telangana Assembly polls in 2018 as part of its efforts to make inroads into south India but could not open its account.

  • ‘Battle for India will be decided in 2024, not in any state poll’: Prashant Kishor’s jibe at Modi

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A day after the BJP’s emphatic win in assembly elections in four states, poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday said the results will not have any bearing on the next Lok Sabha elections as the “battle for India would be fought and decided in 2024 and not in any state elections”.

    Bulldozing a resurgent rainbow coalition led by the Samajwadi Party, the BJP on Thursday stormed back to power in Uttar Pradesh and also retained Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, while Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP scripted a stellar victory in Punjab, winning a three-fourth majority pulverising its rivals.

    Kishor’s comment came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the next Lok Sabha polls, scheduled for 2024, saying he hopes that political pundits will note that his party’s win in the four states has also made clear the verdict for the next general elections as they had linked its win in 2019 to its sweep of the Uttar Pradesh polls in 2017.

    “Battle for India will be fought and decided in 2024 & not in any state #elections Saheb knows this! Hence this clever attempt to create frenzy around state results to establish a decisive psychological advantage over opposition. Don’t fall or be part of this false narrative.” Kishor said on Twitter.

  • ‘People’s decision paramount, hope governments work for farmers’: Rakesh Tikait on assembly polls results

    By PTI

    NOIDA: Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said the decision of people is paramount as he hoped the new governments in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand will work for farmers and labourers.

    The remark of the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) came late on Thursday after the BJP won majority seats in four states, including Uttar Pradesh, while the Aam Aadmi Party stormed to power in Punjab.

    “In the great festival of democracy, the decision of the people is paramount. The farmers’ movement showed its effect. We hope that all the governments that have been formed will work for to uplift farmers and labourers in their respective states. Congratulations to all on the victory,” Tikait tweeted in Hindi.

    Tikait’s BKU was part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmers unions which had spearheaded the 13-month-long protest in Delhi in 2020-21 against three contentious farm laws, which now stand repealed.

    In the aftermath of the iconic protests, the SKM had launched a “punish BJP” campaign in Uttar Pradesh, where farmer leaders toured several places and highlighted the anti-agriculture policies of the saffron party and issues like inflation, alleged corruption and the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which a Union minister’s son is among the accused.

  • Over Rs 1000 crore worth of cash, drugs, liquor, freebies seized during assembly polls in 5 states

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: With the Election Commission stepping up vigil, more than Rs 1,000 crore worth of cash, drugs, liquor and freebies have been seized so far in the ongoing assembly polls in five states, a nearly four-fold increase in such seizures over the previous round of elections in 2017.

    According to an Election Commission statement, Punjab topped the chart with total seizures amounting to Rs 510.91 crore, followed by Uttar Pradesh (Rs 307.92 crore), Manipur (Rs 167.83 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs 18.81 crore) and Goa (Rs 12.73 crore).

    The total seizures in the five states were over Rs 1,018 crore, a nearly four-fold increase over the total seizures of Rs 299.84 crore made during the 2017 assembly elections in these states.

    In the five states, the total cash seizures amounted to Rs 140.29 crore, while more than 82 lakh litres of liquor valued at Rs 99.84 crore was also confiscated.

    Drugs worth Rs 569.52 crore, precious metals worth Rs 115.054 crore and freebies worth Rs 93.5 crore were also seized.

    “Apart from above mentioned seizure figures, the Commission’s visit galvanised enforcement authorities as the agencies seized drugs worth Rs 109 crore in Punjab and more than eight lakh litres of liquor in Uttar Pradesh in the run-up to the elections,” the Commission said in a statement.

    The Commission said it had strengthened monitoring of expenditure in the run-up to the elections in the five states through a multi-pronged strategy.

    “The strategy included appointment of experienced officers as Expenditure Observers, sensitising and reviewing a larger ambit of enforcement agencies for more coordinated and comprehensive monitoring, ensuring adequate availability of field level teams in the monitoring process,” a statement from the Commission said.

    It said 228 Expenditure Observers were deployed and Special Expenditure Observers, who are officers with impeccable and brilliant track record of domain expertise, too were appointed for effective monitoring.

    The seven-phase assembly elections began on February 10 and will conclude on March 7. Votes will be counted on March 10.

  • Phase–3 of UP polls registers 57.58 per cent voters’ turnout, lowest than 2017 polls

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: The third phase of UP elections over 59 constituencies across 16 districts comprising eight of central UP also known as Yadav land, four of Kanpur division and Bundelkhand each witnessed a moderate turnout of 57.58 per cent as per the figures released by State Election Commission till 5 pm on Sunday.

    However, the voting continued till 6 pm and the final figures will be revised by the state election commission on Monday.

    The voters’ turnout in the third phase of the current elections is lower than the corresponding phase of 2017 Assembly polls as it was 62.98 per cent. Of the total 59 seats which went to polls on Sunday, at least 28 seats had a dominant Yadav population.

    In the third phase, of 59 seats up for grabs across Mainpuri, Etawah, Kannauj, Firozabad, Farrukhabad, Auriayya, Jhansi, Mahoba, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, Hathras, Kanpur Nagar, Kanpur Dehat, Kasganaj, Etah and Jalaun, 49 were bagged by the ruling the BJP which succeeded in breaching the Yadav citadel. The Samajwadi Party had won eight seats and one each had gone to BSP and Congress.

    The district which locked the highest percentage of voting in the third phase on Sunday has been Lalitpur in Bundelkhand with 67.38 per cent (72.02% in 2017) and the district which registered the lowest polling percentage has been Kanpur Nagar with 50.76 per cent. It had recorded the lowest 57.26% voting in 2017 as well.

    In phase-3, the fate of a total of 627 candidates including 97 women was sealed in the EVMs. Around 2.16 crore voters of which 1.07 crore were men and over 99,79,704 women exercised their franchise to elect their favourite MLA.

    The prominent names in the fray in phase–3 included SP chief and former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav from Karhal, Shivpal Singh Yadav contesting on SP symbol from Jaswantnagar, Satish Mahana of BJP from Mahrajpur of Kanpur, Asim Arun of BJP from Kannauj Sadar, Ramveer Upadhyaya of BJP from Sadabad, Nilima Katiyar, Yogi Minister from Kalyanpur in Kanpur Nagar, Rakesh Sachan of BJP from Bhognipur and Ravi Sharma of BJP from Jhansi.

    During more or less peaceful voting in the third phase, a 25-year-old BJP worker was killed in the Hathras district on Sunday. The deceased was identified as Krishna Yadav, a general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).

    Local police first received information about the murder around 2.30 pm on Sunday. Krishna Yadav was shot inside his house in the Gausganj Mohalla area of the Sikandra Rao assembly constituency. Relatives rushed the 25-year-old to the trauma centre in Aligarh where he was declared dead upon arrival. The victim’s sister said he suffered a bullet injury to the head.

    Hathras police in a statement said spots of blood were found on the first floor of Yadav’s residence. A homemade pistol and an empty cartridge have also been recovered from the scene of the crime.

  • COVID-19: Election Commission to review ban on physical rallies, roadshows on Monday

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI:: The Election Commission of India will hold a review meeting on Monday regarding the continuation of the ban on physical rallies and roadshows in view of the upcoming assembly elections.

    Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra will meet Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan today. The ECI will also meet with Health Secretaries and Chief Secretaries of poll-bound states virtually. Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Election Commission of India on January 22 extended the ban on physical rallies and roadshows till January 31.

    The Election commission had put a ban on election rallies and roadshows until January 15 first and later extended till January 22. The poll body had on January 22 gave relaxation for physical public meetings of political parties or contesting candidates for Phase 1 allowed from January 28 and for Phase 2 from February 1.

    As on date, the limit of five persons for door to door campaign is 10 persons, excluding security personnel and video vans for publicity permitted at designated open spaces with COVID restrictions.

    Assembly elections in five states will be held between February 10 and March 7, the Election Commission of India informed earlier this month, as it announced the poll schedule for the states of Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The counting of votes will be done on March 10.

  • Eye on polls, Congress reworks caste equations to woo SCs, STs & OBCs

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Ahead of assembly elections in five states, the Congress is working on its caste equations with prominence being given to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in party ruled states and also in the organisational reshuffle. Party leaders said the upcoming revamp in state units is also planned on these lines.  

    The Congress is expected to soon announce organisational revamp in Gujarat unit and is looking to balance caste equations by picking up OBC-ST combination for the posts of party chief and the leader of opposition. The assembly elections are due in the state at the end of 2022. 

    Former Congress president and wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi has flagged at various party fora the atrocities against Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes under the BJP regime and emphasised that the party should give them platform and support to fight for their rights.

    The party picked up Charanjit Singh Channi, who belongs to the Scheduled caste, as Punjab Chief Minister, a move that forced opposition parties in the state to go back to the drawing board to rework their strategies to woo the community that has over 30 per cent population in the state.        

    On similar lines, the Rajasthan cabinet reshuffle also saw party stitching a caste equation with four SC cabinet ministers for the first time, three ministers from the STs and three women — one each from SC, Muslim and Gujjar communities.    

    “The party by picking people from SC and backward classes is sending a strong message that it stands behind these communities. The party also expects that this will have a positive impact in the poll-bound states,” said a senior leader.

    The leader said getting Uttarakhand cabinet minister Yashpal Arya and his son, also a sitting BJP MLA, to return to the Congress was also part of the same strategy.  The return of Arya, who had switched over to the BJP in 2017, holds importance for he is a prominent SC face in the state. 

    Senior Congress leader Harish Rawat had hinted that party may have a Dalit Chief Minister in state, too. Uttar Pradesh, where general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been working hard to reach out to the people, P L Punia, a Dalit, was named as head of the party’s campaign committee in the state.  

    Public outreach meet next month

    The Congress has decided to hold a big public outreach meeting in the national capital next month to target the Centre over its “anti-people” policies. A meeting of state chiefs was held on Monday where it was decided that the rally should be during the winter session which is scheduled from November 29. The rally will be held after party’s ongoing fortnight long Jan Jagran Abhiyan ends.

  • Assembly elections: EC holds meeting with CEOs of states, UTs on poll issues

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra on Monday asked chief electoral officers (CEOs) of all states and union territories to “expeditiously” redress pending applications related to voter registration, even as he asked them to ensure better facilities at all booths in the country.

    The CEC said this to the CEOs during a day-long conference held here to review a host of issues related to the poll process in the country.

    An Election Commission (EC) spokesperson said in a statement that the conference discussed and reviewed “various thematic issues related to electoral rolls, polling stations, ongoing special summary revision, IT (information technology) applications, timely resolution of grievances, electronic voting machines (EVMs), voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT), training and capacity building of polling staff, media and communication and extensive voter outreach program amongst others”.

    CEC Chandra, the statement said, stressed on the significance of effectiveness and visibility of the CEOs as they represent the commission in the states.

    “He (CEC) asked the CEOs to ensure purity of the electoral roll, availability of assured minimum facilities and to ensure better facilities at all polling booths for all voters,” it said.

    The CEC also asked the CEOs for “expeditious redressal of all pending applications especially with regard to voter registration,” the statement said.

    Chandra told the CEOs that all efforts should be made to ensure better voter experience.

    “CEOs should have regular interaction with political parties to redress their grievances, if any,” Chandra said.

    The CEC “emphasised” that new initiatives and best practices by the CEOs for election-related activities should be regularly disseminated through the media for enhanced outreach.

    He said that the objective of the conference was to identify the gaps and challenges to ensure instructions of the commission are implemented uniformly in all states and union territories across the country.

    Election commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey also attended the conference and spoke to the officers.

    Kumar said the legal and regulatory framework of the elections is quite robust, but the implementation of various instructions of the commission on the field was very critical.

    “He (Kumar) stressed that CEOs need to be innovative, be more active and should learn from each other’s best practices and challenges,” the statement said.

    Pandey asked the CEOs to ensure good training and capacity building of BLOs (booth level officers) as the effectiveness of EC activities depends upon the effective implementation by field-level election officials.

    “He (Pandey) emphasised that CEOs need to ensure that correct information and facts are regularly shared with the local media for enhanced outreach,” the statement said.

    The conference also saw the commission release a number of publications including a ‘Compendium of Cases on Election Law’ and an ‘Information Booklet For Voters’.

    The booklet contains end-to-end information starting from voter registration, postal ballot, casting of vote through EVM-VVPAT and various facilities provided for the voters at polling stations, the statement said.

  • Congress not to participate in election debates on counting day, cites COVID crisis

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday decided that it will not participate in election debates on television on Sunday when the results for assembly polls for five states are out.

    Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in view of the serious coronavirus situation in the country, the party’s spokespersons will not participate on the TV debates after poll results are out.

    The results for assembly elections in states of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala would be declared on May 2.

    “At a time when Nation is facing an unprecedented crisis, when Govt under PM Modi has collapsed, we find it unacceptable to not hold them accountable and instead discuss election wins and losses. We @INCIndia have decided to withdraw our spokespersons from election debates,” he said on Twitter.

    “We shall remain available for any comment that media friends want. We may win, we may lose, but at a time when people are looking for oxygen, beds, medicines, ventilators; our duty tells us to stand by them, work with them to heal and help. In solidarity with India,” he said in another tweet.

    Exit polls have predicted a not so bright picture for the Congress in these elections, where they predict that except in Tamil Nadu, where its ally DMK will romp home to power, the Congress will not fare good in other states.

  • Counting halls up by 200 per cent due to COVID norms; nearly a lakh personnel to count votes on Sunday

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Beginning 8 am on Sunday, the counting of votes for the 822 Assembly seats spread across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry will take place at 2,364 counting halls following the COVID-19 protocols, the Election Commission (EC) said on Saturday.

    In 2016, the total number of counting halls was 1,002.

    The over-200-per cent increase is due to the distancing norms being followed by the poll panel to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

    West Bengal will have the maximum number of 1,113 counting halls, Kerala 633, Assam 331, Tamil Nadu 256 and Puducherry 31, the EC said.

    Another reason the commission has attributed to the increase in the number of counting halls is the jump in the figure of postal ballots used in the five Assembly polls.

    “The commission’s measures to extend the postal ballot facilities to the electors in the categories of senior citizens (those above 80 years), people with disablities and those affected by the coronavirus witnessed an increase of 400 per cent in the number of postal ballots (from 2.97 lakh in 2016 to 13.16 lakh in 2021) in the four states and a Union Territory,” it said.

    The commission has designated 822 returning officers and more than 7,000 assistant returning officers for the purpose of counting of votes in the four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

    Nearly 95,000 counting officials, including micro-observers, will perform the task of counting.

    No candidates or their agents will be allowed inside the counting halls without a negative coronavirus report, according to the latest result-day guidelines issued by the EC.

    According to the information received from the state chief electoral officers (CEOs), the contesting candidates have given the details of nearly 1.5 lakh counting agents (including substitutes) in the four states and the UT.

    More than 90 per cent of them have already undergone RTPCR or RAT tests.

    The remaining are being provided with the test facility by the district election officers on Saturday.

    Test reports from any authorised laboratory would also be accepted, the EC said.

    This is also being followed for the counting of votes in the bypolls held to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats across the country.

    The media authorised by the commission to cover the counting process is also being facilitated with coronavirus tests.

    Around 12,000 mediapersons have been given the authority to cover the counting.

    Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra reviewed the counting arrangements with senior EC officers and the CEOs of the four states and the UT at a virtual meeting on Saturday.

    He directed that all laid-down instructions of the EC must be adhered to.

    He also directed that the counting halls must be fully COVID guidelines compliant.

    The CEC complimented the CEOs for a successful completion of polling in the challenging situations of the pandemic.