The Election Commission of India is “encouraged” by high voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir and will move towards holding assembly polls in the Union Territory “at the earliest”, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar has said.In a first such statement, the CEC told ET that ECI was “heartened” and “more confident” of holding polls in the Union Territory and would start work on it right after the Lok Sabha elections.”The commission is encouraged to go for assembly polls in the Union Territory at the earliest possible. For the same, the process will be initiated soon after parliamentary elections,” Kumar told ET.”While I would like to thank the electors of J&K for coming out to vote, they have also sent out a clear message. The people of J&K are eager to exercise their franchise and feel invested in the democratic ethos and system of governance. The poll panel is deeply encouraged by the voter turnout in Lok Sabha polls and will work towards holding assembly polls at the earliest,” he said.AllUttar PradeshMaharashtraTamil NaduWest BengalBiharKarnatakaAndhra PradeshTelanganaKeralaMadhya PradeshRajasthanDelhiOther StatesThe CEC’s reaction came hours after Baramulla parliamentary constituency reported a record turnout on Monday. Phase 4 turnout in Srinagar constituency at 38.49% was highest in many decades.In his March 16 press conference when schedules for Lok Sabha elections were announced, CEC had asserted that ECI was committed to holding assembly polls in J&K soon after the parliamentary polls and before the September 30 deadline set by the Supreme Court.
Tag: CEC
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INDIA bloc again seeks meeting with CEC over VVPATs
New Delhi: The Congress sent yet another letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, requesting for a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders with him to discuss their demands such as the voters’ self-checking voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips and their larger use in the Lok Sabha election.
The party also reminded the CEC that he has not given them time for a meeting despite several requests.
“On December 20, 2023, we again requested for an appointment with the ECI (Election Commission of India) to discuss and provide suggestions on the use of VVPATs based on a resolution passed at a meeting of leaders of INDIA parties held the previous day,” All India Congress Committee general Secretary Jairam Ramesh said in his December 30 letter on behalf of the Congress to the CEC. “We have been trying to meet with the ECI to hand over a copy of this resolution and have a discussion but have not been successful so far in doing so. I once again make a request for an opportunity for a 3-4 member team of the INDIA party leaders to meet with you and your colleagues and take a few minutes to put forward our point of view on VVPATs. Surely this is a perfectly reasonable and justifiable request.”Ramesh also reminded Kumar about the opposition submitting a memorandum to the ECI about concerns over electronic voting machines (EVMs) on August 9 and then making a series of requests on August 9, 10, 16, 18 and 23 for an opposition leaders’ meeting with ECI representatives. He said all that came in response was a “generic clarification” on August 23, in which the ECI told the opposition to refer to the standard FAQs on EVMs available on the ECI website.
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Former chief election commissioner MS Gill dies after brief illness
By PTI
NEW DELHI: Former chief election commissioner Manohar Singh Gill died at a south Delhi hospital on Sunday after a brief illness, according to people close to him.
He was 86.
Gill will be cremated here on Monday, they said.
A former bureaucrat, Gill served under Parkash Singh Badal as a young officer when the Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch was the Punjab chief minister.
He served as the chief election commissioner (CEC) between December 1996 and June 2001.
Gill and GVG Krishnamurty were made members of the Election Commission when TN Seshan was heading the poll panel.
It was then that the poll panel became a multi-member body, a former government functionary said.
He is perhaps the first former CEC to have joined politics.
Gill entered the Rajya Sabha as a Congress member and was made the Union sports minister in 2008.
Gill is survived by his wife and three daughters.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge condoled Gill’s demise and lauded his contribution to the development of the nation.
“Extremely saddened at the passing away of former Union minister, Padma Vibhushan, Shri Manohar Singh Gill ji,” Kharge said in a post on X.
“As a valued colleague in the UPA govt and earlier as a civil servant, his contributions to the development of the nation in varied fields like sports, electoral processes and agriculture were long lasting,” he added.
Kharge also extended his “deepest condolences” to the family, friends and followers of the former Union minister.
“I pray to the Almighty for his eternal peace,” he added.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also expressed his sadness at Gill’s passing.
“Saddened to hear about the passing away of former CEC and Union Minister Dr Manohar Singh Gill. My heartfelt condolences are with his family and I pray to Waheguru ji to grant eternal peace to the departed soul,” he said in a post on X.
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NEW DELHI: Former chief election commissioner Manohar Singh Gill died at a south Delhi hospital on Sunday after a brief illness, according to people close to him.
He was 86.
Gill will be cremated here on Monday, they said.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
A former bureaucrat, Gill served under Parkash Singh Badal as a young officer when the Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch was the Punjab chief minister.
He served as the chief election commissioner (CEC) between December 1996 and June 2001.
Gill and GVG Krishnamurty were made members of the Election Commission when TN Seshan was heading the poll panel.
It was then that the poll panel became a multi-member body, a former government functionary said.
He is perhaps the first former CEC to have joined politics.
Gill entered the Rajya Sabha as a Congress member and was made the Union sports minister in 2008.
Gill is survived by his wife and three daughters.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge condoled Gill’s demise and lauded his contribution to the development of the nation.
“Extremely saddened at the passing away of former Union minister, Padma Vibhushan, Shri Manohar Singh Gill ji,” Kharge said in a post on X.
“As a valued colleague in the UPA govt and earlier as a civil servant, his contributions to the development of the nation in varied fields like sports, electoral processes and agriculture were long lasting,” he added.
Kharge also extended his “deepest condolences” to the family, friends and followers of the former Union minister.
“I pray to the Almighty for his eternal peace,” he added.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also expressed his sadness at Gill’s passing.
“Saddened to hear about the passing away of former CEC and Union Minister Dr Manohar Singh Gill. My heartfelt condolences are with his family and I pray to Waheguru ji to grant eternal peace to the departed soul,” he said in a post on X.
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Central police forces will play a greater role in poll bound states: CEC Sunil Arora
By PTI
CHENNAI: In poll bound states, including Tamil Nadu, the Central police forces would play a greater role as part of measures to ensure fair polls and to see that no one took any undue advantage, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said here on Thursday.Several measures were being contemplated to ensure inducement free, fair elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly in view of allegations of inducement of voters in the past and two Special Expenditure Observers would also be deputed, he said.
The bypoll to the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat would be held alongside Assembly polls, he said.
The seat fell vacant following the death of Congress MP, H Vasanthakumar due to COVID-19 last year.
The top Election Commission official, wrapping up meetings with senior officials and representatives of political parties here along with his colleagues, expressed confidence of a free, fair and transparent elections.
In keeping with the best administrative traditions of Tamil Nadu, there shall be no ‘Vellores and RK Nagars,’ he said in an apparent reference to allegations of distribution of cash to voters and the EC’s measures to prevent such attempts.
It has been decided that for all the five poll bound states including Tamil Nadu, the Central Armed Police Forces coordinator shall be at the apex level of a committee that allocated personnel from one place to the other, Arora said addressing a press conference.
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and the Union Territory of neighbouring Puducherry are likely to go to polls in April or May.
The official said that at the district level, the senior most general observer would be part of the exercise on allocation of personnel.
“This is a major decision we have already taken. It will be formally conveyed to the Chief Electoral Officers in the next two to three days maximum.”
The decision follows feedback from political parties and a ‘complaint’ that the personnel were deployed by the state governments “wherever they like,” he noted.
The Commission is trying to put more forces in every state and the coordinator of the Central forces have been assigned a greater role to play in terms of both deployment and allocation of personnel so that no one took any undue advantage when it came to exercise of franchise through postal ballots, he said.
Referring to a high level meeting today with Central and state regulatory agencies, answering a question, he said the EC has emphasised a lot about measures to ensure inducement free polls.
“There are several things we are planning to do and we shall do, but I am sorry to say that it will not be possible for me to share a lot of things in public domain…because we have given instructions and we shall be conducting another meeting with senior officers and enforcement agencies after a week or 10 days virtually to review as to what is the outcome of the meeting we held today.”
The EC is sensitive to alleged inducements, he asserted and recalled cancellation of polls to Vellore Parliamentary Constituency (2019) and bypolls to RK Nagar Assembly segment (2017), the ‘harshest’ action taken by the commission in any state in respect of such allegations.
On special observers, he said, “because of money factor of inducement in Tamil Nadu, besides the normal observers we send, we have decided to send Special Expenditure Observers (SEO).”
This would be in addition to district observers, he noted.
Such SEOs shall be noted for their integrity and would be of the rank of retired secretaries of the Centre and also former chaipersons of the Central Board of Direct Taxes.
There shall be at least two SEOs and one of them shall be a very senior person for guidance for Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The exercise of deputing SEOs was being done on a state to state basis and not followed necessarily eveywhere while in some states, the special focus would be on law and order front.
The top official expressed displeasure over the work by some regulatory arms of the Tamil Nadu government ahead of the notification of state polls.
“When we had the meeting of the regulatory agencies, I must say we were quite unhappy with the overall performance of the state excise department as well as the Special DG enforcement. We have brought the relevant facts to the notice of the Chief Secretary.”
Since the state has excise revenue of Rs 34,000 crore, he said, “we felt that much more could have been done” vis-a- vis matters like the kind of seizures done.
“…how many decimal points you have to put after the zero, the honourable excise commissioner was not even able to calculate it.”
He said the EC was very disappointed about not apprehending the ‘big fish’.
On this matter, he said they were apprised that during enforcement in a particular seizure of almost Rs two crore, the authorities registered 23,000 to 27,000 cases.
It meant that these were against the “small guys, some drivers, some couriers, the foot soldiers who were being caught and not the big fish.”
The EC has sought a special report on this matter from the Additional Chief Secretary Home who also looked after the Finance Department, he noted.
From the previous 68,324 polling stations in Tamil Nadu, there would be 25,000 more now as per the norms to prevent spread of COVID-19 and in total there shall be 93,000 booths, he said adding it also meant mobilisation of more men and materials.
As regards arrangements for procurement of COVID-19 related materials, the state Chief Secretary has assured that these would be available on time.
Asked on likelihood of TN elections being held in April or May and if polls would be conducted in a single phase, he said these would be made known later at the time of announcement of elections.