Election Financial News

Donald Trump said on Saturday he believed Democrat Kamala Harris will be easier to beat than President Joe Biden even as some polls showed her edging ahead in the race for the Nov. 5 presidential election. Trump, the former president, spoke at a rally in Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania, a state looming large in the campaign. Vice President Harris will conduct a bus tour of western Pennsylvania starting in Pittsburgh on Sunday, ahead of the kickoff of the Democratic National Convention on Monday in Chicago. «I believe she will be easier to beat than him,» said Trump, referring to her as «radical» and a «lunatic.»

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini announced that the state cabinet has accepted the Haryana Scheduled Caste Commission Report on Saturday. He added that a 20 per cent quota in government jobs will be reserved for scheduled castes in the state. While addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, Saini said, «Today, the Haryana Scheduled Caste Commission Report was accepted by the cabinet. A 20 per cent quota in government jobs will be reserved for scheduled castes, with the commission recommending that 10 per cent of this quota be allocated to the deprived scheduled castes.» He further stated that the rule would be implemented after the assembly elections, in adherence to the code of conduct provided by the Election Commission of India.

Kamala Harris has placed $370 million outlay on TV and digital advertisement reservations. The ad reservations include $170 million in TV and $200 million for digital. The TV advertisement reservations will be for shows like Golden Bachelorette, Grey’s Anatomy, Abbott Elementary, Survivor, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune, as per a report on Deadline. Advertisements related to Kamala Harris will also be exhibited during NFL, WNBA and NBA, NHL and MLB games, Deadline reported.

The representatives of the majority of the political parties across J&K stated that the demand for restoration of statehood will feature in manifestos. The regional parties like the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party will include the plans of passing a resolution against the decisions of August 5, 2019 when Article 370, granting special status to J&K was abrogated. As of now the two former chief ministers Omar Abdullah of the NC and Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP are unlikely to contest this assembly election. However, their final decisions are yet to be made public formally. «We will have one more round of meetings on Sunday and the final draft is likely to be prepared on Monday. Ideological, developmental as well as our larger political framework will be put forth before the people,» a senior NC leader told ET. Another senior leader said that this election is decisive and people should come forward to vote if they have to reject the decisions of August 5, 2019.

interim government, gave this assurance while addressing the third Voice of Global South Summit which was hosted by India in a virtual format. «You all are aware that Bangladesh witnessed a 'Second Revolution' on 5th August 2024, through a mass uprising spearheaded by our valiant students and joined by the masses,» the 84-year-old Nobel laureate said, referring to the political turmoil in his country, the resignation of prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her fleeing to India on August 5. Noting that the current interim government led by him was sworn in on August 8, Yunus said, «Our government is committed to ensuring a transition to inclusive and pluralistic democracy and creating an environment in which free, fair and participatory elections can be held.»

Majhi Ladki Bahin" scheme for eligible women, with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde hinting at doubling the monthly stipend from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 if the alliance is voted to power in elections. More than 1 crore women are expected to benefit from this scheme whose launch coincided with Rakshabandhan festivities beginning Monday. The Shiv Sena-BJP-NCP government, facing a tough assembly polls battle against the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi in coming months, came up with the «Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin» scheme, months after a debacle in Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. The scheme, modelled on the MP government's «Ladli Behna Yojana», provides monthly Rs 1,500 assistance to the married, divorced, and destitute women in the 21-60 age group with Rs 2.5 lakh annual family income ceiling.

hypocrisy and family-centric politics". The «scam» pertains to alleged allotment of compensatory sites to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi in an upmarket area in Mysuru which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which was «acquired» by MUDA. In a post on X, Nadda said, «Congress Party's Legacy of Corruption Continues! From National Herald to MUDA Scam Karnataka, Congress Party's history with corruption is well-documented. Time and again, they have betrayed the trust of the people for personal gain.» «While Congress portrays itself as the guardian of Dalits and minorities, one of their own Chief Ministers is involved in grabbing land from a Dalit family. This is yet another instance of Congress' hypocrisy and its family-centric politics,» he said.

doctors' strike over the alleged rape and killing of one of their colleagues in a Kolkata hospital is gaining momentum as major private hospitals in Delhi joined the protest on Friday, shutting down their OPDs, elective surgeries and IPD services. Resident doctors in the capital have been on an indefinite strike since Monday. As the strike entered its sixth day on Friday, private hospitals also joined the protest alongside government hospitals. Hospitals like Sir Ganga Ram, Fortis and Apollo have halted their OPD, elective surgeries and IPD services. Dr Ajay Swaroop, chairman of the Board of Management at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said, «We have declared a complete shutdown of OPD, elective OTs and IPD work. Unfortunately, I believe that protests and discontinuation of duties have now become necessary to pressure the authorities and expedite the investigation process, so that justice is not delayed.»

Healthcare services in Gujarat were affected as doctors from government and private hospitals took to the streets on Saturday amid the 24-hour nationwide protest over the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at a Kolkata medical college. Doctors stayed away from the outpatient departments (OPDs) and did not conduct elective surgeries in several hospitals across the state as part of a strike call given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Gujarat Junior Doctors' Association. Doctors held protest gatherings and took out rallies, shouting slogans demanding justice for the woman doctor who was brutally raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9. Dr Mona Desai, a former president of the IMA's Ahmedabad chapter, led a delegation of protesting doctors and submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in the state capital Gandhinagar.

Congress MP Randeep Surjewala accused the BJP-led Haryana government of cheating the people of the state ahead of assembly polls in the state in October. Congress MP Randeep Surjewala said «The 10-year tenure of atrocities of the Bharatiya Janata Party has come to an end. In the last 10 years, there is no class left that has not been cheated by the BJP.» «The people of Haryana are going to initiate the end of the Bharatiya Janata Party on October 1», the Congress leader said.

Elections in Maharashtra may be held only after Diwali, i.e. after November 2, according to the Times of India. Notably, a new government in Maharashtra needs to be constituted before November 26, the end date of the current administration's tenure. The Election Commission of India has announced election dates for Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana but not for Maharashtra. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar cited security concerns in Jammu and Kashmir as the primary reason for deferring Maharashtra's elections. Additionally, he mentioned that the updating of the voter list in Maharashtra was delayed due to the ongoing monsoon season. The state is also currently engaged in significant cultural and religious activities, including Ganesh Chaturthi, Pitru Paksha, and Diwali, which complicates the electoral process if elections are held immediately. Sources within the ruling party indicated the importance of smooth observance of Janmashtami and the Ganesh festival. They noted that Pitru Paksha, a period in which no auspicious work is undertaken, follows these festivals. «Navratri is a busy season and then Dussera, which will be followed by Diwali. Festivities end on November 2, and the election campaign can be taken up from November 3,» they added.

EU on Friday formally requested that Meta detail steps it is taking on transparency after the Facebook and Instagram owner scrapped a widely-used tool for tracking disinformation online. Meta has been criticised on both sides of the Atlantic over the decision to shut down CrowdTangle — a feature considered vital by researchers tracking viral falsehoods — in a year of major election contests in the United States and elsewhere. Unavailable since August 14, CrowdTangle is to be replaced with Meta's Content Library — a technology researchers say offers nowhere near the same functionality.

OpenAI said on Friday it had taken down accounts of an Iranian group for using its ChatGPT chatbot to generate content meant for influencing the U.S. presidential election and other issues. The operation, identified as Storm-2035, used ChatGPT to generate content focused on topics such as commentary on the candidates on both sides in the U.S. elections, the conflict in Gaza and Israel's presence at the Olympic Games and then shared it via social media accounts and websites. Investigation by the Microsoft-backed AI company showed that ChatGPT was used for generating long-form articles and shorter social media comments.

JP Nadda, chaired the BJP's General Secretary meeting at his residence in Delhi, following the announcement of election dates in Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana by the Election Commission of India on Friday. The meeting was attended by the BJP's national general secretaries to discuss the effective functioning of the NDA alliance. The meeting also saw the presence of national general secretaries of the NDA. Earlier, JP Nadda attended a meeting with the Jammu and Kashmir Bharatiya Janata Party, along with Union Minister and J-K Election Incharge G Kishan Reddy and Tarun Chugh, National General Secretary and J-K Prabhari, to constitute an election committee for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for the upcoming assembly elections.

Haryana Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a high-level meeting convened by the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) central leadership in Delhi on Friday. The meeting focused on the party's strategy for the upcoming election in the northern state. BJP National President JP Nadda, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar were present at the meeting.

Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases — September 18, 25 and October 1, the Election Commission (EC) of India announced on Friday. The Supreme Court had set a deadline of September 30 for polls to be held in Jammu and Kashmir. The chief election commissioner (CEC) cited weather conditions and the Amarnath yatra as factors that had a bearing on the poll calendar. Haryana will go to polls on October 1, coinciding with the last day of the Jammu and Kashmir election. Counting of votes for both Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir will be on October 4.

Sharad Pawar's NCP, Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said that he would not accept the formula of the biggest party in the Maha Vikas Aghadi getting the chief minister's post after the assembly polls. Thackeray said that the Congress and the NCP-SP should declare a chief ministerial candidate before the assembly polls and that he is ready to support any candidate declared by the two parties. «I don't want this experience that we had with the BJP to be recreated again. We were together for 25-30 years and we had an arrangement that the party with the most seats would get the CM post. So, by this logic if you get more seats, you will become CM… so I will pull you down (ensure that the ally does not win) and the other party will pull me down. Then what is the purpose of an alliance,» said Thackeray.

Election Commission of India (EC) announcing assembly election dates for Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir on Friday, the opposition has raised questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's push for «one nation, one election.» The EC's decision to conduct elections only in these two states this year, while excluding Maharashtra, comes just a day after Modi's strong endorsement of the concept during his Independence Day address. The EC announced that Haryana will vote in a single phase on October 1, while Jammu & Kashmir will undergo a three-phase election process on September 19, September 25, and October 1, with counting scheduled for October 4. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar explained the rationale behind the decision, stating that logistical and security concerns influenced the EC's approach. «Last time, Maharashtra and Haryana elections were held together. This time, with four states due for elections and heavy rainfall in Maharashtra, as well as several festivals lined up, we decided to conduct elections in two states together,» Kumar said. He added that the additional factors of security force requirements also played a role in the decision.

Jammu and Kashmir is set to hold its shortest three-phase assembly elections in September, and the Election Commission of India has decided to begin the elections in challenging areas of southern Kashmir and Chenab Valley across the Pir Panjal mountains, which have recently seen incidents of violence. The assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held after nearly a decade--the longest interval in modern history--and the first since the repeal of Articles 370 and 35 (A) and the completion of the delimitation exercise in 2022, during which both parliament and assembly elections were redrawn. The ECI has combined the districts from both Kashmir and Jammu divisions to ensure that each and every candidate receives the security demanded by the political parties. The first round of the assembly elections is set for September 18 in 23 constituencies in southern Kashmir, including Pulwama, Anantnag, Shopian, and Kulgam, as well as Ramban, Kishtwar, and Doda in Jammu's Chenab Valley. These locations have seen recent insurgent events, and counter-insurgency operations have been ongoing for some weeks. The police and army have established the presence of foreign militants in Doda, Kishtwar, Anantnag, and Kulgam.

Haryana after polls were announced for the state. The party relies on Nayab Saini as chief minister and core voters. To get support from the most backward, BJP replaced two-term CM Manohar Lal with Nayab Saini in March. «The change of leadership augurs well for the BJP. Saini has been accepted as a leader by all the communities. His approach towards governance and easy access has made him very popular and we are definitely going to benefit from this in the assembly elections,» Satish Poonia, BJP in-charge of Haryana, told ET. In 2019, with 40 seats, the BJP fell short of the majority level of 45 in the 90-member assembly and established a coalition government with the Jananayak Janata Party (JJP). Congress won 30 seats in 2019.

A surge in optimism by Democrats over the prospects of Vice President Kamala Harris lifted U.S. consumer sentiment slightly this month