Election Financial News

Sunday’s elections that will determine the presidency, nine governorships and about 19,000 mayorships and other local posts. The country’s powerful drug cartels have long staged targeted assassinations of mayoral and other local candidates who threaten their control. Gangs in Mexico depend on controlling local police chiefs, and taking a share of municipal budgets; national politics appear to interest them less.

Narendra Modi appealed to the citizens on Saturday to vote in “large numbers" in the Seventh phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.In a post on X, PM wrote, “Today is the final phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. As 57 seats across 8 states and UTs go to the polls, calling upon the voters to turnout in large numbers and vote.

Narendra Modi, across 57 seats in eight states and Union Territories in the last and final phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2024. In the seventh phase, all seats in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, along with the remaining seats in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Chandigarh, and West Bengal, are voting braving soaring temperatures.Follow all Live Updates on Phase 7 Voting HereApart from PM Modi, the other candidates in the fray today include BJP leaders Kangana Ranaut, Ravi Kishan and Anurag Thakur, Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh, RJD leader Misa Bharti, and TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee.Elections are also being held for 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha along with Lok Sabha polls.

Turkey’s president said his government won’t hesitate to act against Kurdish-led groups in northern Syria if they proceed with plans to hold local elections. It accuses the groups of having links to outlawed Kurdish militants in Turkey. The SDF said drone strikes hit its positions eight times as well as civilian homes and vehicles in and near the northern city of Qamishli.

South Africa's election this week may be former President Jacob Zuma, whose newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party has exceeded expectations and emerged as a major factor in the African National Congress' sharp drop in support. MK is not going to win the election and is unlikely to be a coalition partner, analysts say, while Zuma is barred from standing for parliament because of a conviction for contempt of court. But the party, which advocates nationalising land and banks and scrapping the constitution, is on course to unseat the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma's home region.

polls in the last phase of Lok Sabha elections in Kolkata, its suburbs and Sunderban region were never won by BJP, except Dum Dum. South Bengal, specially Kolkata and adjoining seats, are considered as a bastion of Trinamool Congress. In 2019, Trinamool won all the nine seats going to the polls on June 1. Out of these nine seats, several political heavyweights are in the fray in the south Bengal region including Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Diamond Harbour. Banerjee is party's de facto number two and has vowed to win the seat with the highest margin. Another Trinamool stronghold is Kolkata Uttar (North), fought by Sudip Bandyopadhyay who has a tough challenger this time with former Trinamool MLA Tapas Roy fighting on a BJP ticket. A key battle is on the anvil this time in Jadavpur with a three-cornered contest between Trinamool youth leader Sayoni Ghosh, CPI-M youth brigade representative Srijan Bhattacharya and BJP's Anirban Ganguly. Trinamool has a complete stronghold in Kolkata Dakshin (South) which includes Mamata Banerjee's assembly constituency. The seat is witnessing mostly an all-women contest with Trinamool's Mala Roy contesting against BJP's Debashree Chaudhuri and CPI-M's Saira Shah Halim.

set to increase interest-free loans provided to states as part of its FY25 budget plans, sources familiar with the discussions told Mint’s senior assistant editor Rhik Kundu. Introduced during the pandemic to support state-driven growth and reforms, these loans have steadily grown from ₹12,000 crore in FY21 to an estimated ₹1.3 trillion in FY24.

Republican frontrunner and crypto-friendly U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has a 17% chance of being in jail before voters hit the ballot box in November after being found guilty in his high-profile hush money trial Thursday, according to Polymarket data.

Also Read: Lok Sabha Elections 2024: What are Exit Polls? When are they due? All you need to know“By deciding to boycott the Exit Poll exercise, they are bringing in question exercise carried out by several professional agencies, who have worked with thousands of associates to bring what people may have voted for," said Nadda in a post on X.“Instead of focusing on winning the election, Congress repeatedly approached the Supreme Court, making outrageous demands, in order to mutilate our well established electoral process," said Nadda.Nadda alleged that not just the Congress but its extended ecosystem, who are inimical India’s interest, too comes together to create cacophony and makes all attempts to undermine people’s faith in our institutions and process.Congress has been in denial mode for so long. The whole election they kept campaigning that they are going to get the majority but they know the situation.

It was the political trial of the young century, a salacious, high-stakes drama starring a former U.S. president vying to reclaim the White House. Manhattan prosecutors’ hush-money case against Donald Trump spanned more than a month and featured more than 20 witnesses.

A new report from a digital civil rights group has found that publicly available artificial intelligence tools can be easily weaponized to churn out convincing election lies in the voices of top American and European politicians

Imprisoned former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder has pleaded not guilty to 10 felony counts brought against him by the state

India's economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace of 7.8% year-on-year in the first three months of 2024, helped by a strong performance in the manufacturing sector, and economists expect the momentum to continue this year. The highest growth pace among the largest economies globally will bolster the economic record of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is hoping to win a rare third term in the national election, with results set to be released on June 4. Investors are looking ahead to the election outcome and the full-year budget in mid-July to see what steps the new government might take to boost the economy.

Punjab goes to polls on June 1, in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, wrapped in an air of unpredictability. With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) breaking the alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), now there are four big parties in fray. For a long time, Punjab had been a two-party state with the Congress and the SAD. The AAP's victory in the 2017 assembly polls changed that. In several seats, it's a five-cornered fight as Sikh radical candidates who support Khalistan, are also contesting. The chief among them is Amritpal Singh, the Sikh separatist who headed the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit, and is lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act. However, the most influential among the separatists fighting elections is Simranjit SIngh Mann, the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), who had won in the 2019 elections from Sangrur, the home district of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of the AAP. Amritpal, the candidate in jail The entry of jailed radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh into the poll fray as an Independent candidate from the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat has stirred the politics in this region, which borders Pakistan.

New Delhi: The Congress has decided not to participate in any Lok Sabha exit poll debates on the television channels and said it does not want to indulge in speculation and slugfest for TRP. Congress spokesperson and media department chairperson Pawan Khera said the voters have cast their votes and their verdict has been secured. «The results will be out on 4th June. Prior to that, we do not see any reason to indulge in speculation and slugfest for TRP,» he said in a statement shared on X.

Centre has utilised Rs 9,48,506 crore as part of its capital expenditure in FY24 as against revised estimate (RE) of Rs 9,49,555 crore, which account for 99.9 per cent of the RE government data showed on Friday. Spending picked up in September 2023 and once again in March 2024 marking the end of monsoon and the onset of General elections respectively. India raised capex by 42 per cent in FY22 and 24 per cent in FY23. This was trimmed to 11.1% for FY25 in the interim budget from the budgeted capex in FY24, which was up 35.9 per cent from previous year, in line with the government's fiscal consolidation glide path. The Centre intends to narrow its fiscal deficit to 5.1 per cent in FY25 from 5.8 per cent in FY24 (RE).

Michael Cohen once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump. But on Thursday, Trump was on felony charges based largely on the onetime loyal fixer's testimony against his former boss. Over four days earlier this month, Cohen took the witness stand as the star prosecution witness in the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president, past or present. He testified that Trump directed him to pay off a porn star before the 2016 election, and then approved a plan to falsify business records to cover it up. The testimony in New York state court in Manhattan marked the culmination of a 15-year arc from a lawyer and fixer for the businessman-turned-politician to an outspoken antagonist.

Lok Sabha elections, the Phalodi Satta Bazar in Rajasthan has updated its estimates for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Opposition's INDIA bloc. This grey market has become a popular gauge for people amid the absence of official opinion or exit polls. Initially, the Phalodi Satta Bazar's estimates aligned closely with the BJP's claim of the NDA securing 400 seats out of 543. However, projections shifted as the election progressed. Prior to the polls starting on April 19, the market predicted over 300 seats for the BJP alone. This figure dropped to about 290 seats after the first two phases and rose again to nearly 300 after the fifth phase. In its latest update, the Phalodi Satta Bazar anticipates the BJP securing fewer than 300 seats, while projecting the INDIA bloc to achieve 80-85 seats, its highest forecast yet. On May 13, the market predicted 40-42 seats for the Congress, considerably lower than its 2019 tally of 52 seats and even below its lowest-ever tally of 44 in 2014.

Exit polls. "The purpose of any debate should be to inform the people.

Top news of the day: On 31 May, a series of events are set to take place right from politics to business. Indian economy expanded at a blistering 7.8% in the three months through March. Prajwal Revanna, the suspended JD(S) leader and Bengaluru's Hassan MP, was remanded to six-day police custody in connection with allegations of sexually abusing several women.The Indian economy expanded at a blistering 7.8% in the three months through March, surpassing expectations and pushing up growth for the fiscal year 2024 to 8.2%, according to official data released on Friday.

This much is clear for the financial markets: The US presidential election is likely to usher in a bumpy end to 2024.