Election Financial News

Lok Sabha elections, Mahe district in Puducherry will set a unique example of a gender-inclusive electoral process. All 31 polling stations in the district will be staffed by women polling officers. The voting for the union territory of Puducherry will be held on April 19. «Women at the forefront of Democracy: All 31 Polling Stations of Mahe district in Puducherry will be staffed by Women Polling Officials in the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections 2024,» the ECI stated in a post on Instagram.

Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that the BJP does not discriminate between Hindus and Muslims and that the respect of women is of paramount importance to it, citing the ban on triple talaq. Addressing public meetings in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa and Satna districts to drum up support for BJP's Lok Sabha candidates, he also batted for the 'one nation, one election' idea, and called his party «24-carat gold» and Congress «rusted iron». The BJP has renominated sitting MP Janardhan Mishra in the Rewa Lok Sabha seat. He will take on Congress' Neelam Singh. In Satna, BJP sitting MP Ganesh Singh is pitted against local Congress MLA Siddharth Kushwaha. The 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP will go to polls in four phases between April 19 and May 13 and votes will be counted on June 4. Polling will be held in Rewa and Satna seats on April 26.

BJP leaders, they will be behind bars". Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were quick to slam the RJD MP for her ‘will jail PM Modi’ remark, and said, “she is making her father's 'pratigya' laughable" In Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has fielded Lalu Prasad Yadav's eldest daughter Misa Bharti, who is enjoying her second term in the Rajya Sabha, in the Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency. Misa Bharti will contest against BJP candidate Ram Kripal Yadav, who defeated her in the last elections.

ANI reported. Apart from this, Trudeau even claimed that China tried to meddle in the last two Canadian elections.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena on Thursday ordered end-to-end surveillance of liquor movement, aimed at curtailing influence of liquor in the run-up to Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state. As part of state-wide monitoring, the CEO ordered the managing director of the Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Ltd (APSBCL) to track the movement of liquor by deploying Global Positioning System (GPS). Similar directives were also issued to the commissioners of Prohibition and Excise Department and Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB). «The movement of liquor from the distillery/ brewery to the godown of APSBCL should be GPS tracked (and the) feed of which also to be provided to the District Election Office control room and the CEO control room,» said Meena in an order.

Katchatheevu island an election issue ahead of Lok Sabha polls without thinking of its implications on the India-Sri Lanka relations. The decades-old territorial and fishing rights dispute around the Katchatheevu island is in the limelight again with the BJP and the opposition parties engaged in a war of words. Sinha, who had served as India's finance minister, and external affairs minister, said the island falls on the Sri Lankan side of the maritime boundary. «I am extremely dismayed that no other than the prime minister of the country has raised this issue. I am aware of the fact that Katchatheevu was an island which when the maritime, international maritime line was drawn fell on the side of Sri Lanka and therefore went to Sri Lanka.

BJP leader Digambar Kamat on Thursday said his party would surely win the South Goa seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and the aim was to ensure «maximum lead» (margin of victory). The seat is held by Congress' Francisco Sardinha and the BJP has fielded businesswoman Pallavi Dempo. Talking to PTI, Kamat admitted there was a «minor feeling of being left out» among the cadre after Dempo was given the ticket but added it was temporary since the BJP is a cadre-based party where «once a decision is taken, all follow it». «The BJP is going to win. The only challenge is to ensure maximum lead (victory margin),» said Kamat, a former chief minister and campaign in charge of the South Goa seat.

INSEAD, one of the world's leading graduate business schools, has no immediate plans to open a campus in India though it remains committed to developing and strengthening industry-academia research in future with top Indian multinationals and unicorn startups. Francisco Veloso, who took over as dean of the institute in September last year, says Indian students form the most represented nationality at the global business school with representation of about 12-15%, higher than Chinese students at 9-10%. In an exclusive interview with ET’s Rica Bhattacharyya, Veloso talks about the inroads AI is making into classrooms and the rising interest among Indian business leaders to learn this transformational technology. Edited excerpts: INSEAD has set up its physical presence over the years in multiple countries. Do you have any plans to set up a campus in India? India is a very important and fast-growing country for the world, and has an increasing significance internationally. We at INSEAD have many ties with India. About 10% of our faculty are originally from India and it is one of the most represented nationalities in our faculty. We have many alumni in India and have important partnerships with them in the country.

Odisha Assembly Speaker Pramila Mallik has disqualified two ruling BJD MLAs as members of the House under Anti-Defection Law. The legislators — Arabinda Dhali and Premananda Nayak — recently joined the opposition BJP after resigning from the BJD. The assembly seats of Jaydev in Khurda district and Telkoi in Keonjhar district represented by Dhali and Nayak respectively fell vacant following the disqualification of the two members, the assembly secretariat said in a statement. Government chief whip Prasanta Kumar Muduli filed a petition before the Speaker on March 18 seeking disqualification of two members as they voluntarily gave up primary membership from the BJD.

Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad on Thursday said the party's Maharashtra leadership should have pursued equal seat-sharing among the three Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies for the Lok Sabha polls to ensure a better deal in the metropolis. There are six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai — Mumbai North, Mumbai North-Central, which have been allotted to the Congress in the seat sharing deal, while four others — Mumbai South, Mumbai South-Central, Mumbai North-East and Mumbai North-West went to the Shiv Sena (UBT). The MVA coalition in Maharashtra announced its seat-sharing arrangement for the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday with the Shiv Sena (UBT) securing a substantial portion with 21 seats, while the Congress will contest 17 seats, and the NCP (SP) 10 seats. Talking to reporters here, Gaikwad said, «Earlier, Congress used to contest five seats in Mumbai, leaving only Mumbai North-East to the undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). So we were demanding equal seat-sharing this time.»

Chandra Shekhar's son Neeraj Shekhar, who has been fielded by the BJP from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, on Thursday said he is still associated with the socialist ideology and slammed the Samajwadi Party (SP) for allegedly doing away with the ideas of Ram Manohar Lohia. «The socialist ideology should not be linked with the SP. I am still personally associated with the socialist ideology,» Neeraj Shekhar told PTI over the phone. The assertion by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate assumes significance as his late father was a proponent of the socialist ideology and a vocal critic of the saffron party. Chandra Shekhar's entire family is currently in the BJP. His elder son Pankaj Shekhar as well as younger son Neeraj Shekhar are in the saffron party while his grandson Ravi Shankar Singh Pappu is a BJP member in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP-led Centre on Thursday, saying farmers are asking for a minimum support price (MSP) for their crops, youngsters are seeking employment, women want relief from inflation, but no one is listening. The upcoming Lok Sabha polls are about protecting the country's Constitution and democracy, the former Congress chief said. «It is an election of the backwards, Dalits, tribals and poor people in the general category,» he said, addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Bikaner. Gandhi said the bank accounts of the Congress have been frozen.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024 draw near, fraudulent activities related to voter ID cards are on the rise. Recently, a 30-year-old man named Mohsin Mohammad Rafi Shaikh was apprehended for producing fake Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, and voter IDs in Malwani, Rajasthan. Shaikh confessed to the crime during the investigation, revealing that he charged Rs 2000 for each fake document and utilised an online portal for the forgery process. Police confiscated his computer, printer, and papers, and Shaikh was arrested on charges of cheating and forgery. This incident is just one example of the growing trend of voter ID card scams ahead of elections. To safeguard yourself from falling victim to such scams, it is crucial to stay informed and exercise caution. Here are some tips to help you avoid becoming a victim of a voter ID scam:

'Mamata Didi misleading people of Bengal': Amit Shah Murmu, who joined BJP in 2019 also said that the woman was like his child. But the TMC has launched attacks against the BJP saying they are "anti-women". "From MPs that sexually harass women wrestlers to leaders who make obscene songs about Bengali women, the BJP camp has no dearth of anti-women politicians.

Uttarakhand's serene surroundings of Nainital and Pauri districts, villagers near the Corbett Tiger Reserve are dealing with the challenges of human-animal conflict. In the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on April 19 in Garhwal (Pauri Garhwal) and Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar, one of the major issues is the conflict between humans and big cats. The BJP won both seats in 2019. As the polls approach again, voters are faced with a decision: to boycott or to vote? While some consider boycotting, others are considering the 'None Of The Above (NOTA)' option. The frustration has grown due to what villagers perceive as a lack of government intervention. «Villagers are not inclined to vote for any candidate. Neither our MP nor any MLA has paid attention to our plight,» convener of Sanyukt Sangharsh Committee, Lalit Upreti told TOI.

Delhi High Court has said there is no bar under the Constitution on political parties, which are granted recognition by the State Election Commission (SEC), from contesting municipal polls. The court has also said the allocation of poll symbols to political parties by the SEC for municipal elections is reasonable and not arbitrary. The court passed an order to this effect while dismissing a petition that had sought a direction to the SEC here to stop putting the reserved symbols for political parties on the list of contesting candidates. The plea had also sought a direction to the SEC to conduct the election to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) without the reserved symbols, which allegedly violated the petitioner's fundamental rights as enshrined under Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution.

State Bank of India (SBI) has refused to disclose under the RTI Act the details of the electoral bonds furnished to the Election Commission (EC), claiming that it is personal information held in a fiduciary capacity, even though the records are in the public domain on the poll panel's website. Holding that the electoral bonds scheme was «unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary», the Supreme Court directed the SBI on February 15 to furnish the complete details of the bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 to the EC, which would publish the information on its website by March 13. On March 11, the court dismissed the SBI's petition seeking an extension of the deadline and ordered it to disclose the details of the electoral bonds to the EC by the close of business hours on March 12. RTI activist Commodore (retired) Lokesh Batra approached the SBI on March 13 seeking the complete data of the electoral bonds in the digital form, as provided to the EC after the Supreme Court's order.

JJP) chief and former deputy chief minister of Haryana Dushyant Chautala has said that the recent exit of the Nishan Singh, the party's Haryana unit chief, was all part and parcel of the election season «Last night, I received a digital copy of Nishan Singh's resignation. The decision lies with the national president since the letter was addressed to him. I wish him luck for the future. Three months ago, I said this in the state assembly that the election season is approaching, and many people will come and go...» Nishan Singh, the Haryana president of Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) who resigned from the party membership on April 8 had however not disclosed his future plans.

‘India's map will change': Sitharaman's husband warns against Modi's re-election "All that a political party needs to do to remain out of the tax net is to file an assessment...You have not followed the rule of law or the law of the land, and you expect to be treated differently," she said. Sitharaman also responded to questions about AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal's arrest. "Didn’t the Prime Minister, then the Chief Minister, appear before the CBI just before the Gujarat elections? He went and answered all the questions.

₹1,505, implying an over 22 percent upside from its CMP of ₹1,229.30, as of April 10. The stock has already delivered almost 59 percent returns in the last one year and gained over 19 percent in 2024 YTD, giving positive returns in 3 of the 4 months of the current calendar year so far. Airtel shares have been flat but in the green in April so far after a 9.4 percent jump in March.

Bibhav Kumar, the personal secretary of incarcerated Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. YVVJ Rajshekhar, the Special Secretary of Vigilance, issued the directive for his removal, referring to a case from 2007. According to the order, “The Competent Authority hereby terminates the engagement of Bibhav Kumar, in terms of the provisions of Rule 5 of the Central Civil Services (Temporary Service) Rules, 1965, with immediate effect." Also Read: ‘Lack of seriousness’: Delhi LG VK Saxena writes to Home Ministry as AAP Ministers skip meetings, party says....