Election Financial News

Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Sunday released its second list. The second list of the party featured nine candidates. Mayawati-led BSP has fielded Hembabu Dhangar from Hathras, Kamal Kant Upmanyu from Mathura, Pooja Amrohi from Agra, and Ram Niwas Sharma from Fatehpur Sikri.

Janardhana Reddy on Sunday said he would rejoin BJP on March 25. The KRPP founder said he took the decision to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister again for the third time. «After consulting my supporters, I took the decision. Tomorrow at 10 am I am rejoining BJP,» he told reporters here. Reddy said he would support the BJP candidate from Ballari Lok Sabha constituency, B Sriramulu, whom he called a boy raised by him.

Election Commission, accusing BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari of violating the model code of conduct by spreading false news and maligning senior police officers of West Bengal. Adhikari, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, on Saturday wrote to the EC claiming that there are several non-IPS officers in West Bengal holding positions designated only for IPS officers, including that of superintendents of police (SPs). In a post on X, he urged the ECI to look into the list of 16 police officers he shared, claiming they are non-IPS officers but occupy positions designated for IPS officers. Reacting to Adhikari's claims, the ruling TMC said in a letter to the EC, labelled his accusation as «false, fake and baseless because all the names of the officials appearing in the published list are those of high ranking officials who are a part of the IPS cadres under Indian Police Service (Cadre Rules) 1954.»

Samajwadi Party on Sunday renominated its Lok Sabha MP from Moradabad S T Hasan from the same seat and changed its Bijnor candidate by fielding Deepak Saini, the son of a party MLA. The party announced the names in a post on X. The Samajwadi Party had earlier named Yashveer Singh as its candidate from Bijnor. However, on Sunday, it named Deepak Saini as its candidate for the seat. He is the son of Ram Avtar Saini, the SP legislator from the Noorpur assembly segment that comes under the Bijnor parliamentary constituency.

Rajnath Singh said that the people of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) are themselves raising the demand for a merger with India. He expressed the confidence that the people of PoK will merge with India. He made the remarks during the 'AAP ki Adalat' programme on India TV. Asked about Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's recent remarks about Kashmir, Rajnath Singh said, «Can they ever take Kashmir? They should be worried about Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. I had said almost one and a half years ago that there will be no need for us to attack and occupy, because a situation is developing there that people of PoK themselves are demanding merger with India.» On being asked whether the government was making any plan, he responded, «I will not say anything more, I should not. We are not going to attack any country. India has a character of never attacking any country in the world, nor has it occupied an inch of other's territory. But PoK was ours, PoK is ours, and I am confident that PoK will itself merge with India.»

Congress has fielded Akshay Bam, a newbie in the poll arena from Indore Lok Sabha constituency, an unbreached BJP citadel for 35 years, against sitting MP Shankar Lalwani, who had won the 2019 contest by a huge margin of over 5.47 lakh votes. Bam (45), a businessman from the Jain community, has to shoulder a big responsibility of keeping the Congress cadre motivated in view of three former MLAs and several workers of the party joining the ruling BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Prominent among Congress defectors are Pankaj Sanghvi, Sanjay Shukla, and Vishal Patel. He faces sitting BJP MP Shankar Lalwani, 62, who had won the last contest against his Congress challenger Pankaj Sanghvi by possibly the highest vote margin in Madhya Pradesh.

Sarma's statement came after the Centre implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) last month. "Whether 'Miyas' are indigenous or not is a different matter. What we are saying is that if they try to be 'indigenous', we have no problem.

Congress candidate for Sontipur Lok Sabha seat in Assam, Premlal Ganju, has just Rs 1 lakh cash in hand along with Rs 50,000 of his wife, according to the affidavit submitted to the Election Commission of India. Apart from the cash in hand, Ganju has Rs 5,06,995 and his wife Rs 1,77,453 in their respective bank accounts. The Congress nominee, who will contest in the general elections for the first time, in his affidavit submitted along with the nomination papers said that he has Rs 1,00,000 in cash with him and Rs 50,000 with his wife. The total movable assets including automobile and jewellery under his name are valued at Rs 21,00,310, while the same under his wife is Rs 5,62,453, making it Rs 26,62,763 worth of movable assets in the family.

complaints related to violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) from across Rajasthan have been registered on the Election Commission's cVigil app over the last week, a senior official said on Sunday. Since the MCC came into force on March 16, more than 200 complaints are being received every day on the cVIGIL (Citizen Vigilance) app, said Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta. A total of 1,515 complaints were registered on the app in the last seven days, he said. «Out of the 1,515 complaints received in the last seven days, 546 were found correct by the returning officers and were disposed of within the stipulated time (of 100 minutes). Six complaints are still pending for decision by the investigating teams and returning officers while 789 complaints were dropped,» he said.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said giving tickets to the children and relatives of ministers was not dynastic politics but acknowledging the recommendation of voters. In its second list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on March 21 announced fielding its national president M Mallikarjun Kharge's son-in-law and children of five ministers in Karnataka. «Yes, we have given. We gave tickets to those whom the people of the constituency recommended. This is not dynastic politics but acknowledging people's opinion,» Siddaramaiah told reporters. He was replying to a query about 10 family members and relatives of Karnataka ministers getting tickets to contest the Lok Sabha polls on behalf of Congress.

BRS fielded former minister and legislator Theegulla Padma Rao Goud from the Secunderabad seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Telangana. The decision came after the party's legislators, and other people's representatives unanimously approved Padma Rao Goud as the candidate after a meeting. In a post on X, the BRS stated, «As a senior leader of the party, Padma Rao Goud, who has been loyal to the party since the time of the movement till today, has gained recognition as a man of all».

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday hit out at the BJP over the electoral bond scheme, saying never in the history of the country did any government gave legal validity to corruption. In a post on X, Priyanka alleged that 38 corporate groups donated Rs 2,004 crore to BJP through electoral bonds. «In return, they got contracts/projects worth Rs 3.8 lakh crore from BJP's central and state governments. ED, CBI, and IT raided 41 corporate groups. To avoid this, these groups donated Rs 2,592 crore to BJP. 16 shell companies donated Rs 419 crore to BJP. These also include companies which donated several times their total capital,» Priyanka said.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and said he was making statements with the intention of fostering communal division. BJP state chief K Surendran, while addressing the media here, said the decision to withdraw cases registered against the anti-CAA protestors was taken to appease a particular community. He said the chief minister was violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by withdrawing the cases and his party will approach the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Tamil Nadu BJP on Sunday alleged that state Fisheries Minister and DMK leader Anitha R Radhakrishnan publicly uttered an expletive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said it would approach the police and Election Commission seeking action. K Annamalai, the BJP's state unit president posted on X that DMK leaders have reached a new low in their «uncouth behaviour» by passing «vile comments and an unpardonable public discourse» against PM Modi. «When they have nothing to criticise, this is the level DMK leaders have stooped. DMK MP Smt Kanimozhi was on the stage and did not bother to stop her colleague,» Annamalai said in his post. The BJP leader said his party would take up this matter with the Election Commission and the Director General of Police (DGP) on March 24 seeking the «strictest and immediate action» against Anita Radhakrishnan.

Overseas Friends of BJP', Australia, launched a campaign for members of the diaspora, titled 'Modi for 2024', covering seven prominent cities and significant landmarks in the country. The campaign is aimed at drumming up overseas support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) going into the Lok Sabha elections in the country. «Overseas Friends of BJP Australia has launched a massive campaign from iconic locations like Sydney Harbour Bridge, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Perth Optus Stadium, Brisbane GABBA, Surfers Paradise in Gold Coast, Mt Ainslie in Canberra and Naval Memorial Garden in Adelaide,» read a post on the official X handle of the 'Overseas Friends of BJP', Australia.

INDIA bloc, Union Minister Anurag Thakur claimed that while the opposition leaders were busy «abusing» Prime Minister Narendra Modi's, his prestige continued to grow globally in the last ten years. "… Initially you wanted to do 'tukde tukde' of the country and now you want to do the same to PM Narendra Modi. First, they would go and stand with the 'tukde tukde' gang, now they include those advocating 'tukde tukde' into their gang...," the Minister for Information and Broadcasting said. The sharp remarks came at a press conference held on Sunday in New Delhi.

Pushkar Singh Dhami said that a committee has been formed to examine all aspects of the Uniform Civil Code, and it will be implemented at the earliest in the state. Speaking to ANI, more than a week after President Droupadi Murmu approved the bill, CM Dhami said, «We had promised the Uniform Civil Code to the people of Uttarakhand. When we went to the people during the 2022 election, we promised that we would implement the UCC soon after the new government was formed. We have kept that promise.» «The President has also given her assent. The process is underway. A committee has also been formed at the departmental level. It is examining all aspects. We will implement it at the earliest,» CM Dhami said.

Penalty provisions can act as a deterrent to the development and dissemination of deepfakes and misinformation, a senior official of global think tank Cuts International said while calling for the deployment of technology interventions to check misuse of AI-generated content. CUTS International, Director, Research, Amol Kulkarni told PTI that internet users would require adequate opportunities to verify the genuineness of content and it becomes important during the election season while the role of credible fact-checkers and trusted flaggers becomes crucial.

Bahujan Samaj Party on Sunday released a list comprising 16 names for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections starting April 19, 2024. The party led by Mayawati has announced candidates for 16 seats (out of 80) in Uttar Pradesh including Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnaur, Nagina, Muradabad, Rampur, Sambhal, Amroha, Meerut, Baghpat seat.

Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said the TMC government will not complete its full term till 2026 if the saffron party gets even one more seat than the Mamata Banerjee-led party. Claiming that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is an ideological issue for Bengal BJP akin to the Ram Mandir issue for the central unit, Majumdar said the Act will help the party sweep the elections in the state. In an interview with PTI, Majumdar said the people of the state have decided to defeat the corrupt and anarchic TMC in the LS polls. «We have set a target of winning 35 seats from Bengal. We are confident about it. If we get even one more seat than that of the TMC, which we will get, the Mamata Banerjee government will not complete its full term till 2026. Its government would collapse,» he said.

Samajwadi Party MLAs who cross-voted for the BJP in the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections have been allocated Y-category security, a senior government official said on Sunday. He added that the four MLAs who got Y-category security are Abhay Singh (Gosaiganj), Manoj Kumar Pandey (Unchahar), Rakesh Pratap Singh (Gauriganj) and Vinod Chaturvedi (Kalpi), respectively. These four MLAs, alongside three other party legislators — Pooja Pal, Rakesh Pandey and Ashutosh Maurya — had cross-voted for the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections, leading to saffron party candidate Sanjay Seth defeating Samajwadi Party nominee Alok Ranjan. Maharaji Prajapati, another MLA, had abstained.