Election Financial News

charge as Election Commissioner on November 21, 2022. He is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1985 batch, Punjab cadre. Arun Goel served as a secretary at the Ministry of Heavy Industry, Government of India, after more than 37 years of service.

Arun Goel, a retired 1985-batch Indian Administrative Service officer from the Punjab cadre, was appointed as Election Commissioner on November 19, 2022, in a move that sparked controversy and raised questions about the appointment process. Goel's appointment came under scrutiny when it was revealed that he had taken voluntary retirement on November 18, 2022, and was appointed to the Election Commission just a day later. This swift appointment process led to criticism, with the Supreme Court questioning the government's haste in appointing him. The court asked why there was a «tearing hurry» to appoint Goel to the poll panel, noting that the file recommending his appointment was moved quickly, with even the Prime Minister recommending his name on the same day. Despite the controversy surrounding his appointment, a two-judge bench later dismissed a petition challenging his appointment, citing a previous decision by a Constitution Bench.

BJP on Saturday released a list of seven candidates for the coming biennial elections to the Uttar Pradesh legislative council, repeating three candidates, including senior leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak, whose term is coming to an end in May. Vijay Bahadur Pathak is vice president of the state unit of the BJP. The list released by national general secretary Arun Singh includes the names of former ministers Mahendra Kumar Singh and Ashok Katariya who will also seek re-election. The four new faces are state vice president Santosh Singh, president of the western region of the party Mohit Beniwal, former mayor of Jhansi Ram Tirath Singhal and co-media incharge of UP Dharmendra Singh.

Sharad Pawar, who heads the NCP (SP), on Saturday declared MP Supriya Sule as their candidate from Maharashtra's Baramati Lok Sabha seat, amid speculation that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar could be fielded from there. The octogenarian leader made the announcement during a rally organised by the opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi in Bhor tehsil of Pune district. Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena (UBT), an MVA constituent, was also present at the event. The Election Commission will announce the Lok Sabha poll schedule on March 14 or March 15, said Sharad Pawar. The EC has allotted «man blowing turha (a traditional trumpet)» symbol to his outfit. «The elections will decide the future of our country. Nobody was so anxious about the future of the country so far, but now a change is needed. Today, PM Modi is not paying any attention towards farmer suicides. Instead, he is focussing all his attention only on Gujarat,» he said.

Robert De Niro has opened up on the political situation of the country and expressed his opinions on the 2024 Presidential Election, which is only eight months away from now. The Oscar-winning actor has urged the people to vote for incumbent Joe Biden in 'a bid for normalcy'. According to 'The Hollywood Reporter' De Niro also called Donald Trump 'a total monster', 'a mean, nasty, hateful person, and said that his victory would bring nightmares.

Tata Chemicals were among the gainers on the S&P BSE Smallcap index. Apart from the above two, Rallis, Infibeam Avenues, MOIL, Schneider Electric Infra, Zen Technologies, JSW Holdings, Hindustan Copper, SMS Pharma, Rico Auto, Marathon Nextgen, and others are among the smallcaps that logged a double-digit rise in their share prices last week. Markets extended a gaining streak for the fourth successive week and rose nearly half a per cent with the NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex rising 0.69 per cent and 0.51 per cent on the week, respectively - the best such streak in three months. The benchmarks gained about three per cent each in four weeks.

Lok Sabha elections 2024 fast approaching, Election Commissioner Arun Goel has resigned from his post, a government notification showed on Saturday, leaving Chief Election Commissioner alone in the saddle. Goel's resignation leaves a couple of vacancies in the poll panel. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been a multi-member body since the 1990s and has conducted eight Lok Sabha elections in such a format.

Congress MLAs who voted against party nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha elections, along with three Independent lawmakers, have shifted to a hotel in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand amid an ongoing rebellion against Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. Two BJP MLAs Vikram Thakur and Trilok Jamwal from Himachal Pradesh were accompanying the legislators, who arrived in Rishikesh from Haryana's Panchkula by a chartered flight late on Friday and checked into Hotel Taj. Congress MLAs Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Devinder Kumar Bhuttu, Ravindra Thakur and Chaitanya Sharma have since been disqualified for defying the party whip on the state budget. They have approached the Supreme Court for relief in the matter.

Andhra Pradesh and its people, and the seat-sharing modalities would be deliberated in a day or two, the three parties said in a joint statement on Saturday. «We hope that the alliance will come up to the expectation of the people of Andhra Pradesh with their wholehearted support,» BJP president J P Nadda, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party's (JSP) Pawan Kalyan said in the joint statement. They said that under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the three parties have decided to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha and Andhra Pradesh assembly elections together as they are committed to the progress of the country and the upliftment of the state and its people. The statement said that Prime Minister Modi has been working tirelessly for the development and progress of the nation for the last 10 years and the coming together of the BJP with the TDP and the JSP will help achieve the aspirations of the people of Andhra Pradesh.

BJP and the TDP coming together is a win-win situation for the country and the state." On the poll prospects of the TDP-BJP-JSP tie-up in the Lok Sabha elections and Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls, Chandrababu Naidu said “it will be a sweep". While the TDP, BJP and the Jana Sena have already been deliberating on the seat-sharing formula to be shared between them, the official number has not been announced yet. Even though Lok Sabha looks sorted, the BJP reportedly wants to contest Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections on more seats than ally Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena.

10 per cent quota in education and jobs for the members of the Maratha community, was passed in the legislative Assembly. Raj Thackeray's remarks have come days after the Maharashtra BJP Ashish Shelar met the MNS chief probably for fresh alliance talks between the two parties for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024. Raj Thackeray also asserted that granting the Maratha community reservation in government jobs and education would lead to other communities making similar requests to the state government.

MLC election in Bihar and UP is scheduled for March 21 and the last date for filing the nomination is March 11. In Bihar, BJP has fielded Mangal Pandey, Dr. Lal Mohan Gupta, and Anamika Singh for the MLC election 2024 while in Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party is going with Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Mahendra Kumar Singh, Mohit Beniwal, Ashok Katariya, Dharmendra Singh, Ramtirath Singhal and Santosh Singh.

₹13 per litre and that on diesel has been reduced by 16% cumulatively in both the occasions. Due to these duty cuts, centre has forgone a revenue of about ₹2.2 trillion, he said. "Despite production cuts, the global crude oil prices have not increased.

Sinking road indicates stinking corruption’…sochiye aap…ek angrezi akhbaar Lucknow ka likh raha hai ki ye isiliye ho raha hai kyuki bhrashtachar hai…ab mukhyamatriji [CM Yogi Adityanath] ne nahi padha hoga kyuki angreji mein likha hai," Akhilesh Yadav said, prompting laughter. Rough translation: “Such a corrupt police and such corruption would never have happened in the history of Uttar Pradesh as is going on under the BJP government.

Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D Raja on Saturday said a leader of Rahul Gandhi's stature should contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from a seat where he can directly challenge the ruling BJP, even as he said it is a political party's prerogative to decide who would it field from a seat. The remarks came a day after the Congress announced that Gandhi will contest the parliamentary polls, likely to be held in April-May, from Wayanad in Kerala, the seat he currently represents in the Lok Sabha. CPI's Annie Raja, wife of D Raja, has been fielded as the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate from Wayanad. Asked about the Congress's decision to field Gandhi from Wayanad, Raja said, «Within the LDF, the CPI has got four seats to contest and Wayanad is one of those, so we have announced our candidate. Secondly, it is the prerogative of any political party to choose its candidate from a constituency. In this case, it is the prerogative of the Congress.»

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday termed the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as the one meant to save the Constitution and the democracy. «This is the election to save the Constitution and the democracy. This is the election to save reservation and save one's own honour. At one point of time, 'Samudra Manthan' (churning of the sea) had taken place. This is the time for 'Samvidhaan Manthan',» Yadav told reporters at his party office here. «On one hand, there are people who want to defend the Constitution, and on the other hand, there are people who want to end the Constitution,» he added. The Samajwadi Party (SP) chief said the people of Uttar Pradesh give a grand welcome and also bid a great farewell.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has resigned as the president of the state Congress, ahead of the Lok Sabha and the assembly elections, a party leader said on Saturday. Tuki sent his resignation to the All India Congress Committee on Friday, following the defection of three party MLAs to BJP, he said. «The former chief minister resigned on moral grounds as he could not prevent the MLAs from defecting to other political parties,» APCC general secretary Gyamar Tana said. Tuki represents the Sagalee assembly constituency in the state.

A well-funded political action committee (PAC) backed by prominent figures in the cryptocurrency industry has set its sights on key Senate races, with the goal of potentially shifting the balance of power in Congress. 

BJP target for ensuing general elections and abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said his party winning 370 seats will be a fitting tribute to the historic decision of the Modi government that has helped integrate J&K with the rest of the country. In an interview with PTI, Commerce Minister Goyal asserted that the target of 370 seats for the BJP and 400 seats for the NDA comes from the conviction of good governance in the last 10 years by the Modi government and not over-confidence and arrogance. He said the general election might throw a surprise and the final tally of BJP and NDA might be higher. Goyal did not comment on whether BJD will be part of the NDA, but welcomed all well-meaning good parties to be part of the journey to make India a developed nation by 2047.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said positive discussions were held in Delhi on the Mahayuti alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and «80 per cent» of the issues have been resolved. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday held talks for seat sharing in Maharashtra with coalition partners Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde and NCP president Ajit Pawar. Fadnavis was also present in the meeting. The Mahayuti alliance comprises the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP. Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Fadnavis said, «Very positive discussions were held in the meeting yesterday. I can say that 80 per cent of our issues have been solved, and talks are going on for the remaining 20 per cent. And, I believe that the remaining issues will be resolved, and a good alliance will be formed.»

Gurpreet Singh GP on Saturday joined the Aam Aadmi Party in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann here. Singh was elected as an MLA from the Bassi Pathana assembly constituency seat in Fatehgarh Sahib district in 2017. He unsuccessfully contested from the same constituency in the 2022 assembly elections. Cabinet Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, while welcoming Singh into the party fold, said with his joining, the AAP will get a boost in Fatehgarh Sahib. Singh said the main reason behind quitting the Congress was a «lack of discipline» in the party.