The Chhattisgarh

Tag: LS Polls 2024

  • LS Polls 2024: EC Asks Congress’ Jairam Ramesh To Share Details Of Amit Shah’s Pre-Counting Day Calls To DMs |

    New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) sought factual information from Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday on his claim that Home Minister Amit Shah has called up 150 district magistrates and collectors ahead of the June 4 counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls. In a letter to Ramesh, the poll panel has asked him to share details regarding his claim by 7 pm on Sunday.

    The EC has referred to his post on X on June 1, in which the Congress general secretary had alleged that “the outgoing Home Minister has been calling up DMs/Collectors. So far, he has spoken to 150 of them. This is blatant and brazen intimidation, showing how desperate the BJP is….”

    The process of counting votes is a sacred duty cast upon every returning officer and such public statements “tend to put an element of doubt and thus, deserves to be addressed in larger public interest”, the EC has told Ramesh.

    It has also told the Congress leader that when the Model Code of Conduct is in force, all officers are under the deemed deputation of the commission and they report directly to the poll watchdog for any directions.

    “However, no DM has reported any such undue influence as alleged by you…,” the EC’s letter to Ramesh has stated.

    “It is requested that details of 150 DMs to whom such calls have been allegedly made by the Home Minister along with the factual matrix/basis of your information are shared by 7 pm today — June 2, 2024, so that appropriate action can be taken,” it has told the Congress leader.

    It has said that being a responsible, experienced and very senior leader of a national party, Ramesh must have made such a public statement ahead of the counting day on the basis of facts or information he believes to be true.

  • Congress To Move Gauhati HC Over Voting By Police Personnel In LS Polls |

    Aizawl: Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Monday said that it will move the Gauhati High Court against the Election Commission for not facilitating voting for about 1,047 police personnel who were deployed for poll duty in other states. They had failed to cast their votes in the Lok Sabha polls held on April 19 in the state, the MPCC said.

    It said that the party had on May 13 written to the state chief electoral officer (CEO) asking him to take steps so that the policemen could exercise their franchise.

    As per the reply of the CEO, the Election Commission is unlikely to arrange voting facilities for the policemen, who did not cast during the elections due to their deployment for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, the MPCC said.

    The party said that it will file a Public Interest Litigation at the Aizawl bench of Gauhati High Court to ensure that the police personnel cast their votes before the counting of votes.

    Although they were supposed to exercise their franchise at facilitation centres, no such arrangements could be made for them as they had to leave the state, before the candidates could be finalised, due to direction from higher authorities, officials said.

    The state election department has claimed that it requested the Election Commission at least two times to allow the police personnel to cast their votes for the lone Mizoram Lok Sabha seat.

    However, the Central poll panel rejected the requests, the CEO office in the state said.

    On Saturday, the People’s Conference (PC) party also wrote to the Election Commission principal secretary S B Joshi, urging the poll panel to allow 1,047 policemen from Mizoram, to cast their votes.

    The party blamed the authorities for failing to arrange the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) for the police personnel.

    It said that 1,047 votes will have a meaningful impact on the poll results in a small state like Mizoram.

  • LS Polls 2024: Indian Cricketers Suryakumar Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane Cast Vote In Mumbai | cricket news

    Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane and his wife cast their vote on Monday during phase 5 of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 in Mumbai. Rahane took to his official social media handle and shared a picture with his wife as they flaunted their inked fingers after casting votes in Mumbai. While sharing the photo on social media, he wrote, “We did our duty. Have you?”

    Star India batsman Suryakumar Yadav cast his vote during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in Mumbai on Monday and also urged his citizens to perform their duty as voters. India’s 360-degree batter took to X and shared a picture of him showing off his inked finger, urging people to “shape the future of our nation”.

    “Let’s shape the future of our nation by casting our vote today,” tweeted Suryakumar.

    On the work front, Suryakumar recently featured for the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). MI finished at the bottom of the points table with four wins, 10 losses and eight points.

    Suryakumar had a mixed IPL campaign, scoring 345 runs in 11 matches at an average of 34.50 and a strike rate of 167.47. Though he scored a century, a knock of 102* against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), and three half-centuries, Suryakumar had a patchy form and recorded six scores below 20 runs, including three ducks.

    He would be next in action during the ICC T20 World Cup from June 1 onwards at West Indies and the USA. With his supreme T20I stats and status as the world’s number-one ranked T20I batsman, he is expected to play a big role in India’s campaign. In 60 T20Is, he has scored 2,141 runs at an average of 45.55 and a strike rate of 171.55, with four centuries and 17 fifties. His best score is 117.

    The fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections marks an important part of the seven-phase electoral process, with extensive arrangements made to ensure a smooth and secure voting experience for all citizens. Elections in 6 Lok Sabha seats of Mumbai are underway for Phase 5.

    The seats are Mumbai North, Mumbai North West, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South, and Mumbai South Central. The other constituencies of Maharashtra that are a part of the ongoing election in the fifth phase include Dhule, Dindori, Nashik, Kalyan, Palghar, Bhiwandi and Thane. Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second largest after Uttar Pradesh.

    The fifth phase witnesses key contests in various constituencies. Leaders such as Rahul Gandhi, BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Piyush Goyal, Ujjwal Nikam, Karan Bhushan Singh, LJP (Ramvilas) chief Chirag Paswan, JKNC chief Omar Abdullah, and RJD leader Rohini Acharya are looking for electoral success.

    Eight states/UTs going for polls in phase 5 are Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Of the 49 Lok Sabha seats, 14 are from Uttar Pradesh, 13 from Maharashtra, 7 from West Bengal, 5 from Bihar, 3 from Jharkhand, 5 from Odisha, and one each from Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

    In a bid to create a peaceful atmosphere for the electors, a total of 2,000 flying squads, 2105 static surveillance teams, 881 video surveillance teams, and 502 video viewing teams are keeping surveillance round the clock across the 94,732 polling stations.

  • PM Modi Did Not Deliver ‘Guarantees’, 83% Youths Jobless In Country: TMC |

    Kolkata: Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantees on various issues had not been delivered, senior Trinamool Congress leader Amit Mitra on Sunday claimed that 83 per cent of jobless people in the country are youths.

    Mitra reiterated his party’s stand that the TMC is with the INDIA alliance, stating that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s rebuff to senior party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and his retort is their internal matter.

    “Around 83 per cent of the jobless people in the country are young men and women,” Mitra, a former Finance minister of West Bengal in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, claimed at a press conference here.

    “Two-thirds of the educated young men and women are unemployed,” he said.

    Claiming that the Skill India programme of the NDA government for preparing skilled manpower has not borne the desired fruits, he alleged that only around 4 per cent of the country’s youth are getting vocational training.

    Alleging that PM Modi’s guarantees on various issues have not been delivered in actuality, he claimed “that 51 crimes against women are committed every hour in the country.”

    The former Finance minister of Bengal claimed that ‘household net financial savings’ in the country has reached the lowest point in 50 years.

    Claiming that the guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) was not being given to farmers for their produce, Mitra alleged that “30 farmers commit suicide every day.”

    He claimed that the external debt of the country has increased 100 per cent in the last ten years. “It has risen from Rs 3,65,000 crore ten years back to Rs 7,48,000 crore in the 2022-23 financial year,” he said.

    Mitra claimed that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has stopped funds to the state after the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC won the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls with a huge number of seats.

    “We have not received a single Rupee under MNREGA and Awas Yojana because they lost in 2021,” he said, asking whether this was “the Prime Minister’s guarantee.”

    Stating that more than 2.15 crore women of Bengal have been financially empowered under the ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ scheme, Mitra said that now the BJP is also speaking of increasing the money to women by Rs 100.

    Mitra reiterated the party’s stand that the TMC is with the opposition INDIA alliance, stating that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s rebuff to senior party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and his retort is their internal matter.

    “As far as Trinamool Congress is concerned, we were with the INDIA alliance as one of the founders, we are there and we will be in it, this is Mamata Banerjee’s position,” he said. The TMC had earlier accused Chowdhury of being a stumbling block in the alliance in the state.

     

  • Why Ganga Dirtier Despite Spending Rs 20,000 Crore: Congress Questions PM Modi |

    New Delhi: Congress launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and bombarded him with questions regarding his current Lok Sabha constituency as he filed his nomination for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi today. 

    On the day PM Modi filed his nomination from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh took on the microblogging site ‘X’ and said that the outgoing PM must answer for his “failures” in his constituency.

    “Today’s questions: After spending Rs 20,000 crore, why has the Ganga gotten dirtier? Why has the PM abandoned the Varanasi villages he had “adopted”? Why is the PM determined to destroy Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy in Varanasi,” he wrote in a post on ‘X’.

    Ramesh said when he came to Varanasi in 2014, Modi had said “Maa Ganga ne mujhe bulaya hain” and promised to purify the waters of the Holy Ganga, but soon after coming to power, rebranded the existing Operation Ganga as Namami Gange.

    “Ten years later, the ‘Namami Gange’ project has cost the exchequer more than Rs. 20,000 crore. Here are the results: the number of Polluted River Stretches has increased from 51 to 66, 71% of monitoring stations have reported dangerous bacteria at up to 40 times more than safe levels, and antibiotic resistant bacteria have now been found in the waters.”

    “Where has the 20,000 crore in taxpayer money gone? How much has been siphoned off in corruption and mismanagement? How can the people of Varanasi trust a man who has given a jumla even to Ma Ganga,” the Congress leader asked.

    He also said outside the city of Varanasi lie eight villages that the PM had “adopted”, but a March 2024 ground report found that despite big promises of “smart schools”, health facilities and housing, the villages have seen absolutely no progress in 10 years.

    Domri village has almost no pucca housing, he said, adding Nagepur village has extremely shoddy roads.

    Dalit communities in Jogapur and Jayapur have no toilets and no water, and the flagship Nal Se Jal Scheme seems to have missed Parampur village entirely, he claimed.

    “The condition of Mr. Modi’s adopted villages tells us a lot about his sense of duty, or lack thereof, towards serving his constituents. Why has the PM abandoned his “adopted” villages? Is this the true face of “Modi ki guarantee”,” he asked.

    Ramesh also alleged that “It is well known that the outgoing PM’s ideology is that of Godse, not Gandhi”.

    “He has taken his malicious hatred of the Father of our Nation to the extent of destroying the Sarwa Sewa Sangh, started by Acharya Vinobha Bhave, and associated with personalities like Dr Rajendra Prasad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Jayaprakash Narayan,” he said, adding it has been rendering extraordinary public service to the nation since 1955.

    “It had been operating on 13 acres of land, close to the Varanasi Railway Station, for which it had full possession papers. It was evicted from its iconic campus in August 2023, and the land was taken over by the Indian Railways. Only one corner of the campus, occupied by the Gandhi Vidya Sansthan, remains untouched because it had already been captured by the RSS.

    “Why does the PM persist in his hypocrisy of praising Gandhiji abroad, while destroying Gandhian institutions at home? Can he openly admit his admiration for Godse over Gandhi,” Ramesh asked.

    PM Modi, the sitting MP and BJP’s candiatate from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh filed his nomination papers at the district magistrate’s office.  PM filed his nomination papers seeking a third consecutive term from the constituency and hoping to win with a record margin. Varanasi will go in for polling in the seventh and last phase of the Lok Sabha polls on June 1. The counting of the votes will be held on June 4. 

  • ‘Not A Single Party Contesting 272 Seats…’: PM Modi Takes A Dig At Opposition |

    New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on opposition parties and said that no political party except BJP is contesting 272 seats in Lok Sabha polls which is a minimum number of seats required to form a government.

    Attacking on Congress in Banaskantha’s Deesa in Gujarat ahead of the third phase of Lok Sabha polls, PM Modi said, “If you want to form a government, then at least 272 seats are required. Except for the BJP, no political party in the country is contesting 272 seats, and then they are saying they will form the government.”

    “Even the royal family of Delhi is not going to vote for Congress… There is no Congress candidate where they vote… Ahmed Patel’s family in Bharuch will not vote for Congress… A big Congress leader who votes in Bhavnagar, will not be able to vote for Congress. This is the condition of the Congress..,” he added.

    Further escalating his attack on Congress, Modi said party targeted him in 2014 as a ‘tea-seller’, had got such a reply from the country that the party which once used to occupy 400 seats, is now being brought down to 40 only.

    He alleged that the government that was there before 2014 in Centre was only known for news of terrorism, scams and corruption all around the country.

    “This Congress ‘Jamat’ should listen, as long as Modi is alive, there will be no reservation on the basis of religion. Reservations for SC, ST, and OBCs have been given by the Constitution, and no one can take them away,” he added.

    PM Modi also challenged the Congress to declare that they would not provide reservations on the basis of religion.
    “Today, I want to challenge the prince of Congress and his party to declare that if they have the courage, they will never provide reservations on the basis of religion and will not play with the Constitution. They will not do this because “Dal mein kuch kaala hai,” he said.

    PM Modi also emphasised that as long as the BJP is there, reservations will be protected.

    “The prince of Congress proudly called the entire Modi and OBC communities thieves. No opportunity is being left to spread hatred against Gujaratis. In 2024, Congress and the INDI Alliance have come up with the new lie that reservations will end. Those who are talking about 400 seats, even today, the NDA has around 360 seats in the Parliament, and parties like BJD and YSRCP, which were not in our alliance, supported us anyway. I had the strength of 400 in Parliament. But we did not commit the sin of withdrawing the reservation,” PM Modi said.

    Sharpening his attacks on Congress, the Prime Minister added that even today, Congress has no issues, no vision, and no passion to work. “The country was immersed in despair. I left no stone unturned in my efforts. I spent every moment in the name of my countrymen and the country. I tried to take the country out of that troubled situation. “In 2014, Congress tried to belittle me by calling me “chai wala” and doubted what I could do for the country. I was made fun of. But the country gave them such an answer that the party that once used to occupy 400 seats, now being brought down to 40 only,” he said.

  • J&K Police, Security Forces HOld Flag March Across Valley Ahead of LS Polls

     From north to south, all ten districts of Kashmir witnessed the flag march aimed to instill confidence in people for smooth polling.