For Specially-Abled Voters In Rajasthan, A New Service Ahead Of Polls

For the convenience of specially-abled voters, the Election Commission of India has decided to deploy pick-and-drop vans, during the December 7 Rajasthan assembly polls.

Jodhpur district Election Officer Ravi Kumar said the voters would also be taken inside the polling booth in wheelchairs by volunteers.

To implement this measure, the district administration is appointing transport nodal officers in every district, while the booth level officers (BLO) have been asked to identify specially-abled voters, enlisted to cast votes at their booths.

The BLOs will provide lists of the voters to the transport nodal officers, who can be contacted directly by voters to avail the pick-and-drop facilities.

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EC team visits Telangana to review poll preparedness

An 11-member high-level team led by Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat is on a three-day visit to Hyderabad to review poll preparedness in Telangana.

On the first day of its visit, the EC team held interactions with representatives of political parties.

It held separate meetings with the representatives of all recognised political parties, including BJP, BSP, CPI, CPI(M), Congress, MIM, TDP and TRS.

The Commission will also hold a crucial meeting with the District Electoral Officers and Police Superintendents to review the arrangements in detail.

The team will also meet senior officials of Income Tax, Excise, and Enforcement agencies besides transport, railway and airport authorities before leaving for Delhi on Wednesday.

Telangana is scheduled to go to polls on 7 December.

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SC reserves order on EC, Congres row over errors in Madhya Pradesh rolls

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a major row between the Election Commission and the Congress over alleged acts of omission and commission over the electoral rolls in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.

However, the top court said it would separately examine a plea by Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot on the need to verify at least 10% per cent of VVPATs to ensure poll purity.

The hearing on Monday was again marred by accusations and crossaccusations by Congress leaders, represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and EC counsels senior advocate Vikas Singh and Amit Sharma.

Sibal was flanked by senior advocates Vivek Tankha and Anoop G Chaudhari. Varun Chopra was assisting Sibal.

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Election dates for Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana out, results on Dec 11

HIGHLIGHTS

Chhattisgarh will go to polls in two phases on November 12 and November 20
Telangana and Rajasthan will go to polls together on December 7
MP and Mizoram will go to polls together on November 28

The Election Commission of India today announced election dates for assembly elections in five states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana.

Chief Election Commissioner, OP Rawat, announced the election dates for the five states.

Election in Chhattisgarh will take place in two phases. Election in phase one (18 seats) will take on November 12. For the second phase (72 seats) voting will be held on November 20.

For Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram voting will be held in a single phase on November 28.

For Rajasthan and Telangana voting will be held in a single phase on December 7.

Results for all the five states will be out on December 11.

These five assembly elections would be crucial for the BJP as it gears up for the Lok Sabha election next year. The BJP is in power in three of these states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. While the Congress is in power in Mizoram, Telangana Rashtra Samithi was in power in Telangana before the assembly was dissolved.

The election code of conduct comes into play with immediate effect in these states.

Here is the complete schedule for assembly elections in the five states:

CHHATTISGARH

Elections will be held in two phases. Phase one includes the left-wing extremism-affected areas with 18 seats and phase two includes 72 seats.

Phase 1

Last date of filing nomination – October 23

Date of scrutiny – October 24

Last date for withdrawal of candidature – October 26

Date of voting – November 12

Counting date – December 11

Phase 2

Last date of filing nomination – November 2

Date of scrutiny – November 3

Last date for withdrawal of candidature – November 5

Date of voting – November 20

Counting date – December 11

MADHYA PRADESH and MIZORAM

Election schedule in Madhya Pradesh (230 seats) and Mizoram (40 seats) will be the same. Elections will be held in a single phase in both states.

Last date of filing nomination – November 9

Date of scrutiny – November 12

Last date for withdrawal of candidature – November 14

Date of voting – November 28

Counting date – December 11

TELANGANA and RAJASTHAN

Telangana and Rajasthan will go to polls together. Elections will be held in a single phase in both states.

Last date of filing nomination – November 19

Date of scrutiny – November 20

Last date for withdrawal of candidature – November 22

Date of voting – December 7

Counting date – December 11

Election Commission grants conditional nod to Telangana’s Rs 6000-crore cash assistance scheme for farmers

Election Commission’s poll code came into effect in the state from September 6, the day the Telangana assembly was dissolved.

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday granted conditional approval for the Rs 6,000 crore Rythu Bandhu scheme of Telangana government, which promises to offer cash assistance to farmers during the upcoming Rabi season, notwithstanding the commission’s electoral code of conduct enforced in the state.

SK Rudola, principal secretary, EC, said the scheme could be implemented subject to certain conditions. As per conditions, Rythu Bandhu scheme would be applicable only to existing beneficiaries and no new beneficiaries would be added to the list of. Moreover, the cash had to be credited directly into the accounts of the farmers through electronic transfer and not distributed in the form of cheques. The EC also ruled out publicity for the implementation of the scheme apart from directing political parties not to distribute cash to farmers at public functions.

The first phase of Rythu Bandhu scheme was implemented in May this year, for the Kharif season. Under this, each farmer would be paid a cash assistance of Rs 4,000 per acre for the purchase of agriculture inputs. The scheme was designed to benefit 57.17 lakh farmers across 10,874 villages.

EC’s poll code came into effect from September 6, the day the state assembly was dissolved. The Congress, meanwhile, clarified that it would never stop any welfare and development activity in the state. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy said Rythu Bandhu scheme should be implemented under the direct supervision of EC and official machinery without any political interference or influence.

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MP election 2018: Congress gave false electoral rolls to mislead court, says EC

The Election Commission and Congress leaders traded accusations in the Supreme Court over the veracity of documents produced by the party to claim that electoral rolls in Madhya Pradesh were full of errors, prompting the top court to ask both sides to file affidavits to back their stands.

The EC, through Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Vikas Singh, accused the Congress of producing in court portions of electoral lists in MP which were not true.

“They are trying to prejudice the court with wrong documents and get relief,” Singh charged. Singh also refused to hand over the entire electoral rolls in MP to the party leaders, saying that it cannot “hand over data which can be mined”.

Instead, he insisted, that the EC was doing all it can, including using software analysis, to check facts and figures.

He contested some names which the Congress leaders had charged were duplicates to claim that they had produced wrong facts with intent to get relief from the court.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal vehemently contested this version. He said that the data had been collected from public sources and that they were only trying to establish its authenticity. He denied the allegation that the party was trying to mislead the court.

The EC had in Rajasthan conceded the Congress demand to give them word files of the electoral rolls for verification. Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath has since accused the EC of going back on its stand and denying the party the list for Madhya Pradesh.

The EC has, so far, resisted handing over the requisite data ahead of the impending polls.

The standoff forced the bench led by Justice AK Sikri to ask both sides to file affidavits in support of their case. He was sitting alongside Justice Ashok Bhushan. Affidavits are sworn statements made to the court.

Sibal also demanded to know why the EC hadn’t taken any action so far against websites which were unauthorisedly reproducing the electoral rolls.

Kamal Nath had on August 10 filed a petition seeking a direction to the EC to ensure proper verification of electoral rolls to weed out duplicate voters in the interest of free and fair polls to the state Assembly.

His petition had also demanded compulsory cross-verification of EVM vote counts with the Voter Veri fiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in the forthcoming polls.

TRS will play decisive role after LS elections in 2019

TRS leader and minister in Telangana’s caretaker government K T Rama Rao Friday expressed confidence that the party would play a decisive role at the Centre after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to work for the state’s interests.

It would be a coalition era after the next parliamentary elections, he said,addressing a gathering of TRS workers here.

“I am fully confident that in this coalition era, TRS will definitely be in a decisive role in Delhi and get what is due for Telangana, not by begging the Centre, but by dictating.

Our leader KCR has the intelligence and strategy to do it,” Rama Rao, son of TRS president and Caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said.

Claiming that the popularity of BJP and also Congress is on the decline,he exuded confidence that the Telangana people would overwhelmingly vote for TRS in the Lok Sabha polls.

“I am confident that our Telangana people will give a judgement with awareness to give 16 parliament seats to TRS. Because the Modi graph is falling. I need not say specially about Rahul Gandhi… One who wants to vote would also run away after seeing him,” he said.

He also alleged that the NDA government had not done justice for Telangana over last over four years.

Assembly polls in Telangana were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year.

However, the assembly was dissolved earlier this month as per a recommendation of the state cabinet, which necessitated elections ahead of the schedule.

Election Commission must retain credibility of Seshan’s days: Apex Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday said the credibility the Election Commission gained when it was headed by T.N. Seshan should be seen in the conduct of the upcoming Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.

“We want it (credibility) to remain here also (in providing the voters list),” a bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan said while deciding to hold a hearing on the plea seeking voters list to weed out bogus voters.

Madhya Pradesh-based Jaya Thakur has moved the top court seeking directions to the Election Commission.

Pointing to the acts of omission and inaction on the part of the Centre, the Election Commission and the State Election Commission in Madhya Pradesh, the petitioner contended that it would impede a free, fair and unbiased election set for later this year.

The court on Thursday asked the Election Commission to dwell on what it meant by the text mode voters list backed with documents and authorities.

Directing the listing of the matter on October 4, the court said that the credibility the Election Commission acquired during Seshan’s time should continue.

Election Commission sets the stage for Telangana elections

The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday said that the model code of conduct will come into force immediately in states where the legislative assembly has been prematurely dissolved.

The directive comes against the backdrop of then Telangana chief minister, K. Chandrashekar Rao, dissolving the assembly on 6 September and calling for early elections. The term of the House was to end in June 2019.

The Commission said in an official communique to the cabinet secretary and chief secretaries of all states that the caretaker government should merely carry on with day-to-day governance and desist from taking any major policy decisions.

The code will also be applicable to the central government on matters relating to the state.

The EC said the model code will continue till the new Assembly is elected. The direction is in line with a 1994 Supreme Court order that said that neither the caretaker state government nor the central government will announce any schemes or projects with respect to the particular state.