Heena Sharma Blog

The Election Commission will announce schedule for the Jharkhand Assembly polls on Friday evening, an official statement said. The term of the 81-seat Jharkhand Assembly ends on January 5 next year. There were speculations that the EC would announce schedule for the Delhi Assembly elections along with that of the Jharkhand, but the EC invite only refers to poll schedule for the eastern state. Article Source -> Business Standard

Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami-led AIADMK government can breathe a sigh of relief as his party won eight seats and leading in one, out of the 22 assembly seats in the by-polls, which could help it survive with a majority on the floor even though Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won 11 seats and was leading in two seats. This was the trend as of 8.30 a.m. on Friday, according to Election Commission of India. While this is a good news for the ruling faction, the disappointment was the poor performance of the party and its alliance partners including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha election in the state. It was a clear sweep by DMK-Congress alliance which was leading in Lok Sabha seats. AIADMK won one Lok Sabha seats, while DMK and its alliance bagged the rest. DMK alone won 23 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Tamil Nadu bypolls and Lok Sabha elections in 2019 are closely watched for two reasons. All the main parties – AIADMK, DMK, AMMA and MNM -- went for ele...

Of the candidates contesting the first phase of Lok Sabha elections , 213 (17%) have declared they are facing criminal cases, of which 146 (12%) face serious criminal charges, as per an analysis of candidates’ affidavits by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). About a third (32%) or 401 of 1,266 candidates whose affidavits were studied have declared assets worth Rs 1 crore or more. Among the major parties, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) are notable for having all (25 from TDP and 17 from TRS) ‘crorepati’ candidates. Nearly half of all candidates have declared they have a graduate degree or above, while 1.5% have declared they are just literate, and 5.2% that they are illiterate. About a third of candidates are aged between 25 and 40 years, while more than half are between 41 and 60 years. The first phase of polling began on April 11, 2019. ADR studied the affidavits of 1,266 of the 1,279 candidates who are contesting during this ...

Did Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi break election rules by addressing the nation on an anti-satellite test recently? Is it right to have a channel dedicated to the leader? Can the country's armed forces be called "Modi's soldiers"? Ahead of a general election that starts next week, the Election Commission of India (ECI) says it is swamped with hundreds of thousands of such questions and complaints of alleged violation of election rules, known as the model code of conduct. Many are coming via ever expanding social media. Opposition parties have accused the ECI of being biased towards the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which they say is giving Modi an unfair advantage in the election. There is even a threat to jail commission officials if Modi is ousted. The BJP denies getting any special treatment from the ECI. The ECI - an autonomous constitutional body tasked with the smooth conduct of the world's biggest democratic exercise with as many ...

Former international cricketer Gautam Gambhir Friday joined the BJP and is expected to be fielded by the party in the Lok Sabha polls from one of the seats in the national capital. The former opening batsman joined the party here in the presence of Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad. Gambhir played a key role in India's triumph in the 2011 World Cup and the 2007 T-20 World Cup. He was recently conferred upon the Padma Shri award. BJP sources said Gambhir may be fielded from the New Delhi constituency, currently represented by the party's Meenakshi Lekhi. A final decision is yet to be taken though, they added. Article Source -> Business Standard

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mobilising itself on social media and on the ground by invoking the chowkidar (watchman) tag, the move has both political and business underpinnings. For one, private security companies -– a booming sector in India -- have donated varying amounts of money to the BJP. A look at the contribution reports of political parties shows that while real estate companies donated both to BJP and Congress, private security sector donations were unique to the BJP. In 2017-18 at least seven private security companies donated to a sum of almost Rs 61 lakh to the party. The biggest donor among these was Security & Intelligence Service (SIS) – one India’s biggest private security companies. It donated Rs 50 lakh to BJP in 2017-18. There were other small security companies which donated as little as Rs 21,000 to the saffron party. Although donations by private security companies are unique to BJP, they are a drop in the ocean of Rs 438 crore donations re...

emale voters hold the potential to be game-changers by playing a significant role in ensuring more gender-inclusive laws and policies, making the year 2019 India's " year of women ", Chair of the Hinduja Bank, Switzerland, Hinduja SP Shanu said as the country readies for its upcoming crucial national elections. Shanu said that as India heads to the polls this spring, it is important to note that more women are heading to the ballot than ever before, with voter turnout among women having been higher in several state elections in the country. "More female voters are additionally likely to lead to more gender-inclusive laws and policies. Gender awareness not only transforms how candidates campaign, but also opens doors for more female candidates in the running, and greater opportunities for female leverage within national decision-making bodies," Shanu, the Chair of the Hinduja Foundation US, said in an opinion piece given to PTI. Shanu pointed out that ...

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will formally dispatch the gathering's survey battle in Kerala on Thursday when he will address an enormous rally of specialists at Kozhikode on March 14. Gandhi will touch base here tonight after his projects in Nagercoil and Kanyakumari in neighboring Tamil Nadu . He has no official projects in the state Wednesday and in the wake of coming to here, would load up an uncommon trip to Kochi and go through the night at a visitor house in Thrissur, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran said. The Congress boss would go to a progression of projects on March 14, starting with the "anglers' parliament" at Triprayar in Thrissur. Afterward, he would travel to Kannur, where he would meet the group of killed Youth Congress pioneer Shuhaib at the air terminal there. He would leave for Kasargod and meet the groups of Kripesh and Sarathlal, the adolescent congress activists, who were supposedly slaughtered by the CPI(M) as of l...

With the model code of conduct coming into force for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls , Uttar Pradesh Police, touted as the world’s largest single command armed police force, had advised cops to exercise restraint over social media activities. UP Director General of Police (DGP) O P Singh has underlined the uniformed cops ought not to be seen or perceived as favouring a particular political party or candidate through their social media updates. In the poll related advisory issued last evening, the cops have been asked not to accept any gift from any political party or candidate in light of the model code of conduct. Besides, the policemen have been directed to desist from posting politically coloured social media updates as well for the sake of being impartial and non-partisan during the polls. The state cops have also been advised against indulging in harassment of political functionaries at the behest of rival political party or leader, while ensuring that the policemen do not, t...

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram Monday termed the PM-KISAN scheme as "cash for votes" and said it was BJP's "desperate attempt" to placate debt-ridden farmers with "crumbs" of Rs 17 per day per family. The former finance minister also said the scheme showed that the BJP was living by the "truth that desperate times require desperate measures". The Rs 75,000 crore scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gorakhpur on Sunday by transferring the first instalment of Rs 2,000 each to over one crore farmers. The scheme was announced in this year's Interim budget whereby the central government announced that it will provide Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments to 12 crore small and marginal farmers holding cultivable land up to up to two hectares. "PM launches ' Cash for Votes ' scheme. After driving farmers into debt and acute distress, the BJP is desperately trying to placate them with crumbs of ...