Heena Sharma Blog

Congress President Rahul Gandhi said his party, if it were to form the government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections, would ensure a minimum income of Rs 6,000 per month to 20 per cent poorest of poor households, or 250 million people. While the Narendra Modi government had promised to Rs 6,000 per year to poor farmers, the Congress has promised a matching amount to all poor, particularly the landless. The party, however, scrapped its earlier proposal that envisaged topping up the gap between a poor household’s income to bring it to Rs 12,000. It has now promised a flat Rs 6,000 per month allowance, or Rs 72,000 per year, if a family’s income is below Rs 12,000. Gandhi said a committee of party leaders, which included Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram, had calculated that the basic living income each family needs to survive is Rs 12,000. Calling the scheme “ last attack on poverty ”, Gandhi said the income would be transferred to the bank accounts of women in each ...

The BJP in its first list of 28 candidates for West Bengal has pinned hopes on its veterans and defectors from the ruling Trinamool Congress to take on the Mamata Banerjee's government in the state. Of the 28 candidates, nearly 25 are new faces, with a thrust on active political workers rather than greenhorns from the glamour world. The saffron party, which bagged two Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 elections, is now targeting 23 of the state's 42 constituencies. Unlike the TMC list, which had 18 new faces and a mix of both old timers and greenhorns, hardcore politicians and personalities from the film industry, the BJP has put faith on its own leaders and defectors from other parties. There are four women candidates and one Muslim nominee in the first list. Of the candidates, five had recently defected to the saffron party from the Trinamool Congress and one from the CPI(M). Union minister and BJP MP from Asansol Lok Sabha constuency Babul Supriyo has been renom...

A prominent Sunni cleric has expressed dismay over the Election Commission of India (ECI)'s announcement of polling dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections , claiming that the voting is scheduled for the holy month of Ramzan in May. The Imam of the revered Lucknow-based Aishbagh Eidgah, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, has urged the ECI to ‘respect’ the sentiments of Muslims and shift the dates of polling scheduled for May 6, 12 and 19, since Ramzan, the fasting month of Muslims, was expected to begin on May 6. He claimed the moon sighting for Ramzan would be done on May 5 and if sighted, the month of Ramzan would begin from the following date, that is, May 6. “ The voting dates falling on May 6, 12 and 19 would hence fall during the fasting period and subject Muslims to ‘extraordinary’ hardships,” he said in a statement here last night. The Maulana, who is a respected Muslim religious leader in the country, has suggested the ECI to either pre-pone the elections ...

A narrowing gender-gap in voter turnout illustrates the important role women, as a constituency, will play in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections . The 2014 Lok Sabha elections were a high point for female voter participation, with a historic narrowing of the gender-gap in voter turnout becoming evident. The male voter turnout at 67.09 per cent stood at just 1.79 percentage points above the female voter turnout at 65.30 per cent. This was the narrowest difference recorded between the two figures till date for general elections since 1967 (see table below). On International Women's Day 2019, it would be pertinent to look at data and statistics provided by the Election Commission of India for past general elections to see how women voters have fared and their increasing influence in Indian politics. Some key observations can be made from the above figures. In 2004, the difference between male and female voter turnout stood at 8.36 percentage points. In 2009, it stood at 4.4...

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 ...