Heena Sharma Blog

As part of the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in the country, polling began on Thursday morning in 38 Parliamentary Constituencies in Tamil Nadu. Sources said the polling process was delayed by at least one hour in a few booths in Tamil Nadu owing to technical glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines. Polling for Parliamentary Constituencies and by-poll for 18 Assembly Constituencies are being held in Tamil Nadu simultaneously. Voting was delayed in various constituencies including Choolaimedu, Guindy, Ashok Nagar, and Virugambakkam among others in Chennai, according to sources. In some booths in Chennai, voters who appeared without booth slips were not allowed to enter, which escalated tension. Polling for the two elections is otherwise going on as normal, with many political leaders, candidates and eminent personalities casting their votes in the morning. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan, and former Union Finance

Some policemen on election duty here were served meals in packets labelled " Namo Foods ", following which officials clarified that those were procured from Namo Food Shop and not from any political party. The food packets, brought in the boot of a hatchback car, were distributed around 9.30 am among personnel deployed in Sector 15A here, the officials said. "Misinformation is being spread that some policemen have been distributed food from a political party. This is absolutely wrong. At local level, some food packets were procured from Namo Food Shop and not from any political party," Senior Superintendent of Police, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Vaibhav Krishna said. "Some people are spreading wrong and politically motivated rumour. There is no official order to procure food from any particular food outlet," he said, and appealed to people not to pay heed to rumours being spread via social media. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

Two opinion polls in lead up to the Lok Sabha elections 2019 predict that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will come back to power, while one says the ruling alliance will fall five seats short of the magic number of 272. Three days ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, a survey by Time Now- VMR shows that the NDA will come back to power with 279 seats. It projects 149 seats for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and 115 for other parties and candidates. The BJP and its allies are expected to win 267 of the 543 parliament seats at stake, the CVoter polling agency said, just five short of the halfway mark required to rule. The latest estimate is down sharply from the alliance’s current tally of 330 seats secured when Modi swept to power in 2014, promising to transform India. “ In the immediate aftermath of the Balakot strikes the percentage of those strongly satisfied with the government rose to a recent all-time high of 52 per cent,”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government had taken measures to set up a ' chowkidar ' in space and asked people to vote for a government that can take concrete decisions and not just raise slogans. Launching his campaign in eastern India with a rally in Jeypore area of Odisha's Koraput district, the prime minister said the NDA government wouldn't have been able to do any development work in the country without the support of the people. He sought blessings from his supporters for the 2019 lok Sabha elections and asserted that the NDA government has left no stone unturned to bring about development in the state. "The NDA government has been working hard to develop road and rail infrastructure in the state. There is no dearth of funds when it comes to development work in the country. "In the last five years, the government has been able to build homes for eight lakh families, light up 3,000 houses and provide gas connections to 40

The Congress on Friday fielded actress Urmila Matondkar from Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency two days after she joined the party. Matondkar had joined the Congress after meeting Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday and had later said that she was "here to stay". "The Congress central election committee has approved the candidature of Urmila Matondkar as party candidate to contest the ensuing general elections from Mumbai North parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra," a party statement said. After joining the party, Matondkar had said she felt the need to join the Congress party as the freedom to express was under attack in the country and there are numerous examples in this regard in the last five years. She had said the Congress party has participated in the freedom struggle and it stood for freedom. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

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

The Election Commission (EC) of India on March 10 announced the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 schedule. Polling will take place in seven phases from April 11 to May 19. With elections around the corner, you might like to check if your name figures in the voters list and verify your voter information, such as name, father’s name, address, constituency, booth and polling station. This information can be checked online on a computer or on a mobile phone. In case of information mismatch, you can also raise a request for changes from the comfort of your home. Here are the steps for checking voter information online: On a computer Step 1: Open your internet browser and go to the National Voters’ Services Portal’s electoral search page ( https://electoralsearch.in/ ). Step 2: On the welcome page, the portal shows the facilities that you can avail of using the portal. These include searching your name in the National Electoral Roll. Click on the continue button at the bottom to go to