National
Two crore voters to decide fate of 223 candidates for Haryana’s 10 seats on May 25
Chandigarh, May 24 (IANS) Nearly two crore voters, comprising 94 lakh women, in BJP-ruled Haryana on May 25 will decide the fate of 223 candidates, including two Union ministers, Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar, after weeks of heated campaign for 10 parliamentary seats in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
The other heavyweights in the fray include Deepender Hooda and former Union minister Kumari Selja, both from Congress and two-time chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar of the BJP are among the contestants.
Three-time Hooda is on the ballot in the family Jat-dominated bastion Rohtak, while four-time MP Selja is trying her luck in Sirsa (reserved), the seat she twice represented in the Lok Sabha and Khattar, an RSS man with a clean image, is ensuring win in his maiden Lok Sabha battle in Karnal.
BJP’s Naveen Jindal (54) is the youngest son of the richest woman in India, Savitri Jindal. Switched from the Congress to the BJP in March, he’s in the fray from Kurukshetra, the seat he represented between 2004 and 2014.
Jindal will take on AAP candidate and former Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta. The AAP is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana in an alliance with Congress and has been given Kurukshetra.
Likewise, BJP has fielded Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa, the seat he represented as a Congress MP from 2009 to 2014. Before switching to the BJP in January, he was with the Aam Aadmi Party.
The other candidates on the list are four-time MP Arvind Sharma, a surgeon by profession, who is in the fray from Rohtak the BJP nominee.
The state is also witnessing a fratricidal battle within the clan of one of Haryana’s tallest Jat leaders and former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal, whose founded regional party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), and its offshoot outfit Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) are floundering.
Ranjit Singh, who is Devi Lal’s youngest son, and Singh’s two daughters-in-law of his eldest brother and five-time chief minister O.P. Chautala face one another in the dynastic supremacy feud from Hisar seat.
While Ranjit Singh, a Cabinet minister in the state government, is the BJP nominee, his two ‘bahus’ — Naina Chautala and Sunaina Chautala are the JJP and the INLD candidates, respectively.
While Naina is the mother of former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and wife of Ajay Chautala, who is Devi Lal’s grandson, Sunaina is the wife of Ravi Chautala, who is a son of INLD patriarch O.P. Chautala’s elder brother Pratap Chautala.
Besides the Lok Sabha polls, there is a by-poll for the Karnal assembly seat, the seat vacated by Khattar, where Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, the outgoing MP in the Lok Sabha from Kurukshetra, is among the nine candidates in the fray. Saini had replaced Khattar as the chief minister in March.
Amidst the blistering heatwave, the polling for the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and the lone assembly seat will be held from 7 am to 6 pm in the sixth round of the seven-phase elections. Votes will be counted on June 4.
The main Opposition Congress is banking on “anti-incumbency” against BJP’s 10-year rule in the state, besides anger among Jats, rising crime graph and unemployment, while the BJP is banking on “Modi Magic” to retain all parliamentary seats.
Ground reports indicate a neck-and-neck contest between the BJP and the Congress.
Regional outfits the INLD and the JJP, bank heavily on its traditional Jat votes, comprising 28 per cent of the state’s population, are contesting on seven and 10 seats, respectively. The BSP has fielded candidates for nine seats.
This time, to save their “sinking ships” both the INLD and the JJP face a tough contest from the Congress, led by prominent Jat leader and two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda. However, the BJP banks on non-Jat upper caste politics, despite getting 50 per cent of Jat votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Chief Minister Saini belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, which comprises 21 per cent of the state’s electorate.
It has renominated two sitting OBC MPs — Krishan Pal Gurjar and Rao Inderjeet Singh — from Faridabad and Gurugram, respectively.
Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal told IANS that 19,812 polling stations have been set up in the state.
In addition, 219 temporary polling stations have also been set up. Extra arrangements have been made at all polling stations keeping in mind the heatwave.
Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur said over 35,000 police personnel, 112 companies of paramilitary forces and over 24,000 home guards would be deployed for the elections.
Additionally, 300 checkpoints will be established at intra-state and inter-state borders.
The state will have 10,343 polling locations. Among these, 1,362 locations with 3,033 booths have been identified as critical and 51 booths as vulnerable, necessitating additional police presence.
There will be 418 flying squads, 415 static surveillance teams, and 34 quick response teams. A total of 1,039 patrolling parties will ensure compliance with law and order and the model code of conduct, operating round-the-clock, he added.
In 2019, the BJP won all 10 constituencies, with a vote share of 58 per cent, improving its tally from 2014 when it managed to win seven out of the eight constituencies it had contested.
However, BJP’s vote share slipped to 22 per cent in the assembly polls in October 2019.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at gulatiians@gmail.com)
–IANS
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National
RSSB to conduct some exams through CBT-cum-OMR mode
Jaipur, July 4 (IANS) The Rajasthan Staff Selection Board (RSSB) has said that some upcoming examinations will be conducted through the CBT-cum-OMR mode, in which questions will be displayed on a computer screen while the candidate will have to answer them on an offline OMR sheet.
The RSSB in this regard issued guidelines on Wednesday.
According to guidelines, only one question will be displayed on the computer screen at a time.
The remaining process in the CBT-cum-OMR mode exam would be the same as it is for an offline exam.
The candidate will have to sign the attendance sheet in the presence of the invigilator, the guidelines stated.
–IANS
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National
Mohan Yadav-led MP govt presents its maiden budget of Rs 3.65 lakh crore
Bhopal, July 3 (IANS) The Mohan Yadav-led Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday presented its first budget with an outlay of Rs 3.65 lakh crore for the financial year 2024-25 during the ongoing Monsoon Session of the Assembly.
Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Jagdish Devda presented the Annual Budget in the Assembly amid relentless sloganeering by the Opposition.
The budget made it clear that the old public beneficiary schemes like ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’ introduced during the previous (ex-CM) Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government would continue.
The government has proposed a budget of Rs 26,560 crore.
Women who used to receive monetary assistance of Rs 1,250 per month would continue to receive a similar amount.
The Mohan Yadav-led government has allocated Rs 10,000 crore for the development of expressways, including Atal Pragati Path, Narmada Pragati Path, Vindhya Expressway, Malwa-Nimad Vikas Path, Bundelkhand Vikas Path and Madhya Bharat Vikas Path.
The government has set aside Rs 11,292 crore for the Home Department, while the Education and Health departments got Rs 22,600 crore and 21,144 crore, respectively.
The state government plans to recruit over 75,000 youth in the Madhya Pradesh Police this financial year.
The government would set up three medical universities in the state.
Besides, a provision of Rs 26,560 crore has been made for the women and child development department for 2024-25, which is 81 per cent more than the Budget Estimate of the year 2023-24, Finance Minister Devda said while presenting the Budget.
The minister said the state government has also made a provision of Rs 500 crore for ‘Simhastha’ to be held in 2028. This will lead to development work in Ujjain and 10 surrounding districts.
‘CM Rise Schools’, another project launched by former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was given Rs 667 crore. The project is aimed at improving education standards in Madhya Pradesh and more than 900 schools are proposed to be open.
Commenting on the first annual budget of his government, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said: “This budget will take the state forward. The overall development will take place and the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of seeing MP as a developed state will be accomplished.”
The Opposition, however, said that before the Assembly elections, BJP had given many guarantees to residents of Madhya Pradesh but not a single one had been included in this budget.
–IANS
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National
Election Commission sends notice to Engineer Rashid on poll expenditure
Srinagar, July 3 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday issued a notice to incarcerated Lok Sabha MP Engineer Rashid over disparity in his poll expenditure statement.
Rashid, who is lodged in jail since 2019 after being charged by the NIA in a terror-funding case, defeated former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat as an Independent candidate by over 2 lakh votes in the recent elections.
The ECI notice was served by the deputy district election officer in Baramulla, highlighting the expenditure register submitted by Rashid which showed Rs 2.10 lakh while the actual amount recorded in the shadow register maintained by observers shows Rs 13.78 lakh.
The notice directed Rashid or his representative to appear before the district expenditure monitoring committee within two days to address the discrepancy and ensure timely submission of the expenditure report to the ECI.
The notice said that failure to comply with election expense reporting requirements could lead to disqualification under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, for a period of three years.
Doubts had been raised during the Lok Sabha elections as to how Rashid’s liabilities were reduced significantly while his assets increased over the past five years despite being lodged in jail.
According to the 2024 poll affidavit, the former MLA’s assets were valued at Rs 1.55, crore compared to Rs 80 lakh in 2019, including a 41,072 sq ft non-agriculture land in his hometown Langate and a house in Srinagar worth Rs 90 lakh.
A science graduate with a diploma in civil engineering, Rashid also declared Rs 11.31 lakh home loan and Rs 3.11 lakh Kisan Credit Card loan as liabilities.
Five years back, he had declared a residential house in the posh Jawahar Nagar locality in Srinagar purchased in 2017 as his only asset, and also stated that he had a liability of Rs 60 lakh towards a home loan from a bank.
Rashid, who won the Assembly polls from Langate in Kupwara district in 2008 and 2014, is presently lodged in Tihar jail in connection with a case being probed by the NIA alleging his involvement in money laundering linked to terror funding.
The Patiala House Court in Delhi has granted him parole for two hours on July 5 for taking oath as a Member of Parliament.
–IANS
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National
Maha Congress calls for all efforts for return of MVA in October Assembly elections
Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) Top Congress leaders on Wednesday gave a call for the ouster of Maharashtra’s MahaYuti government and a return of the Maha Vikas Aghadi regime in the October Assembly elections.
AICC General Secretary Ramesh Chennithala and state unit President Nana Patole said that Congress is a party which takes along all sections of society because of which the MVA notched a resounding victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, bagging 31 of the 48 seats in the state.
“Even in the upcoming October Assembly polls, we will make all efforts to ensure that all sections of society get proper representation. All party workers must work with the same zeal right from the taluka level to the polling booth levels and ensure the corrupt MahaYuti regime is weeded out,” Chennithala said.
Patole said that though the LS elections are over, the political struggle continues with the next target being the Assembly polls for which all must work unitedly and hoist the victory flag over the Mantralaya.
“Various special cells and departments of the state Congress played a commendable role in the party’s huge victory in the Lok Sabha polls. Our activists went door-to-door in all villages to spread the Congress’ message of 5 Nyays and 25 Guarantees which created a huge impact and led to the success,” he added.
Chennithala and Patole were accorded a grand felicitation at a function held by the state Congress in Mumbai where speakers lauded their leadership role that helped reap a rich harvest of seats for the MVA in the LS polls.
They also slammed various policies of the MahaYuti of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party-Nationalist Congress Party, and how they spin fake narratives, make false promises, and failed to implement them, leaving the masses high and dry without taking any responsibility, while dividing the society.
The Congress SC-ST-OBC and Minority Department’s National Coordinator K. Raju, SC Department chief Rajesh Lilhotia, state Minority Department chief Wajahat Mirza, besides Pragya Waghmare, Nana Gawande, Pramod More, Pratibha Shinde, and others were present and honoured for the party work in the elections.
–IANS
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National
LS Speaker changes rule to bar MPs from any additional remarks during oath
New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has amended parliamentary rules to restrict newly elected MPs from using any additional words or remarks before or after taking the oath or affirmation of membership.
The Speaker has made an amendment to Rule 389 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha (Seventeenth Edition).
According to the amendment, a “member shall make and subscribe oath or affirmation, as the case may be, in accordance with the form set out for the purpose, in the Third Schedule to the Constitution of India and shall not use any word or expression or make any remark as a prefix or suffix to the form of oath or affirmation.”
The amendment comes amid controversy over some MPs raising slogans like “Jai Palestine”, “Jai Hindu Rashtra” while taking oath.
Recently, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi raised slogans of ‘Jai Bhim, Jai Mim, Jai Telangana and ‘Jai Palestine’ in the House after taking oath as an MP. Apart from Owaisi, some other MPs were also seen raising slogans before or after taking oath.
–IANS
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