LS polls: Mamata defends decision to give tickets to celebrities

TMC's list of candidates, which contained names of several film and cultural personalities, was criticized by Left parties and Congress, who alleged that the party banked on stars at the expense of grass-roots leaders to see it through the general elections.

   

Mamata Banerjee countered this by saying that they had been nominated because she wanted them ‘to have a say in national politics. The new faces have been inducted to give a truly representative look to the list of candidates’.

   

The West Bengal Chief Minister was talking to reporters at the NSCB Airport before leaving for Delhi where she would address a joint rally tomorrow with anti-graft activist Anna Hazare at Ram Lila Ground to kick start the campaign for TMC candidates.

   

Putting her full faith on Dev, the matinee idol of Bengali cinema who has been fielded from Ghatal in West Midnapore district, she said, "Dev will win. The youth should be given opportunity in politics. No one becomes politician overnight."

   

The Ghatal seat was last won by CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta, she said.

   

"I want more and more young people to come into politics. If the younger generation is not encouraged, then who will manage the affairs (in the country) in the future?" she asked as Dev stood besides her.

   

Besides Dev, Moonmoon Sen, daughter of Suchitra Sen and herself an actress, would contest from Bankura and yesteryear actress Sandhya Roy from Midnapore. The TMC list also has Soumitra Roy, a lead singer of popular Bengali band 'Bhoomi', theatre personality Arpita Ghosh and singer Indranil Sen.

   

Pointing out that the TMC list was an exercise to give representation to people from all walks of life, Banerjee said that the film and cultural personalities could pursue their respective professions while at the same time serving people as ‘future representatives’ in Parliament.

(Agencies)

Source: Online Current News

Arunachal Assembly polls to be held on April 9 along with LS election: EC

The decision of the poll body came days after state governor Lt General (retd) Nirbhay Singh recommended dissolution of the state Assembly on March 6.

   

"Having considered all relevant factors, the Commission has decided that simultaneous election to the state legislative assembly for all 60 assembly constituencies of the state would be held along with the 16th Lok Sabha election," an EC order said on Monday.

   

The three Election Commissioners had met on Friday to discuss the issue.

     

The Arunachal Pradesh Governor had on Thursday announced dissolution of Assembly after accepting the recommendation of the state cabinet which demanded holding of state elections.

    

Lok Sabha elections for the two seats in Arunachal Pradesh will also be held on April 9.

    

The tenure of the 60-member Arunachal Assembly ends on November 4 this year.

   

The notification for the Assembly polls will be announced on March 15 while nominations can be filed till March 22. After scrutiny of papers on March 24, nominations can be withdrawn till March 26.

   

The Commission had on March 5 announced the schedule for elections to the 16th Lok Sabha and Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.

(Agencies)

Source: Latest News

LS polls: 4.5 lakh first timers to exercise their franchise in Assam

"The elections in Assam will be held in three phases. We have 1.87 crore people registered in the electoral rolls who can exercise their voting rights to elect 14 representatives," Assam Chief Electoral Officer Vijayendra told reporters in Guwahati.

    

The number of voters this year constitute 57.25 percent of Assam's total population and it has gone up by 13 lakh from 1.74 crore voters in last Lok Sabha elections in 2009, he said.

    

"We published the latest electoral rolls in January this year and the number has increased by 6.6 lakh from the last rolls in January 2013," the CEO said.

       

When asked about the first time voters, Vijayendra said that 4.5 lakh youngsters in the age group of 18-19 years would vote for the first time in the Lok Sabha elections.

   

Talking about the 'D' (doubtful/disputed/dubious) voters, the CEO said that the number stands at around 1.42 lakh in the state.

    

On Election photo identity card (EPIC), he said that Assam will have its first election with such identification system although it already exists in other parts of the country.

    

On being asked about much could be the total expenditure of the three-phase elections in Assam, Vijayendra said, "It is estimated to be around Rs 82 crore. During the last Assembly elections in Assam in 2011, we had spent around Rs 79 crore."     

Speaking about the polling stations, he said that the elections would be held at 24,275 polling stations across the state, which is an increase of 28.93 percent from 18,828 booths in 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Out of these, 7,200 polling stations have been identified as ‘critical’, he said, adding, "The police are working on other categories like sensitive and hyper sensitive polling booths.”

The entire exercise this time would involve around 1.25 lakh people in the state as compared to one lakh people in 2009.

    

The Lok Sabha elections for 14 seats in Assam would be held on April 7, 12 and 24, while counting will take place along with the entire country on May 16.

    

As per the schedule by the Election Commission of India, five constituencies will go for polling in the first phase, while it will be three and six constituencies respectively during the second and third phases of polling in the state.     

Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur constituencies would go for polling in the first phase.

    

Karimganj, Silchar and Autonomous Hill District in second phase, while the elections for the prestigious Guwahati seat along with Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Mangaldai and Nagaon seats would be held in the last phase.

    

On being asked about his area of concern in conducting a free and fair election in Assam, Vijayendra said, "The issues are - there should not be any intimidation to any section of the society and there should not be any money power to influence the voters."

    

The Election Commission ‘will take all care’ by deploying ‘maximum number of forces and observers’ to have fair elections in Assam, he added.

    

He, however, declined to inform how many security personnel or observers would be deployed in Assam during the polling period.

(Agencies)

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LS polls: Akhilesh confident of winning maximum seats in UP

"Samajwadi Party does not indulge in politics of religion and caste but works towards ensuring that benefits of various government schemes reach the public," Akhilesh said while speaking at an event in Kanpur.

   

On a question by reporters on BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Akhilesh chose not to give a direct reply but said, "SP was secular and hence, we believe the party will win maximum seats in the elections.”

   

He also criticized the media for giving out only negative reports about the government.

(Agencies)

Source: Online Current News