Politics

Gangtok, April 30: Long queues were seen outside polling booths in Sikkim, where elections were underway Thursday for the one Lok Sabha and 32 assembly constituencies.

The situation was peaceful with no reports of any untoward incidents, police said.

There were more women than men in the queues which started forming even before the polling centres opened at 7 a.m. Young voters, many of them exercising their franchise for the first time, were also seen lining up with great enthusiasm.

Ahmedabad, April 30: About 20 percent of Gujarat’s voters exercised their franchise in the first three hours of polling in all 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state Thursday, poll officials said.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi cast his ballot at 9 a.m. at a booth in Ranip, under the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial aspirant L.K. Advani is the party candidate from Gandhinagar.

Ahmedabad, April 30: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in charge of recording turnout at booth number 124 of Amraiwadi locality in Maninagar constituency during the Lok Sabha polls underway Thursday, a party source said.

As per tradition, BJP workers are put on poll duty at various booths to record the turnout of voters and report to their seniors after voting ends.

Modi has been asked to monitor booth number 124 that serves two housing societies at Amraiwadi. The area falls under his assembly constituency Maninagar.

Gandhinagar, April 30: BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani today sought a fixed term for Lok Sabha and state Assemblies and wanted voting to be made compulsory with elections to be scheduled in the month of February.

“I suggest that political parties and the Election Commission should think over whether we can change the Constitution for a fixed tenure for Lok Sabha and Assemblies,” 81-year-old Advani said after casting his vote here.

“We are following the UK pattern which does not suit us and we should change it,” he told reporters.

Kannur, March 29: The battle for the Kannur Lok Sabha seat will be an acid test for the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) as the Congress is pulling out all stops to capture the constituency after a gap of 10 years.

The Congress has fielded ‘the best possible candidate’ there, sitting Kannur assembly legislator and 60-year-old former minister K. Sudhakaran, a battle scarred veteran who completed a hat-trick of victories in the 2006 assembly polls from here.

Mumbai, March 27: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing leader Poonam Mahajan-Rao, daughter of late Pramod Mahajan, Friday met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, then said there was ‘nothing political’ about the meeting.

After the meeting, Poonam denied rumours that she was quitting the BJP and joining the MNS.

‘I continue to remain in the BJP,’ she said.

Mahajan was hopeful of securing the BJP ticket from Mumbai North-East constituency in the ensuring Lok Sabha polls but the nomination was given to Kirit Somaiya.

New Delhi, March 27: The law would take its own course in the case of Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, who quit Friday after her bail plea was rejected for her role in the 2002 sectarian violence, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said.

‘Once the decision has come from the Gujarat High Court, the party asked her to resign. She resigned. Rest, the law will take its own course,’ party spokesperson Balbir Punj told reporters here.

New Delhi, March 27: The Delhi High Court Friday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of Varun Gandhi after the lawyer for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate charged with making communal speeches withdrew the petition.

The lawyer said he was withdrawing the petition since the Allahabad High Court had already dismissed Varun Gandhi’s plea to quash the first information report (FIR) filed by the police in Pilbhit, the Uttar Pradesh constituency from which he is contesting in the April-May Lok Sabha poll.

New Delhi: Have an election related query and don’t know whom to ask? Simply call the toll free number 47617500 and get an answer by one of the young employees of the Delhi election commission’s round-the-clock call centre. Answering more than 500 calls every day, the call centre, which has been functioning since March 15, is the election commission’s effort to attract people to vote and make the seemingly cumbersome process of voter registration easier by answering all their queries.

Director General of Police Kuldeep Khuda said after a brief ‘deceptive lull’, Pakistan has restarted pushing infiltrators into the state.

Security forces ‘have been asked to be on highest alert on the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border’ after reports that militants are grouping to infiltrate to this side, Khuda told IANS in an interview.

He said Pakistan continued to support militancy and push terrorists into Kashmir though there had been a drop in infiltration and ‘terrorist activities after the Nov 26 Mumbai attacks’.

New Delhi, March 25: It is aimed at giving the blind voter dignity and secrecy. For the first time, Braille-facilitated electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being introduced on a large scale for the 15th Lok Sabha polls.

‘A total of 1.05 million EVMs are being used, of which 450,000 are Braille-enabled. These EVMs are spread across the country in many states,’ an Election Commission official told IANS.

He said earlier the rule was that one person would accompany the blind voter. ‘Now, the blind persons can cast their vote without any help.’

Hyderabad, March 01: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said here the party had no objection to carving out a separate state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh but was trying to evolve consensus on the issue. Addressing a massive public meeting, she merely reiterated the party’s stand on the issue, leaving Telangana supporters disappointed.

New Delhi, February 24: The National Democratic Alliance, if elected to power, would pursue a “muscular foreign policy” that would preserve the country’s autonomy and secure its interests in the neighbourhood, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani said here on Monday.

Mr. Advani was summing up the party’s view after a meeting with experts on foreign policy issues at his residence.

Mumbai, February 24: Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray refused to meet BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani here on Tuesday, sources said.

Advani is in Mumbai for a party function.

Sources also said that Advani wanted to meet Thackeray, but was refused a meeting with the Shiv Sena head

–Agencies

New Delhi, February 25: With elections around the corner, Congress President Sonia Gandhi Wednesday said there will be no problem within the party if factionalism ended.

“If factionalism comes to an end, there is no problem at all,” she said addressing party MPs in the last meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party of the 14th Lok Sabha, Union Minister Kapil Sibal said.

Gandhi said the party ran a coalition government successfully and asked the party MPs to spread the message of achievements of the government all across the country.

New Delhi, February 16: Presenting the Interim Budget in the Parliament, acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the economy had maintained a growth between 7%-8% and per capita income had grown by 7.4% in the last 4 yrs. He also said that government was within striking distance of fiscal correction. He people of India had voted for change. He referred to the CMP of the UPA which he said was created to bring about this change.

“India’s identity in the world is that people of various religions and communities live here in harmony… Our neighbours want to weaken our strength and destroy unity and brotherhood. They are not aware that we can give a befitting reply,” Gandhi said addressing a public rally here.

Srinagar, January 17: Pakistan is not an enemy of India but there are elements in that country which do not want normal bilateral relations, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said.

“We expect a response from Pakistan in terms of fulfilling the commitment of working together with us to ensure that their soil is not used for terrorism,” Abdullah, who was here as the chief guest at Business India Businessman of the Year Award, said.

“I recognise that Pakistan is not an enemy of India. There are elements within Pakistan that do not want normal relations with India,” he said.