Month: May 2019

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday congratulated Narendra Modi on his “electoral victory” and said he looked forward to working with the Indian leader for peace. progress and prosperity in South Asia.

With BJP-led NDA poised to secure a comfortable majority in Lok Sabha, Khan tweeted, “I congratulate Prime Minister Modi on the electoral victory of BJP and allies. Look forward to working with him for peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia.”

Joining a string of other world leaders, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan made a congratulatory phone call to Modi.

Ahead of the polls, Khan had said that there might be a better chance of peace talks with India if PM Modi wins the elections.

He reportedly said that if the next Indian government were to be led by the Congress party, it might be too scared to seek a settlement with Pakistan over Kashmir, fearing a backlash from the right wing.

Tensions between India and Pakistan had soared after the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, killing 40 CRPF soldiers. The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed.

On February 26, India launched an air strike on terror camps in Pakistan’s Balakot.

The next day, Pakistan Air Force planes had tried to attack Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir, leading to a dogfight. A Mig 21 aircraft flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman had shot down a Pakistan F16 during the aerial confrontation.

India had lost the MiG-21 Bison plane and Varthaman was captured by the Pakistan Army after he bailed out and landed on the other side of the border. He was released by Pakistan on March 1.

In a major diplomatic victory for India, JeM chief Masood Azhar was recently declared as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council.
(ANI)

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The ruling BJP appeared to be storming back to power with a comfortable majority on its own for the second consecutive time and is set to cross the 300-mark along with its allies in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP whose campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on muscular nationalism and a strident anti-Congress plank was leading in 292 seats, 20 seats more than the halfway mark of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Its allies Shiv Sena (20), JD-U (16) and Lok Janshakti Party (6) were also doing well in Maharashtra and Bihar.

On the other side, the main challenger Congress was way behind BJP leading in only 51 seats. Its ally DMK has put up a good show leading in 22 of the 30 seats in Tamil Nadu. The Congress was leading in eight of the nine seats it contested in the state. The party was also doing well in Kerala where it was leading in 15 out of total 20 parliamentary seats.

Prime Minister Modi was leading comfortably in Varanasi where he is seeking a second term while UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi led in Raebareli. Congress President Rahul Gandhi was trailing behind Union Minister Smriti Irani in Amethi while leading in his second seat in Wayanad in Kerala.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh was leading in Lucknow and BJP President Amit Shah led in Gandhinagar.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav was leading in Azamgarh while his father Mulayam Singh Yadav was leading in Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh. Senior SP leader Azam Khan was leading in Rampur.

Union Minister Maneka Gandhi was trailing in Sultanpur, whereas her son Varun Gandhi was leading from Pilibhit constituency in UP.

BJP’s ride back to power was also enabled by its spectacular show in West Bengal where it was leading in 15 of the 42 seats. The ruling Trinamool Congress has suffered a setback leading only in 25 seats. It has 34 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha.

The BJP also was set to sweep in Bihar where the party and its ally JD(U) were ahead in 16 seats each and the other ally LJP was leading in six seats.

Karnataka also was going the BJP way where it was leading in 23 of the 28 seats, pushing the ruling Congress-JDS behind.

Apart from fresh gains, the BJP put up a sterling show in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where it had lost the Assembly polls five months ago, bettered its showing in Maharashtra compared to 2014 and retaining its hold in states like Gujarat and Haryana.

In the battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, it appeared to have conceded some ground to the SP-BSP-RLD combine. Out of the 80 seats for which trends were available, the BJP was ahead in 58, the BSP 11, SP 8 and Congress, Apna Dal and Apna (S) were leading in one seat each. In the last elections, the BJP had won 71 seats and its ally Apna Dal 2.

In the national capital of Delhi, the BJP was ahead in all the seven seats which it had won in the last elections.

In the 2014 general elections, the BJP had won 282 seats, 10 more the halfway mark, on its own and crossed the 300-mark with its allies.

If the trends convert into seats, this would be the first time in more than 40 years in India, a party with a majority on its own will be coming back to power with a similar showing. (ANI)

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The Congress on Wednesday slammed the Election Commission for rejecting the opposition demand for 100% counting of VVPATs if even one of them did not match with the selected sample and said the EC has lost credibility.

Reacting to the EC decision, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporoters that the poll body’s decision has not been formally communicated to them and that they were not hopeful of getting any detailed reason from for the rejection of their demand.

He said Election Commission means “Eradicated Credibility” and EVMs have become “Electronic Victory Machines” for BJP.

“Our demands were rejected by the EC and we have not been formally communicated. In the 15-20 orders of rejection that we have got not more than 4 lines have been used to give explanation or reason. We are also not hopeful of getting any reason from the Election Commission,” said Singhvi.

“You are mandatorily obliged to count 5 VVPATs-EVMs in one assembly segment. We said it should be done at the beginning and not at the end of the counting process. There is no rocket science in it, logically it should be done at the beginning and not after 5, 7, 10, 14 rounds of counting. When all the results are informally known, then sample check makes no purpose,” said Singhvi.

“Twenty three parties represent 75 per cent of the electorate. Even if EC disagrees with our demand they should have accepted it for confidence building and maintaining their credibility,” he said.

He said that the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has become ” Modi Advertisement Conduct” and Election Commission has lost its credibility.

“Is it because ‘Chunav Achar Sanhita’ has become ‘Modi Prachar Sanhita’? Won’t you do anything for the credibility of EVMs? Will you make EVMs ‘Electronic Victory Machines’ for BJP? Is it because EC stands for ‘Enfeebled Commission’, ‘Eradicated/Eliminated’ Credibility’?” he asked.

“I read out “VVPAT slips have been counted due to either non-display of result from the control unit or under rule 56 D of conduct of polls rule or whatsoever ‘the reason shan’t be included in draw of lots for mandatory verification of VVPAT slips’.What’s the reason?” he added.

“56D says it applies at the instance of a candidate who demands a check and should not apply for VVPAT-EVM tally. We are left to speculate why EC has done this,” he said.

The Election Commission on Wednesday rejected the demand of opposition parties which sought to tally of VVPAT slips for an entire assembly segment if even one of the five samples does not match with votes polled in EVMs.The current provisions say five randomly-selected EVMs will be verified in each assembly segment with the VVPAT slips

The decision comes a day after leaders of 22 opposition parties, led by TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, met EC officials and alleged discrepancies in EVM machines. They also demanded that the EVM-VVPAT tally should be done at the beginning of the process of counting.(ANI)

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The Election Commission of India on Tuesday quashed allegations of discrepancies in handling and storage of EVMs in some districts of Uttar Pradesh, terming the claims baseless.

In Ghazipur parliamentary constituency, ECI said that there were issues regarding “candidates keeping a watch on polled EVM strong rooms “, which was resolved by conveying the poll commission’s instructions.

Reiterating the same, Ghazipur District Magistrate said that some candidates wanted more than the permissible number of people to keep watch on strong rooms, which was denied, thus leading to baseless allegations.

“The reports that candidates are being prohibited from keeping watch on EVM strong room are untrue. We are issuing passes to candidates to assign one of their representatives at vantage points near EVM strong rooms. Some candidates wanted more number of representatives to be near the strong room, permission for which was denied keeping in view the security of the area,” K Balaji, DM, Ghazipur told ANI.

In Jhansi, ECI refuted questions being raised on storage of EVMs and said that the machines are stored in proper security by following protocol, in the presence of candidates.

Shiv Sahay Awasthi, District Election Officer, Jhansi, said, “Some polling parties arrived late, however, all EVMs were put in place in the strong room by 7 am. The strong room has been sealed in presence of general observers and candidates under CCTV surveillance.”

ECI also denied any irregularities in Chandauli and Domariaganj.

“In Chandauli frivolous allegation was made by some people. In Domariaganj agitation was unnecessary. They (protestors) were convinced by DM and SP. The matter is resolved. EVMs are safe and stored as per protocol”, ECI said in a statement.

ECI also reiterated that all polled EVMS and VVPATs were sealed properly in front of the candidates and added that the process was video-graphed.

Congress party candidate from Mirzapur, Lalitesh Pati Tripathi has written to the observer of the Lok Sabha constituency requesting him to remove the reserve EVMs, kept at the counting venue, in front of political parties’ candidate and their representatives, in front of cameras.

(ANI)

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The Union Council of Ministers met on Tuesday at the BJP headquarters where the ministers thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for leading the BJP to a possible victory in the Lok Sabha elections.

The meeting was attended by ministers including those from the NDA constituents.

BJP national president Amit Shah, who called the meeting of ministers, congratulated “Team Modi Sarkar” for the “remarkable achievements” in the last five years.

Shah also asked the council of ministers to keep the momentum going for a New India under the leadership of Modi.

“I congratulate Team Modi Sarkar for their hard work and remarkable achievements in the last 5 years. Let us keep this momentum going for a New India under the leadership of PM @narendramodi,” Shah posted on his twitter handle.

Meanwhile, the BJP president also said shared pictures of the “Aabhar Milan of Union Council of Ministers” that took place this evening at BJP headquarters in the national capital.

Shah also hosted a special dinner for the allies in the National Democratic Alliance. Among the leaders were Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackrey and his son Aditya Thackery, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Akali Dal’s Prakash Singh Badal, AIADMK’s E Palaniswamy and O Pannerselvam, Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel and Ramdas Athawale.

Counting of votes for the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections will take place on May 23.

(ANI)

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The Election Commission on Tuesday rejected by a 2-1 majority Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa’s demand that dissenting views on model code violations during elections should be made part of orders.

The EC decided that the dissent will only be included in internal files.

“In the meeting of the full Commission held today, regarding the issue of MCC, it was inter alia decided that proceedings of the Commission meeting would be drawn, including the views of all the Commission members. Thereafter, formal instructions would be issued in consonance with the present laws and rules,” the Commission said after a meeting of the full poll body to discuss the issue.

Lavasa, who had raked up the issue and kept away from full Commission meetings protesting against the non-recording of his dissent on clean chits given by the other two Commissioners on alleged poll code violations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, attended the meeting today but is understood to have recorded his dissent.

Today’s decision was also believed to have been carried by 2-1 majority.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and other Commissioner Sushil Chandra constituted the majority view. Lavasa had written to Arora last week conveying his decision to skip the meetings of the Commission his views were not recorded and incorporated in the orders.

An EC official said there was no such precedent. According to existing rules, only the majority decision in case of non-quasi judicial issues like the MCC is communicated to the parties concerned the opposing views is only recorded in files, he said.

Differences in the Election Commission burst out in the open last week with Lavasa boycotting the meetings of the full Commission over his dissent on crucial decisions not being recorded.

Arora sought to downplay the controversy saying all the Commissioners are not expected to be “template or clones of each other”.

Arora also said “ill-timed” controversies should be avoided and called a meeting of the full Commission on May 21 to discuss and thrash out issues.

Lavasa, had written a letter to Arora on May 16 even hinting at “taking recourse to other measures” for restoring the “lawful” functioning of the Commission in terms of recording minority decisions.

“I am being forced to stay away from the meetings of the full Commission since minority decisions are not being recorded. My participation in the deliberations of the Commission becomes meaningless since my minority decisions go unrecorded,” he said.

Lavasa said he might consider taking recourse to other measures aimed at restoring the lawful functioning of the Commission in terms of recording minority decisions.

“My various notes on the need for transparency in the recording and disclosure of all decisions including the minority view have gone unheeded, forcing me to withdraw from participating in the deliberations of the complaints,” he said in his letter to Arora.

The office of the CEC on Saturday released a statement of Arora which said there has been an “unsavoury and avoidable” controversy reported in the media today about the internal functioning of the Commission in respect of the handling MCC.

This, he said, has come at a time when all the Chief Electoral Officers throughout the country and their teams were geared for the seventh and last phase of polling on Sunday.

All of them and the senior officers of the EC headquarters have been working their utmost during the last six phases of elections which barring an odd incident here and there have been largely peaceful and conducted in a fair, free and transparent manner.

(ANI)

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