With 940 inter-state check posts in 5 states, we will check any cross-border movement of illicit cash, liquor, freebies : CEC

 "#Mizoram has 8.52 lakh voters, #Chhattisgarh has 2.03 cr, Madhya Pradesh 5.6, #Rajasthan 5.2  #Telangana 3.17 crore voters. Total voters in these states would be totaling to 8.2 crore male and 7.8 crore female voters," says #CEC #RajivKumar 

#Poll schedule-- #Chhattisgarh to vote on 7th Nov and 17th Nov; Madhya Pradesh on 17th Nov; #Mizoram  Nov  Rajasthan on 23 Nov and Telangana on 30 Nov; Results on 3rd December

"With over 940 inter-state border check posts in five states, we will be able to check any cross-border movement of illicit cash, liquor, freebies and drugs": Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on 5 States elections

 "Anyone can lodge a complaint of inducement through cVIGIL. If any candidate has criminal background, then he will have to announce the same in newspapers thrice," he said.

Election related news and info :

** Congress Working Committee (CWC) members met on Monday. The party’s strategy for the upcoming polls is likely to feature on the agenda. 

Unlike its primary rivals in these states, the Congress has yet to announce its candidates. In states such as Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, where it is not in power, the party has announced a slew of promises, including freebies ranging from electricity to public transport. 

In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has announced a caste survey, following in the footsteps of Bihar which released its caste data last week. 

Priyanka Gandhi has also announced a caste survey in Chhattisgarh, if Congress comes back to power.

In other news, Madhya Pradesh minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia’s announcement that she would not be contesting the upcoming elections has triggered speculations if her Shivpuri seat is being vacated for her nephew and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. Addressing a gathering in Shivpuri, she said that time has passed and that a new generation should come forward. The move follows a letter she had written in August to the BJP top brass about her decision not to contest the elections due this year-end.

Caste census likely on CWC meeting agenda.

The CWC is expected to discuss its strategy in the poll-bound states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Mizoram. Unlike its primary rivals in these states, the Congress has yet to announce its candidates. In states such as Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, where it is not in power, the party has announced a slew of promises, including freebies ranging from electricity to public transport.

Caste census is also expected to be a point of discussion at the meeting. Since the women’s reservation Bill was passed in Parliament in September and Bihar released its caste survey numbers last week, 

the party has sharpened its demand for the inclusion of women from Other Backward Classes (OBC) in reservation for women and a nationwide exercise to count the number of castes so that social welfare policies can be designed to help those categorised as backward.

The party, especially Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, has been vocal in its pitch for “jitni aabadi, utna haq (rights proportionate to population)”, with the caste census becoming an increasingly important issue ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Gandhi said last month that the INDIA bloc would initiate a caste census if voted to power next year and demanded that the BJP government release the data of the 2011 Socioeconomic Caste Census conducted by the then United Progressive Alliance government.

Priyanka Gandhi has promised a caste census in Chhattisgarh if the Congress retains power, Rajasthan has already set one in motion, and Karnataka is preparing to release a caste count report in November.

Among the other issues that the CWC is likely to discuss are the cases against Opposition leaders. In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in connection with an alleged teaching jobs scam. He skipped the previous summons last week to attend the party’s protest in New Delhi against the Centre.

Political circles in Madhya Pradesh are abuzz with speculation about plans of the ruling BJP's central leadership after it fielded a number of stalwarts including Union ministers as candidates for the MP assembly polls.

Various statements made by BJP leaders also fuelled a debate over the party's chief ministerial face.

Asked about the BJP's chief ministerial face in Madhya Pradesh, Union Minister Piyush Goyal, said, “Lotus is our face in every election. Lotus is revered by all of us. We go among the people with lotus.” "We all are workers and have a commitment to make India a developed country," he said.

“We are committed to bring joy and enthusiasm in the life of every Indian, to fulfill all their aspirations, to serve for a bright future, welfare of the poor and good governance,” the Union minister said, and expressed confidence that his party will emerge victorious in the upcoming polls. (PTI)

09:45 (IST)

09 OCT 2023

   

Decoding Ashok Gehlot’s caste survey move: National strategy, local play

By ordering a caste-based survey, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has cast another die to ensure the state breaks the three-decade-old pattern of voting out the incumbent government and returns him to power.

Rajasthan was quick to follow the footsteps of Bihar, which released its caste survey findings last Monday. The Congress and a majority of other parties in the INDIA alliance have made caste census one of their top agenda, setting the stage for Mandal politics to counter the BJP’s Hindutva plank, or kamandal as the BJP’s rivals put it.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan may not be lucky to become CM yet again.

But he is actively embracing the limelight in a way that few in the Narendra Modi-centric party have dared before. Two weeks ago, the once self-effacing leader, whose humble image helped him into a fourth term in power, was the star of his government’s ‘The Ladli Show’, where he took questions from an awed and enthusiastic young girl – who covered everything from Chouhan the child of a poor family who led an agitation as a seven-year-old; to Chouhan the “gold-medallist” MA student; to Chouhan the CM, loved by the women of the state as their “mama (uncle)” and who cares for them equally; and even Chouhan the singer. 

The show’s premiere on the CM’s YouTube channel coincided with the passage of the long-awaited women’s reservation Bill in Parliament. Chouhan’s campaign, in fact, is almost entirely gambling on his schemes for women to propel him back to power, the latest being a 35% quota for many state government jobs.