Prime Minster Modi declared special package for poll bound Bihar worth ₹1.25 Lakh Crore

Within 24 hours of returning from UAE visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended function in Bihar where assembly elections would take place in next couple of months. In line with his government policy of “Develop East”, special package was announced worth ₹1.25 Lakh Crore.

This is additional to already pledged funds by Central Government of ₹40,657cr for ongoing works of highways and power projects. Additionally, unused amount ₹8,500cr by Bihar state government from Centre’s last package is not included.

In Bihar, BJP led NDA is fighting with JDU-RJD alliance of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav while other parities such as Congress are minor partners. Traditionally, caste based politics plays vital role in Bihar election. However, with such massive financial package declared by Narendra Modi the “Development” issue could become central point during polls. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, NDA won 31 out of 40 seats while JDU could manage only 2 while RJS won 6.

  

JDU-RJD sealed seat sharing deal for upcoming Bihar Assembly Elections

Nitish Kumar led Janta Dal United (JDU) and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) decided to fight 100 seats each to form grand alliance for Bihar Assembly Elections. Congress Party would contest 40 seats while 3 seats are offer for Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) it they join the alliance.

Total number of seats in Bihar Assembly are 243 and RJD-JDU combine is fighting fierce battle with BJP led NDA to regain power. During 2010 polls, JDU and BJP fought as an alliance where JDU won 115 seats while RJD was demolished to just 22 seats. Congress is trying its luck although with just 4 MLAs in outgoing assembly, party is looking at double digits at best.

 

During Lok Sabha 2014, BJP won 22 seats out of 40 while its ally Ramvilas Paswan’s LJP bagged 6 seats and smaller party BLSP won 3 taking total tally of NDA at 31 seats. Fighting alone, JDU got badly beaten winning just 2 seats while RJD fared better compared with Nitish Kumar with 4 seats.

For upcoming assembly polls, NItish Kumar is a candidate for JDU-RJD alliance while NDA has not announced its prospective CM’s name.

Bihar elections are always dominated by caste combination. Although, off late issue of development has gained importance for voters. With increasing dominance of Narendra Modi as a leader, more like minded parties such as Samajwadi Party (SP) and left parties may join RJD-JDU alliance to avoid vote division. Interestingly, Aam Aadmi Party is not contesting Bihar polls and would oppose NDA during campaign.        

 

BJP launched 2014 Lok Sabha Election campaign by announcing Team NaMo

Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) announced campaign committee headed by Gujarat CM Narendra Modi includes senior leaders such as Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari as well as Chief Ministers of BJP ruled states such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) and Manohar Parrikar (Goa).

The party also formed 20 campaign panels for efficient management of upcoming Lok Sabha elections by focusing on aspects such as rallies, manifesto, vision document, social media, publicity, youth and many more.

Entire process reiterates growing importance of NaMo factor in BJP. The team would work under the guidance of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L. K. Advani and party president Rajnath Singh.

Karnataka Assembly polls to be held on May 5, results on 8th May

The only state in South India where Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) got to the power will go for votes on 5^th May 2013. Election Commission of India announced that voting for all 224 assembly seats will be carried out on one phase while counting of votes will be on 8^th May 2013. There are about 4.18cr registered voters in Karnataka.

After the exit of Yeddyurappa from BJP, contest would be highly competitive among Congress, BJP, JDS and KJP. Moreover, Karnataka could set tone for upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Narendra Modi's victory speech - Gujarat Assembly Elections 2012

Modi continues to rule Gujarat while Congress snatches Himachal from BJP in 2012 assembly elections

Gujarat Assembly Election 2012:

Assembly election results in Gujarat came as no surprise with BJP’s hindutva icon Narendra Modi created history with consecutive third win. Modi led BJP won 115 seats out of total 182 while Congress could manage only 61 seats. Keshubhai Patel’s GPP failed to make any significant impact and won only 2 seats.

With massive victory in Gujarat, Narendra Modi has certainly strengthened his claim to play important role at national level in coming days. This could also mean BJP might project him as candidate for the post of Prime Minister in next Lok Sabha elections.

Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election 2012:

Himachal continued its tradition of voting out existing government by electing Virbhadra Singh led Congress party to power. Congress won 36 out 68 seats in the hilly state while BJP was restricted to only 26 seats falling considerably short of its performance in the previous election. Independents won 5 seats while Himachal Lokhit Party bagged one seat.

Gujarat assembly election “Exit Polls” shows convincing win for Narendra Modi

Higher voter turnout was key highlight during assembly election voting in Gujarat. With emergence of Keshubhai Patel’s Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) the battle between BJP and Congress became more interesting. However, most of the exit poll surveys carried out shows clear mandate for Narendra Modi led BJP government to come back to power again.

Out of 182 assembly seats, BJP is likely to win 120-130 seats while Congress could grab 50-55 and others including GPP could manage only 5-7 seats. Apart from positive voting for Narendra Modi on the issue of development’ vote split between GPP and Congress also augured well for BJP.

With consecutive third term at CM’s office in Gujarat, one of most influential leader of the country Mr. Narendra Modi could play vital role in national politics in coming future. In all likelihood, the largest democracy in the world would chant “NaMo, NaMo” in next Lok Sabha election.   

How Election Commision can improve election process in India ?

Election Code of Conduct:

After looking at recent announcements by Central Govt. such as “Direct Cash Transfer Scheme” and “Increase in cooking gas cylinder quota from 6 to 9” exactly during the assembly elections in Gujarat, I feel we can propose few improvements to increase accountability, transparency and seriousness  of election process. As we surely know that “No penal Action” would be taken against any of the ministers by Election Commission of India.

For example:

Election Commission must categories and specifies each election related offense of violation in the following way

A: Most serious violation such as violence, booth capturing etc.

Punishment: Expulsion of candidate / party from election process

B: Very serious violation such as distribution of money among voters, hate speeches etc

Punishment: 25% of total votes acquired by candidate / party get reduced. For example, if offender candidate gets 100,000 votes then only 75,000 are considered as legal.

C: Serious offense such as announcing various schemes to lure voters in an unethical way. A current govt. announcement falls under this category.

Punishment: 10% of totals votes polled for candidate / party gets eliminated. In such case all Congress candidates in Gujarat looses 10% of their votes.

D: Less serious offenses such as not filing election expenditure in timely manner, exceeding election expenditure, taking rallies without proper permissions etc

Punishment: 5% of votes get eliminated of particular candidate

E: Least serious offenses. These could be creating traffic jams, exceeding noise levels of loud speaker etc.   

Punishment: 2% of votes get eliminated of particular candidate

Such mechanism with definitive punishments which can impact election results would not  only increase accountability and compliance but it would also make election process very interesting and competitive.

Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh assembly poll dates declared

Election Commission of India today announced dates for assembly elections to be held in the state of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh (H.P.). Narendra Modi ruled Gujarat to have voting in two phases on December 13^th and 17^th while voters from hilly state of Himachal will exercise their right on 4^th of November. Counting of votes for both sates will take place on 20^th December 2012.

Gujarat has 182 assembly seats while H.P. elects 68 MLAs. Currently, both these states are ruled by main opposition party at the centre – Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). Both the states are likely to witness two way battle between BJP and Congress due to lack of presence of any stronger third force.

Annshri Yojana to provide 600 Rs per month for poor families in Delhi

·        In its efforts to make it hunger free state, Delhi government announced launching of Annshri Yojana from 2^nd October 2012

·        Approximately 2 lakh poor families are likely to benefit as they would receive monthly cash transfer of Rs 600

·        Senior most female member would be receiving this cash transfer as per rule set for the scheme

·        Considering assembly elections are round the corner in Delhi, popular schemes would certainly take centre stage in Delhi politics in the near future