-PTI NEW DELHI: The State Bank of India has sold electoral bonds worth over Rs 3,622 crore in March and April this year, an RTI response has said. In a response provided to Pune-based Vihar Durve, the SBI said electoral bonds of Rs 1,365.69 crore were sold in March, which shot up by 65.21 per cent in April to Rs 2,256.37 crore. In April, most electoral bonds were sold in Mumbai at Rs...
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NITI Aayog denies charge that it helped PMO on rallies
-The Hindu The NITI Aayog, in its reply to the Election Commission, is learnt to have denied the allegations of the Opposition parties that it helped Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office get details of places where he was to hold rallies. The Commission had written to the NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer seeking its response on the complaints lodged by the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. They had alleged misuse of...
More »The anatomy of a marginalised region -Shahana Munazir
-The Hindu With a high percentage of Muslims, Bihar’s Seemanchal region frames issues of representation and welfare In the ongoing general election, Seemanchal, a historically neglected and yet socially and politically significant region in Bihar, has once again registered a high voting percentage. Comprising four districts — Purnea, Katihar, Kishanganj and Araria — Seemanchal has a population of about 1 crore. It assumes sociopolitical significance owing to the large proportion of Muslims...
More »VVPAT: Opposition has a recourse in slip counting -Devesh K Pandey
-The Hindu Section 56-D of the Conduct of Election Rules allows scrutiny of VVPAT slips in case of disputes. New Delhi: Although the Supreme Court and the Election Commission have not agreed to the Opposition parties’ demand for 50% random physical verification of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) results with Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips, they can still take recourse to Section 56-D of the Conduct of Election Rules to request...
More »On the political fringes -Manish K Jha & Ajeet Kumar Pankaj
-The Hindu The exclusion of migrants from the electoral process reveals the caste- and class-driven nature of mainstream politics While political commentators have been busy analysing voter preferences in the general election 2019, one segment, namely migrants, continues to be overlooked. The Election Commission of India (EC), on February 21, clarified that NRI voters cannot cast votes online, and that an NRI who holds an Indian passport can vote in his/her hometown after...
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