-The Business Standard Defying the Election Committee's suggestion last week, the state announced a two-phase election to be held in April The tug-of-war between the West Bengal government and State Election Commission over Panchayat poll schedule may head for a legal battle, with both sides showing no sign of compromise. After a three-hour long meeting at its office here, the state election commission today refused to accept government-announced panchayat poll dates and sent...

-The Indian Express Kolkata: West Bengal's notification for the panchayat elections marks a flash point in an ongoing tussle between the Mamata Banerjee government and the state election commission. The government notification, issued last week independently of the election authorities, has declared polls in two phases, on April 26 and 30. The election commission, headed by Meera Pandey, has been insisting on three phases. On Monday, the commission wrote to the government...

-The Hindu The Election Commission has given yet another significant opinion - it has rejected a petition seeking disqualification of 11 nominated members of the Maharashtra Legislative Council under Article 191 (1) (e) of the Constitution. "In our Constitution, ‘qualifications' and ‘disqualifications' are two different concepts and ‘lack of qualification' will not tantamount to ‘disqualification," it said. The Commission - Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath and Election Commissioners H.S. Brahma and S.N.A. Zaidi...

-The Indian Express In the seven years between 2004 and 2011, the Congress received over Rs 2,004 crore from donors; the BJP got about Rs 994 crore. Smaller and regional parties too got significant sums. These amounts were declared by parties; however, the source of over 85 per cent of donations is not known. The parties say donors gave sums less than Rs 20,000, and need not be made public. The Election Commission's...

-The Business Standard The implications of the food security Bill remain worrying The revised draft of the food security Bill, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Tuesday, marks some distinct changes over the draft introduced in Parliament in 2011. However, it may still not fully satisfy either the states or activists. While it retains the overall population coverage of 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban,...