-CaravanMagazine.in India is often hailed for its democracy, for empowering its poor and ordinary citizens to participate in the electoral process and play a role in shaping the country. This narrative has increasingly come under strain since the Supreme Court, through its March 2003 judgment in Union of India vs Association for Democratic Reforms, made it mandatory for candidates contesting elections to disclose their wealth, educational qualification, and criminal cases pending...

-DNA The unaddressed question is what happens when the VVPAT count doesn’t match the EVM count The general elections 2019 is moving towards closure, with six out of seven phases already over. All eyes are now on the counting. It is not surprising that the issue of counting of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) has become hot once again. The decision to introduce VVPATs as a measure to make electronic voting machines...

-The Indian Express For all their talk on farm distress, on agriculture, BJP, Congress show they have not learnt from past failures. We often feel proud of our democratic system. But it also has a shortcoming, which has been magnified in the current election season. The conversation today is not about what the BJP/NDA promised in its manifesto of 2014, and how far they have been able to deliver on their...

-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...

-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...