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Delhi Confidential: Light start

Delhi Confidential: Light start

Indian Express5 hours ago

As Samajwadi Party (SP) senior leaders, including MPs and MLAs, reached the party headquarters in Lucknow for a meeting with party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday, there was a special attraction waiting for them — a live performance by stand-up comedian and actor Rajeev Nigam. Nigam entertained the leaders for nearly an hour before Akhilesh chaired the meeting to discuss contemporary political issues and preparations for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh polls.
Speaker's Smile
During a conference on the functioning of the Estimates Committee of Parliament and assemblies in Maharashtra Assembly in Mumbai on Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's quintessential smile came up in a rather quaint reference. In her address to the gathering, Maharashtra Legislative Council Deputy Chairperson Neelam Gorhe said she had always admired Birla's smile and how it made even the agitating members sit quietly in Lok Sabha. 'People make sense of the smile and take their seats. I have been trying to emulate this but our members go on speaking. It shows the respect you command,' Gorhe said.
Calls For A Cause
After learning through social media that Poorvanchali singer and Bhojpuri actor Bijli Rani is hospitalised in Lucknow for a kidney ailment and her family was facing financial constraints, Bihar Legislative Council member and BJP national media co-incharge Sanjay Mayukh swung into action to get help. Mayukh made calls to the Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Samrat Choudhary and Brajesh Pathak, respectively, who also have charge of the Health portfolio in their states. He was assured of all possible help to the veteran singer-actor, it is learnt.

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Maharashtra Assembly Polls: Bombay High Court reserves order on votes after 6 pm
Maharashtra Assembly Polls: Bombay High Court reserves order on votes after 6 pm

India Today

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  • India Today

Maharashtra Assembly Polls: Bombay High Court reserves order on votes after 6 pm

The Bombay High Court on Monday reserved its order on the plea seeking that the Maharashtra Assembly election results of 2024, be declared null and void 'due to the non-compliance with established legal provisions, procedural lapses and irregularities in the legal process.' During the hearing on Monday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) raised Preliminary objections to the petition while arguing that the court did not need to go into the merits of the petition at bench of Justices GS Kulkarni and Arif Doctor said that the order will be passed on Wednesday. The entire issue in the petition revolves around 76 lakh votes polled after 6pm on the Maharashtra Assembly election petition filed by a Mumbaikar, Chetan Ahire and argued by advocate Prakash Ambedkar is based on the issue raised by opposition parties including Ambedkar's party Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, about high voter turnout post 6pm on polling day and details of the same allegedly not being provided by the the Assembly election, the ECI had put out a data saying that 76 lakh votes were cast post 6pm during the Maharashtra Assembly polling day on November 20, 2024. However, when the details of the voters who cast their vote late in the day were sought by the opposition parties, it was allegedly not given by the the hearing, the bench asked Ambedkar if post 6 pm voting happened during Lok Sabha or any other election. Ambedkar replied that it does happen and data has always been collated since the first election but it was not shared when asked this election. At this, the bench said, 'if this is established practice that polling does take place post 6pm, then why did you not question the Lok Sabha election? Where is the statement in your petition? Our question is about the pattern. How was there a departure this time from earlier practice?'Ambedkar replied that the concern was only for the Assembly election last year. 'Those who are elected are not elected by free and fair election. It was manipulated. A deceit has been used. Either by the officials themselves or the ECI. A fraud on the Constitution cannot be allowed to remain. If they have documents then they can still come forward. It is the faith of the common man that is shaken,' submitted Ambedkar. However the bench replied that it was a grey idea as no one knows who the voters after 6pm voted for. 'What if the winning candidates did not get any votes in polls post 6pm? This pattern of voting must have been followed even in Lok Sabha, why was no grievance made for that?'Advocate Ashutosh KUmbhakoni appearing for the ECI took preliminary objection to the petition being argued by Ambedkar. Kumbhakoni submitted that the petitioner has no locus standi to challenge elections to all 288 constituencies in Maharashtra and that there is no cause of action spelled out for approaching this Court under the Writ jurisdiction. Kumbhakoni submitted that the winning candidates have not been made party to the petition so the election cannot be set aside behind their Uday Warunjikar, appearing for the Union of India too, submitted that the petitioner should have filed an Election Petition which has a limit of 45 days since declaration of results, but since the petitioner had missed the opportunity, he has approached the court with a Writ petition. 'Moreover the petitioner is not seeking anything for himself but is asking this for the public at large so he should have filed a Public Interest Litigation,' said Warnujikar raising issues of maintainability of the petition at the preliminary stage. - EndsMust Watch advertisement

Samajwadi Party expels three rebel MLAs for cross-voting in February 2024 Rajya Sabha polls
Samajwadi Party expels three rebel MLAs for cross-voting in February 2024 Rajya Sabha polls

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Samajwadi Party expels three rebel MLAs for cross-voting in February 2024 Rajya Sabha polls

The Samajwadi Party has cracked the whip on three out of its seven rebel MLAs, expelling them from the party almost 14 months after they cross-voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate during the Rajya Sabha elections in February 2024. Abhay Singh and Manoj Kumar Pandey were among three MLAs expelled by SP. (FILE PHOTO) Those expelled from the Akhilesh Yadav-led party are Abhay Singh (MLA from Gosainganj in Ayodhya district), Rakesh Pratap Singh (Gauriganj in Amethi) and former chief whip Manoj Kumar Pandey (Unchahar in Rae Bareli), the SP said in a post on its social media handle. The remaining four rebel MLAs have been spared for their 'good behaviour' while doors have been closed for the future for the three MLAs who have been expelled today, the party claimed. The four who have been spared are: Bisauli MLA Ashutosh Maurya, Kalpi MLA Vinod Chaturvedi, Chail MLA Puja Pal and Jalalpur MLA Rakesh Pandey. Samajwadi Party spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand said, 'These MLAs were working against PDA, giving statements against PDA and were speaking in favour of wrongdoings of the BJP. They were given time to improve but sadly they continued to speak against the PDA, hence this action was taken by the party.' In a post on Monday morning, the official Samajwadi Party X handle stated, 'Samajwadi Party expels the following MLAs from the party in the public interest for supporting communal, divisive negativity and anti-farmer, women, youth, business, employed and 'anti-PDA' ideology, contrary to the politics of socialist harmony and positive ideology. MLA Gosaiganj Abhay Singh, MLA Gauriganj Rakesh Pratap Singh and MLA Unchahar Manoj Kumar Pandey. The 'grace period' given to these people for a change of heart has now been completed.' Reacting to his expulsion, Gauriganj MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh said, 'I am not upset at all, rather I welcome this decision and I will continue to speak what is right. The SP doesn't take a stand when religious sentiments are hurt or played with. The leadership of the SP also doesn't stand with its own MLAs when there is any issue. The SP leadership never called me when I was in trouble. I don't know if I will be in politics in future or not but I am sure that I will never ever work again with such leadership.' 'I am with Sanatan, I am with Ram, I am with the country but SP people are opposing it,' said Rakesh Pratap Singh. Meanwhile, Unchahar MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey said, 'On 18th June 2024, I joined the BJP in the presence of HM Amit Shah in Raebareli. The party which has deviated from its path and is deceiving the backwards and the downtrodden, I had left that party publicly on 18th June. The party which I had left, now I am being expelled from the same party, this is hilarious and surprising.' The BJP's eighth candidate Sanjay Seth had won the Rajya Sabha election in February 2024 due to cross-voting. Only two SP candidates, Jaya Bachchan and Ramjilal Suman, had won, while the third candidate Alok Ranjan had lost. The rebel MLAs also alleged that the SP leadership had not allowed them to visit the Ram Lalla temple in Ayodhya on an invitation from UP assembly speaker Satish Mahana. After their rebellion, some of these MLAs visited the Ram Temple. On April 2, 2025, the rebel SP MLAs, including Abhay Singh, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Vinod Chaturvedi, had met Shah in New Delhi.

‘Need a formula for reserving seats, all parties must agree'
‘Need a formula for reserving seats, all parties must agree'

New Indian Express

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‘Need a formula for reserving seats, all parties must agree'

The MHA has said that the census will be conducted through digital means, using mobile applications, and self-enumeration. Will it lead to data inaccuracy? Self-enumeration is a hybrid system in which some individuals self-enumerate while enumerators cover the remainder. That leads to gaps or double counting. Earlier, the enumerators would have a map of the area they cover. They would visit every building and request people's details. Thus, nobody was excluded, and there was no overlap. The self-enumeration option opens up the possibility of double counting. The question is how you avoid that. The government has shown its eagerness to carry out a delimitation exercise after the census. How soon will it happen? The whole process is frozen till 2026. The reference date for the census is March 2027, and the government is expected to have the data by 2028. But it is entirely up to the government to carry out delimitation or not. There must be a political consensus, and all states must come on board. States play a key role because everything depends on how the states react. The southern states fear that delimitation will reduce their representation in Parliament. Are their concerns valid? Now, there will be even more states who share the same concern. All the states which have seen a sharp reduction in their population growth will complain. When delimitation occurs, the percentage of seats will decrease. The government must take them on board and come up with a formula acceptable to everyone. You can do delimitation in two ways. One way to say this is that we fix the number of people per parliamentary seat. Determine the number of parliamentary seats based on the population. The second is that they can adjust the number of parliamentary seats and redraw the boundaries so that each constituency has roughly the same number of people. Can the Women's Reservation Bill be implemented before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections? It was unanimously passed by Parliament in 2024. The question is which seats will get reserved after delimitation and what are the principles for reservation. You must have a principle behind it, and all parties must agree. I don't think that has been discussed yet.

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