Does Bihar have a Dalit vote bank?
Dalits are a critical electoral bloc, influencing outcomes in around 15 of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats and numerous Assembly constituencies.
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India Today
30 minutes ago
- 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
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
‘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.
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
Kerala police chief files report critical of ADGP Ajith Kumar's conduct
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With only eight days left for his retirement, State Police Chief Shaik Darvesh Saheb, who had probed the allegations against former Law and Order ADGP M R Ajith Kumar in connection with the Thrissur Pooram fiasco, on Monday filed his report with the state government. The report has contents critical of the conduct of the officer, sources said. The report allegedly said there was a lapse from the part of Ajith during the whole episode. Revenue Minister K Rajan had testified before the police chief that when the Pooram faced disruption, he tried to reach Ajith over phone. However, Ajith did not respond. To this, the officer stated before the police chief that he had returned to his room after overseeing all the security preparations. By the time the minister telephoned him, he had fall asleep and hence he did not see the calls. The report said the reply of the officer that he fell asleep showed that he erred in his performing his duties fully. Sources said the report has adverse remarks against the officer, including his meetings with the RSS office-bearers, but it's yet to be known what the general outlook of the full report is. The 2024 Pooram was disrupted allegedly due to police high-handedness precipitating a political row. The fiasco occurred prior to the Lok Sabha polls and there were allegations that the Pooram was sabotaged for political purpose. After NDA candidate Suresh Gopi managed to win the seat, the allegation grew in strength and was endorsed by LDF candidate V S Sunil Kumar and UDF's K Muraleedharan.
