Latest news with #SupremeCourt-mandated
Scroll.in
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Rahul Gandhi says alleged ‘match-fixing' in Maharashtra polls ‘blueprint for rigged democracy'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reiterated allegations that there was ' match-fixing ' in the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November. The state polls were a 'blueprint for rigging democracy', Gandhi claimed on social media. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance had defeated the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which includes the Congress, in the polls. 'It's not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra,' Gandhi said. 'But rigging is like match-fixing – the side that cheats might win the game, but damages institutions and destroy public faith in the result.' In the social media post, Gandhi also shared a column he wrote in The Indian Express on Saturday. In the article, Gandhi alleged that there had been an ' industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of our national institutions'. The outcome of the Maharashtra polls was 'glaringly strange', Gandhi said, adding that the scale of the alleged rigging was 'so desperate that, despite all efforts to conceal it, tell-tale evidence has emerged from official statistics, without reliance on any nonofficial source…' A 'step-by-step playbook ' had revealed the rigging of the polls, claimed the Opposition leader. How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy. My article shows how this happened, step by step: Step 1: Rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission Step 2: Add fake voters to the roll Step 3: Inflate voter… — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 7, 2025 Gandhi said that the contentious 2023 Election Commissioners Appointment Act had ensured that the election commissioners were 'effectively chosen' by the prime minister and the Union home minister as they can outvote the leader of the Opposition in the appointment panel. After the Act was passed in December 2023, the appointment of election commissioners is done by the selection committee. The panel consists of the prime minister (as the chairperson), the leader of the Opposition or the single-largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister (currently Union Home Minister Amit Shah). This arrangement was challenged in the Supreme Court, where the matter is pending. The 2023 law to appoint election commissioners did away with an arrangement put in place by a Supreme Court judgement in March 2023 that had formed a panel consisting of the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition and the chief justice of India. The court had said at the time that this committee would remain operative till Parliament came up with a law for the appointment of election commissioners. The Supreme Court-mandated committee had been formed to shield the Election Commission from executive influence. Before this judgement, appointments to the commission were made at the sole discretion of the Union government. Gandhi said on Saturday: 'The decision to place a Cabinet minister instead of the chief justice [of India] on the selection committee does not pass the smell test.' He added that the second step in rigging the polls had been to allegedly inflate the voter list with fake electors. The Opposition leader was reiterating claims his party had made in February. The Congress had at the time urged the Election Commission to explain how the number of registered voters (9.7 crore) for the Maharashtra Assembly polls was more than the adult population of the state (9.5 crore). It also asked the poll panel to share the state's electoral rolls for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls held five months apart. The general election took place in April and May 2024, followed by the state polls in November. The Maharashtra voter turnout had also been inflated, Gandhi claimed in his article on Saturday. He claimed that the turnout when the polling closed at 5 pm was 58.2%, which 'kept increasing', and the final number reported the next morning was 66.05%. 'This unprecedented 7.83 percentage point increase is equivalent to 76 lakh voters – much higher than previous Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra,' he added. Gandhi said that the alleged additional voters were targeted in only about 12,000 booths in 85 constituencies where the BJP had performed poorly in the Lok Sabha polls. Maharashtra has 288 Assembly constituencies. In November, the Election Commission dismissed the Congress' earlier allegations of discrepancies in polling data and the draft electoral rolls of the Maharashtra polls. The Opposition leader also alleged that the Election Commission had tried to 'conceal the evidence trail'. He cited the Union government's decision to amend the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules to restrict access to security camera footage and electronic records of polling. As first reported by Scroll, the Union government on December 20 amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the rules, which stated that 'all other papers relating to the election shall be open to public inspection'. The amended rule says: 'All other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.' With this change – notified by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, in consultation with the Election Commission – not all poll-related papers can be inspected by the public. Only those papers specified in the Conduct of Election Rules can be scrutinised. Courts, too, would also not be able to direct the poll panel to provide all election-related papers for public scrutiny. The Congress has challenged the change of rules in the Supreme Court. Gandhi's aim is to create chaos, says BJP The BJP said that Gandhi's aim was to create chaos. 'His repeated attempts to sow seeds of doubt and dissension in the minds of voters about our institutional processes are deliberate,' alleged the Hindutva party's publicity chief Amit Malviya. The Congress found the electoral system 'fair and just' when it won in Telangana and Karnataka, but started whining and spreading conspiracy theories when it lost polls in Haryana and Maharashtra, Malviya said on social media.
News18
02-06-2025
- Politics
- News18
Why Has No Permanent DGP Been Appointed In Uttar Pradesh For 3 Years?
Last Updated: Rajeev Krishna is the new acting DGP of Uttar Pradesh, replacing Prashant Kumar and becoming the ninth DGP since 2017 The Uttar Pradesh government has named senior IPS officer Rajeev Krishna as the new acting Director General of Police (DGP), replacing Prashant Kumar, whose term many expected to be extended. With this appointment, Krishna becomes the ninth DGP since 2017 and the fifth to hold the post in an acting capacity. The repeated appointment of acting DGPs has raised questions about the state's reluctance to follow the Supreme Court-mandated procedure for selecting a full-time top cop. The apex court, in its 2006 ruling in the Prakash Singh vs Union of India case, mandated that all states must forward a list of the three most senior eligible officers to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which would then recommend one name. The chosen officer would serve a fixed two-year term. However, the state has kept the top post firmly within the government's discretionary control since 2021. In 2024, the Yogi Adityanath government introduced the Uttar Pradesh Police (Selection and Appointment to the Post of Director General of Police) Rules, a legislative move ostensibly designed to institutionalise the DGP selection process. The rules empowered the state government to make the appointment but did not fundamentally alter the lack of UPSC involvement for acting DGPs. While there were murmurs that then-acting DGP Prashant Kumar would be given a formal two-year term, the government ultimately refrained from doing so, again opting for a temporary appointment. With multiple elections looming including panchayat and urban body polls, and the crucial 2029 Lok Sabha elections, this temporary appointment has led to several questions from the opposition. Several opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, have frequently accused the UP police of being skewed toward Thakur officers, an allegation aimed at highlighting caste imbalances under the Yogi Adiyanath administration. Why Rajeev Krishna? According to sources, 11 senior IPS officers were in contention for the top job this time, including one woman officer, raising hopes that UP might see its first-ever female DGP. However, Rajeev Krishna emerged as the government's pick – a choice driven, insiders say, by his reputation as a field-oriented, no-nonsense officer with a clean image and a track record of loyal service. Currently serving as acting DGP, Krishna is expected to remain in the post until March 2026. By that time, with several of his seniors due to retire, he may rise to fourth in the seniority list, making a case for a potential permanent appointment, depending upon the government's discretion. Watch India Pakistan Breaking News on CNN-News18. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from politics to crime and society. Stay informed with the latest India news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! First Published:
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
Copious flow from Cauvery; TN realises 300tmcft in a year
Chennai: The current water year, which began on June 1, 2024 and concludes at May-end this year, is ending on a high note for Tamil Nadu . The lower riparian state received 300tmcft of Cauvery water at the inter-state border on Monday, exceeding Supreme Court-mandated release of 177.25tmcft. Rainfall over the past few days led to notable increase in water level at Stanley Reservoir in Mettur. This year's realisation contrasts sharply with that in 2023-24 when Tamil Nadu received only 81tmcft due to poor rainfall. Prior to that, for five years, the state recorded excess realisation. "The excess ranged from 211tmcft to 668tmcft in the previous five years. Currently, the storage at Mettur stands at 78tmcft. There is a good inflow of 12,800 cusecs. The state govt is gearing up to release water on June 12, the customary date for irrigation," said an official. The WRD official was optimistic that if ain persisted in the catchment areas, the water level could reach its full capacity of 120 feet within a couple of weeks. Currently, water at 1,000 cusecs is being released for drinking purposes. The rate of water flow at Hogenakkal in Dharmapuri district rose on Monday night, from 8,000 cusecs to 14,000 cusecs, and this level was sustained the following morning. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Ative o software antivírus do seu computador Clique aqui Undo Water storage across the state, however, remains a concern as only 146 tanks out of 14,141 tanks are brimming, and 1,335 tanks are bone dry, especially those in Madurai, Sivaganga, Thanjavur, and Tirunelveli districts. The IMD forecast of above-normal rainfall from the southwest monsoon has raised expectations for improved water resources in the coming months. Ninety reservoirs of various capacities under the control of the water resources department have a combined storage of only 56% against the original capacity of 224.29tmcft. Mullaperiyar reservoir, which meets the requirements of the five southern districts, including Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Sivaganga, and Ramanathapuram, has only 1.6tmcft against a 10.57tmcft capacity. In the PAP group of dams, Parambikulam has only 4.6tmcft against 13.4tmcft, while Aliyar has 1tmcft against 3.8tmcft.
India Today
01-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
BJP's caste census strike: Why did Modi government make a U-turn?
In a move that has stunned the Opposition and political pundits, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre announced it will conduct a caste census. The Congress party, of course, is taking credit for the move, saying that the saffron party conceded to relentless pressure from Rahul Gandhi. BJP supporters, on the other hand, are calling this move a masterstroke, claiming it has taken the sting out of the Opposition's main poll plank ahead of the Bihar Assembly the move came as a surprise as the BJP has long been non-committal about it. It has consolidated a Hindu-majority vote bank on the lines of Hindutva and nationalism, and exhorted voters to rise above caste. It has been successful to a large extent with massive victories in the 2014 and 2019 general elections and many state elections. So, what made the BJP, which once called the demand for a caste census divisive, take a U-turn?1) Congress push for social justice: The Congress party guaranteed a nationwide caste census if it came to power. In two of the three states where it is in power, the party has followed through on this promise, indicating this isn't just a gimmick. It has also promised to pass a constitutional amendment to raise the Supreme Court-mandated 50 per cent cap on reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. advertisement Since OBC reservations currently stand at 27 per cent, and SC-STs enjoy almost a 100 per cent reservation vis-a-vis their population, raising the cap is likely to benefit OBCs. The Congress hopes to break the BJP's hold on the OBC vote bloc, making social justice its main plank in the plenary session held in Gujarat. The Congress has realised that without this, it can't stop the saffron party juggernaut in any upcoming election.2) Setback in 2024 Lok Sabha polls: The BJP shied away from conducting a caste census as it was able to consolidate the support of OBCs over the years, doubling from 22 per cent in 2009 to 44 per cent in 2019. And for good reason. The prime minister and many BJP chief ministers are OBC. The party has given OBC leaders a lot of representation through election tickets and central and state cabinet roles. This is how it wooed OBCs from the Congress and regional the 2024 general elections, however, the BJP did not perform as expected, falling short of a simple majority. The National Democratic Alliance couldn't even cross 300 seats against the party's declaration of 'char sau paar'. According to CSDS data, the NDA lost four per cent of the Hindu Upper-OBC support while the INDIA bloc gained 11 per cent support from Upper-OBCs and seven per cent from Lower-OBCs. These seemingly small figures for the NDA mask a significant realignment, especially in the Hindi heartland. In Bihar, while the NDA won 30 out of the 40 seats, it lost nine seats compared to 2019. While the NDA recorded a 12 per cent drop in Kurmi-Koeri support and a dramatic 24 per cent decline among Other-OBC votes, the INDIA bloc gained nine and just over one per cent respectively. In Uttar Pradesh, the NDA won just 36 of the 80 seats, a loss of 28 compared to 2019, as Akhilesh Yadav's Pichade (Backward classes), Dalit, and Alpsankhyak (Minorities) formula (also called PDA) trumped Hindutva. The loss of support was even more striking: 19 per cent amongst Kurmi-Koeri and 13 per cent amongst Other-OBCs.3) Upcoming Bihar and UP elections: Caste is cast in stone in Indian politics, with 55 per cent of voters preferring leaders of their caste as per a 2018 Aziz Premji Institute study. As Bihar gears up for another electoral battle, the contest is expected to be tight, given Nitish Kumar's declining health and the burden of a 20-year anti-incumbency. The BJP-led NDA coalition, once considered invincible in its ability to forge social coalitions, appears to be facing a growing challenge from the Opposition's renewed focus on caste calculations and attempts to expand its vote base beyond Muslims and isn't a sudden development. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, when Nitish Kumar was still firmly in the NDA camp, the coalition had already lost 10 per cent of OBC/EBC support while the Mahagathbandhan gained seven per cent. That election ended in a virtual tie with both alliances securing around 37 per cent vote share each, with the difference being less than 12,000 Bihar, Nitish Kumar has already conducted a caste survey, triggering a credit war between the Mahagathbandhan and the NDA — a clear indication of its political potency. The Mahagathbandhan has gone a step further, announcing its intention to breach the 50 per cent reservation ceiling established by the Supreme Court. Nitish Kumar's government had even raised the reservation cap to 65 per cent in Bihar, a move eventually struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Yet the political messaging was clear: the Janata Dal (United) leader understands the power of caste arithmetic in Bihar's complex social landscape. Meanwhile, the NDA remained conspicuously non-committal on this controversial issue. advertisementIn UP, where polls are due in 2027, the BJP needs to puncture Akhilesh Yadav's PDA formula. Though in by-polls, the BJP emerged victorious, it knows very well that incumbents hold an edge as voters lose interest. The Samajwadi Party marched ahead of the BJP in grabbing the non-Jatav votes, 56 per cent versus 29 per cent. And if it succeeds in pulling the Jatav votes from the Bahujan Samaj party, whose 13 per cent vote share will be up for grabs, it'll be bad news for the for the BJPThe BJP's response seems to be an attempt to puncture the Opposition's plank ahead of crucial elections. Reservation politics and caste census demands represent deeply emotional appeals to social justice and recognition. The BJP has perhaps realised that you can ignore the caste question at your peril. If the saffron party fails to respond to this, it may find itself on the wrong side of history — and more immediately, on the wrong side of electoral the renewed strategy undoes the party's attempt to consolidate Hindu votes on religious lines under the larger Hindutva umbrella. This could lead to division of votes along caste lines, with voters deciding upon the caste of local candidates contesting, neutralising the Hindutva and nationalism could also disappoint a section of its urban and middle-class voters, who could see this decision as moving back to Mandal-era politics at a time when there is a growing chorus for a casteless society. Many supporters see this as the BJP taking a step back, similar to the Farm Opposition has been playing on the BJP's pitch for quite some time now. However, this issue provides an opportunity to force the BJP to play on their pitch. Can the Opposition leverage this? Only time will tell.(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Must Watch
Indian Express
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Supreme Court greenlights work of Metro Phase IV after DMRC assurance
With the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) agreeing to 'strictly abide' by the conditions set by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC), the top court on Tuesday allowed the Corporation to go ahead with the construction work for Phase IV of the Delhi Metro. The bench had earlier asked the CEC to examine the DMRC's request for permission to undertake the work. Even as it has given a nod to the construction in the ecologically sensitive morphological ridge area, the CEC has set 10 conditions, underlining the need to safeguard trees, a report revealed. The Phase IV of the Delhi Metro construction that will cover 28,685 square metres of protected area, includes parts near Jhandewalan and Pushpa Bhawan, stated the CEC report dated April 25. The DMRC has to safeguard trees and take prior permission under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act for felling or pruning; deposit 5% of the project cost with the Ridge Management Board for conservation efforts.; plant 1,280 indigenous trees on non-forest land as compensation, and transplant affected trees under expert supervision. These are among the conditions underlined by the panel. (see box) In Phase IV, two metro corridors — Inderlok to Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block — are set to cut through the land identified as having features similar to the Ridge, a rocky outcrop of the Aravallis that plays a crucial ecological role in Delhi and is protected through court rulings. While the first corridor affects around 20,915 square metres of ridge-like land and 122 trees, the second corridor, after design revisions, will use 7,770 square metres and avoid felling any trees, requiring only the pruning of six. In its proposal, the DMRC had stated that the corridors were approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2024 and are scheduled to be commissioned by 2029. For this, works for the construction of civil works had to start by April, it said. The report revealed that the CEC pulled up DMRC for non-compliance in the expansion phases earlier. In one such violation that it flagged, DMRC started construction on forest land in 2020 between Janakpuri and Mukarba Chowk without prior clearance. A notice was issued to then Chief Project Manager C P Singh for violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. However, no reply was received. To this, the CEC in its latest report recommended 'legal action' by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India (MoEFCC) against Singh. Highlighting another instance of non-compliance, the CEC noted that the DMRC failed to complete a Supreme Court-mandated Ridge Interpretation Centre near Patel Chowk Metro Station, which was planned to educate the public on Ridge's ecology. However, the panel also observed that the status of progress is 'satisfactory', as DMRC has mentioned this would be completed by April 2026. On Tuesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the DMRC, told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and A G Masih that it will abide by the conditions set by the panel. The bench in its order underlined, 'Solicitor General Tushar Mehta says DMRC would strictly abide by the above conditions. In that view of the matter, the application (by DMRC) is allowed. However, it is directed that the DMRC shall scrupulously comply with the conditions as imposed by the CEC.' The Ridge Management Board (RMB) was constituted in October 1995 following a Supreme Court order. The Board had become the nodal body for allowing any diversion of land for non-forest use on the Ridge. Its domain was extended to the Morphological Ridge also. The legal status of morphological ridge was reinforced through various judicial rulings, including a Delhi High Court order in a 2011 case, wherein the court upheld that any construction in such areas requires approval from the Ridge Management Board or the Supreme Court-appointed CEC in 2002.
