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AAP, TMC believe that a fasting Muslim is less likely to vote, see BJP conspiracy in election schedule

OpIndia Staff
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AAP, TMC believe that a fasting Muslim is less likely to vote, see BJP conspiracy in election schedule

AAP legislator Amanatullah Khan, an accused in Delhi Chief Secretary assault case, has yet again stoked controversy as he not only sought votes on the basis of religion, which is a violation under the Representation of the People Act but also equated the election process to ‘Ramzan’, to further polarise and communalise the general elections.

In a similar communal incitement, Firhad Hakim, senior TMC leader and Kolkata Mayor, has claimed that seven-phase elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal will be tough for Muslim voters as they observe ‘Roza’ ahead of Ramzan festival. He further added that BJP did not want minorities to cast their votes. “But we aren’t worried. People are committed to ‘BJP hatao-desh bachao’,” said Hakim.

The controversial Delhi legislator tweeted a communal post after the Election Commission announced the dates of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In his post, Amanatullah Khan said that May 12, the date on which Delhi will be going for polls, will be celebrated as ‘Ramzan’ and cautioned Muslims of aiding BJP to win, if they do not vote in large numbers.

“May 12 will be the day of Ramzan in Delhi if Muslims vote less, it will directly help the BJP,” said Amanatullah Khan.


Amanatullah Khan blatant polarisation and seeking votes in the name of religion is a violation of Section 123(3) of the Representation of the People Act. The Supreme Court has ruled that “religion, race, caste, community or language would not be allowed to play any role in the electoral process”.

Section 123(3) of the Act defines as “corrupt practice” appeals made by a candidate or his agents to vote or refrain from voting for any person on the ground of “his” religion, race, caste, community or language. The election of a candidate would be declared null and void if an appeal is made to seek votes on these considerations.

This is not the first time that Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party has been indulging in such divisive communal politics. In a bid to appease the Muslim community of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal in January had announced salary hike for Imams of Delhi mosque, from Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000. Addition to that, the salary of the helpers was also increased from Rs 9,000 per month to Rs 16,000 per month. At the event, CM Kejriwal and MLA Khan, both had made a similar appeal to Muslim communities to extend their support to Aam Aadmi Party, in the upcoming general elections.

Rahul Gandhi finds a supporter in Former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf

OpIndia Staff
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Rahul Gandhi finds a supporter in Former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has found a supporter in Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf who said that he would like Rahul Gandhi to be the next Prime Minister of India after the Lok Sabha elections. Musharraf in an interview given to a Tamil News channel Thanthi TV was asked what were his hopes regarding the Lok Sabha elections in India. To this, he replied, “My hopes, frankly, honestly talking, not for India or Pakistan, if we want peace Modi Saab is not the man for peace”.

When asked whether he thought whether Rahul Gandhi was a better leader, Musharraf said, “Yeah, I think he looks to be a very good gentleman”. Musharraf, apparently, was impressed by how Rahul Gandhi had treated his family when they were on a visit to India.

“At least once my mother elder brother, my mother and my son went to Delhi when I was President. Rahul invited my son, they had a cup of tea together. Manmohan Singh invited all three of them for lunch”, he said.

Musharraf is not the only fan of the Congress dynast, there is a large certain section of Modi-haters in Pakistan who pray for the Congress Party to come in power after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It seems that a political campaign is going on for the Congress Party in Pakistan. Earlier in a panel discussion on a Pakistani News channel 92 News, a panellist named Zafar Hilaly spewed venom against the PM Modi while praising the opposition parties in India and wished that the Modi government did not come to power again.


In another panel discussion on Samaa TV, a Pakistani News channel, a panellist clearly said how he wished that the Congress Party came to power after next elections.

Several times Pakistani leaders including Pakistani PM Imran Khan have talked about resuming peace talks only after the results of 2019 general elections. Pakistan’s love for Rahul Gandhi and his party has been reciprocated in equal terms by Congress leaders. Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer, whose affection for Pakistan is an open secret, had said in an interview to a Pakistani News channel that to start a dialogue between the two countries PM Modi needs to be removed. Recently Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu who received a lot of criticism for attending Imran Khan’s oath-taking ceremony, called the Pakistani PM an ‘angel’ while crediting him for the initiation of Kartarpur Corridor.

Congress was also caught running a “Modi hatao desh bachao” Facebook advertisement in Pakistan.

If Pakistan claims to be naya Pakistan with naya soch, then we want to see naya action on terror groups: MEA

OpIndia Staff
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If Pakistan claims to be naya Pakistan with naya soch, then we want to see naya action on terror groups: MEA

On Saturday, the Ministry of External Affairs expressed its suspicion regarding Pakistan’s purported crackdown on terrorist groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen which are inflicting terror on India from Pakistani territory.

Speaking to the media, Raveesh Kumar, the MEA spokesperson, said Pakistan’s arrests and detention of extremist leaders followed the “same script” used in the aftermath of previous terror incidents in India such as the attack on Parliament in 2001, Mumbai terror attacks in 2008 and the Pathankot air base attack in 2016. Kumar said Pakistan’s action against terrorists was “only on paper” and said the country’s military spokesperson had denied the presence of Jaish-e-Mohammed on its territory despite the fact that Pakistan Foreign Minister had accepted that Jaish chief Massod Azhar was present in Pakistan.

Rajeev Kumar further added that Pakistan was yet to take credible action against terrorist groups operating on its soil. Referring to the recent statements of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, where he had affirmed that the Jaish-e-Mohammed was indeed operating in the country, Rajeev Kumar said, “If Pakistan claims to be naya (new) Pakistan with naya soch, then we want to see naya action.”

Rajeev Kumar further emphasised that India had not “escalated” tensions with Pakistan in the wake of the Indian Air Force strike on Balakot and called the operation a “non-military” strike to avert possible terrorist attacks in the country. Kumar added India would act with “maturity” and “determination” in confronting terrorism.

Kumar also questioned Pakistan on why it had denied the use of the F-16 fighter in the skirmish with India and noted New Delhi had provided evidence of the use of the fighter jet to the US. Kumar said there were accounts of few eyewitness and electronic evidence of IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman shooting down an F-16 and India had also shared proof of parts of Amraam missile which can only be carried by F-16.

“We have been transparent in informing the media about the incidents of February 27. One Mig-21 was shot down. Pakistan continues to peddle fake news that they shot down two of our aircraft. If as Pakistan claims it has a video recording of the downing of a second Indian aircraft then why have they not shared the video with international media?” questioned MEA spokesperson.

Rajeev Kumar, while reacting to reports of fugitive businessman Nirav Modi being spotted in London, said that the UK was still considering India’s request for extradition. “The fact that we have requested for extradition means we were aware he was in the UK. There is a process involved. It is now up to the UK government to respond to our request.” He added, “The Enforcement Directorate sent us a request early August which we sent to the UK. CBI sent us one towards the end of August. The UK is considering both requests and we have no other information.”

TMC raised ₹6.50 crore through sale of Mamata Banerjee’s paintings after coming to power, sale stopped after chit fund scams exposed

OpIndia Staff
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TMC raised ₹6.50 crore through sale of Mamata Banerjee’s paintings after coming to power, sale stopped after chit fund scams exposed

Amid the CBI’s investigation into multi-crore chit fund scams in West Bengal and involvement of the ruling party leaders in them, a DNA report has put forth some affidavits submitted by TMC in 2011-12 and 2012-12 which show the sale of CM Mamta Banerjee’s paintings at an exorbitant price.

As per affidavit submitted by TMC to Election Commission in the year 2011-12, when the party ascended to power in West Bengal, it obtained Rs 3,93,90,000 and in the subsequent year of 2012-13, it obtained Rs 2,53,00,000 by the sale of CM Banerjee paintings. In total, Rs 6,46,90,000 were collected through these years by the sale of CM’s paintings.

One of Mamata’s paintings.

Interestingly, not a single penny was collected in the year before its rise to power and from 2013-14 and 2017-18.

According to the report, it is alleged that many of the buyers of these paintings were head of several Ponzi scheme firms who had gone behind bars in 2012 when the scandals got exposed, and coincidently no buying of such paintings happened after 2012-13.

One of the paintings by Mamata Banerjee

Last month, CBI had even questioned Manik Majumdar, a close aide of the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, about the sale proceeds of the paintings and even sent a notice to her party’s MP Derek O’Brien. Majumdar was questioned over how the proceeds of the CM’s paintings were utilised. TMC has long maintained its stand that money obtained from the sale of paintings were utilized for extending operations of Jago Bangla, the mouthpiece newspaper of the party.

While no TMC leader issued a clarification on the DNA report, the opposition has slammed the state government for suspicious sales of paintings and amount received from it.

“Normally it is seen that painters’ sale of paintings is a regular affair and with time their demand and price rise. In this case what we have observed that after TMC ascended to power she suddenly became a reputed painter and after chit fund company bosses were either sent to jail or are absconding, her paintings are no longer in demand, which is highly unlikely” CPI(M) MP Md Salim was quoted by DNA. Salim further said that CM Banerjee had said that her party does not raise funds from public donations but the sale of paintings.

“Now that her paintings were not selling but party expenses have risen manifolds, has her party resorted to patronising syndicate raj and extortion rackets?” He added.

State Congress president Somen Mitra also took a dig at TMC “We will have to find out how much Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings fetched in one year. There are some renowned painters in TMC.” He added that now chit-fund companies have shut-down and their owners are in jail “it should be found out whether the paintings are in their drawing rooms or in the garages.”

BJP national secretary and former party state president Rahul Sinha claimed that this proves Ponzi firms owners bought CM’s paintings and demanded a probe by Election Commission of India.

Sentenced for 2 years in prison for rioting, Hardik Patel joins Rahul Gandhi’s Congress to ‘serve 125 crore people’

OpIndia Staff
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Sentenced for 2 years in prison for rioting, Hardik Patel joins Rahul Gandhi’s Congress to ‘serve 125 crore people’

Right after the Election Commission announced the 2019 Lok Sabha Election dates, convict Hardik Patel has announced that he will be joining Indian National Congress to “serve 125 crore people of the country”.


Hardik Patel also said that IF there is no “legal hindrance” and party (Congress) decides to field him in electoral politics, he will abide by the party’s decision. On 9th March 2019, Hardik Patel has applied to stay his conviction in a rioting case where he has been convicted and sentenced to 2 years in prison, and that would stop him from fighting elections. In 2018 August, the court had suspended his sentence and given him bail. However, since he is still convicted and the conviction itself was not stayed by the court, he wouldn’t be able to fight elections.


Hardik Patel, who has now joined Congress had threatened to launch a stir against Rahul Gandhi if Congress didn’t make its stand clear on Patidar reservations. Interestingly, Rahul Gandhi is yet to make his stand clear, however, that hasn’t stopped Hardik Patel from pulling an Arvind Kejriwal and joining Congress nonetheless.

The Patidar Andolan in Gujrat had brought the state to a standstill in 2015 as widespread incidents of violence and clashes had caused intense law and order situations. A total of 9 people had died and the Army was deployed to maintain peace. A total of 5000 paramilitary personnel had to be posted in different cities to help control the situation. Then 22-year-old Hardik Patel had made several objectionable remarks in a rally that had turned violent.

Hardik Patel is now convicted for causing riots in Mehasana and has been found guilty of charges related to arson and creating a ruckus at the office of BJP MLA Rushikesh Patel. Charges of sedition have also been framed against him.

Earlier in February, his close aide Nikhil Savani had surrendered himself to police in case of causing riot and arson.

In July 2018, After the suspected hooch tragedy, the ‘Merchants of Menace’, Jignesh Mevani, Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor and Hardik Patel, staying true to their ‘forever agitating’ image, decided to launch a stir against liquor and raid liquor dens all on their own. Two days after this raid, the police has booked the ‘Merchants of Menace’ on charges of house trespassing and providing false evidence about the seizure of liquor from the house they raided.

With his colourful history, while Hardik Patel is now hankering for a Lok Sabha ticket, his political career has been less than impressive, barring the violence he has unleashed on India. In 2018, Hardik Patel was welcomed with eggs and sandals in Madhya Pradesh and had addressed a rally full of empty chairs in Bhopal.

In September 2018, Hardik had sat on an unsuccessful “indefinite fast”, and when he realised that the fast is not earning him any political capital, he had ended his fast and gone for a month long session of ‘strategising’. It would surely appear that what we have witnessed today is the result of that month-long strategising session.

Here are the State-wise poll dates of 7-phase 2019 Lok Sabha Election

OpIndia Staff
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Here are the State-wise poll dates of 7-phase 2019 Lok Sabha Election

The dates for election for 17th Lok Sabha was announced today by the Election Commission of India, which will be held in 7 phases from 11th April to 19th May, while the counting of votes will take place on 23rd May. Here is the detail state wise phases of the election schedule.

Phase Date of poll States with number of seats in bracket Total seats
1st phase  11th April Andhra Pradesh (25), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Assam (5), Bihar (4), Chhattisgarh (1), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Maharashtra (7), Manipur (1), Meghalaya (2), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Odisha (4), Sikkim (1), Telangana (17), Tripura (1), Uttar Pradesh (8), Uttarakhand (5), West Bengal (2), Andaman Nicobar (1), Lakshadweep (1) 91
2nd Phase  18th April Assam (5), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (3), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (10), Manipur (1), Odisha (5), Tamil Nadu (39), Tripura (1), Uttar Pradesh (8), West Bengal (3), Puducherry (1) 97
3rd Phase  23rd April Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Gujarat (26), Goa (2), Jammu and Kashmir (1), Karnataka (14), Kerala (20), Maharashtra (14), Odisha (6), Uttar Pradesh (10), West Bengal (5), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1), Daman and Diu (1), 115

 
4th Phase  29th April Bihar (5), Jammu and Kashmir (1), Jharkhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (6), Maharashtra (17), Odisha (6), Rajasthan (13), Uttar Pradesh (13), West Bengal (8) 71
5th Phase  6th May Bihar (5), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Jharkhand (4), Madhya Pradesh (7), Rajasthan (12), Uttar Pradesh (14), West Bengal (7) 51
6th Phase  12th May Bihar (8), Haryana (10), Jharkhand (4), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (14), West Bengal (8), Delhi (7) 59
7th Phase  19th May Bihar (8), Jharkhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (8), Punjab (13), West Bengal (9), Chandigarh (1), Uttar Pradesh (13), Himachal Pradesh (4) 59

 

There will be 2 phase elections in 4 states, 3 phase elections in 2 states, 4 phase elections in 4 states, 5 phase election in 1 states, and 7 phase elections in 3 states, while the rest go for single-phase election.

State/UT No. of seats Poll dates No. of Phases
11/04 18/04 23/04 29/04 06/05 12/05 19/05
Andhra Pradesh 25 25 1
Arunachal Pradesh 2 2 1
Assam 14 5 5 4 3
Bihar 40 4 5 5 5 5 8 8 7
Chhattisgarh 11 1 3 7 3
Goa 2 2 1
Gujarat 26 26 1
Haryana 10 10 1
Himachal Pradesh 4 4 1
Jammu & Kashmir 6 2 2 1 1 2 5
Jharkhand 14 3 4 4 3 4
Karnataka 28 14 14 2
Kerala 20 20 1
Madhya Pradesh 29 6 7 8 8 4
Maharashtra 48 7 10 14 17 4
Manipur 2 1 1 2
Meghalaya 2 2 1
Mizoram 1 1 1
Nagaland 1 1 1
Odisha 21 4 5 6 6 4
Punjab 13 13 1
Rajasthan 25 13 12 2
Sikkim 1 1 1
Tamil Nadu 39 39 1
Telangana 17 17 1
Tripura 2 1 1 2
Uttar Pradesh 80 8 8 10 13 14 14 13 7
Uttarakhand 5 5 1
West Bengal 42 2 3 5 8 7 8 9 7
A & N Islands 1 1 1
Chandigarh 1 1 1
Dadra & Nagar Haveli 1 1 1
Daman & Diu 1 1 1
Lakshadweep 1 1 1
NCT of Delhi 7 7 1
Puducherry 1 1 1
Total constituencies 543 91 97 115 71 51 59 59
No of States/UTs in each Poll Day 20 13 14 9 7 7 8

AAP has managed to politicise even a scheduled announcement of election dates, here’s how

OpIndia Staff
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AAP has managed to politicise even a scheduled announcement of election dates, here’s how

Aam Admi Party leader Sanjay Singh has raised questions over the timings of the dates of Lok Sabha polls to be held this year. After the Election Commission (EC) decided to hold a press conference scheduled at 5 p.m to announce the dates of Lok Sabha elections, the AAP leader accused the highest election body of acting on the instructions of the BJP. Singh posted a tweet from his twitter handle asking whether the Election Commission operates from the BJP office.


Singh tacitly suggested that the announcement of the election has been delayed to suit PM Modi’s schedule. He said that in 2014 election dates were announced on March 5 while this time the election date is being announced today, after allowing sufficient time to Modi to complete his rallies.


Raking up the EVM issue, Singh said that several parties including the AAP had met the Election Commission with a request to count the VVPAT slips of the polls where EVM was used but no reply came from the EC.

The Election dates have always been announced in the month of March as during the 2009 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections also the dates were announced on March 2 and March 1 respectively and this time, the election is happening in 7 phases as compared the 9 phases previously.

Addressing the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that the EC held talks with the Chief Ministers of all the States and Union Territories and with the officials of other departments to ensure smooth conduct of elections.

The opposition parties seem to have made a habit out of casting aspersions on the Election Commission and the Election process. In fact, their demands for VVPAT and grows into a shrill every time they sense the possibility of an imminent loss. Simultaneously, while when they win, they seem to accept the mandate graciously, every time they lose, they seem to want to country to believe that PM Modi magically tampered with the EVMs only in that election.

With the first phase of Lok Sabha elections beginning on 11th April, one can expect to see several more of such inane statements in the near future.

While Dhruv Rathee blames BJP for spending crores on ads, who is sponsoring promotion of his Youtube video on Rafale deal?

OpIndia Staff
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While Dhruv Rathee blames BJP for spending crores on ads, who is sponsoring promotion of his Youtube video on Rafale deal?

On 10th March, propaganda video blogger Dhruv Rathee posted on Facebook that BJP supporting pages on Facebook spent ₹2.3 crore on Facebook ads in just one month. He also claimed that this is 70% of all money spent on Facebook advertisements from India.

To his post, a Facebook user replied with a screenshot showing that Dhruv Rathee himself was advertising his video on Youtube. The screenshot showed a Youtube search ad for Rathee’s video on Rafale deal.

Reply by Aman Raj to Dhruv Rathee

To this, he claimed that it is Photoshopped, and he never spent money on advertising to promote his videos on Youtube.

Dhruv Rathee’s comment claiming the screenshot is Photoshoped

This is a completely false claim be Dhruv Rathee, because the screenshot is real, not Photoshopped as he claims. When we searched for the term ‘Rafale deal’, we also got an ad for his video on the top of the search results.

Youtube search result showing advertisement for the video

This is known as ‘In discovery ad’ on Youtube, where advertisements for selected video is shown when someone searches videos using specified search terms, or when similar videos are seen on Youtube.

Several persons on Facebook countered Dhruv by saying that the image is not fake and they saw the ad themselves. Caught lying red-handed, he used a new excuse in his defence. He gave a very strange claim saying that some unknown person is doing promotion in his name. He claimed that it is not done from his account and he has no idea who was doing it.

Dhruv Rathee saying someone else promoting his video

One needs to spend money to run advertisements promoting a video, so it is rather strange that someone will be spending money on a video created by someone else. Dhruv’s videos are political in nature, and the most likely candidates who could have spent money on his videos would be political parties which are helped by his videos. More importantly, Dhruv Rathee has monetised his Youtube channel, which means he is running ads on videos posted by him on Youtube, and earning money from those ads through his Google Adsense account. If it is true that someone else is paying to promote his videos, it means someone else is indirectly helping him earn more money by promoting his video.

This points towards a dangerous trend that may be taking place in Youtube, where political parties may be promoting videos that help in spreading their propaganda without taking responsibility for what is being shown or said in such videos. This means anyone can create a video filled with lies targeting a political party, and a rival political party can run ads promoting that video. With increased focus on the influence of social media on politics in various countries, this is also a matter that should be looked into by both the social media companies and authorities.

Several people also raised the doubt whether someone can promote videos they don’t own. So we looked into this aspect also, also Google policy says that to advertise copyrighted content, one must either own the copyright or be legally authorized to advertise with it, it does not seem to prohibit promoting videos uploaded by someone else.

Test campaign on Google AdWords to promote a 3rd party video

We tested this by trying to create an In Discovery advertisement for a video we don’t own, and we were successful in doing so. As shown in the screenshots here, we created a test campaign to promote a video posted by the Youtube channel of PM Narendra Modi, and the campaign was successfully created. There was no need to obtain permission from the owner of the account that posted the video for promoting the same. This means technically Dhruv Rathee’s claim that someone else may have paid to promote his video may be correct.

Test campaign to promote a 3rd party video (the test campaign was deleted immediately after taking the screenshots)

Although Dhruv Rathee had claimed that he had no knowledge of the ad, just hours after he was confronted with it, the ad was taken down. Now when searches the keyword, the ad is not shown. This means the advertisement was removed after people pointed out the same to him. If someone else was running the campaign, that entity must be monitoring Dhruv Rathee’s Facebook account so closely 24 hours a day that the moment someone raised a question about ads of his video, the ad was taken down. This seems too far-fetched, thus increasing the possibility that the ad was being run by the team of Dhruv Rathee itself.

By the way, if you need to watch any YouTube clip on Rafale deal, it’s this one:

also: Dhruv Rathee speaks the same language as the terrorist who killed 40 CRPF jawans in Pulwama attack

2019 General Elections dates announced: Polling starts from 11th April, counting to be held on 23rd May 2019

OpIndia Staff
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2019 General Elections dates announced: Polling starts from 11th April, counting to be held on 23rd May 2019

The Election Commission today held a press conference at the Vigyan Bhavan to announce the dates of the General Election 2019 with the model code of conduct coming into force immediately. The elections will be held in 7 phases instead of 9 phases previously.

Following are the dates of the Lok Sabha elections as announced by Election Commission today:

Date of Poll (Phase 1): 11th April 2019

Date of Poll (Phase 2): 18th April 2019

Date of Poll (Phase 3): 23rd April 2019

Date of Poll (Phase 4): 29th April 2019

Date of Poll (Phase 5): 6th May 2019

Date of Poll (Phase 6): 12th May 2019

Date of Poll (Phase 7): 19th May 2019

Date of counting: 23rd May 2019

Date before which elections are to be complete: 31st May 2019

The Election Commission (EC) also said that currently, there are 900 million voters now against 814.5 million in 2014 and out of that, 15 million voters are aged between 18-19 years, presumably, first-time voters.

CEC Sunil Arora said that photo voter slips are to be distributed to all registered voters at least 5 days before polling, however, it will not suffice by itself to identify voters.

In another important announcement, CEC said that 100% VVPATs are going to be employed in all polling stations. And for free and fair elections, Fresh SOPs have been put in place for last-mile transportation of EVMs with GPS tracking.

With respect to paid news, CEC said that model code of conduct would also apply to content posted on social media by parties and candidates.

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik announces 33% quota for women in allocation of tickets for Lok Sabha elections

OpIndia Staff
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Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik announces 33% quota for women in allocation of tickets for Lok Sabha elections

Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik has announced today 33 per cent quota for women in the allocation of tickets by his party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Patnaik made the announcement while addressing the Conclave organised by the Women Self Help Group (SHG) under Mission Shakti. “I would like to announce here at Kendrapara, the ‘karma bhoomi’ of legendary Biju Babu, that Odisha will send 33 per cent women to Parliament in the coming elections”, the CM said.

He said that if India wants to be an advanced country like America and China then women empowerment is the only way to it. “The women of Odisha will lead the way in women empowerment in India. If India is to lead the world if India is to be an advanced nation like America and China, then women empowerment is the only answer,” Patnaik added.

An amount of Rs 1 crore has also been sanctioned by the Chief Minister for Mission Shakti Bhawan at Kendrapara. In 2011, the Odisha government had increased reservation for women in Panchayat and Urban Local Bodies to 50%.

Patnaik’s proposal for women reservation received praise from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in February this year. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the support extended by your government in the implementation of the joint programme between UN Women and Panchayati Raj Department, Government of Odisha, to promote Gender Responsive Governance in the state”, the letter of the UN Women addressed to the Odisha CM read.

Patnaik had passed a proposal in November last year seeking the implementation of the 33% reservation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies which had received the support of the BJP and the Congress in the State Assembly.

In January this year, Patnaik had said that BJD will not be joining the Mahagathbandhan for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and will maintain the policy of equidistance from the BJP and the Congress.

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