5 poll results out on May 2
Bengal elections in 8 phases, Assam 3 phases, rest 1 phase
The stage is set for Assembly elections in two states in eastern India, and two states and a Union territory in the South, as the Election Commission announced the voting days in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry UT. The Assembly polls for 294 seats in West Bengal will be conducted over a record eight phases, from March 27 till April 29, and that of Assam’s 126 seats in three phases — from March 27 to April 6. The southern states and the UT will hold polls in a single phase on April 6. The counting of votes for all five states/UT will be held on May 2.
Kerala has 140 Assembly seats, Tamil Nadu 234 and Puduc-herry 30. The term of Assemblies in Assam, TN and WB end in May while that of Kerala and Puducherry expires in June.
Nearly 18.68 crore voters are expected to cast their votes at 2.7 lakh polling stations for 824 Assembly seats across Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said. The EC has decided to appoint two special observers for West Bengal and a third may also be sent if required, Mr Arora said.
The CEC said webcasting will be done at polling stations in critical and vulnerable areas, while adequate deployment of Central armed police forces will be ensured. He added that all critical and vulnerable areas have been identified and advance teams have already been deployed across the four states and one Union territory. The CEC said that in view of the Covid-19 safety protocols, candidates can file their nominations online and voting will be allowed for an additional hour. Door-to-door campaigning will be restricted to five persons, including the candidate, while roadshows will be allowed with a maximum of five vehicles.
Meanwhile, in order to enable the voter to know the serial number of the electoral roll of his/her polling station, date of poll, time, etc, the EC has decided to issue a “Voter Information Slip” in place of the “Photo Voter Slip” which will include all such information but will not have the photograph of the voter. The Voter Information Slip will be distributed at least five days before the date of poll to all enrolled electors by the district election officer. However, this Voter Information Slip will not be allowed to be used as a proof of identity for voters and people will have to carry other documents.
New Delhi, Feb. 26: Everyone on election duty for the upcoming polls for five assemblies will be vaccinated against Covid-19 before polling day, the Election Commission said on Friday.
Voting will take place for 126 seats in Assam, 234 in Tamil Nadu, 294 in West Bengal, 140 in Kerala and 30 in Puducherry.
Nearly 18.68 crore electors will be eligible to vote at 2.7 lakh polling stations for 824 seats in five assembly elections, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said at a press conference here.
Arrangements will be put in place for candidates to file their nominations online for the five assembly polls. Voting will be allowed for an additional hour, keeping in mind Covid-19 safety guidelines, he said.
Also, webcasting arrangements will be in place at polling stations in critical and vulnerable areas, while adequate CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) deployment will be ensured for the assembly polls, Arora said. All critical and vulnerable areas have been identified and advance teams have been already deployed across all four states and one union territory Puducherry going to the polls, he added.
He said door-to-door campaigning will be restricted to five persons, including the candidate, while roadshows will be allowed with a maximum of five vehicles.
The decks have been cleared for the extradition from Britain of the diamond merchant Nirav Modi. It is up to India to use its heft in pursuing the matter to a conclusion by convincing the UK home secretary Priti Patel to sign off on the court ruling and allow the repatriation of a jewel thief who masterminded one of the great heists of the time in defrauding the Punjab National Bank. The booty to the tune of Rs 14,000 crore (nearly US $2 billion) is nearly the equivalent of what thieves took from the 1963 Great Train Robbery in the UK.
The Indian people, whose money it is that was swindled from the bank by the illegal use of Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) in connivance with bank officials, would be hoping that the justice system here would ultimately hand down an apt sentence commensurate with the crime. Mr Modi has also added to his repertoire such crimes as intimidation of witnesses in the form of death threats and tampering with the evidence. A jail in India may not, however, be to the liking of the notorious diamantaire as it may not quite match the decorated cell in Her Majesty’s Prison in Wandsworth which boasts of flat screen TV, high ceiling fans and a large clean bathroom.
Indian officials have done exceptionally well in pursuing the case with all the documentation necessary for the judge to deliver such a stinging indictment of Nirav Modi’s modus operandi. But, in its inability to ferret out a fraud amounting to robbery, the banking industry may not have acquitted itself as professionally. And this is not a case of straightforward business loss like many that have blighted banking to the tune of several lakh crores that have become NPAs in just the last two decades. There could not possibly any grounds on which such a character can claim asylum in Britain either, which means that at least one big fraudster who took India for a ride gets his comeuppance.
Security forces have destroyed seven camps of Maoists in Naxal-stronghold Abujhmad, a 4,000 sq km area extending from south Bastar in Chhattisgarh to Gadchhiroli in Maharashtra.
Huge cache of explosives and arms were seized during the raids on the rebel camps, Bastar range inspector general of police P. Sunderraj told this newspaper on Friday.
A counterinsurgency operation, launched in the region in the last three days, has uncovered the camps being run by the ultras in the remote pockets of Abujhmad region of districts of Narayanpur and Kanker in Bastar, he said.
The operation was launched jointly by personnel of District Reserve Group (DRG), Special Task Force (STF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in the forested villages of Baramtola, Kudulpad, Kumachalmeta, Tekmeta and Kukurgaon in Abujhmad where senior leaders of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of Maoists were said to be holed up.
Encounters took place between the security forces and Maoists at several places in the region leading to killing of a jawan of DRG and injuring to another jawan on the first day of the operation on Wednesday.
Telecom infrastructure provider RailTel Corporation of India Ltd made a strong debut with its shares zooming over 29 per cent on closing compared with the issue price. On the BSE, the scrip opened on a strong note of Rs 104.6 apiece against the IPO price of Rs 94. In intra-day trade, the stock touched a high of Rs 125.5 before settling at Rs 121.4, higher by 29.15 per cent. The RailTel IPO was subscribed 42.39 times.