Bengaluru, Apr 17 : After grueling campaign ended for 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in first phase (second phase in the country) yesterday evening, all arrangements have been made to hold a free and fair elections in Karnataka to be held on April 18.
The Lok Sabha seats, which goes for elections on Thursday, are Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Central, Bengaluru North, Bengaluru South, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru, Mandya, Hassan, Mysuru, Chamarajanagara, Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara kannada.
The polling will be held between 7 AM and end at 6 PM.
Taking into consideration the high voltage campaigning, the Election Commission, has declared Bengaluru Rural, Mandya, Hassan and Tumakuru as sensitive constituencies, and stationed additional security forces to maintain peace and tranquility during the polling.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party has put up 13 candidates, it has extended support to an independent candidate for the Mandya seat in this phase. The Congress party has fielded ten of its candidates, and its pre-poll alliance partner JD(S) is contesting in four Lok Sabha seats.
Prominent among the total number of 241 candidates who are in the fray include former Prime minister H D Deve Gowda (Tumakuru), his two grandsons Nikhil K (Mandya), Prajval Revanna (Hassan), Union ministers D V Sadananda Gowda (Bengaluru North), Ananthkumar Hegde (Uttara Kannada), former Union ministers K H Muniyappa (Kolar), V Srinivasprasad (Chamarajanagara), State BJP General secretary Shobha Karandlaje (Udupi-Chikkamagaluru) and others.
Among the total number of 30,197 polling stations, as many 6318 polling booths has been declared as sensitive. Additional police security had been deployed to prevent any untoward incidents in these segments during the polling. More than 45,000 police personnel including senior officials, will keep a strict vigil during the elections.
While highest number of 31 candidates are in the fray in the Bengaluru North, lowest number of 6 candidates are left in the fray in the Hassan.
Among the 14 Lok Sabha seats, which goes to poll tomorrow, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won 7 seats, followed by Congress in five and the remaining two seats were bagged by the JD(S), in the 2014 General elections.

A flying squad of the poll panel checked the luggage of the state BJP president at a helipad in Shivamogga district.

Bengaluru (Karnataka): With election campaign peaking in Karnataka ahead of the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, the Election Commission on Tuesday carried out a surprise check on former state chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader BS Yeddyurappa.

A flying squad of the poll panel checked the luggage of the state BJP president at a helipad in Shivamogga district.

Voting will be held in Karnataka in two phases – during second (April 18) and third (April 23) phases of polling in the Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

The development came as cracks appeared in the Karnataka BJP with an aide of senior party leader and former Deputy CM KS Eshwarappa claiming that he has incriminating documents against the former chief minister.

On Monday, the Congress party on Monday demanded that an investigation by Lokpal be ordered against Yeddyurappa in connection with a ‘payoffs diary’.

At a press conference, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the former Karnataka CM should jailed if Prime Minister Narendra Modi fails to answer whether the contents of the diary were correct.

Sibal said the Income Tax Department must act against Yeddyurappa in connection with the ‘diary’, which has been in its possession since 2012.

“The I-T and ED officials should question the ministers whose names are written in the diaries and the money trail of this black money should be found out,” Sibal said.

According to Sibal, going by the contents of the diary, the entire top BJP leadership allegedly accepted bribes to the tune of over Rs 1,800 crore.

“We had demanded a probe and since the Lokpal has been constituted, this should be the first probe by it,” Sibal said at the press conference.

“We want that the prime minister should publicly tell if this is correct or not… The prime minister should answer. If the prime minister says Yeddyurappa is speaking a lie, then why should he not be arrested. If this (contents of diary) is true then it is a very serious issue and why should Yeddyurappa not be arrested. There should be a thorough probe,” he said.

Agencies

On April 6, speaking at the University of Delhi, India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley waxed eloquent about how the world’s most-populous democracy would become the third-largest economy on the planet by 2030 after the United States and China.

By then, the size of India’s economy would have more than trebled to $10 trillion from around $2.9 trillion at present, he said.

What was noteworthy was that Jaitley’s speech hardly dwelt on the performance of the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the last five years, as India votes in the 17th general  elections between April 11 and May 19.

INFOGRAPHIC

India elections: All you need to know

Votes will be counted on May 23 to determine whether the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Modi would be elected for a second term of five years.

The day after Jaitley’s speech, the BJP released its election manifesto that promised huge investments in India’s creaking infrastructure (roads, railways, bridges and airports), the expansion of an income-support scheme for farmers, a welfare board for traders, simplifying the goods and services (GST) regime, lowering income taxes, setting up medical institutes and technology centres for small enterprises.

A few days earlier, the largest party in the opposition, the Indian National Congress had released its manifesto, the highlight of which was a grandiose scheme for income support for the poorest one-fifth of families in the country.

The BJP, which had promised between 10 million and 20 million jobs annually before the 2014 elections, has played down job creation.

Job crisis

Even spokespersons of the BJP acknowledge that much remains to be done to provide employment opportunities.

Demonetisation destroyed the country’s job-creating potential and badly hurt those employed in the informal sector

ABHIJIT SEN, ECONOMIST

“We have to work harder to create job opportunities for the youth. We have so far paid attention to investments by government bodies and we now need to boost private investments and create consumer demand by increasing the liquidity in the system,” Gopal Agarwal, the party’s national spokesman on economic issues, said.

Of late, there has been considerable controversy about data on jobs in India while the government has been accused of suppressing job data. Leaked data indicate that the unemployment rate in the country at 6.1 percent is the highest in 45 years and that an estimated 20 million young men had dropped out of the job market over the last five years. 

This is a particularly important issue in a country where half its population is below the age of 26.

Agarwal nevertheless believes that the Modi government should be credited with major achievements on the economic front.

“In 2014, when we came to power, the Indian economy was in bad shape – inflation was at double digits, the fiscal deficit was at 4.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), indicators of the ease of doing business were relatively low, the country’s foreign exchange reserves were not very comfortable and we were not getting much foreign direct investments. On all these counts, we are in a much better shape today,” he told media.

Is the BJP really concerned about India’s poor?

by Alf Gunvald Nilsen

“… We have initiated technology-driven solutions to problems, encouraged start-ups by small entrepreneurs and taken steps to move people out of agriculture and the informal sector.”

Some economists concede that one of the positive features of the Indian economy in the last five years has been the low rate of inflation. But this, they argue, is largely because the country has benefitted from low international crude oil prices.

Dependent on oil

India is dependent on imported crude oil to meet more than 80 percent of its requirements. Oil imports comprise around a third of the country’s total import bill thus impacting the country’s external balance of payments as well as the rate of inflation.

“The performance of the government on the economic front has been pretty bad if you consider the fact that over the last five years, the country has benefitted from a massive windfall on account of low crude oil prices to the extent of not less than two percent of our GDP each year,” said Abhijit Sen, a prominent economist and former member of the now-defunct Planning Commission.

We have to work harder to create job opportunities for the youth

GOPAL AGARWAL, THE BJP SPOKESPERSON

He believes that low oil prices kept inflation under check, the external balance of payments under control and ensured that the quality of government finances – including the fiscal deficits of the state governments and the central government – did not deteriorate. “Under the circumstances, the rate of growth of GDP was creditable though not as good as the government is claiming,” he said.

As world crude oil prices have firmed up over the last year or so, the inflation rate has inched up. High real rates of interest have squeezed corporate profits and suppressed consumer demand as well – sales of passenger cars and two-wheelers are down.

After coming to power, the Modi government launched a slew of welfare schemes, including a programme to give free cooking gas cylinders to women in poor households and opening bank accounts to directly transfer the benefits of government subsidies to the underprivileged.

An “insolvency and bankruptcy code” was put in place to resolve problems related to financially stressed assets of firms leading to unpaid loans taken from banks.

GST

But the opposition has accused the Modi government of not doing enough to prevent high-profile businessmen from fleeing India after defaulting billions of dollars of bank loans.

The biggest “reform” measure of the government was the movement towards a unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July 2017 that subsumed India’s complicated and messy indirect taxes regime spread across 29 states and seven federally-administered regions.

The rolling out of the GST regime, touted by the government as a classic instance of “fiscal federalism,” however, has been stymied by poor planning and implementation besides an erratic internet infrastructure.

Arguably the most important reason why the beneficial impact of the rollout of the GST was not felt was on account of the unprecedented act of banning 86 percent of the currency in circulation in 2016.READ MORE

Modi kicks off election campaign with promise of ‘new India’

Modi claimed that the shock decision would constrain the use of illegal money or black money – or the money that is not accounted for in government records – in the economy and check the use of fake currency notes by “terrorists”. Later, the government claimed that demonetisation, as the note ban was called, would usher in a “cashless” or “less-cash” society. 

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the move as an act of “organised loot and legalised plunder”.

Demonetisation “destroyed the country’s job-creating potential and badly hurt those employed in the informal sector that accounts for over 90 percent of the country’s economy,” Sen, the economist, said.

Critics said that the credibility of the economic data put out has plummeted as the government was accused of trying to manipulate it.

Economists like R Nagaraj, professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development research, Mumbai, claim that instead of a GDP growth of eight percent and 8.2 percent in fiscal years (ending 31 March) 2017 and 2018 respectively, the “actual” numbers could be two percentage points lower.

Poor performance of the agricultural sector

Even if one accepts the figures put out by the government’s Central Statistics Office, the estimated rate of growth of GDP in fiscal year 2019 has been brought down from 7.2 percent to seven percent, the lowest in five years.

“Almost all data other than the GDP growth figures, including other items in the National Accounts Statistics, shows the economy has been doing poorly in the last five years,” said Surajit Mazumdar, an economist and professor at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

“Agriculture, manufacturing and construction, investment, foreign trade, bank credit, wages, government revenues – trends in all of these show clear signs of an extremely sluggish economy incapable of creating employment opportunities that so many desperately need,” he said.

Mazumdar contends that “this is not surprising given the fact that the Modi government has consistently emphasised fiscal consolidation and reduction of the deficit – which is more about the state withdrawing from the economy rather than doing something for the economy”.

One of the reasons for the sluggish rate of growth of the economy has been the poor performance of the agricultural sector. Both the BJP and the Congress party have promised to implement schemes to provide a “minimum basic income” for farming families with small land holdings and low incomes.

What is acknowledged by all is that farming in the country has become extremely risky and provides loa returns. Close to one out of two Indians depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

“Our performance on the agriculture front has also been pretty dismal with the rate of growth of crop output less than one percent per annum over the last five years,” Sen pointed out.READ MORE

Don’t back politics that divides: Indian scientists urge voters

Hundreds of thousands of farmers have marched on the streets of the national capital, Delhi and the country’s commercial capital, Mumbai to draw attention to their plight.  

Curiously, even as Modi has been emphasising nationalism and the country’s unity in campaign speeches, his political opponents – comprising a motley combination of regional political outfits and India’s “grand old party,” the Congress, which has become weaker than ever before – are emphasising on economic issues.

The opposition has been hammering the incumbent’s government for its failure to create jobs for the youth, make farming less risky, disrupting the economy by demonetisation, allowing bad loans of banks to balloon and increasing the gap between the rich and the poor.

Even if the number of income tax assessments went up after demonetisation, many economists believe the big-bang decision hurt the weakest sections of India’s population the most – women and children dependent on them, senior citizens, farmers, daily-wage labourers and small traders and shopkeepers.

Osmanabad, Apr 16 : Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state Chief minister Devendra Fadanvis of not being serious about issues of farmers.
“Apart from solving problems of farmers, the present dispensation is only involved in criticizing Gandhi-Nehru family in their election campaigning” Mr Pawar said.
On Monday, while addressing an election rally here at Zilla Parishad Kanya Prashala ground in support of Rana Jagatsinh Patil, NCP candidate from Osmanabad Lok Sabha constituency, Mr Pawar said that if Mahagathbandhan (grand-alliance) comes into the power, total loan of farmers would be waived off without any delay.

“During the UPA tenure we had taken the decision to waive Rs 70,000 crore loan and it was implemented within period of eight days,” he said.

Talking about BJP-led state government loan waiver scheme of Rs 34,000 crore, he alleged that so far, only 10 to 15 percent farmers were benefitted by the scheme.

Mr Pawar further said during the present government farmers are not getting ‘adequate return’ to their farm products, adding that farmers are in severe loss under the rule of present government.

The NCP chief said that Mr Modi is not speaking on the issues of farmers, farmers suicides and unemployment, adding that during the election rallies the PM is only targetting Nehru-Gandhi families and further asked Mr Modi that doesn’t he know both of the families had sacrificed their lives for the country.

Referring to Mr Modi’s statement over Pawar family crises, the NCP supremo said, “we all are okay and he should not worry about our family.”
Mr Pawar also demanded that Mr Modi should clarify on the massive surge in pricing of Rafale jets. “How has the cost gone to Rs 1600 crore from Rs 350 crores in just two years.” he asked.

Mr Pawar also lambasted Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for forging alliance with BJP and that too just before the elections as Mr Thackeray had been a strong critique of Modi government from past four years.
Before election rally Mr Pawar also visited the family of Vijay Dawale at Kasbe Tadwale who had committed suicide after he was cheated by the bank chairman Vijay Dandnaik and Shiv Sena candidate Om Raje Nimbalkar, whose name he had mentioned in his suicide note.

Of the 18.54 lakh voters in Akola Lok Sabha seat, there are 2.75 lakh Dalits and 2.50 lakh Muslims. The Marathas and Kunbhi communities together constitute a vote share of 4.5 lakh. The remaining votes are scattered among various communities and sub-groups.

The stage is set for a triangular contest in the Akola Lok Sabha constituency in western Vidarbha where BJP’s three-term sitting MP Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre is fighting Prakash Yaswant Ambedkar of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and Hidayatulla Barkatulla Patel of the Congress.

Akola, the cotton capital of Vidarbha, is seeing a polarisation between Dalit and Muslims. While Muslims have pledged their support to Patel — the only minority face fielded by the Congress, majority of Dalits appear to have aligned with VBA’s Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar. The polarisation of votes, however, is likely to help the BJP retain its electoral one-upmanship in the constituency.

Referring to people’s emotional connect with Prakash Ambedkar in urban and rural Dalit ghettos, Dr Ashok Gadge, an Ambedkarite, said: “In Prakash Ambedkar, Dalits see their hopes and aspirations.

The support to (Prakash) Amdebkar transcends beyond Dalits. Through VBA smaller segments, like Dhangars and Mallis, have also joined Ambedkar.”

Of the 18.54 lakh voters in Akola Lok Sabha seat, there are 2.75 lakh Dalits and 2.50 lakh Muslims. The Marathas and Kunbhi communities together constitute a vote share of 4.5 lakh. The remaining votes are scattered among various communities and sub-groups like Malli, Koli, Banjara, Dhangar, Adivasis and Brahmins among others.

On Saturday, Dhotre (60), who represents the Maratha community, said: “My confidence has its root in the development work done by the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.” He claimed that the people in the constituency would rise above caste and community to exercise their votes for a “strong leadership”.

Making a strong pitch for the Congress-led opposition alliance at a rally in Akot Assembly segment of the constituency, Patel claimed that the party was the real custodian of all castes and classes. “Don’t look at my religion or community. You should support the leadership of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The Congress and NCP have always served the poor and the oppressed classes.”

In a sharp attack on the VBA chief, Patel said: “It is evident that Prakash, grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, is helping the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. Our leaders were willing for pre-poll alliance with his party. But he refused on the pretext of number of seats or policies.”

“There is some link between cup and saucer (poll symbol of VBA) and chai (in apparent reference to Modi),” Patel said.

BVA general secretary Dyaneshwar Sultane, meanwhile, claimed that the Congress had “already surrendered the contest to BJP”. “Patel, who has a cooperative background, appears to be the team B of the BJP. The real fight here is between the BJP and VBA,” he said. Earlier in the day, the

VBA workers had took to the streets to campaign for the party, even as Prakash Ambedkar was campaigning in Solapur where he is fighting on a second seat.

Already facing the odds of polarisation of Dalit votes, the Congress cadre in the constituency said that while the party had made a symbolic gesture by fielding a Muslim candidate from Akola, the support from top leadership was “lacking”. A senior Congress functionary, who did not wish to be named, said: “By fielding Patel, the party has made things more difficult on this seat. The decisive Muslim vote in favour of Patel will lead to greater polarisation. The non-Muslim votes will now transfer to BJP.”

Local Congress workers have also accused ally NCP of a lukewarm response, a charge that the Sharad Pawar-led party has dismissed. The NCP has a sizeable representation in the Akola District Cooperative Bank and Agriculture Produce Market Committees.

The BJP, too, seems to be facing an lukewarm ally, with party insiders conceding that a faction of the Shiv Sena has staying away from campaigning for Dhotre. However, BJP appeared to be unruffled.

“If we have to point to one seat which is safest for the BJP, it is Akola. Therefore, we are not affected by minor issues, which crop up in every election,” a BJP strategist, not wishing to be named, said.

Dhotre, who is looking for a fourth term, has won from the constituency in the last three consecutive Lok Sabha elections in 2004, 2009 and 2014.

Of the six Assembly segments — Akot, Balapur, Akola East, Akola West, Murtizapur and Risod — in the parliamentary constituency, the BJP has four sitting MLAs, the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasang and the Congress has one each.

Traditionally a Congress bastion, the party had held the turf between 1952 and 1984. The BJP had made inroads into the seat with senior leader late Pandurang Phundkar winning from Akola in 1989. The BJP held the seat in next two polls in 1991 and 1996.

The political dynamics in the constituency altered with the entry of Prakash Ambedkar, who contested from Akola under the banner of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasang. Ambedkar, who was supported by then Congress and NCP, won 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha polls from the seat. However, as the relationship with Congress and NCP soured, Ambedkar adopted an independent strategy. Interestingly, Prakash Ambedkar has remained a constant, contesting from Akola in each election since 1998.

Agencies

Bengaluru, Apr 15 : The vehicle in which Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who is also battling to retain Bengaluru North Lok Sabha seat, was subjected to a through search by Election officials who are keeping close watch on violation of Election code.
The incident took place at Gollarahatti Check post located in the Magadi main road, in the city, as soon as the car was stopped by the squad Gowda and Driver alighted from the vehicle and paved way for search and it was also Videographed.
Gowda was on his way to attend a party meeting in his constituency.

Hyderabad, Apr 10 : The stage is set for holding election to 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana on Thursday involving an electorate over 2.97 crore to decide the political fortunes of 443 candidates in the fray.

In all, 25 women candidates are trying their luck in tomorrow’s election for which elaborate arrangements have already been made in and around 34,604 polling stations all over the state.

Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency from where sitting MP and daughter of TRS Supremo and Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao ?K Kavitha-is seeking re-election has the highest number of 185 candidates, while Medak constituency has the lowest ten contestants.

Registered National and regional parties fielded have 61 candidates, other registered political parties fielded 83 while 299 independent candidates including 178 from Nizamabad constituency are in the fray.

Polling will commence at 0700 hours and conclude at 1700 hours except in extremists affected areas located along Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra borders where the polling will end at 1600 hours.

The polling in Nizamabad constituency will take place from 8000 hours to 1800 hours as the mock polling is expected to take more time than other constituencies because of the large number of contestants.

About three lakh poll officials drawn from various departments besides 141 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) were deployed at all the polling stations to ensure smooth and orderly voting.

The material and equipment which had already reached the polling stations to conduct the polling include more than 77,330 ballot units, over 41,000 control units and 43,894 voter verifiable paper audit trail machines.

The State police also made tight security arrangements to ensure that no untoward incidents take place during the polling.

Chitradurga, Karnataka, Apr 9 : Taking a dig at the ‘Nyay’ programme announced by the Congress in its election manifesto, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday gave a call to the electorates of the country to reject the party, which denied people their due for the last 70 years, with its narrow political interests.
Speaking during the ‘Vijaya Sankalpa Yatra’ at this Fort City, Mr Modi alleged that the coalition partners- Congress and Janata Dal (S) in Karnataka shed tears, when the country took strong steps to defeat terrorists backed by Pakistan, as it hurt ‘the voting bank’ of the two parties.
”So, should we not ensure ‘Nyay’ against these elements, who take people of the country for granted and always think of grabbing power only? The two parties will be punished this time, especially when a huge number of youth, born in the 21st century will take a decisive action, who will vote for the first time.
”I appeal to all 18-year-olds (new voters) to either support a strong government that takes the country forward, or choose a government that wants it’s people to remain backward, for its political ends,” he said.
Mr Modi, who visited the city for the second time for campaigning, said he was happy that so many youngsters will get their voting power for the first time, adding that the youth represented the strength of the country.
”Now, a chance has come to your lap to decide whether to support BJP, which stands for ‘Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas’ or those, who depend on their vote banks,” he added.

An election official explains the working of an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) during a voter awareness camp organised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in New Delhi on April 6, 2019. (Photo: IANS)

The Election Commission on Monday banned exit polls from 11 April to 6.30 pm on 19 May, from the first phase to the last phase of polling for the general election and assembly elections in five states.

In a notification issued here, the Commission prohibited conducting, publishing or publicising the results of exit polls “by means of the print or electronic media or in any other manner”.

“Further, under Section 126(1)(b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, displaying any election matter including results of any opinion poll or any other poll survey, in any electronic media, would be prohibited,” said a senior official of the Election Commission.

The commission has also asked electronic and print media to refrain from telecasting or publishing programmes which in any way may predict the results of the elections during the prohibited period starting 11 April.

“The Commission is of the view that prediction of results of elections in any form or manner by way of predictions, etc., by astrologers, Tarot readers, political analysts or by any persons during the prohibited period is a violation of the spirit of Section 126A which aims to prevent the electors of constituencies still going to polls from being influenced in their voting by such predictions about the prospects of the various political parties,” the commission said.

Agencies