Run up for Elections in India 2009 - I

As first phase of General Elections 2009 gets closer, the verbal duels between the BJP and Congress have gotten nastier.

Having degenerated from just between an exchange between two prime ministerial candidates speaking at public functions, it has now culminated into a full fledged war for words, almost like a free for all.

The two men have now been joined by every one from either side of the political divide of the Congress and BJP, attacking, counter attacking and replying to every allegation, every charge.

Weak PM

- Advani had called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a weak PM. "My harshest comment on the Prime Minister has been that he has proved a weak Prime Minister particularly because he has for the first time in a democracy devalued the high office of Prime Minister," said L K Advani.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh perceived that as an attack on him and countered it thus: "Weakness or strength doesn't come by loud-speaking. It comes from, I think, your capacity to act in time and with determination in difficult circumstances."

Congress weak on terror

-  On the allegation that Congress was weak on terror, Singh replied, "What did the BJP government do? The BJP government surrendered to the terrorists. When a large number of our citizens were taken hostage, we did not negotiate with the terrorists. We sent brave commandoes and they did us proud by killing nine and capturing one (terrorist)."

Rahul Gandhi is not far behind with his rhetoric on the same topic. He said, "Now, Mr Advani stated that he did not know about the flight to Kandahar, of Mr Jaswant Singh, that he did not know that these three people were being taken along. Now, my question to Mr Advani is that if he is such a strong leader how could he have been Home Minister of this country and not known something so fundamental?"

BJP, a threat to India

- On Sonia Gandhi's statement that BJP is a threat to India, Advani said, "It is a slanderous statement. In fairness to everyone in the country to her own party, to her own colleagues, to the tone and tenor of the Parliament debate on 26.11 now, she should apologise for this statement."

Congress, an old lady

- On Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's comment that Congress is a 125 year-old woman, Congress spokesperson said, "First he should dump Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the other oldest man who is in a hurry to become prime minister - Mr Advani, should be dumped into the Arabian Sea. ... CNN-IBN,  Apr 14, 2009

Advani cannot become PM, says Lalu

Lal Krishna Advani pradhan mantri nahi ban sakte hain kyunki unki kundli mein rajyog nahi hai

(Lal Krishna Advani is not destined to become the prime minister as his kundli does not have the `Rajyog'), said Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav while addressing a big gathering at the Saifai Pandal ground in Etawah district. He along with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan addressed their first pre-poll rally on Thursday. 

He went on to add without directly pin-pointing Congress that the party has fielded many candidates not to win the elections but merely to save the crumbling party structure.

He equated the Fourth Front to mythological `Pandavas', who had come together to win Hastinapur - modern day Delhi - and said that the coming together of the Yadav-duo and Paswan has spoiled the arithmetics of other parties like UPA, NDA and the newly formed Third front.

Making a scathing attack on BSP and BJP, Lalu termed both the parties as "ek hi sikke ke do pahlu". He said that "

jis BJP ne POTA banaya tha ab usey SOTA (hunter) ki zaroorat hai aur ab poori ki poori NDA ka safaya ho chuka hai

Meanwhile, Mulayam said, "SP, RJD and LJP have not come together to grab power in the Centre but this combination will continue to remain one for the causes of farmers, peasants, women and for other maginalised sections of the society." Terming their combination as indispensable in touching the magic number of 272 for forming government at the Centre, one cannot ignore the Fourth Front, Yadav added. 

Paswan was also not far behind in verbal assault and lambasted at BSP supremo Mayawati. "She is not a true representative of `dalits' as she is trying to place herself above Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Her ongoing statue projects in the state capital reflect her thought process, in which she is trying to replace Baba Saheb statues with her statues.

He further said that she is the same Mayawati, who once had given a slogan "Tilak, taraju aur talwar, inko maro joote chaar" and now to woo upper caste, BSP has come up with a new slogan saying "Brahmin Shankh Bajayega aur Haathi Dilli Jayega."

Revealing his winning formula, Paswan said that "we are aiming a clean sweep on 80 seats in UP, 40 in Bihar and 14 in Jharkhand to come up with a formidable alliance after Lok Sabha elections.

 April 9, TNN

Log on to get your candidate's criminal record

Want to know if the candidate you plan to vote for these elections has a criminal record? Thanks to the efforts of a recently launched "No Criminals" campaign, you can do that now, either by logging on to their website or sending an SMS.

Just over a month old, the campaign, whose goal is to wipe out criminalisation of politics, is gaining momentum amongst people, especially youngsters. 

Guru Murthy, one of the coordinators of the campaign, said that the idea of the campaign is to give a voter more right than just casting his ballot.

"As citizens of this country, we have more right than just voting. We have the right to select the right candidate - someone who has a clean record and will actually work for the welfare of the masses. This is what our campaign aims to do - help a person make a conscious decision in not voting for a criminal,".

To find out if a candidate in a particular constituency has a criminal record, one can send an

SMS to 567678 typing NC (space) (pincode of the place) and get registered with the campaign

. Thereafter, he or she will get an SMS giving details of any criminal record of the MP in the constituency.

Or one can log on to the campaign's website

www.nocriminals.org

and follow a similar procedure.

According to the National Election Watch (NEW), a group of election observers, six major political parties have already fielded at least 63 Lok Sabha candidates who face criminal charges or have a criminal past. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leads the list with 28 such candidates.

There are also 13 from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), five each from the Congress and the Samajwadi Party and two from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). 

At the moment, most of the data available with the "No Criminals" campaign is old, gleaned from the affidavits submitted by candidates during the last Lok Sabha polls in 2004.

"As of now the data available is from 2004. However, a week before a state goes to the polls - when the withdrawal of nominations to elections is completed - the data will be updated. So for the states going to the polls on April 16, when the first phase of the elections begin, the latest data on the contestants will be available from Sunday night," Murthy said.

The campaign has also tied up with several other organisations like NEW, youth groups like Youth for Equality and other campaigns like Jaago Re, which urge the people to vote.

"Funds are a problem when it comes to publicising our effort. But we are doing all that we can - tying up with other organisations, organising art exhibitions, making our presence felt in web space through social networking sites and two advertisements.

"People are really desperate for a positive change and a cleaner political scenario. It may seem like a Utopian idea now, but if people promise not to vote for criminals, then with time even political parties will stop fielding them," Murty said.

Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, April 14, 2009

April 14 - Last day of campaigning for Phase I of Lok Sabha polls

It's the last day of campaigning today for the first phase of polling on the April 16 and making a last ditch effort to reach out to undecided voters are Sonia Gandhi in Madhya Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab where he will be holding his first rally.

Priyanka Gandhi in Amethi, Mayawati in Jaipur and Narendra Modi in north and central Gujarat.

Rahul's rally will be at Talwandi Sabo where Raninder Singh, son of Captain Amarinder Singh is facing a tough fight from the Badal family.

In the first phase, polling will be held in 17 states. One-twenty four of the 543 seats in Parliament will be decided in this phase. 

The states going to the polls in the first phase include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and some seats in Orissa in the east, Jammu and Kashmir, 16 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 13 in Bihar, 6 in Jharkhand in north India, 13 seats in Maharashtra and Chattisgarh in the west and Andhra Pradesh, Kerala Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep in the south.

NDTV , April 14.
Interesting facts about indelible voter’s ink

INDELIBLE INK is a not an ordinary ink. Once applied on the finger it dries up in 60 seconds and remains for a few months. It cannot be removed by any chemical, detergents or oil.

This ink is being applied on a voter’s finger as a line from the top end of the nail to the bottom of the first joint of the left forefinger with effect from 1.2.2006. Earlier, the ink was applied on the joint of nail and skin.

In the case of proxy voting, the ink is applied on the middle finger of the left hand of proxy.

 The ink plays an important role for conducting fair and impartial elections to control fake voting.

It ensures that each voter exercises only one vote.

Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited

, a Government of Karnataka undertaking manufactures this special ink and also exports it to many countries.

INTERESTING FACTS OF GENERAL ELECTIONS 2004

First General Elections to Lok Sabha conducted completely by using Electronic Voting Machines in all Polling Stations .

671,487,930 electorates registered in the electoral rolls.

5435 candidates contested the elections for which 6,87,402 polling stations set up.

 3050 candidates represented 215 political parties and 2385 candidates were Independents.

Polling station with least no of electors: Only ONE voter in Polling station No. - 29;(Dharampur) in Miao Assembly segment of Arunachal East parliamentary constituency .

 Parliamentary Constituency with Largest Number of Electors -3368399( Outer Delhi)

 Parliamentary Constituency with Lowest Number of Electors – 39033 ( Lakshadweep)

 Maximum contestants in a parliamentary constituency - 35 (Madras south)

 Maximum Women contestants in a state - 61 (UP)

 Minimum women contestants in a state -1 (Goa)

 Maximum women winners - 7 (UP)

 Out of 543 elected MPs, 45 were women.

 Maximum age of the candidate-94 years (Ramchandra Veerappa in Bidar, Karnataka)

 Minimum age of the candidate - 25 years (Many).

 Maximum age of the winning candidate-94 years (Ramchandra Veerappa in Bidar, Karnataka)

 Minimum age of the winning candidate-26 years Sachin Pilot in Dausa (Rajasthan)

 Maximum votes secured - Sajjan Kumar outer Delhi - 855543

 Minimum votes secured - Ashok Kumar chandni chowk- 45

 Minimum votes secured by a winner - Dr. P. Pookunhikoya - 15597 votes (Lakshadweep).

Finally ....  Tid-bits

Scribes are offered tea after briefings by local leaders but soft-drinks and snacks after those by central leaders. Says a journalist: "We can tell it it's a local or a national leader by just seeing the snacks."

The EC wanted to use a song from Rock On!! to inspire Delhiites to vote but the song cost 25 lakh. So, it has opted for Dance pe chance mar le from the film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi instead.

Authorities of a school in Pune have declared that students will be awarded two grace marks in Civics if they ensured that their parents voted in the upcoming general elections.

For the first time, a women battalion of the Shashtra Seema Bal would be deployed along the Indo-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh during the Lok Sabha elections.Danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, who is contesting as an Independent from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, has challenged her opponent L.K.Advani to a public debate on his achievements.

These elections, the EVMs will not only record your vote but also note the exact time you cast it. They'll give hourly updates of balloting and make voting practically tamper-proof.

 A eunuchs' association in Orissa will field a candidate against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

 'Love Guru' Matuknath Choudhary will contest as an Independent. He will use 'heart' as the poll symbol.

 The EC will give Rs 10 lakh as damages if any officer dies in extremist attacks during polls.

 Amar Singh will play the role of India’s home minister in Dev Anand’s film, Chargesheet.

 Postmen in Jharkhand will now deliver pamphlets and messages of various political parties to the voters.

Inspired by the ‘Modi mask’, the BSP has come up with the ‘Maya mask’ to raise Behenji’s popularity.

The BJP has tied up with popular radio channel BigFM in Goa, hoping to build its appeal among young voters.

M.S. Aiyar says politics is now a ‘circus’, with everyone dreaming to become PM.

EC may set up Braille EVMs at some booths across the country to help visually challenged voters.

http://www.buzzintown.com/articles/E2009