#between march to May Panchayat Election

[avitaknews]

बिहार पंचायत चुनाव 2021 : केवल 250 रुपये चुकाकर बन सकते हैं पंच और वार्ड सदस्य पद के प्रत्याशी, जानें कैसे

बिहार पंचायत चुनाव 2021 : केवल 250 रुपये चुकाकर बन सकते हैं पंच और वार्ड सदस्य पद के प्रत्याशी, जानें कैसे

त्रिस्तरीय बिहार पंचायत चुनाव की तैयारी अंतिम चरणों में है। चुनाव की अधिसूचना अब किसी भी वक्त जारी हो सकती है। उधर सभी पदों पर प्रत्याशियों के नामांकन शुल्क का भी निर्धारण कर दिया गया है। इस बार मुखिया, पंच, सरपंच, वार्ड सदस्य, पंचायत समिति सदस्य और जिला पंचायत सदस्य के पदों पर चुनाव होंगे। निर्वाचन आयोग ने सभी छह पदों के लिए 129 चुनाव चिह्नों की घोषणा भी कर दी है। इसके अलावा कुछ चुनाव चिह्न…

[newsdesk24]

Team I-PAC in TMC's War Room: 3-4 members working on every seat, strategy to win Didi, Youngsters from Oxford, Cambridge to IIT-IIM

The IPAC team working to bring Mamata Banerjee to power in Bengal includes youngsters from Oxford, Cambridge to IIT-IIM. Most are aged between 25 and 35 years. The average age of team members is 25 years. All these elections are part of the team of strategist Prashant Kishore.

I-PAC started functioning in West Bengal in

June-2019. On the advice of this team, TMC launched many new campaigns. The announcement of the candidates was also given great importance to the Ipec's appraisal. The candidates whose performance was poor, their tickets were cut. A member of I-PAC told, 'There is someone from almost every state in our team. There are people from different professions. From nanotechnology savvy to law savvy are in the team. Journalism also has a lot of people.

He says, 'There are people of different professions, only then we get different ideas so that one can come up with a good idea. Earlier some foreigners were also part of the team, but there is no foreigner in the team working in Bengal. The special thing is that working in I-PAC is not like a company but as a college. Meaning comes on your own way, go, just complete your project, on time. There are no other restrictions.

Mamta Banerjee is trying hard to become the Chief Minister for the third time. Continuing rallies even after an injury.

There are 294 assemblies, all have team members.

There are a total of 294 assembly seats in West Bengal, all of which have members of the I-PAC. Somewhere there are three members and there are four members. These people are working closely with the local candidate. Give them public feedback. Social media campaigns run. Government schemes work to reach the people. Also, the campaigns which are being run all over the state, make them run in their area. There are many members in this team who also worked with Prashant Kishore in the Delhi elections. Arvind Kejriwal's strategist in Delhi was Prashant Kishor.

One member of the team said, 'The main difference between us and the political parties is that we have no vested interest. On the basis of feedback-facts, we describe candidates as right and wrong, whereas the leaders who are in the party have some interest. That is why they give feedback to the party according to their own. There are more than 700 members of Ipac in Bengal. Some are in office work. Some are in fieldwork.

Prashant Kishor, who once worked for Modi, is a well-known political strategist. Right now, his team is working for Mamta Banerjee in Bengal.

Didi started this program at the behest of I-PAC, 'Dware Sarkar' was the biggest hit

1. Bangla garbo mamta

Banglore Gorbo Mamta means the pride of Bengal. It is a public outreach program. Its purpose is to connect more than 25 million people of the state with Didi. Started from 2 March, the campaign will run till 10 May. More than 75 thousand party leaders, 5 lakh ground workers will hold more than 21 thousand meetings. The goal is to travel 41 thousand km across Bengal. Under this campaign, the party's target is to reach 25 million people.

2. Didi ke Bolo

Didi ke bolo means to speak to your sister. Under this program, people can register their complaints online. You can give your advice to the government through toll free number. In this, the party leaders are going to the village. Eating with villagers. It aims to cover at least 10 thousand villages.

Also read-Vegetable seller becomes a Municipal chairman

3. Didir dut

A mobile application named Didir Doot has been launched. It was downloaded 5 lakh times in 20 days. It is also a platform to connect with Didi. In this, CM's speech, news and infographics are shared. All their events, activities can be seen here.

4. Dwar government

The objective of this program is to reach the homes of the people and solve their problems and make them accessible to the government schemes. In particular, there are 11 schemes, such as Swasthya Saathi, Kanya Saathi, Kanyashree. People's health cards were made at the panchayat level. Caste certificates were issued. All the problems of the people have ended through the government. It is considered to be a very successful campaign.

[aapnugujarat1]

Core to its agenda, Sangh Pariwar prepares the ground for population control

The Sangh Pariwar has a particular kind of modus operandi of doing certain things ostensibly by making public opinion before giving them a legislative structure. Be it the case of triple talaq, abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A or many other such issues. The latest entrant into this category has been population explosion that has been announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has come a long way from demographic dividend to population explosion with all affiliate organizations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pitching in that a policy must be formulated for population control and several NGOs associated with the Sangh Pariwar have been campaigning against population growth across the country. So there is a need to understand that the PM announces any such thing only when all homework is done. There are twelve states into the country which have passed two-child policy norm for state government employees. Anyone having more than two children cannot be elected and nominated to panchayats and other local bodies’ elections or government jobs. Jansankhya Samadhan Foundation is travelling across northern India to garner support for a two-day march to New Delhi in October. It has similar plan for southern India. A BJP Rajya Sabha member and former RSS activist, Rakesh Sinha, proposed a private member’s bill – the Population Regulation Bill, 2019 – in Parliament in July. TAXAB, an RSS affiliate organization has been working for Welfare of Taxpayers and its finds Population Control one of the measures to deal with it. Several celebrities and eminent personalities from every segment of the society have come forward to join hand and pledge their support to the campaign headed by Manu Gaur. Delhi BJP leader and SC lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed a public interest litigation in Delhi High Court in May, 2019 asking similar law for across the country alleging that the population size was the root cause of all crimes. The Sangh Pariwar is of the view that as per the last census in 2011, Hindus comprise 79.8 per cent of the population while Muslims at 14.2 per cent. The Hindu population is going down since 1947. Proportion of Hindus had declined by 0.7 per cent while the proportion of Muslims grew by 0.8 per cent. Islam was the fastest-growing religion between 2001 and 2011 with a growth rate of 24.6 percent while Hindu growth rate was 16.8 per cent in the corresponding period. The narrative is also created that Muslim women have been turned into a child bearing machine and with successfully passing Triple Talaq Bill, the support base of Sangh Pariwar among Muslim women has grown substantially. This will help them convince that it is equally exploitative to them. Read the full article

[iasshikshalove]

Daily Current Affairs 14th April 2020

Daily Current Affairs 14th April 2020

Today’s  Important  Topic’s  For UPSC Preparation

1.  MGNREGA JOBS CRASH TO 1% OF NORMAL.2. FLOOR TEST IS GOVERNOR’S DISCRETION.3. 1.27 LAKH VOLUNTEERS OFFER SERVICES.4. WATER FROM GANGA YAMUNA BEING TESTED.5. FRAI URGES PM TO ALLOW PETTY SHOPS TO OPEN.6. FESTIVE SPIRIT BRINGS CHEER TO ASSAM.

MGNREGA JOBS CRASH TO 1% OF NORMAL

MGNREGA:

Ministry: Ministry of Rural Development

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), also known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) is Indian legislation enacted on August 25, 2005.

The MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.

The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Govt of India is monitoring the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments.

This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living below poverty line in rural India.

An additional 50 days of wage employment are provided over and above 100 days in the notified drought affected areas or natural calamity areas in the country on recommendation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

The Ministry also mandates the provision of additional 50 days of wage employment to every Scheduled Tribe Household in a forest area, provided that these households have no other private property except for the land rights provided under the FRA Act, 2006.

Wage rates for workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 are notified annually based on Consumer Price Index-Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL) by the Central Government in accordance with the provisions of section 6(1) of the MGNREGA.

It is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘right to work’.

Within 15 days of submitting the application or from the day work is demanded, wage employment will be provided to the applicant.

MGNREGA focuses on the economic and social empowerment of women.

MGNREGA provides “Green” and “Decent” work.

Social Audit of MGNREGA works is mandatory, which lends to accountability and transparency.

MGNREGA works address the climate change vulnerability and protect the farmers from such risks and conserve natural resources.

The Gram Sabha is the principal forum for wage seekers to raise their voices and make demands. It is the Gram Sabha and the Gram Panchayat which approves the shelf of works under MGNREGA and fix their priority.

Why in News?

Employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has collapsed to just over 1% of the usual rate this month due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

1.9 Lakh Families:

Data from the MGNREGA website show that less than 1.9 lakh families have been provided work under the scheme so far in April 2020.

In comparison to almost 1.6 crore households which were provided work in March, and the 1.8 crore households employed under the scheme in February before the lockdown began.

Chhattisgarh was the highest employment generator under the scheme in April, providing work to more than 70,000 families.

Followed by Andhra Pradesh with more than 53,000 households given work.

Key Source:

The scheme, which guarantees 100 days of work per year at an average daily wage of ₹209, is key to providing livelihoods to poor villagers.

It is a backbone of the rural economy in difficult times.

Overall, 7.6 crore families hold active job cards under the scheme, and almost 5.5 crore families found work under the scheme last year.

The crash in employment rates under the scheme is despite the fact that migrant workers returning to villages should have increased demand in rural areas.

FLOOR TEST IS GOVERNOR’S DISCRETIONFloor Test:

According to Article 75 (3) and Article 164 of the Constitution, the Council of Ministers are collectively responsible to the House of the People. When a legislative assembly passes no-confidence motion against the council of ministers, the government of the day dissolves.

In a nutshell, floor test is essentially a vote of confidence. The floor test helps determine whether the government of the day continues to enjoy majority support of the legislature.

When a floor test is called for in the assembly of a state, the chief minister will move a vote of confidence and prove that he has the majority support. If the floor test fails, the chief minister will have to resign.

A Governor can call for a floor test any time he objectively feels a government in power has lost the confidence of the House and is on shaky ground.

In a judgment, a Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta concluded that a Governor can call for a trust vote if he has arrived at a prima facie opinion, based on objective material, that the incumbent State government has lost its majority in the Assembly.

Trust Vote:

A confidence motion, or a vote of confidence, or a trust vote, is sought by the government in power on the floor of the House.

The idea underlying the trust vote is to uphold the political accountability of the elected government to the State legislature.

In directing a trust vote, the Governor does not favour a particular political party.

It is inevitable that the specific timing of a trust vote may tilt the balance towards the party possessing a majority at the time the trust vote is directed.

All political parties are equally at risk of losing the support of their elected legislators, just as the legislators are at risk of losing the vote of the electorate.

This is how the system of parliamentary governance operates,” Justice Chandrachud observed.

The intention behind a trust vote was to enable the elected representatives to determine if the Council of Ministers commanded the confidence of the House.

It was the MLAs, and not the Governor, who made the ultimate call whether a government should stay in power or not, the court said.

It said that a Governor’s power to call for a floor test is not restricted only before the inception of a State government immediately after elections, but continues throughout its term.

The court clarified that the Governor’s requirement to have a trust vote does not “short-circuit” any disqualification proceedings pending before the Speaker.

It said a Governor need not wait for the Speaker’s decision on the resignation of rebel MLAs before calling for a trust vote.

Difference between Trust Vote, Floor Test and No-confidence Motion:Trust VoteFloor TestNo- Confidence Motion

·         A confidence motion or a trust vote is a procedure for the government to prove its majority in the House.

·         A trust vote can take place by way of a motion of confidence which is moved by the government or brought by the opposition.

·         It is a motion normally proposed by the Prime Minister to test the majority in the Lok Sabha. Such an exercise normally takes place when a new government is set to be formed. Any party will first have to prove its majority on the floor of the House before taking over.

·         A trust vote can also be brought about if a government resigns and another party stakes a claim to form the government.

·         The floor test is a term used for the test of the majority. If there are doubts against the chief minister, the governor can ask him to prove his majority in the House.

·         In case of a coalition government, the chief minister may be asked to move a vote of confidence and win a majority.

·         A No-confidence motion is usually moved by the opposition when it feels that the ruling government does not enjoy a majority in the House any longer. No reason is required to move such a motion.

·         A no-confidence motion can be moved by any member of the house and can be done only in the Lok Sabha and not the Rajya Sabha. Such a motion is moved under Rule 198 of the Rules of Procedure.

·         A member has to give written notice of the motion before 10 am, which is then read out by the Speaker of the House.

·         A minimum of 50 members have to accept the motion and the Speaker would accordingly announce the date for the discussion on the motion.

·         In case the government fails to prove its majority, then the government has to resign.

1.27 LAKH VOLUNTEERS OFFER SERVICESNDMA:Ministry: Ministry of Home Affairs

National Disaster Management Authority, abbreviated as NDMA, is an apex Body of Government of India, with a mandate to lay down policies for disaster management.

NDMA was established through the Disaster Management Act enacted by the Government of India on 23 December 2005.

NDMA is responsible for framing policies, laying down guidelines and best-practices for coordinating with the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) to ensure a holistic and distributed approach to disaster management.

It is headed by the Prime Minister of India and can have up to nine other members.

Since 2014, there have been four other members.

There is a provision to have a Vice Chair-person if needed.

NDMA has a vision to “build a safer and disaster resilient India by a holistic, pro-active, technology driven and sustainable development strategy that involves all stakeholders and fosters a culture of prevention, preparedness and mitigation.

It works closely with the National Institute of Disaster Management for capacity building.

It develops practices, delivers hands-on training and organizes drills for disaster management.

It also equips and trains disaster management cells at the state and local levels.

Why in News?

More than 1.27 lakh individuals and 5,300 organisations have so far registered themselves as volunteers with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for the fight against COVID-19.

The NDMA has also received donation offers for more than 8.35 lakh items including digital infrared thermometers, digital thermal scanners (full body), masks, gloves, sanitisers and personal protective gear.

The Authority, through its subordinate and State bodies, is monitoring all the operations associated with the measures being taken at the ground level.

NCC students have been helping the local administrations in extending help to the needy and spreading awareness about the preventive measures to be taken to arrest the spread.

Online Courses:

The Department of Personnel and Training, in coordination with the Ministry of Human Resource Development, has already come up with online courses on the pandemic for the frontline workers.

These courses are meant for doctors, nurses, paramedics, hygiene workers, technicians, auxiliary nursing midwives, State government and civil defence officials.

The Health Ministry has also been issuing specific guidelines on healthcare facilities and treatment.

The Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) courses are available on the Diksha platform, both for the laptop/desktop and mobile phone users.

The launch of iGOT platform was fast-forwarded as requested by the respective Empowered Group of Officers to prevent the spread of infection among, and through, the frontline workers.

WATER FROM GANGA YAMUNA BEING TESTEDNMCG:Ministry: Ministry of JalshaktiDepartment: Department of water resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG) was registered as a society on 12th August 2011 under the Societies Registration Act 1860.

It acted as implementation arm of National Ganga River Basin Authority(NGRBA) which was constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA),1986.

NGRBA has since been dissolved with effect from the 7th October 2016, consequent to constitution of National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga.

The Act envisages five tier structure at national, state and district level to take measures for prevention, control and abatement of environmental pollution in river Ganga and to ensure continuous adequate flow of water so as to rejuvenate the river Ganga as below:

(1)          National Ganga Council under chairmanship of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.

(2)         Empowered Task Force (ETF) on river Ganga under chairmanship of Hon’ble Union Minister of Jal Shakti (Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation).

(3)         National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG).

(4)         State Ganga Committees and

(5)         District Ganga Committees in every specified district abutting river Ganga and its tributaries in the states.

NMCG has a two tier management structure and comprises of Governing Council and Executive Committee.

Both of them are headed by Director General, NMCG.

Executive Committee has been authorized to accord approval for all projects up to Rs.1000 crore.

Similar to structure at national level, State Programme Management Groups (SPMGs) acts as implementing arm of State Ganga Committees.

Thus the newly created structure attempts to bring all stakeholders on one platform to take a holistic approach towards the task of Ganga cleaning and rejuvenation.

River Ganga:

The Ganges or Ganga is a trans-boundary river of Asia which flows through India and Bangladesh.

The 2,601 km (1,616 mi) river rises in the western Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and flows south and east through the Gangetic Plain of India and Bangladesh, eventually emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

It rises from the Gangotri glacier near Gaumukh (3,900 m) in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. Here, it is known as the Bhagirathi.

At Devprayag, the Bhagirathi meets the Alaknanda; then after, it is known as the Ganga.

Major tributaries → Yamuna, Gomti, Ghaghara, Gandak, Kosi, Son, Tons & Punpun. Read more..

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

Battle for Bengal - Nation News

http://tinyurl.com/y3kxel78 Last March, as the BJP wrested Tripura from the Left, its leaders and workers rejoiced over the march of the party in 21 of India’s 29 states, but party president Amit Shah cautioned against complacency. “Jab tak Odisha, West Bengal aur Kerala mein BJP nahin aa jati, tab tak party ka golden period shuru nahin hoga (the BJP’s golden period will commence only when we win Odisha, West Bengal and Kerala,” he said, conveying that the party’s pan-India dream was far from over. Bengal, apart from being geographically close to Tripura, shares a similar past of Left rule. It was a natural choice for Shah’s ‘destination next’. ‘Ebar Bangla’-Shah gave the battle cry, charted out the roadmap and set a highly ambitious but not impossible target of winning 23 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. If Tripura could do a turnaround with the BJP’s 1.3 per cent vote share and zero seats in the 2013 assembly poll, West Bengal, with its three MLAs, two MPs and an increasing vote share-from 13 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha to 22 per cent in the subsequent bypolls-seemed comfortably close to scripting a similar story. Shah’s strategy was formulated in April 2018, immediately after the party’s victory in Tripura and after sensing people’s dissatisfaction with the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) alleged extortion or tolabaji, where beneficiaries of various welfare schemes are forced to pay a ‘cut’ to party leaders in order to claim the dole-be it for Nijashree (LIG housing scheme), Yuvasree (allowance and credit for the unemployed youth) or job cards for 100 days of work. There’s also discontent within the majority community over the TMC’s alleged appeasement politics. Strengthening the organisation at the booth level and ensuring the party’s significant presence in the booths as a safeguard against rigging was the first task Shah set out for the Bengal BJP leaders. He flagged off the ‘Booth Chalo’ drive by visiting an urban slum in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s home turf, Bhowanipore. For one and a half years, Shah sent party leaders to Bengal’s hinterland to mobilise BJP sympathisers. Even as the party, with the help of the RSS, went on to make inroads in rural Bengal, cashing in on the general discontent against the TMC’s high-handedness, Shah also made use of resourceful persons in the TMC, who were the brains behind defeating the Left after its 34-year reign. Mukul Roy, the second-in-command in TMC and known for successful electioneering, was welcomed, even though he was facing allegations of involvement in a financial scam. Roy was desperate to make peace with the BJP to avoid a probe by the central investigating agencies. His induction was Shah’s strategy to weaken the TMC from within. Roy, known for his poaching skills, took advantage of the factional feud within the Trinamool to line up a number of ‘winnable’ leaders, who were willing to cross over. Nisith Pramanik, a former TMC leader with 11 criminal cases against him, was offered a BJP ticket from Cooch Behar immediately after his defection because he was seen as capable of taking on the TMC. “We are aiming at an erosion in the middle-order leaders who control the grassroot workers and votes and have not been rewarded by the party. By giving them respect and responsibility, we are making the ground shaky for TMC’s heavyweights. This is what has happened after TMC’s Barrackpore leader Arjun Singh joined us,” says Diptiman Sengupta, BJP leader from Cooch Behar. Blame game: BJP’s Locket Chatterjee in a heated argument with TMC workers in Dhanekhali on May 6 (Photo: Debajyoti Chakraborty) “For the first time, the RSS has given us a free hand in choosing candidates to ensure the party’s victory. Winnability has to be ensured first and acceptability will follow,” says Debashree Choudhury, the party’s candidate from the Raiganj seat. The constituency, a Congress stronghold, is likely to go to the BJP because of the polarisation of the Hindu votes, following the death of two students from the majority community in police firing over the appointment of Urdu and Sanskrit teachers at the Daribhit High School. The 48 per cent Muslim vote is likely to be divided between the CPI(M)’s Mohammad Salim and Congress’s Deepa Dasmunshi. Polarisation on the basis of religion is happening for the first time in Bengal and this can be attributed to Shah, who has been talking of Mamata’s ‘Muslim appeasement policy’ in all his public meetings. The districts sharing borders with Bangladesh have witnessed illegal immigration, and are now seeing a consolidation of Hindu votes. With the promise of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal and citizenship rights for Hindu refugees, the BJP is looking at a massive swell of Hindu votes in Raiganj (North Dinajpur), Balurghat (South Dinajpur), Alipurduar, Malda North (Malda), Krishnanagar (Nadia), Ranaghat, Bongaon, Barrackpore, Basirhat (all in North 24 Parganas) seats. Mamata, too, is getting drawn into the narrative of religious identity, even as she accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being “communal” and “having the blood of Godhra riots on his hands”. She is reciting hymns in Sanskrit at every rally and invoking Hindu gods in a desperate attempt to project herself as ‘secular’, repeatedly reciting all that she has done for the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. “I have given acres and acres of land to the ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), renovated the Tarapith, Tarakeswar, Kalighat shrines, constructed a skywalk for the Dakshineswar temple. What has he (Modi) done for the Hindus? I have renovated crematoriums and burial ghats,” she says while asking her audience not to get carried away by Modi’s promises. Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore and Birbhum are witnessing a consolidation of the tribal votes. The tribals are seething with anger about being left out of the development and employment generation schemes that Mamata has been talking about in her campaigns. Jhargram in West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura are some of the districts where the BJP pulled a coup of sorts by winning almost half the gram panchayat seats for the first time in June 2018. Ministers like James Kujur, Chudamani Mahato and MP Uma Soren, who have allegedly amassed wealth and property, had to be removed to appease tribal sentiments. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh is contesting from Midnapore this time and is addressing both the Hindu and the tribal voters. The BJP has also given tickets to tribals and party workers who are popular among the Adivasis. “Birbhum is a challenging seat for us because the BJP candidate Dudhkumar Mondal is a son of the soil and a dedicated party worker. Our only hope was Muraroi with 73 per cent Muslim population, but with a Muslim candidate-Rezaul Karim of the CPI(M)-contesting from the seat, a split in Muslim votes is inevitable, benefitting the BJP,” says a TMC district leader. With Shah and Modi claiming that the TMC government will fall after the election results are out on May 23, Mamata has lashed out saying this poll is for electing the prime minister and not the chief minister. “How dare he ask what I have done in my tenure? Instead of telling people what he has done for the country in the past five years, he’s constantly asking my people what I have done for them. I tell them this is a vote for Modi hatao, desh bachao,” she says. Modi has lined up 20 rallies and is coming to the state every other day. Further, Bengal features in his poll rallies-be it in Varanasi or Jammu. Mamata, in turn, is highlighting demonetisation, lynching, intolerance and breakdown of institutions like the CBI, RBI in the past five years. Modi has said that democracy was murdered in Bengal during the panchayat polls. “The major issue this election is people’s frustration with not being able to vote in the panchayat elections. About 17.5 million out of 50 million people could not cast their votes in the panchayat polls and you can see the fallout in the polling percentage-as high as 80 per cent in the first four phases of the Lok Sabha election,” says Mohit Ray, a former professor at the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management. “There’s a strong wave of anti-incumbency in Bengal. This kind of huge turnout is likely to indicate a vote against the current establishment. Compare this with the rest of the country, where polling percentage is moderate to poor,” says Prasanta Ray, a former professor of political science at the Presidency College in Kolkata. “The Trinamool has won 34 per cent of the panchayat seats uncontested all over the state. Wherever we campaign, people ask us if they will be able to vote this time. This indicates that people are desperate to vote for a change,” says BJP vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar. Sensing the mood, Mamata is reminding voters of her achievements in the past seven years. She is holding her campaigns in scorching afternoon heat so that she gets time to listen to BJP leaders during the day and give a point-by-point rebuttal to Modi, Shah and Yogi Adityanath. The BJP has also raised its pitch in favour of deploying central forces in all booths to ensure a free and fair poll. The party is keeping up its pressure on the Election Commission, demanding transfers of partisan officers. The EC has already ordered the transfer of two police commissioners, two superintendents of police and seven police officers. “The deployment of central forces will increase as a confidence building measure in the subsequent phases when the number of seats going to polls will also go up. We will also revamp our war rooms with more party cadres joining us from across the country,” says Majumdar. According to BJP leaders, Modi is “more than willing to campaign in Bengal because there’s a ‘Modi wave’ in the state this time”. Not one to back out of a fight, Mamata has dubbed Modi ‘Expiry Babu’. The idea is to convey to people that Modi’s days at the Centre are over and the people of Bengal will make a big mistake if they believe in Modi’s tall promises. In fact, most of Mamata’s poll speeches focus on Modi-bashing. The idea is to boost the morale of her party workers, who are feeling intimidated by the BJP’s show of strength in Modi’s rallies. If the BJP is accusing her and TMC leaders of being involved in financial scams like Saradha and Narada, Mamata is alluding to the Sahara scam and Modi’s alleged involvement in it. She is also making the state CID dig up old cases to harass BJP candidates. For instance, the BJP candidate from Ghatal (West Midnapore), Bharati Ghosh, who was once close to Mamata as the SP of West Midnapore, is being repeatedly interrogated for hours and prevented from campaigning. For now, it is full-fledged war and both the BJP and the TMC are pulling out all the stops to win the battle for West Bengal. SAFFRON SURGE In 2014, the BJP won only two of the 42 seats in West Bengal. Since then, the party has done everything possible to make inroads, with opinion polls in March this year predicting that the saffron party may come up with its best showing ever in Bengal this general election. The parliamentary constituencies where the BJP is a strong contender are Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat, Malda North, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Bongaon, Barrackpore, Birbhum, Asansol, Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram and Midnapore. Of these, seats such as Malda North, Balurghat, Jalpaiguri, Bongaon share a border with Bangladesh, and so, the BJP has stirred up the issue of illegal immigrants. In Alipurduar, Cooch Behar and Darjeeling, BJP leaders are harping on the ethnic identity of the Gorkhas. Birbhum, Purulia, Jhargram, Midnapore are tribal- dominated areas, where the party is banking on the general discontent over the distribution of doles and alleged extortion by TMC leaders. Birbhum, with a 34 per cent Muslim population, is also witnessing a polarisation of votes. The BJP has also made a mark in Basirhat, Serampore, Hooghly, Dum Dum and Uluberia, though it is not yet a strong contender in these constituencies. Source link

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बिहार पंचायत चुनाव : 18 लाख वोटर चुनेंगे गांव का मुखिया, वोटिंग को लेकर आयोग ने जारी की गाइडलाइन

बिहार पंचायत चुनाव : 18 लाख वोटर चुनेंगे गांव का मुखिया, वोटिंग को लेकर आयोग ने जारी की गाइडलाइन

त्रि��्तरीय पंचायत चुनाव को लेकर राज्य निर्वाचन आयोग ने गाइडलाइन जारी कर दिया है। साथ ही इस बाबत जिला निर्वाचन पदाधिकारी सह जिलाधिकारी कंवल तनुज को पत्र भी दिया गया है।चुनाव आयोग के मुताबिक मतदान सुबह… Source link