RJD challenges Bihar voter rolls' revision in Supreme Court
In a statement in Patna, the Election Commission made it clear that while voters were required to "submit their documents anytime before July 25, 2025", those who failed to do so would get an opportunity "during the claims and objections period".The Opposition has vehemently criticised the poll panel's process, which seeks to cover nearly eight crore voters by July 25, questioning the timing of the exercise. They alleged that the move would lead to disenfranchisement of over two crore voters.RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar's Leader of Opposition, has questioned why, unlike the previous revision, which took place in 2003 across the country, the current exercise was being carried out only in the state.Leaders of the INDIA bloc, of which the RJD is a part, have also held parleys with Election Commission officials in Delhi and Patna to share their anxieties.However, the BJP-led NDA defended the exercise, accusing the Opposition of trying to come up with an "excuse ahead of a certain defeat in elections".According to the Election Commission, the exercise was necessitated by rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants.The poll panel said that with the exercise, it wanted to ensure the integrity and preparation of error-free electoral rolls.- Ends(with inputs from PTI)Must Watch
IN THIS STORY#Bihar#Rashtriya Janata Dal
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
25 minutes ago
- The Hindu
The fight for the Opposition space in Gujarat
AAP leader Gopal Italia recently won the Visavadar Assembly seat in Gujarat. This may look like a one-off feat, but it adds to growing evidence that the AAP is eating into the Congress's vote share in the State. Mr. Italia, 35, a former police constable who had once hurled a shoe at the then Minister of State for Home, defeated the BJP's Kirit Patel by 17,554 votes. The Congress came third. The AAP had won from here in the Assembly elections in 2022, but its MLA resigned in December 2023 and defected to the BJP, which necessitated the by-election. The AAP now has five legislators in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly. The Congress has 12 (down from 17 after defections and one candidate's Lok Sabha win). There is critical sub-text here to indicate how the AAP is emerging as an alternative to the Congress. Also Read | Kejriwal hails bypoll wins as 'semi-final to 2027'; says Gujarat fight between AAP, BJP With a vote share of 13% in 2022, the AAP had finished as the first runner-up in 44 seats where the Congress candidates forfeited their election deposits. In 33 seats, the combined strength of the two Opposition parties was higher than that of the BJP winners. These were seats besides the 17 won by the Congress and five won by the AAP. The AAP took the electoral plunge in Gujarat in 2017. Though it did not secure a single seat, it dug its heels in. Subsequently, the party's only strategy was to be visible on the ground and be seen helping people get work done from the local government offices. AAP activists unearthed as many as 170 local scams of varying values in the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC). Later, they exposed a State-level multi-crore government exam paper leak racket, which forced the government to cancel the test. Against this, the Congress has generally been absent and has not posed any challenge to the government. It was no surprise then that the AAP emerged as the Opposition party in the SMC elections in 2020. It secured 27 seats against 93 of the BJP in the 120-member SMC; the Congress did not win any. In all, the AAP bagged 69 seats in elections to various local municipal bodies that year, which was quite an accomplishment as this was an alien electoral land for the party. Also Read | AAP severs ties with Congress, to contest Gujarat elections independently The Congress put up its best performance in decades in the 2017 elections but could not build on it for the future. Following a no-bolds-barred campaign by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who then became the president of the party, the Congress won 77 seats and the BJP 99. Mr. Gandhi spent at least three days in all the four regions of Gujarat. His campaign was unprecedented because it was the first time that anyone from the Gandhi family had spent so many days here. Mr. Gandhi raised several burning issues — unemployment, demonetisation, the pangs of the newly introduced Goods and Services Tax, crony capitalism, and the deteriorating state of agriculture. The Congress had the support of young turks such as Hardik Patel (Patidar), Alpesh Thakore (Other Backward Classes member) and Jignesh Mevani (a Dalit). It was an unprecedented situation as members of all the three castes came together on one platform. But the Congress could not retain them with the due importance they deserved and so, Mr. Patel and Mr. Thakore quit the party to join the BJP; they are now MLAs. Many leaders have since deserted the Congress, but the party does not seem to have tried hard to stop anyone nor applied any corrective measures to halt this trend. Mr. Gandhi visited Gujarat after the 2024 general elections and announced in a spirited vein that his party would form the government in 2027. In another visit, he mocked his own party leaders saying, 'Congress has two types of horses: those used in weddings and those in battles. But we assign the wrong duties to them.' He added that there were Trojan horses in his party who were hand in glove with the BJP and asserted that they would be purged. He promised to infuse fresh young blood in the party's Gujarat leadership. No such thing has happened yet. In fact, Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil resigned after the by-election results. Also Read | Assembly bypolls: Gujarat Congress chief Shaktisinh Gohil resigns after party loses both seats A common argument is that a third front has not succeeded in Gujarat, but the Congress seldom notices that this was only because there was always a proper Opposition party in place all these decades. All the major third fronts have been splinters of the Congress and the BJP and were seen as opportunistic groupings. As against this, the AAP is an independent political dispensation looking to spread its tentacles and has announced that it will contest the next Assembly polls on its own. Darshan Desai is Professor-in-Practice, Journalism and Mass Communication, Navrachana University, Vadodara, and a senior Gujarat-based journalist
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Common goals: On India and a five-nation tour
On his way to Brazil to attend the ongoing BRICS summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made back-to-back bilateral visits to Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Argentina. Each stop was with a view to enhancing bilateral cooperation in fields which included some common themes on pharmaceuticals and vaccines, digital technology, food security and critical minerals. In Accra, India-Ghana ties were upgraded to a comprehensive partnership, with discussions on helping Ghana become a 'vaccine hub' for West Africa. In the Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, there was a major MoU on 'Indian pharmacopeia', to improve access to quality and affordable generic medicines from India. In Buenos Aires, President Javier Milei agreed to enhance cooperation on critical minerals as well as Argentina's vast reserves of shale gas and oil, while India pitched its pharma to Argentina. The three stops were in countries of the 'developing world' or the Global South, and the onward journey to Brazil, and then to Namibia, also highlight India's commitment to building alternative economic mechanisms to the 'developed world' or Global North. India's offer of cooperation for low-cost solutions to global challenges includes the promotion of India-led international organisations such as the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) to these countries. Mr. Modi also made his signature pitch to the Indian diaspora — his speech in the Port of Spain, where Indian labour was brought by British colonial ventures since 1845, is one to note. Referring to the Indian ancestry of President Christine Carla Kangaloo and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Mr. Modi said that the 35 million Indian diaspora worldwide were India's 'pride'. It is also impossible to escape the deep connections between India and the five nations in terms of political history. Each country shares a bond — colonies that suffered under British, Spanish, Portuguese and German forces — and why some of them joined the Non-Aligned Movement. They have all, at various points, committed to building South-South cooperation, and India and Brazil's role in founding the BRIC mechanism, along with Russia and China, and IBSA with South Africa, was an outcome, strongly pitching the interests of the Global South. None of the countries on the tour can be called 'anti-West', and New Delhi has had some differences with them over specific conflicts (Ukraine and Gaza). The motivating force behind the ties, however, and consequently Mr. Modi's nine-day itinerary, is more about a common desire to look beyond the present global order to one that is more equal, representative, and sensitive to the needs of developing and under-developed nations.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
BJP not doing enough to uplift tribals: RG
Panaji: Revolutionary Goans on Saturday blamed BJP-led govt for not doing enough to uplift the tribals in the state. The party said that chief minister Pramod Sawant, despite holding the post for six years, failed to clear the pending cases of forest rights claims (FRC). RG treasurer Ajay Kholkar said that govt gave several assurances, but denied political reservation for Goa's tribal community. 'The community has been fighting for political resolution. We have held protests to fight for our rights, and govt forced us to come on the streets, and yet BJP-led govt has not met our demand,' said Kholkar. RG said that contrary to Sawant's claims about working for the betterment of the tribals, BJP thwarted efforts to empower the ST community. 'It failed to resolve pending FRC cases. Govt has not built the Tribal Bhavan and failed to address land issues. The Tribal Research Centre exists only in name, as no research has been conducted there till date,' said Kholkar. The party has demanded that all the 10,000-odd pending FRC cases be cleared as soon as possible. It has also demanded that govt appoint a full-time company secretary for the Goa Scheduled Tribe Finance and Development Corporation Ltd.
