Elections

Reacting to the development, the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said that move by the state government and the SEC was planned well in advance and hence he too had filed a caveat at the apex court soon after the Calcutta High Court passed its order.

Electors could be seen reaching polling stations even before voting started at 8 a.m. A total of 16.21 lakh voters will cast their ballots till 6 p.m. to decide the fate of 19 candidates, including four women. Around 8,000 security personnel have been deployed. The counting will take place on Saturday.

Talking to media-persons, he claimed that the BJP has set up a "wing" specifically to create such disturbances in the country and cited the recent instances of the Hubli riots in Karnataka, the violence in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and other places in Maharashtra. Everybody knows who is behind these flare-ups ... who is creating the communal.

Official sources said that during its two to three day stay here the election commissioner will visit both Jammu and Kashmir divisions of the UT. The full Commission will interact with all top officials of the election department, 20 deputy commissioners, representatives of all recognised national and regional political parties and other.

Though, the leaders in the ruling BJP would officially rule out the anti-incumbency of nearly two decades (except for 15 months of Kamal Nath-led Congress government), but at time, they also mention that foot soldiers of the party are already at work in all earnestness to beat the anti-incumbency of four terms under Chief Minister Shivraj.

Also as the principal Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is aggressively grilling the government on its policies ranging from closing 920 offices and institutions, comprising schools and colleges, to political vendetta to the appointment of Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, which it says is a drain on the exchequer and against ruling.

Addressing reporters here, Siddaramaiah stated that there was an understanding between the two political parties last time and this time also it can't be ruled out. "Probably there would be match-fixing, we have to wait and see," he added. I am getting signs of JD(S) and BJP coming to internal understanding," he maintained.

The CEC added, "In connection with the ongoing delimitation exercise, we held discussions with political parties and other organisations in the last two days. We also met around 60 civil groups and organisations. In the delimitation exercise, we will do our best to take into account all of the political parties' and organisations' suggestions.

In reply to an unstarred question in Lok Sabha on March 17, 2023, on the total numbers of BUs and CUs available in the country, law minister Kiren Rijiju in his written reply during the ongoing budget session, informed Parliament that in 2018 there were 13.95 lakh BUs and 10.56 lakh CUs available in the country.

"The pioneering work of EMBs does not find mention in these surveys and rankings done by some organisations and countries with low inclusivity are ranked high. The flawed report causes more damage to the credibility of EMBs," said the CEC. The CEC was speaking on the pressing challenges before the EBMs at the international conference on the theme inclusive Elections.