news channels for elections 09 india

The 24/7 English News channels think that they can do any thing in the country and is some tells that what they are doing is working , then they all raise up stating that freedom of press is been violated, I think that they should also behave properly and have responsibility to have a right.If any one in this country as watched IBNLive , then you would have seen the Varun Gandhi "hate" speech nearly thousand times, is it necessary to so that many times? the speach was mad in a small town in U.P , now because of the "News" Channels , i think is one of the well known speech of the country for the time being. What the news channel did is more harm then what Varun Gandhi did in that small town, now they have debate , as whether Varun Gandhi should be given a seat by BJP or not , who the hell they think they are , are we in a country where a new channel will decide who should contest in election? Same thing happened when the people of Gujarat elected Mr.Modi as there C.M , the news channels behaved that there are the only people in the country with intelligence and the people who elected Mr.Modi are stupid. Can we do some thing about this , or are we going to let the news channels decide the fate of this country? if this goes on the we will be in a situation where this "NEWS" channels will tells that they will decide the MP's and MLA's of the country instead of us.

advice’ to Varun by Priyanka

LUCKNOW: Priyanka Vadra, cousin of Varun Gandhi, on Monday advised him to read the Bhagvad Gita and try to understand the meaning of the religious text.

Ms. Vadra, who is on a two-day visit to her mother Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, told reporters in Bachrawan tehsil of the district that Mr. Gandhi should exercise restraint over the spoken word.

Her comments were in reference to the inflammatory speeches by Mr. Gandhi in Pilibhit during election meetings.

A PTI report quoted Ms. Vadra as saying: “well, it may be very sad to see him saying those comments on television and what can I say? I would advise him to read the Gita properly and to try to understand it properly.”

The report also quoted her as saying that what Mr. Gandhi said in his speeches clearly went against the principles that their family stood for and its members had lived and died for.

Varun gandhi stands by BJP

NEW DELHI: Less than 12 hours after the Election Commission found Varun Gandhi guilty of violating the model code, BJP rallied behind the
Gandhi-Nehru family scion and questioned the poll panel’s locus standi in seeking his removal as a candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.

A meeting of senior BJP leaders held here this morning at L K Advani’s official residence decided unanimously to back Varun Gandhi to the hilt. The implication was clear: there was no question of dumping the young leader as its candidate from Pilibhit. EC, by asking BJP to drop Varun Gandhi from its panel of Lok Sabha candidates, had not only exceeded its brief but was also being partisan, party leaders felt.

The issue has the potential of snowballing into a major political row ahead of the elections. While BJP leadership brought the poll panel under its firing line, the Pilibhit candidate’s cousin Priyanka Gandhi on Monday opened another front against him.

“Well, it may be very sad to see him saying those comments on the television and what can I say? I’d advise him to read the Gita properly and try to understand it properly,” she told newspersons during a visit to her mother’s Lok Sabha constituency, Rae Bareli, on Monday. His remarks, she added, were against the principles that her family had stood for, lived and died for.

Ms Gandhi’s remarks took most political observers by surprise as the two families had so far refrained from attacking each other in the public. It was the first time this line of control had been violated.

BJP retaliated by advising Priyanka Gandhi not to politicise their family tiff. “In any case, this country wants to rid itself of this family’s stranglehold,” BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said here on Monday. BJP has already disassociated itself from Varun Gandhi’s provocative remarks. Senior party leaders cautioned Lok Sabha candidates to be on guard and comply with the model code of conduct. “We’ve advised all our candidates to exercise restraint and moderation, and give due respect to the model code of conduct,” party general secretary Arun Jaitley said here this afternoon.BJP brass, however, was clear on rejecting EC’s advice to the party to drop Varun Gandhi from their list of Lok Sabha candidates. Adhering to the
suggestion was also ruled out completely on the ground that such a move would have an adverse impact on its core Hindutva constituency at a time when elections were round the corner.

The party, therefore, questioned the poll panel’s authority on embarking upon such a course of action. “The power to advice as to who should be the party’s candidate and who should not be the candidate does not rest with EC,” Mr Jaitley told reporters.

The BJP leader argued that “debarment and disqualification of candidates are strictly covered under Article 102 of the Constitution. The ultimate effect of which is upon conviction in an offence for two years and more”. He wondered how could EC make such a suggestion when even a chargesheet had not been filed in the case. “What EC can’t do directly, it cannot do indirectly,” Mr Jaitley contended. The BJP leader said political parties were putting up candidates convicted of terrorism under TADA. They had been convicted under section 302 of IPC in some cases. “Yet EC had refused to act against them.”

The man at the centre of the controversy simultaneously trained his guns at poll panel for not giving him a fair deal, and alleged that it had been “pressurised” into making a “hasty” decision. The BJP candidate from Pilibhit said EC action was in “utter disregard of the principles of natural justice”

Ballot paper to be used in Lok Shabha election2009

Will the ballot paper and ballot box make a return to the polling booths during the Lok Sabha elections. They will, if a particular constituency has more than 64 candidates.


The EVMs, manufactured by Bharat Electronics Ltd and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, has the capacity to include only 64 names and if the number exceeds, then the Election Commission will have to resort to ballot papers.


"Elections can be conducted through EVMs when the maximum number of candidates does not exceed 64. In case the number of nominees goes beyond 64, poll has to be conducted through ballot papers," a senior official said.


It was in 1982 that the EVMs were used for the first time in India during a by-election to North Paravoor assembly seat in Kerala for a limited number of polling stations. The EVMs were used in 50 polling stations then.


Twenty-two years later, the Lok Sabha election was conducted completely through EVMs.


Prior to 2004, polls used to eat up a huge quantity of paper with 1999 polls witnessing the use of 7,700 metric tonnes for printing ballot papers. The 1996 election saw use of 8,800 metric tonnes for the same.


The decrease in the quantity of paper used may be because of the drastic reduction in the number of candidates in 1999 compared to 1996. There were 13,952 candidates in 1996 while the number in 1999 plummeted to 4,648.


A single EVM, which runs on alkaline batteries, can record a maximum of 3,840 votes which far exceeds the number of voters assigned in a polling station.


The Commission will be using around 11 lakh electronic voting machines for the exercise to be held in over 8.28 lakh polling stations across the country in the elections to be held in April and May.


According to Election Commission, the Indian EVM is a far simpler machine than its counterpart in the United States.


Unlike in the US, the EVMs used here are stand alone machines which cannot be connected to any network and controlled through network or remote.


Its original programme contained in a burnt chip cannot be altered making it tamper-proof.


The Indian EVMs were used in Bhutan during the elections last year.


These machines were also used by Nepal for some constituencies during the last general elections in the Himalayan country.


According to a survey conducted by an NGO 'Centre for Study of Developing Society', about 97 per cent felt that EVMs were better than the marking system of ballot papers.

BJP refuses to drop Varun from poll candidature 2009

Hindu nationalist party decides to challenge EC’s censuring of leader over hate speech

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: India’s main Hindu nationalist party refused on Monday to drop the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister as a candidate after the Election Commission (EC) found him guilty of hate speech and inciting violence against Muslims.

The Indian Election Commission had censured Varun Gandhi, 29, for making hate speech against Muslims and had advised the party to drop his candidature. After a two-hour long meeting of top leaders, the BJP decided to challenge the EC suggestion. The Election Commission’s advice is unprecedented as it is not an issue confined to Varun Gandhi or the BJP but a “very large issue at it has a serious implication for the Indian democracy as it seeks to redefine the contours of democratic practices”, BJP spokesman Balbir Punj told reporters at the BJP headquarters here.

“The party shudders to think what would happen to free and fair conduct of elections if the EC itself starts moving beyond the scope of the well-established law and practice. It is now seeking to prevent someone who has yet to be charge-sheeted and yet to be convicted to contest the elections while there are innumerable cases of convicted persons contesting and even getting elected,” he said. Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi asserted that whether the EC had powers to advice or not was not the primary issue as this could be decided in court. But, he added, the real issue was of propriety and morality to which BJP keeps vowing. “Should it not have taken steps against Varun even without the EC order,” he asked.

Nayantara Sahgal, the 82-year-old novelist and niece of Jawaharlal Nehru said: “Not just Nehru, even Feroze Gandhi, Varun’s grandfather, must be turning in his grave at some of the things he is saying.” Nayantara described Varun’s anti-Muslim speech in Pilibhit as “disgraceful” and “horrifying”. Separately, in a rejoinder sent to the EC on Monday – in response to its Sunday night order – Varun conveyed his “deep disappointment over the unseemly haste in which the EC has passed an opinion without giving me even a fair opportunity to appear in person or through counsel to establish my innocence”.