The poll body said in a statement that fifty one Media Nodal Officers and Social Media Nodal Officers participated in the programme. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr. Vivek Joshi, addressed the participants in the inaugural session.

It was emphasised that in light of the growing threat of misinformation, it is imperative to clearly communicate that elections in India are conducted strictly in accordance with the Constitution and to keep countering misleading information with facts.

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the Election Commission on Sunday issued a notice to a BJP candidate in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly making an inflammatory statement, and said he prima facie violated the model code and the electoral law. The poll watchdog gave Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, the BJP candidate from the Tiloi assembly constituency in Amethi, 24 hours to respond.

Counting of votes in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, along with Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, will take place on March 10.

meanwhile Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted rivals Samajwadi Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh today, adding to allegations that the parties are soft on terror. Pointing to the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, which claimed 56 lives and left over 200 people injured, he said some parties are sympathetic to terrorists. Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party is the BJP’s biggest challenger it the state where the third phase of elections are being held today.

Speaking at a rally in Hardoi, he accused the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh government of seeking to withdraw cases against terrorists.

“The attitude of the leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress has been even more alarming. These people address a terrorist like Osama as ‘ji’. These people shed tears over the elimination of terrorists in Batla House encounter,” he said.

“Similarly, in 14 cases of terrorist attacks in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi government had given orders to withdraw the cases from many terrorists.  These people were setting off blast after blast, and the Samajwadi Party government was not even allowing these terrorists to be prosecuted,” he added.

The BJP has traditionally accused the Congress of appeasement politics because of its sizeable Muslim support base. Once this support shifted to the Samajwadi Party, the barbs got sharper.

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Bihar started voting today for 1^st round of three-phase election for 71 of the state’s 243 seats. Nitish The Election Commission has drawn up elaborate safety rules for voting in the shadow of Covid.

The Election Commission has issued detailed guidelines that include lowering the cap on voters for a polling booth from 1,600 to 1,000, staggering of polling hours and postal ballot facility for those aged above 80 or those infected. Electronic Voting Machines will be sanitised. Thermal scanners, hand sanitiser, soap and water will be made available for voters. The voting begins at 7 am.

The long campaign has been a clear indication of the increasing distance between the ruling allies – the BJP and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United. There has been little overlap and barring Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, no other BJP leader campaigned for the JDU. Posters and hoardings of neither party made any mention of the other.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his three rallies in the state so far, made only a mention of Nitish Kumar. He had sought votes only for the NDA and made cursory references to Nitish Kumar towards the end of his speech, which had raised eyebrows.

The campaign also saw Tejashwi Yadav the Chief Ministerial candidate of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and the Left parties, come of age in terms of mass appeal. His rallies have been a packed and his party said the promise of providing 10 lakh jobs at his first cabinet meet has generated much excitement among the people. The 31-year-old RJD leader crafted his campaign around issues like jobs and unemployment, unlike his father who always championed the issue of dignity of castes.

The pressure on the ruling allies has been visible. While the Chief Minister, known for his calm exterior, has lost his temper on several occasions, the BJP, after repeatedly mocking the 31-year-old former Deputy Chief Minister for his jobs promise, included a promise of 19 lakh jobs in its election manifesto.

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Elections were to be held for 18 Upper House across seven assemblies — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Gujarat — in the latest round of indirect elections for the 245-member council of states. Of the 55 seats that feel vacant, 37 members were elected unopposed.
The decision was taken at a meeting attended by election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra.

“The situation because of Covid-19 mandates that we shouldn’t put MLAs in a congregation. The decision has been taken independently by the commission and will be up for review once the situation improves,” said a senior EC official who asked not to be named.

“We have decided to defer the polls as the situation is not conducive for them,” a second senior EC official told Hindustan Times. “We will review the decision after March 31,” he added.

The first official said that this round of elections will be conducted separately from the next round of Rajya Sabha polls due in June. “The two will not be clubbed together,” he said.

In a press release issued by ECI, it said the decision was being taken in view of the health risks posed by Covid-19.

“Commission has reviewed in detail the matter. The prevailing unforeseen situation of public health emergency indicates the need for avoidance of possibilities of gatherings of any nature, which expose all concerned to possible health hazard,” the release said.

“The poll process in the above said elections would necessarily include the gathering of polling officials, agents of political parties, support officials and members of respective Legislative Assemblies on the poll day, which may not be suitable in view of the prevailing unforeseen situation and related advisories in the country,” it added.

The Commission has invoked Article 153 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, under which the commission “for reasons which it considers sufficient, may extend the time for the completion of any election by making necessary amendments”. In accordance with its provisions, EC has “deferred the poll and extended the period of said election under the provisions of Section 153 of the Act”.

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“The BJP is misusing the I-T, ED and CBI as a pretext against its political opponents… no such revenge politics has ever been seen in the history of the country. Such incidents have spiked after Narendra Modi  became the Prime Minister for the second term,” said the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in a series of tweets.

The ED arrested the 57-year-old Congress troubleshooter on Tuesday after four days of interrogation in the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and sought his remand for custodial questioning on the grounds that he was evasive in replies and non-cooperative in responding to a number of questions.

“@DKShivakumar is being punished for blocking operation ‘Kamala‘ and preventing (the) BJP from snatching power. He had also pulled off a prestigious RS (Rajya Sabha) election win in Gujarat from under the nose of (its national president) Amit Shah. No wonder DKS was arrested. Hardcore criminals are in power now! #ReleaseDK,” tweeted the Congress Seva Dal.

Noting that such incidents like the arrest of Shivakumar and its other senior leader P. Chidambaram by the CBI on August 21 put the country’s democratic system at risk, Rao said there was need for everyone to work together to convince the people of the truth.

Though the ED counsel sought 14-day custody of Shivakumar, Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar allowed only 10 days’ remand till September 13, observing that the income of the accused had a “phenomenal growth” while he was in important place.

Shivakumar was a senior cabinet minister for energy in the Congress government from 2013-2018 and Water Resources in the 14-month JD-S-Congress coalition government from May 23, 2018 to July 23, 2019.

In his nomination to the Election Commission for contesting in the 2018 state assembly elections, Shivakumar declared in an affidavit that he and his family had a whopping Rs 840-crore worth assets, including lands, houses, investments, bank balances and properties as against Rs 251 crore he had before the 2013 assembly elections, a staggering 235 per cent jump in 5 years.

Raids on his residential and official premises in early August 2017 led to recovery of incriminating documents, files, records and Rs 8.6-crore unaccounted cash in his Delhi flat, indicating illegal transactions in crores of rupees. Refuting the Congress tirade, BJP general secretary B.L. Santosh said for the grand old party, democracy is in ICU (intensive care unit) when its leaders face probe

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