Lok Sabha Election 2009

"Shekhar Suman" to contest on congress ticket from Patnasahib

2009-04-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Congress has fielded TV super star Shekhar Suman for Patna Sahib lok sabha constituency for lok sabha election 2009.

He will be contesting the election against BJP Candidate Shatrughan Singha and Independent Candidate Love Guru Matuk nath.

Responding to Congress' decision on fielding Shekhar suman opposite him , Shotgun Shatrughan sinha said that they two are good friends and he is ready to fight contest the elections against him.
But he also adviced Shekhar suman to think from which party he is contesting the election.

Shatrughan sinha also said that Shekhar is star of TV while he is a big name in Bollywood cinema.

Shoe thrown on Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram

2009-04-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

Jainail singh , a senior journalist of Hindi News Paper , Dainik Jagran could not control his emotions and throw a shoe on Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram who was adressing press confference at Congress house.

Journalist Jairnail singh said that Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram was not answering his question about Tytler 1984 sikh murder case.

The security guards of Indian Home Minister P chidambaram instantly arrested the sikh journalist for throwing a show on senior congress leader.

Milind Deora to contest South Mumbai Constituency as congress candidate

2009-04-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

Congress Candidate Milind Deora is contesting lok sabha elections 2009 from South Mumbai Constituency.

Milind Deora was born on 4 Dec 1976. He is a Member of the 14th Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, from the Mumbai South constituency. He is the son of veteran politician Murli Deora, who was a Member of Parliament for the same constituency between 1984 and 1996, and once again in 1998 in the 12th Lok Sabha.

On 9th November 2008, Milind got married to Pooja Shetty in Mumbai. Pooja heads the film production company "Walk Water Media" and is daughter of film producer Manmohan Shetty.

Milind Deora has got corporate support from business men like Adi Godrej and Deepak Parekh Chairman, HDFC Ltd.

Milind Deora has got website : http://milinddeora.com/

No SP Candidate Against Priya Dutt

2009-04-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

Samajwadi Pary ( SP ) has declared that it will not filed and candidate against Priya Dutt on Mumbai North Central constituency for lok sabha election 2009.

Priya Dutt is sister of Sanjay Dutt who is recently crowned with the post of General Secretary of SP - Samajwadi Party.

Priya Dutta has a hope that his brother sanjay dutt will campaign for her and help her to win the lok sabha elections 2009.

Bihar Loksabha Election 2009 dates and constituencies

2009-04-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

Loksabha Election 2009 will take place in four phases in Bihar on 16 April (first phase), 23 April (second phase), 30 April (third phase) and 7 May (fourth phase). Due to large geographical area and sensitivity of state Loksabha elections will take place in four phases in Bihar. There are total 40 constituencies in Bihar out of which 13 constituencies will go to vote on 16 April in first phase 13 constituencies on 23 April in second phase, 11 constituencies on 30 April in third phase and remaining3 in fourth phase on 7 May. Below people can find the name of constituencies which will poll on 16 April, 23 April, 30 April and 7 May

Bihar constituencies going to vote on 16 April

1) Arrah
2) Aurangabad
3) Buxar
4) Gaya
5) Gopalganj
6) Jahanabad
7) Jamui
8) Karakat
9) Maharajganj
10) Nawada
11) Saran
12) Sasaram
13) Siwan

Bihar Constituencies going to vote on 23 April

1) Darbhanga
2) Hajipur
3) Jhanjharpur
4) Madhubani
5) Muzaffarpur
6) Paschim Champaran
7) Purvi Champaran
8) Samastipur
9) Sheohar
10) Sitamarhi
11) Ujiarpur
12) Vaishali
13) Valmiki Nagar

Bihar Constituencies going to vote on 30 April

1) Araria
2) Banka
3) Bhagalpur
4) Begusarai
5) Khagaria
6) Katihar
7) Kishanganj
8) Madhepura
9) Munger
10) Purnia
11) Supaul

Bihar Constituencies going to vote on 7 May

1) Nalanda
2) Patna Sahib
3) Pataliputra

Utter Pradesh Loksabha Election 2009 dates and constituencies

2009-04-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

Loksabha Election 2009 will take place in five phases in Utter Pradesh on 16 April (first phase), 23 April (second phase), 30 April (third phase), 7 May (fourth phase) and 13 May (fifth phase). Due to large geographical area and sensitivity of state Loksabha elections will take place in five phases in Utter Pradesh. There are total 80 constituencies in Utter Pradesh out of which 16 constituencies will go to vote on 16 April in first phase, 17 constituencies on 23 April in second phase, 15 constituencies on 30 April in third phase, 18 constituencies will go to vote on 7 May in fourth phase and remaining14 in fifth phase on 13 May. Below people can find the name of constituencies which will poll on 16 April, 23 April, 30 April, 7 May and 13 May.

Utter Pradesh constituencies going to vote on 16 April

1) Azamgarh
2) Ballia
3) Bansgaon
4) Chandauli
5) Deoria
6) Ghazipur
7) Ghosi
8) Gorakhpur
9) Kushi Nagar
10) Lalganj
11) Maharajganj
12) Machhlishahr
13) Mirzapur
14) Robertsganj
15) Salempur
16) Varanasi

Utter Pradesh Constituencies going to vote on 23 April

1) Amethi
2) Allahabad
3) Ambedkar Nagar
4) Basti
5) Banda
6) Bhadohi
7) Domariyaganj
8) Faizabad
9) Gonda
10) Jaunpur
11) Kaiserganj
12) Kaushambi
13) Pratapgarh
14) Phulpur
15) Sant Kabir Nagar
16) Shrawasti
17) Sultanpur

Utter Pradesh Constituencies going to vote on 30 April

1) Akbarpur
2) Bahraich
3) Barabanki
4) Fatehpur
5) Hamirpur
6) Hardoi
7) Jalaun
8) Jhansi
9) Kanpur
10) Lucknow
11) Mohanlalganj
12) Misrikh
13) Rae bareli
14) Sitapur
15) Unnao

Utter Pradesh Constituencies going to vote on 7 May

1) Agra
2) Aligarh
3) Baghpat
4) Bulandshahr
5) Etah
6) Etawah
7) Fatehpur Sikri
8) Farrukhabad
9) Firozabad
10) Gautam Budhha Nagar
11) Ghaziabad
12) Hathras
13) Kannauj
14) Kairana
15) Mathura
16) Mainpuri
17) Meerut
18) Muzaffarnagar

Utter Pradesh constituencies going to vote on 13 May

1) Amroha
2) Aonla
3) Badaun
4) Bareilly
5) Bijnor
6) Dhaurahra
7) Kheri
8) Moradabad
9) Nagina
10) Pilibhit
11) Rampur
12) Sambhal
13) Shahjahanpur
14) Saharanpur

Prime Ministerial Candidates

2009-04-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Each of the party coalitions has indicated their choice for prime minister, should they win a majority to form a government.

United Progressive Alliance

Following the August 2008 confidence vote victory for the current government, a statement by Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi has caused speculation that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next elections. Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar has indicated that he is also a possible Prime Ministerial candidate post elections.

On January 24, 2009, Manmohan Singh underwent cardiac bypass surgery at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Following the surgery, speculation of alternate PM candidates arose both within the Congress and amongst coalition partners. In an attempt to quell such speculations, Sonia Gandhi on February 6, 2009, wrote in the Congress party magazine Sandesh that Manmohan Singh is the UPA coalition's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2009 elections.

National Democratic Alliance

The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance, announced on December 11, 2007 that their candidate for prime minister would be BJP party leader Lal Krishna Advani, the Leader of the Opposition. On January 23, 2008, leaders from BJP and other NDA parties convened to officially elect him their candidate. No other party or alliance has announced a prime ministerial candidate.

Third Front

A group of regional parties including Communist parties have formed a third front to counter the BJP-led and Congress-led alliances. The members are the Left Front and the United National Progressive Alliance. However the CPI (M) has openly said that they are not against bargaining for alliance with Congress if they get enough number of seats after the election. Once again, the media has speculated that Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, could potentially be projected as the front's Prime Ministerial candidate, but no official move has taken place yet. If Mayawati's party can win enough seats, she has openly stated that she would be willing to take the support of the national parties to become Prime Minister. No other candidate has publicly expressed interest in becoming Prime Minister thus far.

Polling Schedule

2009-04-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

The following polling schedule for the 2009 General Elections was announced by the Chief Election Commissioner of India, N. Gopalaswami, on March 2, 2009:

April 16 - Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep

April 23 - Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand

April 30 - Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu

May 7 - Bihar, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi

May 13 - Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Puducherry

Background

N. Gopalaswami, had stated on December 28, 2008, that the elections were likely to be held between April and May 2009. He attributed this schedule to the examination period from February to March, making polling places unavailable.

On January 31, 2009, fractures within the Election Commission came to the fore when N. Gopalaswami recommended to the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil that Election Commissioner Navin Chawla be sacked for behaving in a partisan manner. This recommendation in itself was controversial, as it was unclear if the Chief Election Commissioner has the legal and constitutional right to provide such a unilateral recommendation. As expected, Chawla refused to resign as he was expected to take over the post of Chief Election Commissioner a few months later.

The above controversy also resulted in speculation that the Election Commission was unable to agree on the polling dates, with the incumbent CEC Gopalaswami preferring that at least one phase of elections be held before his retirement on April 20, 2009. Navin Chawla, on the other hand, wanted the election to only start after Gopalaswami retired.

Eventually, on March 1, 2009, President Patil, as was widely expected, rejected Gopalaswami's recommendation to sack Chawla after the Government advised her to do so.

Soon after the above announcement by President Patil, the Election Commissioners put aside their differences and got together on March 2, 2009 to announce the details of the general election.

Subsequently, the President's House announced on March 4, 2009 that the incumbent CEC N. Gopalaswami would retire as scheduled on April 20, 2009 and Navin Chawla would take over as CEC starting April 21, 2009.

This means that the country will see 2 different people overseeing different phases of this election.

Voting Infrastructure for Lok Sabha Elections 2009 in India

2009-04-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

Electronic Voting Machines

The election will be conducted using the Electronic voting machine (EVM), as was done with the 2004 election. There are 1,368,430 voting machines available across the country.

Polling Stations

There are 828,804 polling stations in the country, a 20% increase over the 2004 election. This has been done mainly to avoid vulnerability to threat and intimidation, geographical barriers and to reduce the distance travelled by voters.

The CEC also announced that the polling station in Banej village in the Una segment of Junagadh Lok Sabha constituency, Gujarat has the unique claim to being the only polling station in the country that caters to only one elector - Guru Shree Bharatdasji Bapu, a priest of a Shiva temple in the middle of the Gir Forest.

Electoral Rolls

The electoral rolls had to be completely updated because of the delimitation that took effect from 2008. The process of updating the electoral rolls are expected to continue until the last date of filing nominations. 714 million people are eligible to vote in 2009, up 6.4% (43 million) from 2004.

This election will also see almost the entire country (except Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir) use photo electoral rolls. This will mean that photos of the electors would be printed on the electoral rolls which is intended to facilitate easy identification and prevent impersonation.

In addition to the photo electoral rolls, the electors will also need to provide separate photo identification. Those electors who have already been issued Electoral's Photo Identification Cards (EPIC) will only be permitted to use the EPIC for identification at the polling station. According to the EC, 82% of the country's electors (except those in Assam) have been issued EPIC.

India General Elections, 2009

2009-04-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

India will hold general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha in 5 phases on April 16, April 22, April 23, April 30, May 7 and May 13, 2009. The results of the election will be announced in single phase on May 16, 2009.

According to the Indian Constitution, elections in India for the Lok Sabha (the national parliament) must be held at least every five years under normal circumstances. With the last elections held in 2004, the term of the 14th Lok Sabha expires on June 1, 2009.

The election is conducted by the Election Commission of India, which estimates an electorate of 714 million voters, an increase of 43 million over the 2004 election. During the budget presented in February 2009, Rupees 1,120 Crores (Approx. EUR 180 M) was budgeted for election expenses.