EC seeks power to register parties not contesting polls

October 4th, 2009 MUMBAI - In a "typographical error", the Maharashtra state election commission changed the political party and symbol of Congress candidate Praniti Shinde to that of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Praniti, daughter of central Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, was duly declared the party candidate for the Solapur city central assembly constituency, falling in her home district Solapur, for the Oct 13 poll.

September 19th, 2009 MUMBAI - Kalawati Bandurkar, the poor widow whose name Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had mentioned in his parliament speech last year, will be contesting the Maharashtra assembly polls as a candidate of the Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, a party official said Saturday. After the speech, for a while Kalawati had become the name and the face of the plight being faced by farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

August 3rd, 2009 CHANDIGARH - Voting has begun for three assembly seats of Punjab - Banur, Kahnuwan and Jalalabad. The polling will be held till 5:00 p.m.

May 12th, 2009 CHENNAI - The Lok Sabha elections for the 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu are crucial for the ruling DMK, which has outside support in the state from the Congress. On Wednesday, over 40 million voters in Tamil Nadu will decide the fate of 824 candidates in the fifth and the last phase of the staggered Indian parliamentary elections.

May 11th, 2009 BARAMULLA - Having plunged headlong into an electoral campaign as the first separatist in Kashmir to contest the polls since a revolt broke out in Kashmir in 1989, People's Conference chairman Sajjad Gani Lone says he has changed his strategy, not his ideology. Lone has defended his move of entering the electoral process by maintaining that he is still committed to the Kashmiri cause.

April 30th, 2009 BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa came with his son, who is contesting elections for the BJP, to cast his vote on Thursday.

April 23rd, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - Up to 15 percent turnout was reported Thursday in Orissa in the first two hours of the second and final phase of polling in 11 Lok Sabha and 77 assembly seats Thursday, officials said. Said Additional Chief Electoral Officer Bhabagrahi Mohapatra: 'The polling is going on peacefully.' Mohapatra said there were some complaints of malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) but these were sorted out.

April 23rd, 2009 BARAMATI - Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar Thursday tripped the Congress by saying that the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will pick its prime minister only after the Lok Sabha election results are known. Going against the Congress stand that Manmohan Singh will remain the prime minister of any future UPA government, Pawar said that the 'election and selection' of the leader of the government would occur after the elections get over May 16.

April 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said Thursday that the 'election and selection' of the leader of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) would be done after the parliamentary polls. Alliance partners Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan said they were open to the Left joining the coalition.

April 22nd, 2009 KOLKATA - Charging West Bengal's opposition parties with trying to intimidate voters, the state's ruling Left Front (LF) Wednesday said the Election Commission should initiate measures to create a congenial atmosphere for the polls. 'The conditions in the three sub-divisions of the Darjeeling Hills - Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong - are unfavourable for polls.

April 15th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - At least 35 candidates contesting in the first phase of assembly elections Thursday in Orissa have disclosed nil assets, a voluntary body Orissa Election Watch (OEW) said Wednesday. The state will elect 121 members to the state assembly and 21 members to Lok Sabha simultaneously on April 16 and April 23.

April 13th, 2009 AGARTALA - At least eight of the total 19 candidates contesting the two Lok Sabha seats in Tripura were undergraduates while two have criminal cases pending against them, the National Election Watch (NEW) said in a report Monday. There is just one woman candidate in Tripura that goes to the polls April 23.

April 5th, 2009 PATNA - An outlawed Maoist outfit has expelled one of its senior leaders in Bihar for contesting the Lok Sabha elections, defying the group's poll boycott call. Ranjan Yadav alias Dinkar-ji, a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh special area committee of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), was expelled for contesting from Chatra constituency in neighbouring Jharkhand, a statement issued by the outfit said Sunday.

April 1st, 2009 BANGALORE - The ruling Congress, which has pre-poll alliances in eight states across the country for the coming general elections, is open to post-poll alliances to remain in power even in a coalition set-up, a senior party leader said Wednesday. 'We are contesting in about 440 constituencies across the country and have seat-sharing agreements in eight states with regional/state parties.

March 18th, 2009 KOLKATA - CPM veteran Jyoti Basu Jyoti Basu has said that it would be tough for the 'Third Front' to win the general polls and form a government. "It will be tough for the 'Third Front' to form the Central Government, as far as my knowledge is concerned," said Basu.