2019 elections

Expelled Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim launched his new regional party, Odisha Janata Congress, after questioning party leadership. The party aims to address issues like women's safety, unemployment, and corruption. Moquim, who faced disqualification and conviction in a loan case, plans a statewide outreach to strengthen his new political outfit.

Currency with the public on the eve of 2019 elections has posted one of the highest year-on-year growth compared with pre-election growth rates in past seven elections. Economists say the gap between the growth rates of nominal GDP and currency in circulation is a good indicator. In 2018-19, while currency growth was 17.3%, the projected nominal GDP growth was 12.33%.

The victory margin of PM Modi increased in the 2019 parliamentary poll but the number of NOTA voters also witnessed a rise in Varanasi constituency. In the 2019 election, the number of NOTA votes almost doubled from 2,051 to 4,037 in Varanasi constituency in comparison to 2014 poll. The trend shows that people are losing faith in political parties.

With Rahul Gandhi back from his overseas trip, Congress is mulling convening the meeting of its apex body Congress Working Committee (CWC) next week to pick the new party president. Sources in the know of developments said the date of the meeting could be decided in a couple of days and the meeting may be held within days.

The three-day meet of general secretaries (organisations) also discussed the role of pracharaks in the BJP and to firm up the road map for the 2019 elections. The state of the party in Uttar Pradesh was another focal point.

Says TRS only good for backstabbing

As the Election Commission announced dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the first-time voters to vote in record numbers. PM Modi hoped that the 2019 election witnesses a historic turnout and urged all Indians to enrich the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with their active participation.

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in the maiden budget of the Congress-JDS coalition government yesterday announced a mega Rs 34,000 crore farm loan waiver scheme.

The loan program is called Aajeevika, and was started in the 1990s as a local poverty alleviation program for women’s groups in Andhra Pradesh. It was adopted country-wide in 2011 under Congress-led government that Modi ousted 3 years later. Once in power, Modi expanded Aajeevika to 622 of India’s 640 districts & increased annual outlays by about 3 times.

They’re confiscating as much as Rs 100 crore in cash and goods each day, as offenders use ambulances and other vehicles fitted with flashing lights to carry cash and give handouts in lunch boxes to lure voters.

The number of voters in Uttarakhand, where polling for its five Lok Sabha seats is scheduled for the first phase on April 19, has risen by more than five lakh since the 2019 elections. The state has 83.21 lakh voters at present, Chief Electoral Officer BVRC Purushottam told reporters on Saturday. The number was at 77.65 lakh during the 2019 polls, he said.

Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had a brief meeting with IPAC founder Prashant Kishore during the former’s recent visit to the national capital.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday said his party will not join the NDA even if the BJP approaches it for the 2019 general elections. He said the party's no-confidence motion against the government was a battle of "morality versus majority".

Like Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also has traits of an authoritarian leader, said the professor of history at Princeton University whose latest book "Emergency Chronicles" hit the stands recently.