ELECTIONS

As India gets ready to vote to decide who will represent the country in Parliament, Citizen Matters is speaking to elected representatives from Chennai, ahead of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections. As part of this series, we had a chat with Kalanidhi Veerasamy, incumbent MP from Chennai North constituency. Dr Kalanidhi has been given the ticket by his party DMK to contest from the same constituency in the 2024 polls. Read more: Lok Sabha 2024: Know your MP — Dr Kalanidhi Veerasamy, Chennai North Chennai North and Dr Kalanidhi Veerasamy The Lok Sabha constituency of Chennai North is composed of six…

Name: Shrikant Shinde Constituency: Kalyan Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde is an orthopaedic surgeon and now a full time politician. The two term MP from Kalyan constituency is getting groomed to be the second most powerful leader in Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction, after his father. Shrikant is a fresh face in the Maharashtra Politics. In 2014, this young politician was in the final year of M.S. (Orthopaedics) when he became MP for the 16th Lok Sabha at the age of 27 - the youngest Maratha member of the parliament ever. In the year 2019, he got…

The three-time Member of Parliament (MP) from the Chennai Central constituency, Dayanidhi Maran, a prominent member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party is contesting for the Lok Sabha seat for the fourth time. Dayanidhi Maran is the son of former Union Minister Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi. He stepped into Lok Sabha for the first time in 2004, after winning from the Chennai Central constituency. Subsequently, he was re-elected from the same constituency in the 2009 general elections and the 2019 general elections. In 2004, after his first…

Name: Poonam Vajendla Rao alias Poonam Mahajan Constituency: Mumbai North Central Poonam Mahajan is a two-time Lok Sabha MP who has represented the Mumbai-North-Central constituency in the 16th (2014) and 17th (2019) Lok Sabha sessions. In the 2019 general elections, 53.97% of the votes were cast in Poonam's favour as opposed to her closest rival, Priya Dutt of the Indian National Congress, who got 39.55% of the votes cast by the 8.95 lakh voters. Poonam defeated Priya by 1,30,005 votes, a margin lesser compared to 2014 when she won by a margin of 1.86 lakh votes. Poonam is the daughter of…

Traffic congestion and mobility are among Bengaluru's topmost concerns today. In the run-up to the elections, as the spotlight turns on how the city's sitting MPs have performed over the last five years, their actions and stance on this issue certainly deserve some scrutiny. How have they engaged with the issue? Did they propose any solutions? The major traffic & mobility issues In 2019, Bengaluru recorded the second highest number of vehicle, with over 80 lakh. Nearly 84% of households have motor vehicles. Lack of first and last mile connectivity, reduced bus ridership, under-completion of metro connectivity across the city,…

Kalanidhi Veerasamy of DMK was elected from Chennai North Constituency in 2019. The son of veteran DMK leader and former state minister Arcot N Veerasamy, he had his debut political journey in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He is a graduate of Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Stanley Medical College, with a specialisation in Plastic Surgery. In 2019, a total of 23 candidates contested from various political parties and as independents from Chennai North constituency, which had a total of 14,87,461 voters. Dr Kalanidhi got 61.85% of the vote share and defeated his nearest rival, Alagaapuram R Mohanraj of DMDK, who…

As India gets ready to vote to decide who will represent them in Parliament, Citizen Matters is speaking to elected Parliamentary representatives from Mumbai. We will ask them about the work they have done for the city, policies they have supported and why Mumbaikars should cast votes in their favour (or of their political parties). As part of this series, we spoke to Gajanan Kirtikar, who represented Mumbai North West for the past two terms. He is an active Parliamentarian who was one of top 10 MPs who asked the maximum number of questions during their tenure, according to a report…

Name: Gajanan Kirtikar  Constituency: Mumbai North West Gajanan Kirtikar, 80 is an old hand in Maharashtra politics and has risen up the ranks of his party. He has always been with the Shiv Sena, having been part of the core team of Bal Thackeray, subsequently working under Uddhav Thackeray. He chose to move to the Shiv Sena faction led by present chief minister Eknath Shinde.  He served as a legislator for four terms between 1990 to 2009 and then entered the Parliament for two terms from 2014. He also served as the minister of state for home and tourism and…

As India gets ready to vote to decide who will represent them in Parliament, Citizen Matters is speaking to elected Parliamentary representatives from Mumbai. We will ask them about the work they have done for the city, policies have they supported and why Mumbaikars should cast votes in their favour (or of their political parties). As part of this series, we spoke to Gopal Shetty, who represented Mumbai North for the past two terms. Shetty has now been replaced by Piyush Goyal by his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who will be seeking votes based on the work done by…

Name: Gopal Chinayya Shetty Constituency: Mumbai North Member of Parliament, Gopal Chinayya Shetty, 69 has been representing the area that falls under Mumbai North constituency in various capacities. First, he worked as a local corporator for three terms since 1992 and later, went on to become Mumbai’s deputy mayor. After that he rose to the state assembly from the Maharashtra legislative assembly from 2004 to 2014.  Since then, Shetty has been representing the Mumbai North constituency for two Parliamentary terms. In 2014, Shetty defeated Congress’ Sanjay Nirupam by polling in 70.1% of the voteshare by getting 6,64,004 votes as against…