ELECTIONS

Dr Kalanidhi Veeraswamy of the DMK has won from North Chennai. He is the son of veteran DMK leader and former state minister Arcot Veeraswamy. A doctor and graduate of Stanley Medical College, this is Kalanidhi’s political debut. Citizen Matters had interviewed Dr Kalanidhi during the election campaign in April. Here he talks about his plans for improving North Chennai, from closing the Kodangaiyur dump yard to decongestion, from creation of jobs to infrastructure for fisherfolk. What are the problems that people put forth to you over the course of your campaign? The information we got from assembly constituencies and…

The counting of votes for the 17th Lok Sabha elections is just days away. But how does such a mammoth counting exercise take place? Here is a guide. Preparations for the Counting Day The Returning Officer (RO) fixes the time & place of counting at least one week before the date of polling. The place is decided in consultation with the police. The selected place should be spacious enough with adequate lighting and other facilities to accommodate the officials and agents. A permanent structure like a college or a university is usually selected for the purpose of counting. The same is…

Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha constituency comprises the following assembly constituencies: Chowranghee, Entally, Beleghata, Jorasanko, Shyampukur, Maniktala, Kashipur and Belgachhia. The constituency came into being after a delimitation exercise in 2008. The two Lok Sabha elections contested since have seen candidates of the Trinamool Congress (AITC) emerge as the victor. A total of 21 candidates are contesting from various political parties and as independents from Kolkata Uttar parliamentary constituency. According to the CEO, West Bengal, the constituency has a total voter strength of 14,43,818 -- 794275 male, 649528 female and 15 of other gender. [flexiblemap src="http://data.opencity.in/Data/West-Bengal-Parliament-Constituency-Kolkata-North-Map-V-1.kml" width="100%" height="400px" ] Note –…

Come May 19th, it will be fauji versus fauji for the first time ever in the Shimla reserved Lok Sabha seat. Perhaps not so surprising given that the state has 1.6 lakh ex-servicemen and over 62,000 serving personnel, with Shimla alone having over 10,000 ex-servicemen (total electorate 11,53,363 as per 2014 figures). Shimla parliamentary constituency is comprised of 17 assembly segments across three districts: Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur. Retired Col Dhani Ram Shandil of the Congress is pitted against former air force senior non-commissioned officer Suresh Kashyap of BJP, both two-time sitting MLAs and belonging to the Koli community. BJP…

A high profile constituency situated within Kolkata, Jadavpur has historically seen political heavyweights, educationists, performing artists and even the current chief minister Mamata Banerjee contesting the seat. Once considered a Left bastion, it saw the first upset in 1984, when CPM veteran Somnath Chatterjee was defeated by Mamata Banerjee, then representing the Indian National Congress. While the Communist Party did wrest the seat back in 1989, from 1996 onwards, the Trinamool Congress (initially with the INC, and thereafter as a registered party itself) won it for three consecutive terms. There was a reversal of fortunes for the 14th Lok Sabha…

Kolkata Dakshin of West Bengal is a high profile constituency, currently held by Subrata Bakshi of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Subrata Bakshi beat nearest rival Tathagata Roy of the BJP by winning a whopping majority of the votes cast in this constituency. This time, the main candidates in the Kolkata Dakshin constituency are Mala Roy of AITC, Nandini Mukherjee of CPI(M) and Chandra Kumar Bose of BJP. Kolkata Dakshin is one of those constituencies that record very high voter turnout in the Lok Sabha elections. In 2014, the constituency witnessed a 69.3% voter…

The silly season is upon us. It is an endless cycle that repeats every few years. It is the season when we, the people of India, get breathless with excitement: “You must vote! It is the sacred duty of every citizen in a democracy to vote.” “If you don’t vote, then you are not a patriotic citizen, and you lose your right to have a public voice.” “Your vote is important. The person / party that you elect will frame policies that will determine the future of our country.” It is the season when we pull out from the dusty…

In 2009, Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar came to power on a Trinamool Congress ticket from the Barasat Lok Sabha constituency near Kolkata. Since then the 60-year-old physician has retained her MP seat, winning by a margin of 1,73,141 votes in the 2014 General Elections. The incumbent MP is in the poll fray again from Barasat. Parliamentary constituency No. 17, Barasat, saw a change in its constituent assembly segments in the 2009 elections, following the orders of the Delimitation Commission; as per these orders, the satellite township of New Town, which has been developed as a special urban IT and corporate…

One of the most prestigious constituencies of Kolkata, Jadavpur has always seen parties fielding popular leaders and party heavyweights for this Lok Sabha constituency. This was the very place from where the current West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee defeated Somnath Chatterjee,  stalwart of the CPI(M), in 1984. Indeed, the constituency has seen many high profile and celebrated MPs, the most recent being Harvard historian Sugato Bose, who won the seat in 2014. In the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mamata Banerjee surprised everyone by declaring that local Tollywood star, Mimi Chakraborty would get the much coveted…

On a sweltering Saturday afternoon, a little more than a dozen men, armed with red flags in hand, towing a middle-aged lady with inconspicuous features quietly walk into a gated housing society in the heart of Kasba, a densely populated residential neighbourhood in East Kolkata. Minutes later, the residents hear a firm female voice that promises a better tomorrow devoid of anarchy and lumpen raj. A face here and a face there, slowly but gradually curious onlookers from windows and balconies start peeping down to catch the show. The lady, with a microphone in one hand (one of her party…