Governance

Hyderabad parliamentary constituency is comprised of seven assembly constituencies -- Yakutpura, Charminar, Karwan, Chandrayangutta, Goshamahal, Malakpet and Bahadurpura. The constituency has been a bastion of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) since 1984 and the incumbent MP is seeking a fourth term here. All the six assembly segments except Goshamahal has a dominant Muslim population. Being the capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the constituency holds greater importance. “With a majority of Muslim population and a sizeable Hindu and Christian population, Hyderabad constituency is culturally and economically diverse. It is a hub for the IT and manufacturing sectors in the…

Actor and film personality Prakash Raj is contesting from Bangalore Central constituency as an independent candidate. He will be facing two-term BJP MP P C Mohan, Congress candidate and MLC Rizwan Arshad, and 19 other candidates. Prakash Raj grew up in Shanthi Nagar, near the centre of the city. Alongside a long career in theatre and films, he had also been involved in social service, having adopted villages and schools. Prakash says he now wants to be the “catalyst of change for a larger section of society than just the one-off village or school.” While he is no stranger to…

Chennai North Parliamentary constituency comprises six assembly constituencies:  Royapuram, Kolathur, Thiruvottiyur, Perambur, Thiru. Vi. Ka. Nagar, Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar.  North Chennai has long faced neglect from the political establishment in the state as well as the centre, with development in terms of infrastructure and basic amenities found wanting in the predominantly working class areas that comprise the constituency. A total of 23 candidates are contesting from various political parties and as independents from Chennai North. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has rejected 32 applications for the constituency for various reasons. According to the ECI website, the constituency has a…

Asaduddin Owaisi is an Indian politician, who is the President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). He is a three-time Member of Parliament (MP), representing the Hyderabad constituency in Lok Sabha. Owaisi made his political debut in 1994 in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. Contesting from the Charminar constituency which his party has been winning since 1967, he defeated his nearest rival, a breakaway party Majlis Bachao Tehreek's candidate, by a margin of 40 thousand votes. He succeeded Virasat Rasool Khan as the elected representative from the constituency. In the 1999 election, he defeated his nearest rival Telugu…

Chennai Central Parliamentary constituency is comprised of six assembly constituencies -- Villivakkam, Egmore (SC), Harbour, Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni, Thousand Lights and Anna Nagar.   Chennai Central is a constituency of extremes: it has some of the city's richest localities such as Central and Anna Nagar, and within a few metres are the slum pockets of GH quarters and Aminjikarai. There is cultural diversity as well as the constituency sizeable Hindi and Urdu speaking population, apart from Telugus and Malayalis.  It also has a significant Muslim population of over 2 lakhs in Chepauk - Triplicane and Egmore assembly constituencies. Contestants therefore must come…

Bangalore South comprises eight assembly constituencies - Basavanagudi, Bommanahalli, BTM Layout, Chickpet, Govindarajanagar, Jayanagar, Padmanabhanagar and Vijayanagar. The constituency is considered largely conservative and traditional, more so areas like Jayanagar and Basavanagudi. But it also has a fairly large migrant population, many of whom work in the city’s IT sector, in areas like BTM Layout and Bommanahalli. The constituency has been a BJP stronghold for long. Find which wards comes under the Bangalore South parliamentary constituency. According to the website of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, as of 16th January, the constituency had 21,66,445 voters - 11,29,388 male, 10,36,718…

Senior politician and Rajya Sabha MP B K Hari Prasad is the Congress candidate for Bangalore South. He was considered a surprise candidate in the constituency where BJP was expected to field Tejaswini Ananth, wife of late MP Ananth Kumar. However, instead of Tejaswini, BJP has also fielded a surprise candidate, 28-year-old Tejasvi Surya, here. A resident of Malleshwaram, Hari Prasad has been a member of the Rajya Sabha four times - 1990-1996, 2004-2010, 2013-2014 (elected after Anil Lad of INC resigned, to take charge as Bellary MLA), and 2014-present. In 1999, Hari Prasad had contested from Bangalore South against…

Tejasvi Surya, contesting on a BJP ticket from Bangalore South constituency, is one of the youngest candidates this election. Surya, 28, is a practising lawyer at the Karnataka High Court, and has been associated with the BJP and RSS for long. He is currently the State Secretary of Yuva Morcha, BJP’s youth wing. Surya is a spokesperson for the BJP, and also part of its national social media team. He is also the nephew of Ravi Subramanya, the BJP MLA from Basavanagudi. Surya has co-founded the Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence, an organisation that runs projects related to education and entrepreneurship.…

The National  Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1266 out of 1279 candidates who are contesting the Lok Sabha Phase I. Out of the 1266 the candidates, 213 (17%) have declared criminal cases against themselves. 146 candidates have records of serious criminal cases, out of which 10 have declared cases related to murder. 401 of them are crorepati candidates. There are 13 candidates who have not been analysed due to unavailability of their properly scanned and complete affidavits, at the time of making this report. Criminal background   213(17%) out of 1266…

A second time MP, Dr Naramalli Sivaprasad is a versatile personality. A theatre-artist, actor, film producer and two-time MP from the Chittoor Constituency, Sivaprasad is known for dressing up as various characters in Parliament to draw attention to issues. Dressed on various occasions as characters as diverse as Adolf Hitler, Chatrapathi Shivaji and MG Ramachandran, the MP staged protests demanding special packages for Andhra Pradesh. While his appearances as a theatre artist have hogged headlines, his recorded attendance and engagement as Member of Parliament on the floor of the House leave much to be desired.  In the 2014 elections, Sivaprasad…