Governance

Ahmedabad East constituency was created as part of the delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituency Order(2008). Along with Ahmedabad West, this constituency was carved out from the erstwhile Ahmedabad constituency, which has been a BJP stronghold since 1989. The first two elections from the Ahmedabad East constituency have seen BJP candidates comes to power. Actor turned politician Paresh Rawal was elected from the constituency in 2014, but has decided not to contest in the upcoming elections. The constituency is spread across the districts of Gandhi Nagar and Ahmedabad and comprises of seven assembly constituencies: Dehgam, Gandhinagar South, Vatva, Nikol, Naroda,…

Ahmedabad West constituency was created as part of the delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituency Order(2008)and is reserved for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes. This constituency, along with Ahmedabad East, was formed out of the erstwhile Ahmedabad constituency, which has been a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold since 1989. The constituency has seen two parliamentary elections since its formation, both of which was won by the BJP candidate Kirit P Solanki. The constituency comprises of seven assembly constituencies- Ellisbridge, Amraiwadi, Dariapur, Jhamalpur Khadia, Maninagar, Danilimda, Asarwa. As per the Election commission of India (ECI) website the constituency has a…

Dr Kirit P Solanki is with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has been a member of Parliament since 2009. He  represented the Ahmedabad West Constituency in the 16th Lok Sabha and is known for introducing several private member's bills during his tenure. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Dr Solanki defeated Vaghela Ka (of INC party) by a margin of 49264 votes. The constituency with 1534400 voters saw a turnout of 62.87% and he received 63.97% of the polled votes. The MP will be contesting for a third time from the same seat when Ahmedabad goes to polls on…

Paresh Rawal is a first time MP from the Ahmedabad East Constituency. An acclaimed actor who has essayed many iconic roles in both mainstream and parallel Hindi cinema, the 63-year old Rawal is known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has said in more than one interview that it was the inspiration from the PM that led him to join politics. In 2014, he was reportedly considered for two Gujarat seats -- Ahmedabad East and Vadodara -- where Modi himself was also being named as a possible contender. Finally, Modi stood for Vadodara, while Rawal got Ahmedabad…

The Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka (CEO-KA), had published on his website the latest electoral rolls – the version that was effective for this Lok Sabha election. Though the mother roll for this election was published last October, an addition/deletion drive was undertaken afterwards. The rolls with these modifications were published twice - once on 16th January, and the final rolls on 26th March. But the final rolls appeared on the CEO-KA website on 10th April only, leaving little time to respond for those who went missing from the rolls. Additions CEO-KA had advertised widely inviting the citizens to register as…

As a socialist politician of Socialist Secular Sovereign Democratic Republic of India, it hurts me deeply that I was excluded from the democratic process of exercising my fundamental constitutional right to vote in spite of repeated representations to election officials in New Delhi and Hyderabad. What happened Around mid 2018, reports were pouring in from various parts of Telangana state that voters did not find their names in electoral rolls. On 24th September 2018 I was shocked to find that my voter ID too was not present in the electoral rolls. I wrote same day to Election Commission of India…

The Sriperumbudur parliamentary constituency comprises six assembly constituencies: Maduravoyal, Sriperumbudur, Alandur, Pallavaram, Ambattur, Tambaram. A total of 19 candidates are contesting from various political parties and as independents from Sriperumbudur. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has rejected 27 applications for various reasons. According to the ECI website, the constituency has a total of 22,53,041 voters: 11,22,731 male; 11,29,970 female and 340 of the third gender. [flexiblemap src="http://data.opencity.in/Data/Tamil-Nadu-Parliament-Constituency-Sriperambudur-Map-V-1.kml" width="100%" height="400px" ] Note – Map for representation purpose | Source – http://datameet.org 2014 Lok Sabha Elections Incumbent MP: K N Ramachandran Name of candidate Party Votes secured Vote share (over total…

Dakshina Kannada parliamentary constituency comprises eight assembly constituencies - Belthangady, Moodabidri, Mangalore City North (previously Surathkal), Mangalore City South (previously Mangalore), Mangalore (previously Ullal), Bantval, Puttur and Sulia. This constituency has historically been a BJP stronghold. According to the website of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, as of 16th January, the constituency had 16,97,417 voters – 8,33,719 male, 8,63,599 female and 99 others. [flexiblemap src="http://data.opencity.in/Data/Karnataka-Parliament-Constituency-Dakshina-Kannada-Map-V-1.kml" width="100%" height="400px" ] Note – Map for representation purpose | Source – http://datameet.org The constituency has been a sensitive one, vulnerable to violence and rowdyism, and parts of it -- especially Mangalore city commissionerate…

Indian Mythology is peppered with great stories. And my favourite right now, with the elections around the corner, is the legend of Mohini - Bhasmasura. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the it, let me give you the abridged version - Lord Shiva who is pleased with the penance of Bhasmasura, the great demon, gives him a boon that he can burn anything and anybody by just placing his hand upon its head. Upon receiving the ‘gift’, Bhasmasura tries to place his hand on Lord Shiva’s head to burn him. To me, nothing else succinctly sums up my…

Mysore, parliamentary constituency number 21, comprises eight assembly constituencies: Madikeri (208), Virajpet (209), Piriyapatna (210), Hunsur (212), Chamundeshwari (215), Krishnaraja (216), Chamaraja (217), and Narasimharaja (218). Madikeri and Virajpet are the most recent entrants in this parliamentary constituency which, till the 2007 delimitation process, consisted of only the other six assembly constituencies. From 1957 onwards, and for a long time, Mysore sent a member of the INC to represent its people in the Parliament. Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, a scion of the erstwhile royal family of Mysore, was one of them. BJP made inroads into this seat in 1998 when CH…