Best polling apps for meetings

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal will be on a two-day visit to Gujarat from Sunday, during which he will hold a town hall meeting on “free electricity” and also administer oath to the newly-appointed party office-bearers, a party leader said in Ahmedabad. During his two-day stay in Ahmedabad, the Delhi Chief Minister will also hold meetings with senior leaders of the AAP and interact with party members, he said on Saturday. The Kejriwal-led party is gearing up to contest elections to the 182-member Assembly in BJP-ruled Gujarat to be held by the end of this year. “Kejriwal will reach Ahmedabad airport at 3 p.m. on Sunday. He will administer oath to 7,500 newly-appointed office bearers at a function at 4 p.m. They will take pledge to work whole-heartedly for the party and encourage workers for the upcoming Assembly election,” AAP’s national joint secretary Isudan Gadhvi told reporters in Ahmedabad. Also read: AAP announces new office-bearers in Gujarat … [Read more...] about Kejriwal to be on two-day Gujarat visit from Sunday; to hold town hall meet on ‘free electricity’

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying its luck in the municipal elections for the first time in Madhya Pradesh, promising free water, better schools and healthcare facilities. The party has chosen mayoral candidates for 14 out of 16 municipal corporations in the State, the AAP’s State unit chief Pankaj Singh said on July 2. “We have chosen mayoral candidates in 14 out of 16 municipal corporations. We have also fielded candidates for corporators post,” Mr. Singh said. The elections to 413 urban bodies in Madhya Pradesh will be held on July 6 and 13. The party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will take out a roadshow in support of his party’s mayoral candidate Rani Agrawal in Singrauli during the day. “Our major poll plank for the municipal elections is free water. We are going to make water tax-free in the urban civic bodies where we win,” Mr. Singh said. He further claimed that schools in the state were in a bad shape. As many as 22,000 institutions were shut … [Read more...] about Madhya Pradesh civic polls: AAP testing electoral waters with promise of free water, better schools

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has appealed to the electors of the Presidential election, scheduled to be held on July 18, to vote as per their conscience after weighing the two candidates in the fray, and not based on their political affiliation. Addressing a meeting of TRS MPs, MLAs, MLCs, its State executive committee members and other senior leaders of the party convened in support of Yashwant Sinha, the candidate fielded by the Opposition, here on Saturday, the Telangana Chief Minister said Mr. Sinha’s candidature outweighs that of his rival’s as he was a towering personality. “He (Mr. Sinha) is an honest politician and an able administrator who handled the key portfolios of finance and external affairs in the Union Cabinet in the A.B. Vajpayee Government,” Mr. Rao said. In an appeal to all Parliamentarians in the country, the TRS chief said that there was a democratic practice in the country of voting as per conscience on some occasions and … [Read more...] about Telangana: KCR asks TRS legislators to vote as per conscience during Presidential poll

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing a public meeting titled as ‘Vijay Sankalpa Sabha’ at Parade Grounds in Secunderabad here on July 3. As the title of the meeting suggests, PM Modi may sound the poll bugle for the 2023 Assembly polls in Telangana to prepare the BJP cadre for the electoral contest. Modi, who landed here on Saturday to attend the BJP’s two-day National Executive Committee meeting, will address the rally on Sunday evening. During his last visit to the city on May 26, Modi, indirectly referring to TRS party, lashed out at family politics saying ‘parivaarvadi’ is democracy’s “greatest enemy”. He had expressed confidence that the BJP would storm to power in the state in the next assembly elections. According to political pundits, Modi is expected to continue his tirade against Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and the ruling TRS. Rao, popularly known as KCR, on Saturday in a party meeting in support of opposition parties’ presidential candidate Yashwant … [Read more...] about PM Modi to Address Public Meeting in Hyderabad on July 3

SBNRI, a platform for managing the banking, investment and taxation needs of non-resident Indians (NRIs), said it had introduced an app for the convenience of its target group. “India offers huge investment opportunities for NRIs, but lack of transparency, knowledge and differences in time zones makes it more challenging for them to gain accurate information about financial assets,” said Mudit Vijayvergiya, founder, SBNRI. The entity was set up to solve the problems faced by NRIs in accessing banking and investment opportunities in India. SBNRI said it had done strong groundwork in assimilating multiple touchpoints and simplifying it for an NRI as a one-stop assistant.  To enable this, it had tied up with banks, investment platforms and service platforms specialising on NRIs. “Distribution was a major challenge in the business and this has been solved in the past year,” said Mr. Vijayvergiya. From opening of NRO (non-resident ordinary) account for NRIs to manage and maintain … [Read more...] about SBNRI unveils app to meet banking, investment needs of NRIs

A delegation of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislators on Saturday met the Opposition’s Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha and expressed their support for him, ahead of the election slated for July 18. “Four MLAs—Ahmed Balala, Kausar Mohiuddin, Mumtaz Khan and Moazzam Khan—met Mr. Sinha. They said that as per our party president’s decision, they would support him in the Presidential elections,” a party source familiar with the development told The Hindu . On June 27, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi announced that his party would support Mr. Sinha’s candidature. “AIMIM legislators will be voting for opposition candidate @YashwantSinha in the #PresidentialElections. Mr Sinha spoke to me on a call earlier as well,” Mr. Owaisi had tweeted. Party sources said that AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi was not present at the meeting as he was addressing a public meeting in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh, where municipal polls are due on July 6. “We have fielded 11 … [Read more...] about Telangana: AIMIM extends support to Yashwant Sinha

In the fall of 2012, an ailing Bal Thackeray, founder and patriarch of Maharashtra’s then dominant right-wing party — the Shiv Sena (Army of Shivaji) — had appealed to his Shiv Sainiks to stand by his son Uddhav and grandson Aaditya Thackeray. In what would be his final address to his party workers, Bal Thackeray, in his pre-recorded speech at the party’s annual Dussehra rally in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, called upon the Marathi manoos (Marathi-speaking sons-of-the soil) to remain united and smash the Congress. The speech, three weeks before the 86-year-old Thackeray’s death in November that year, also had an implied appeal to his estranged nephew, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, to join forces with the Shiv Sena. A decade later, while the prospects of the Sena and the MNS uniting have completely evaporated, a bleaker question facing Mr. Uddhav and his son today is whether ordinary Sainiks will stand by them after the recent rebellion of 40 MLAs led by Eknath … [Read more...] about Shiv Sena | The Maratha tiger in its labyrinth

How many urban constituencies does India really have? How many Muslim-dominated constituencies do we have? These are key questions around our elections that we have simply not been able to answer – until now. [A brief aside on a frustrating data issue, before I get to the meat of the matter. Feel free to scroll down to the charts if this does not interest you.] Most demographic data for India comes from the Census, which splits its data down from the state and district level to the block, village and town level. The smallest unit of Census data is an Enumeration Block (EB) which consists of around 150 households. Electoral data, on the other hand, comes from the Election Commission of India (ECI), and is centred around parliamentary and assembly constituencies, the smallest unit of which is a polling booth which covers around 1,000 voters. The problem is that the ‘twain don’t meet. Theoretically, if the ECI simply listed all the Census EBs in an assembly or parliamentary … [Read more...] about Urban voters, Muslim voters – Lok Sabha mysteries solved

Embattled Texas Police Chief Pete Arredondo has resigned from his seat in the Uvalde City Council, roughly a month after being sworn in to the position . The Uvalde Leader-News was the first to report on Arredondo’s resignation plans early Saturday afternoon. Uvalde city leaders said they received his official letter of resignation late Saturday afternoon after learning the news from the local paper. "After much consideration, it is in the best interest of the community to step down as a member of the City Council for District 3 to minimize further distractions," Arredondo said in his letter. "The Mayor, the City Council, and the City Staff must continue to move forward to unite our community, once again." The news of his resignation comes after Arredondo became the central figure in a series of tactical mistakes, including the decision to avoid confronting an 18-year-old gunman, in responding to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and … [Read more...] about Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo resigns from City Council seat

Pride in London has returned to the capital for the first time since 2019, celebrating 50 years since the very first march took place in 1972. More than one million people are expected to descend on the capital for the parade, which begins from 12pm on Saturday (2 July). According to the organisers, 30,000 people have registered to join the march from more than 600 LGBT+ community groups. The parade is an “opportunity for expression of celebration, joy and triumph but also the voice to rightly express the continued fight for those injustices and inequalities that exist among us,” Pride in London said. Those marching today will be calling on the UK government to ban conversion therapy for all LGBT+ people, reform the Gender Recognition Act, and provide equal protection for LGBT+ communities against hate crime. Recommended Pride in London unveils official 2022 theme Pride in London: What is the history of the annual parade? Pride … [Read more...] about Pride in London – live: March gets underway as thousands celebrate in the capital