Wednesday 26 February 2014

US-based Pew Survey: More Indian Voters Favour Narendra Modi than Rahul Gandhi

Washington: More than 60 per cent of Indian voters favour the BJP in the general election, due by May, while less than 20 per cent back the ruling Congress, a major American survey released yesterday said.

"With the Indian parliamentary elections just weeks away, the Indian public, by a margin of more than three-to-one, would prefer the Hindu-nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to lead the next Indian government rather than the Indian National Congress (INC), which heads the current left-of-centre governing coalition," Pew Research said.

The survey, which does not project the number of seats that each party is likely to win, said the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is more popular than Rahul Gandhi, who is leading his Congress party's struggling campaign.

Pew, a Washington-based think tank, interviewed 2,464 randomly selected voters in states and territories that are home to roughly 91 per cent of the Indian population, between December 7 and January 12. The margin of error is 3.8 per cent.

According to the survey, less than a third of Indians are satisfied with the way things are today.

The survey said more than six-in-ten Indians prefer the BJP to lead the next government. Just two-in-ten picked the incumbent Congress, which is battling perception of a government mired in corruption scandals and unable to check a sliding economy.

Other parties have the support of 12 per cent of the public. The BJP's backing is consistent across age groups and almost equal between rural (64 per cent) and urban (60 per cent) Indians, the survey found.

The northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Delhi, together home to more than 400 million, support the BJP most, with 74 per cent saying they preferred the party.

The BJP's weakest backing, around 54 per cent, is in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Mr Modi's Gujarat.

Nearly 60 per cent voters said the BJP is likely to be more successful than the Congress in creating job opportunities, reducing terrorism and check corruption. The Pew survey said only 17 per cent say Congress would do a better job dealing with graft.

Source: NDTV

Sunday 23 February 2014

Unhappy with UPA, Paswan’s LJP Set to Tie-Up with BJP

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) led by Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday signalled readiness to tie up with the NDA ahead of the 2014 general elections, giving the BJP a possible prominent Dalit leader as a poll ally.

The party’s desire to join the NDA comes after his demand of 10 seats in Bihar’s RJD-Congress-LJP alliance evoked a lukewarm response from RJD chief Lalu Prasad. LJP leaders also believe a tie up with BJP could reap richer electoral harvest.

“We have decided to tie up with BJP..... every thing has been finalized,” said LJP leader Surajbhan. Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan, however, said nothing was final.

After a poor show in the 2009 polls and in the 2010 assembly elections, this could be a do-or-die battle for Paswan. “He faces a difficult election and wants to be on the right side,” said a BJP leader.

Meanwhile, Dalit leader and former IRS officer Udit Raj is all set to join the BJP in Uttar Pradesh on Monday. BJP thinks there is a scope of making inroads into Mayawati’s vote -bank with a know n Dalit face, said a party leader.

Source: Hindustan Times

Saturday 22 February 2014

Modi-led NDA Way Ahead than UPA and to Win 236 Seats in Polls: ABP News-Nielsen Survey

New Delhi: BJP-lead NDA is on course to emerge the biggest in general elections due by May, reveals ABP News-Nielsen Opinion Poll.

The Opinion Poll has found that NDA is set to win 236 seats in the 543-seat parliament while the incumbent UPA-II government is projected to win mere 92 seats.

According to the projection, BJP alone will get 217 (won 116 seats in 2009) seats out of a total 543 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress is projected to get only 73 (won 206 seats in 2009) seats--133 less than 2009 seat position in the Lower House.

The non-UPA and non-NDA parties seem to be holding a key share of national vote bank, reveals the survey. Left parties are likely to gather 29 seats while Others in the political fray could likely bag 186 seats.

The poll forecast that the BJP would win the lion's share of the vote in many of the big states that typically decide the fate of the polls.

BJP is forecast to win 40 (won 11 in 2009) of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in the country.

It is also predicted to emerge as the largest party in Bihar, with 21 (won 12 seats in 2009) of the state's 40 seats, and to win 19 (won 9 in 2009) of the 48 seats in Maharashtra. 7 seats go to Congress while NCP gets 7 seats. Shiv Sena gets 9 (won 11 in 2009) here.

BJP could bag 26 of Madhya Pradesh’s 29 seats and 22 out 26 seats from PM nominee Narendra Modi’s home turf Gujarat.

Rajasthan again where BJP is in power could give 20 seats to the party from the state’s electoral share. Congress set to win 5 here.

17 (won 19 in 2009) seats from Karnataka’s 28 could go BJP’s way as well while 8 seats likely to be won by Congress.

In Kerala, CPM is forecast to win 7 seats, while Congress could add 6 seats to its kitty out of the 20. Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK is seen winning 19 seats out of 39 in Tamil Nadu. DMK gets 13.

Congress may win only 2 seats in Tamil Nadu.

Out of the 14 seats in Assam, 8 seats could be captured by the Congress.

Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is set to win 29 (won 19 seats in 2009) seats outs of 42, CPM could hold on to 7 here while Congress may latch on to 2 in West Bengal.

BJD is set to win 16 out of 21 seats in Orissa, 3 go to the BJP.

NDA’s vote share percentage is seen at 31% while UPA’s is projected at 24%. Left has 5% while Others take around 40% overall.

The ABP News-Nielsen Opinion Poll based on national representative sample of 29,000 randomly selected respondents across the country in the month of February.

Figure below displays the break-up of seats:

UPA 92: East 21 (142) North 23 (151), South 26 (134), West 22 (116)

NDA 236: East 39 (142), North 88 (151), South 21 (134), West 88 (116)

Left 29: East 14 (142), North 9 (151), South 15 (134), West 0 (116)

Others 186: East 68 (142), North 40 (151), South 72 (134), West 6 (116)


Source: ABPLive.in

Friday 21 February 2014

ABP News-Nielsen Opinion-Poll: BJP Leading in UP-Bihar (Feb-2014 Survey)

New Delhi: The latest ABP News – Nielsen opinion poll has projected a further strengthening of Bhartiya Janta Paty’s hold in Uttar Pradesh and a very slight loss in Bihar, when compared to the January opinion poll.

But over all, the data reveals that if Lok Sabha elections were held right now, then BJP will emerge with maximum numbers from both states.

In UP, of the total 80 seats, BJP is likely to win 40 seats, compared to 10 in 2009. While Congress, which had the most (21) seats in 2009, will be reduced to just 7 seats on it own, and 4 more with RLD.

BSP and SP are also seen losing some of their vote share. In 2009 BSP and SP had 20 and 23 seats respectively; in the current poll, they are shown winning 13 and 14 seats respectively.

The Aam Admi Party also seems to have lost a minor bit of ground, according to the opinion poll’s results. From 2 seats predicted in the January survey, the number has come down to 1 in February. The vote share of the party has also come down by 1% from 6% to 5%.

Meanwhile, of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, RJD has fallen from 20 in 2009 to just 9 now, while the BJP has picked up, from 11 in 2009 to 21 now.

But comparing the present survey’s result to the one held in January 2014 reveals that BJP has lost some of its vote share while JDU has gained. In the January opinion poll, BJP was projected to win 24 seats and the JDU 6.

This poll was conducted between 4th February to 15th February 2014. A total of 29,252 people, across 129 constituencies in both states, were interviewed.

In Uttar Pradesh, 4537 from 20 parliamentary constituencies were interviewed, while in Bihar 2272 people from 10 parliamentary constituencies were interviewed.

Uttar Pradesh (Feb-2014 Survey)

If Lok Sabha elections are held today, then of the total 80 seats in UP, 11 are likely to go to the Congress-RLD combine, 40 to BJP, 13 tp BSP, 14 to SP, 1to AAP and 1 to others.

According to the poll, Congress, on its own, is likely to win just 7 seats, compared to 21 on the 2009 elections. The current trend is also a drop from the previous opinion poll held in January, which projected 8 seats for the Congress. The vote share of the party has also dropped from 18.4% in 2009 to 13% in 2014.

BSP too seems to be on a downward trend, with number of seats for the party coming down from 20 in 2009 to 15 in the January poll, to 13 in the current survey. The party’s vote share has also moved from 27.2% to 23% to 22%.

Vote share of the ruling SP is 16% currently, the opinion poll has predicted. In 2009, the vote share of the party had been 23.5%. In terms of seats, the party seems consistent at 16 in both the surveys held this year; in the previous election, SP had won 23 Lok Sabha seats.

With barely a few months in existence, AAP has manged to command 5% of the vote share in UP, with 1 seat, the poll has predicted. In the January poll, AAP was projected to win 2 seats with 6% vote share.

In keeping with the continuing trend in recent opinion polls, BJP has emerged as the largest party from the state, with 33% of the vote share, taking it to 40 seats. In the January poll, the party was show having 32% vote share, with 35 seats. In the previous Lok Sabha elections, BJP had a vote share of 17.3% with 10 seats.

Bihar (Feb-2014 Survey)

BJP is likely to emerge as the largest party in Bihar as well, with 21 seats and a vote share of 32 per cent, the opinion poll has predicted. But it is a slight drop from the opinion poll held in January with showed the party having a vote share of 35% with 24 seats. While in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections the party had won 11 seats.

Ruling JDU seems to be facing the heat after parting from ally BJP with its seats having dropped from the 20 it won in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. But the party has picked up a bit from the previous month. In the current ABP News opinion poll, the party is winning 9 seats with 14% of the vote share, while in the January survey the party was winning 6 seats with 11% vote share.

RJD is likely to win 5 seats with 17% of the vote share, according to the results of both opinion polls held this year. In 2009, the Lalu Yadav led party had won 4 seats with 19.36% vote share.

LJP meanwhile is expected to win at least one seat, with 6% vote share. In the previous elections the party had failed to win any seats in the Lok Sabha.

Source: ABPLive.in

Thursday 20 February 2014

BJP Hopes Rajinikanth to Support Prime Ministerial Candidate Narendra Modi

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP hopes actor Rajinikanth will announce his support for the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi just before the elections.

"We are fairly confident that he (Rajinikanth) will speak in support of Modi," L Ganesan, national executive member of BJP, told ET, reiterating what he told a Tamil weekly recently. Ganesan said he is in touch with Rajinikanth over phone and last met him about four months ago.

The 64-year-old actor, dubbed the Superstar, continues to have a huge fan following in these parts even decades after making his debut. His forthcoming film, Kochadaiyaan, based on motion capture technology and directed by this daughter, is slated for release in April this year, according to media reports.

Ever since 1996, when he declared support for a DMK-led front, famously saying "Even God cannot save Tamil Nadu if AIADMK returns to power," Rajinkanth is closely watched during election times.

"In 1996, when he spoke, it resonated with the popular mood," said A R Venkatachalapathy, professor at Madras Institute of Development Studies. "I think it really depends on the public mood; I don't think he has an impact by himself."

Venkatachalapathy's colleague and assistant professor C Lakshmanan said, "If Rajinikanth supports BJP or the prime ministerial candidate Modi, it is definitely advantage for the party. He is a big personality from the film industry and will make a difference but to what extent, we cannot estimate."

This is not the first time that the Modi-led party has been linked to Rajinikanth. When Modi addressed a rally in Tiruchi in September last year, posters showing Modi and Rajinikanth together came up. He did support an AIADMK-BJP alliance in 2004 but didn't urge his fans to follow his choice. That alliance drew a blank in the elections.

This time around, the BJP is trying to stitch together an elaborate alliance in Tamil Nadu. Besides banking on what it calls the 'Modi wave,' the party is trying to fight the elections jointly with MDMK, PMK and some other smaller parties. Talks with Vijayakanth's DMDK has till now proved elusive.

Last elections, BJP, on its own, got just 2% of the votes. This time, it hopes to be a strong contender to the two big Dravidian parties that dominate Tamil Nadu's politics.

Source: Economic Times

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Notice by Excise Officials Directing BJP to Pay Service-Tax on Modi Rallies Withdrawn

New Delhi: Barely a week after issuing notice to the Bharatiya Janata Party to pay service tax on rallies addressed by its prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi as tickets were sold by the party for the events, the notice was hastily withdrawn on Tuesday.

After an angry reaction from the BJP which had even question the motive behind the same, an embarrassed Central Excise Department withdrew notices sent to four BJP offices demanding service tax on Narendra Modi’s rallies.

The Director General of Central Excise Intelligence officials said that the notices sent to Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab units of BJP by its Ludhiana regional unit stand withdrawn.

Earlier in the notice issued to the BJP, the DGCI had argued that the BJP has to pay tax on the tickets as political rallies don’t fall under the category of “amusement and entertainment”, which get tax rebates.

“Recently it was in news that Bhartiya Janta Party has collected amount by way of tickets for entry to the rally at different places in India where Mr. Narendra Modi had addressed the public at large,” reads the notice.

“As the entry tickets to the event were not for any admission to any entertainment event or access to amusement facilities (which are in the negative list) the same is taxable in the hands of the person collecting the amount of tickets. It appears that the BJP/Shri Narendra Modi has neither got registered under the Service tax nor paid tax on collection from tickets,” the notice stated.

The notice, dated February 12, had sought a response from the BJP within ten days of receiving it. The BJP should intimate the details of amounts collected and service tax paid, if any, the notice reads.

Lambasting the move. BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “ The government of India is so very worried that it has become mentally bankrupt in its hatred for Narendra Modi,” adding that it is beyond comprehension why the Ludhiana unit of the excise department sent a notice to the Chandigarh office of the BJP when no rally was held there.

Source: IndiLeak.com

Friday 14 February 2014

Yes Mr Kejriwal, Narendra Modi will Fight Lok Sabha Battle: Rajnath Singh

New Delhi: Narendra Modi will contest the Lok Sabha elections due by May, and his party, the BJP, will decide his seat, party chief Rajnath Singh has said.

"There has been no decision yet on where Narendra bhai will contest elections from. He could contest from Gujarat or elsewhere. That will be decided by the central election committee," Mr Singh told NDTV.

Last week, when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was asked by NDTV whether he would consider contesting the Lok Sabha elections against Mr Modi, he posed a counter-question, with a grin, "Is Narendra Modi even contesting?"

Rajnath Singh asserted, "He will definitely contest."

There has been much speculation on where Mr Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, will choose to enter the Lok Sabha from. Gujarat, where he is Chief Minister, and has posted three emphatic wins in assembly elections over the last 12 years, would seem a natural choice.

But when his close aide Amit Shah was handed charge of the BJP's electioneering in Uttar Pradesh last year, the buzz that he would scout for a constituency for Mr Modi gained ground. Uttar Pradesh has sent most of India's Prime Ministers to the Lok Sabha, including the BJP's only PM so far, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was the MP from Lucknow for many years.

The BJP has consistently denied that Mr Modi has zeroed in on Uttar Pradesh, reiterating as Mr Singh did, that a decision will be taken only in due course.

Uttar Pradesh is also where the Congress' first family, the Gandhis, contest from - party chief Sonia Gandhi is the MP from Rae Bareli and her son and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi represents neighbouring Amethi.

The Lok Sabha elections 2014 has for months been seen as a direct contest between Mr Modi and Mr Gandhi, though the latter has not officially been named as his party's prime ministerial candidate.

After Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party made a spectacular debut in the Delhi Assembly elections last December, many now see a triangular battle. The AAP has said it will contest at least a whopping 350 seats in the national elections and is pitching its chief, Mr Kejriwal as its candidate for the top post.

Source: NDTV

Thursday 13 February 2014

Lok Sabha Poll Expenditure of Candidates Raised to Rs 40 Lakh

The candidates contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will now be able to spend Rs 40 lakh , an increase of Rs 15 lakh from the last poll expenditure limit.

Joint Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal Saibal Barman said the raise was effected in 2011 and came in force for Lok Sabha by-elections ever since. "But for the first time it will be effective in the general elections this time," Barman said. He said the contestants for Lok Sabha seats were allowed to spend Rs 25 Lakh maximum for electioneering purpose in 2009.

"However, different political parties are still not happy as they demanded further rise of this ceiling of poll expenditure for the coming Lok Sabha polls during a meeting with the Election Commission in Delhi in last week of January," Amit Roy Chowdhury, Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Poll Expenses, in EC office here said. Chowdhury said the Commission is also stepping up its surveillance against poll expenses by candidates.

"The EC will deploy Flying Squad (FS), Static Survellance Team (SST) and Video Surveillance Team (VST), which will work under Expenditure Observers appointed by the Commision," he said.

The observers would also help create an awareness against misuse of poll expenses, while a campaign would also be launched through media, he said.

Source: IBN Live

Wednesday 12 February 2014

2014 Lok Sabha Polls: Congress Central Election Committee to Meet Today

New Delhi: Faced with a tough Lok Sabha election, Congress will begin the exercise of finalising its candidates with the first meeting of the central election committee on Thursday.

The panel, chaired by President Sonia Gandhi which also has Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party vice president Rahul Gandhi as its members, will decide candidates for a number of seats where the processes have been completed.

Early finalization of candidates for elections was a key recommendation of the AK Antony Committee, which Rahul Gandhi is keen to implement in the coming general elections in April-May.

The party plans to finalise most of the candidates by this month-end.

Party sources said meetings of central screening committees for several states have already been held to shortlist the candidates, setting the stage for taking the selection exercise in higher gear.

A meeting of the screening committee of Maharashtra was held yesterday after Congress and NCP finalilzed seat-sharing for the state.

Meetings of the election committees in the states have concluded last month and several Pradesh election committees passed one-line resolution authorising Sonia Gandhi Rahul to finalise the nominees.

Candidate selection process has been fast tracked this time unlike in recent decades when the nominees were finalised at the last minute.

Since Lok Sabha elections are to be held in April-May, the decision will give at least two months time to the candidates to prepare for the elections.

Source: ZeeNews