Election News Digest: EC Summons Revenue Secretary, CBDT Chief

New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) is meeting Revenue Secretary A.B. Pandey and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman P.C. Mody on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing income tax raids in several states, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, an official source said.

An official said the EC has called Pandey and Mody to seek their explanation on the tax raids after the Congress raised the issue accusing the ruling BJP of misusing the enforcement agencies, an IANS report said.

The EC had on Sunday "strongly advised" the Finance Ministry that any action by its enforcement agencies during election time should be "neutral" and "non-discriminatory.

The EC moved the advice after the Income Tax (I-T) Department on Sunday conducted raids in Madhya Pradesh. The Department had recently carried out similar searches at the residential and official premises of some politicians and other people in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Thousands Join as Kanhaiya Files Nomination

Patna: Amid frequent chants of Inquilab Zindabad and Lal Salaam, thousands of people, mostly youths, joined former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is a Communist Party of India candidate from the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, on way to file nomination papers.

Kanhaiya Kumar, 32, was accompanied by senior CPI leaders and Bollywood actor Sawara Bhaskar and television actor Gurmeet Kaur.

 A joint Left candidate, Kanhaiya Kumar will take on Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Giriraj Singh in Begusarai. The RJD is set to field Tanweer Hasan.

In a first of its kind experiment in Bihar, Kanhaiya Kumar has raised Rs 70 lakh via crowd funding that he launched last month.

Begusarai will go to polls on April 29 in the fourth of seven phases polls.

JD-U Differs with BJP Manifesto

Patna: A few hours after BJP released its manifesto on Monday, its major ally Janata Dal-United in Bihar said the party totally differed with BJP’s stand on Articles 370 and 35 A. It also said that it had a different view on the Ram temple in Ayodhya and Triple Talaq.

“BJP and JD-U have their separate manifesto. We disagree with BJP on Article 370 and 35 A”, JD-U national general secretary K C Tyagi said.

JD-U spokesperson Ajay Alok said “Our stand on Article 370 to 35 A to Ram temple and Triple talaq are different from BJP. But BJP has every right to take its own stand on different issues”.

Poll Surveys ‘Big Bluff’: Pinarayi Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday dismissed election surveys as "big bluffs" far from the reality, adding that his Left government will win 18 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Vijayan made the remark while addressing an election rally here.

The latest poll surveys have predicted a near washout for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidates. While one predicted just three seats for the LDF, another said the party will win only four, with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) slated to get 14 to 17 seats.

IT Dept Seizes Rs 5.84 cr Illegal Cash in NE

Guwahati: Income tax sleuths have seized illegal cash worth Rs 5.84 crore between March 12 to April 8 this year from the eight North Eastern states, officials said.

The amount is 482% more than the cash seizure made during the general elections of 2014, when it was only Rs 1.21 crore, the Income Tax (I-T) Department officials said, adding that the cash seized in just 27 days of election time enforcement is more than 50% of the unexplained cash seized in the whole of fiscal 2017-18.

With most of the Northeastern states going to the polls in the first phase on April 11, the final date of polling in the region is April 23.

49 All-Women Booths in Uttarakhand

Dehradun: The Election Commission has set up 49 polling booths in Uttarakhand which will be managed only by women.

"We have set up these booths where the management will be in the hands of women only," said Saujanya, the Chief Electoral Officer of the state.

Out of the 49 such booths, 10 will be in Dehradun district. Such booths are spread all over the state's 13 districts, she said.

There will also be some "pardanashin" booths in Haridwar district where the population of minorities is sizeable. "In these 'pardanashin' booths, women will check the identities of all those women who wear veils," she said.