General elections

General Elections Buzz: What’s Happening in Odisha and Maharashtra?

Is a BJD-BJP alliance in the offing? Will it help or hurt the ruling parties facing decades-long anti-incumbency? What is holding up Maharashtra?

Maharashtra

Newspaper reports have cited “a grievance letter posted on X (formerly Twitter) on March 4 as providing an insight into the tussle within the ruling Mahayuti alliance. The Shiv Sena (Shinde) is demanding 22 seats, the NCP (Ajit Pawar) has staked claim to at least 10, and the BJP wants “at least 30 seats”.

A letter from senior BJP leader Harshavardhan Patil to party colleague Devendra Fadnavis alluded to a ‘sinister’ political campaign by NCP workers in Indapur, one of the six assembly constituencies that make up the Baramati Lok Sabha seat. “While I am working under your leadership in the political and social spheres in my taluk, some office-bearers from our allied parties are making objectionable statements against me in public rallies in Indapur, using foul language. I am worried about my safety as they are threatening not to allow me to roam around Indapur during elections,” stated the letter, urging Fadnavis to take “a firm stand” to nip “hooligan tendencies” in the bud.

A Mid-day report on page one anticipates a clean run for the BJP in seat-sharing talks, with fighting the maximum ever, around “34-35 of the 48 seats.” It reports that Amit Shah may have spooked the truncated Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and truncated NCP (Ajit Pawar) into believing that their popularity stands diminished having left the founder’s parties respectively and walked off and joined the BJP.

Shinde and Ajit Pawar had been “flexing their muscle” as of late, wanting the number of seats that their undivided parties contested last time, but it seems the BJP wants to maximise its own numbers. Devendra Fadnavis is cited as saying the “media” must not indulge in “kite flying”.

#WireTake: Maharashtra is very tricky for the BJP. This is where the party has tried twice in the past decade, and not via elections, to wrest power, once unsuccessfully when Ajit Pawar went back after being sworn in, but the second time successfully when Shinde and hordes of MLAs were flown to Guwahati and the regime toppled. There is, though, no electoral reckoning yet of what has happened. Bombay municipal elections have been on hold and Maharashtra has earned the dubious record of not having a single elected official. The Hindustan Times reported on January 4, “as 2023 drew to a close, so did the terms of two of Maharashtra’s municipal corporations — Ahmednagar and Dhule. These were the last two local bodies with elected officials. As of today, there is not a single elected body in all of the state’s 27 municipal corporations. This means that the total budget — a whopping ₹1,10,556 crore — is under the indirect control of the state government through its appointed ‘administrators’.”

Odisha

After accusing each other of spreading “rumours” of an alliance, speculation over the BJP and the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) “forging a formal alliance for the coming elections” was back on the table with many newspaper reports with details on what may be going on. The Hindu says that both parties on Wednesday “held hectic deliberations at their own levels to smoothen rough edges.”

Neither side came out with a statement giving any clarity on the proposed alliance. After a three and a half hour-long meeting of senior BJD leaders at the residence of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, there appear to be enough indications about formal alliance clicking. “In the discussions, it was resolved that since by 2036, Odisha will complete 100 years of its statehood and the BJD and the Chief Minister have major milestones to be achieved by this time, therefore the BJD will do everything towards this in the greater interests of people of Odisha and the State,” BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra said in a statement. Former Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram is reported as saying the state unit of the BJP had proposed to go it alone in the elections “but, it was up to the Central leadership to take a final call.”

#WireTake: This, if it happens would mean BJD teaming up with BJP after a gap of 15 years. This may leave the Congress as the sole significant opposition party in the state. The party’s turnaround in Telangana, where rumours of a hidden alliance between the ruling BRS and BJP had helped it storm to power, has created tension on the east coast where each state has a local regional party with an ambiguous relationship with the BJP. BJD formalising its ties so close to the general elections would make it a clear contest for the Congress to make gains in. BJP-BJD may be calculating the reverse, as one where they can dominate the discourse completely by coming together. BJP has eight seats of the 21 seats in the state. State polls will also be held simultaneously.

RJD’s Jan Vishwas Patna Rally Turns Into a Big INDIA Push, First in Hindi Belt in 2024

The rally struck a defiant tone and laid down the parameters of the fight ahead – of rights, empowerment and protection of India’s diverse people.

New Delhi: A big public rally on a Sunday at the historic Gandhi maidan in Patna, hosted by the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), became bigger with the Mahagatbandhan ensuring the presence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and leader, Rahul Gandhi who interrupted his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Madhya Pradesh to make it to Patna.

Others in attendance included former UP chief minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s general secretary D. Raja and CPI(ML)’s chief Dipankar Bhattacharya, who made it a big focal point to launch INDIA in the Hindi belt. Lalu Prasad Yadav too made his now rare-public address.

The master of ceremonies, RJD MP Manoj Jha, thanked the thousands in the audience, for “waiting since 5am”. The rally’s significance is two-fold; first, Nitish Kumar’s return to the BJP which changed the contours of the state government, once again bringing it under NDA’s fold.

Second, the Hindi belt is projected as INDIA’s Achilles heel at a time when Modi’s BJP is meant to be leading with a Ram temple Hindutva push. Articulation of assertive views from another point of view – foregrounding jobs, economic betterment, disenchantment with Modi’s promises and new slogans – make this INDIA’s first significant rally this year.

Tejashwi Yadav pulled no punches as he spoke of “chacha palat gaye” referring to Nitish Kumar’s switch. He spoke of his father, then-Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s “record of putting the Indian Railways into a profit mode”, taunting Modi for India’s dubious performance in the sector lashing out at its privatisation.

Tejashwi spoke of jobs as being paramount, which his party is keen to take credit for. The brief record of the Mahagatbandhan government versus 17 years of NDA. ‘Bhajpa bhagaao, Desh Bachaao’ was a theme. He spoke of R for Rights, J for Jobs and D for Development as the meaning of RJD.

His brother, Tej Pratap Singh, too made an impassioned speech for the Mahagatbandhan’s work in the few months that it held power in Patna.

Lalu Prasad Yadav drew an emotional response from the crowds as he held forth on Bihar before his times, on the deep caste inequities that prevailed from the village well to the roads. “We gave everyone izzat”. He invoked the Mandal commission and how backward castes captured power. He said it is thanks to the commission that all poor, backward castes and Dalits are standing at the doors of power.

“In 1990s, backward classes were kept away from representation… We gave them power. In this Gandhi maidan only we brought all backward classes and told them to address rallies and not just in Bihar but in all of country we applied Mandal Commission. As a result, those who call themselves big people can not show eyes to the poor. At that time there used to be wells. If anyone from upper caste used a well and a lower caste tried to use that well, then they were shooed away. The well was emptied and was only used when all the water was thrown away.”

Lalu said “I say here, at Gandhi maidan, with confidence that BJP will be ousted at the incoming polls.” He raised a slogan, “Dilli pe qabza karna hai”.

“Who is Narendra Modi?” He asked “why is he going on about parivarwaad, taunting those with families?” Modi, he said was only spreading animus, “Nafrat phailaa rahe ho? Ram Rahim ke bandon mein.”

In Bihar, said Lalu, “all manner of greats have been born, just here in Gandhi maidan, national leaders have held meetings. And it is from here that messages go to the rest of the country. This is what will happen tomorrow.”

“Mera kidney ka transplant hua, my daughter Rohini Acharya gave me her kidney,” he acknowledged. Mentioning his son’s tenure, he said, “I would ask every evening, how many jobs have you given? Get reservations among soldiers, so there would be better representations too.”

“I never abused Nitish Kumar, I just said he is paltu Ram (pet). Second time, I erred, Tejashwi erred too, as he came to us, but he went back to take refuge at Modi’s feet. Is he not ashamed to see all the memes we get on the phone?”

Gandhi was received with enthusiasm and underlined the cronyism of the Modi government as one favouring billionaires, writing off loans of big industrialists, while totally disregarding the backwards in the country, not giving them their share. “We are not afraid of BJP-RSS, we are ready to die for country and make an INDIA government,” he said.

Kharge addressed Modi and paltu chacha, with a rhyme, calling out their “lies”. He highlighted the importance of the struggle, to fight in the days ahead, and win the coming elections. “INDIA bloc people do what they say. Today INDIA is fighting Modi. Till the time you won’t remove Modi, the country will not prosper… If you would not remove Modi then democracy, constitution will not survive. I It is your duty to save our constitution.” He asserted that no one would be subdued by action of central agencies.

CPI(ML)’s Bhattacharya invoked famous lines of Hindi writer Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, when he said, “Singhasan khali karo, ki Janta aati hai” – vacate your throne, as the people are here. He pointed out to the celebrations of the pre-wedding of billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s son being facilitated, versus thousands of farmers, despite several losing their lives, not being given a hearing.

‘Modi hatao desh bachao,’ said Yechury, as he spoke of false promises of Modi government, praising the Mahagatbandhan for jobs. He invoked the Puranic tale of amrit (elixir) in the course of the oceanic churn, passing into the hands of the “wrong persons”. The challenge he said was to get the amrit back and save India to ensure a better future for its people.

You can watch the rally here.

Govt Refuses to Give Clarity on ‘One Nation One Election’ Deadline; Congress MPs Seek Details on Committee

Though the theory of ‘one nation one election’ has been advocated by leaders of the ruling dispensation, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government had remained tight-lipped about any move in that direction for quite a while.

New Delhi: The Union government has refused to provide a clear answer to three Congress MPs on whether it has given a fixed deadline to the high-level committee, under former president Ram Nath Kovind, to submit its report on the implementation of the ‘one nation one election’ theory.

The starred question was jointly raised by Congress Lok Sabha MPs Adoor Prakash, Anto Antony, and Su. Thirunavukkarasar to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice. They also sought more details on the committee.

However, things began to move in that direction in August-end.

While the government described a meeting between Union home minister Amit Shah and Minister of State (Independent Charge) Arjun Ram Meghwal with Kovind at his residence at the end of August as ‘a courtesy call’, on September 1, it notified a committee led by the former president to look into the possibility of simultaneous parliamentary and assembly elections.

The notification on the formation of the eight-member committee drew media attention, particularly because it came just days before the Parliament was to be in a special session (between September 18 and 22) with the government not announcing any particular agenda for it. It was also the time when the Election Commission of India was finalising the schedule for the assembly elections in five states.

The government’s September 1 notification said that aside from Kovind, the committee would have Shah too. Opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, now seen close to the Bharatiya Janata Party, were also named as members. Former Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh, senior advocate Harish Salve, former secretary general of the Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap, and former chief vigilance commissioner Sanjay Kothari were the other members.

However, Chowdhury refused to be part of the committee, saying that it was tailor-made to reach certain conclusions.

On September 23, Kovind chaired the committee’s first meeting in New Delhi, during which it decided to invite political parties and the Law Commission to seek their views on the subject.

The Law Commission, on October 23, suggested a roadmap to the Kovind committee on how to proceed on the matter.

On December 8, while replying to the queries put up by the Congress MPs, the law ministry, in a written reply, avoided answering whether any fixed term had been set for the committee to submit its report. Its written statement only gave the objectives of the committee and also justified its action by banking on the precedent of parliamentary and assembly polls “mostly held simultaneously from 1951-52 to 1967, after which this cycle got broken”. Due to elections being organised every one or two years, it leads to more expenditure, diversion of manpower, including security forces, and “disruption of development work”, it said.

These arguments have been publicly stated by the prime minister, too, even prior to forming the Kovind-led committee.

In its statement in Parliament, the law ministry referred to the parliamentary standing committee on law and justice suggesting this theory in 2015 and the Law Commission mooting the same in 2018.

The mandate of the commission, as per the reply, is not only to suggest amendment to the constitution to make the simultaneous elections possible, but also to set up a framework suggesting phases and the time frame for the synchronisation.

The statement, however, had a line which said that the “high level committee shall start functioning immediately and make recommendations at the earliest.”

Though the committee is yet to submit its recommendations, on November 21, Kovind said he supported the idea of one nation one election, and asked all political parties to support it in “national interest”.

‘One Nation, One Election’: CEC Says Poll Body ‘Ready’ to Conduct Elections As Per Laws

Rajiv Kumar has said the Election Commission has a mandate to conduct polls according to legal provisions. ‘And we are ready.’

New Delhi: India’s Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar has indicated that the Election Commission may be ready to conduct simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, days after the Narendra Modi government announced the formation of the fourth panel to discuss this controversial concept.

Indian Express has reported that Kumar, responding to a query on whether the poll body was ready for such an exercise, said on September 6, that it was “ready to conduct elections as per legal provisions”.

“Our work is to deliver the elections before time. That time has been stipulated in the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act,” Kumar said.

The report notes that Kumar said that under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, polls can be announced six months before the end of a Union or state government’s tenure. He then added that according to the legal procedures, the constitution and the said Act, the Election Commission has “a mandate to conduct the election”.

“And we are ready,” Kumar said.

On September 2, former President Ram Nath Kovind was appointed as chairman of the committee which will look into the concept.

Union home minister Amit Shah, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former Rajya Sabha LoP Ghulam Nabi Azad, former finance commission chairman N.K. Singh, former secretary general Lok Sabha Subhash C. Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve and former chief vigilance commissioner Sanjay Kothari were also named in the committee. Chowdhury has said he will not be in it.

Opposition leaders have called the concept “profoundly unconstitutional” and a clear violation of the Union of States’ federalist basic structure of the constitution.

During General Elections, WhatsApp Groups Saw More Automated, Spam-Like Behaviour

A study found that the messaging platform’s moves to restrict forwards and put a threshold on the users of a public group were ineffective.

New Delhi: The highly popular WhatsApp messaging application’s moves to limit forwarding of messages and restrict the number of participants in a public group may have delayed information spread, but were ineffective in blocking misinformation campaigns by professional political teams deployed before elections in India and two other countries, a study has found recently.

It also discovered more “spam-like behaviour” in the frequency of postings in Indian public groups, compared to the other two countries which were also monitored.

Earlier this year, Facebook’s WhatsApp messenger had limited users from forwarding messages to only five other people at a time. There was also a maximum threshold of how many users who could be added to a public group.

The joint study by Brazil’s Federal Federal University of Minas Gerais and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studied public groups in India, Brazil and Indonesia to assess whether the measures taken to limit virality did what they were intended for – to stop the spread of fake news during sensitive political periods.

“Our results suggest that the current efforts deployed by WhatsApp can offer delays on the information spread, but are ineffective in blocking the propagation of misinformation campaigns in public groups,” said the study.

Also Read: Top WhatsApp Official Warns Indian Political Parties to ‘Behave or Else…’

The researchers selected public groups from the three countries dedicated to political discussions. They were monitored 60 days before and 15 days after the dates of elections in their respective countries.

India’s polls were held in seven phases this year in April and May, which led to the re-election of Narendra Modi with a massive majority. Indonesia voted on April 17 and also brought back Jokowi Widodo as the president. Brazil held its first round on October 7, 2018, followed by the run-off on October 28. Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro was declared the winner.

Jair Bolsonaro and Narendra Modi. Photo: Twitter/PMO India

In India, researchers monitored over 5,800 public groups, with over 3.6 lakh users. During the period of monitoring from March 15 to 1 June, they analysed over 8 lakh images in Indian political groups alone. Most of the image content in WhatsApp – around 80% – is “ephemeral” (not lasting for a long time). However, even if 80% of the images last no more than two days, it is enough to “infect” more than half the users of public groups in India, the study said.

The study found that there were images in India and Brazil which continued to be in circulation even two months after they first appeared. “Moreover, in Brazil and India, around 40% of the shares were done after a day of their first appearance and 20% after a week,” the study stated.

India differed from both Brazil and Indonesia in the frequency of posts. More than 50% of posts were done in intervals of 10 minutes or less, while for Brazil and Indonesia, this frequency was observed for just 20% of shares.

The researchers posited that there may have been automated postings in India during that period. “We manually looked for reasons behind the short period of time between posts and found that in the data from India, there is more automated, spam-like behavior compared to in Brazil and Indonesia,” they stated.

Therefore, they concluded that depending on the virality of the content, the limits put by WhatsApp were not effective in preventing a message to reach the entire network quickly – especially if the campaign is backed by a highly organised group.

“Misinformation campaigns headed by professional teams with an interest in affecting a political scenario might attempt to create very alarming fake content, that has a high potential to get viral,” said the researchers.

A possible solution, they suggested, would be for WhatsApp to implement a quarantine approach to limited “infected” users to spread misinformation.

How Women Candidates Fared in the 2019 Elections

The results are a mixed bag, with some notable successes and some expected losses.

In 2019, a total of 715 women candidates contested the Lok Sabha elections against a total of around 7,334 male candidates. So, how did they fare against their male and other female counterparts?

The results are a mixed bag, with some notable successes and some expected losses. The most notable success has been the BJP candidate Smriti Irani, who has succeeded in trouncing Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the Gandhi family bastion of Amethi. Irani defeated Gandhi by 52,000 votes, pulling off one of the biggest upsets in this election. Following her victory, she tweeted, “who says there cannot be a hole in the sky.”

While Irani is known to have nurtured this constituency after her loss here in 2014 – by visiting it frequently and by focusing on issues of education and health thereby winning the hearts of women voters, film actress Hema Malini’s victory from Mathura must be attributed largely to the Modi wave. Malini, had contested and won from Mathura on a BJP ticket in 2014. But even BJP loyalists in this holy city were surprised at her being given a ticket this time around because she seldom visited Mathura and has been criticised for having done little work on the ground. Her defeating the Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Kunwar Narendra Singh has come as a shocker because the Jat votes had consolidated in his favour.

Sixteen women MPs re-contesting from their seats who have gone on to win are from the BJP. These include Sultanpur candidate Maneka Gandhi, Chandigarh BJP candidate Kirron Kher and New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi. At one time, it was rumoured that Lekhi was not going to be given the ticket to contest the New Delhi constituency. But her master stroke of filing a criminal contempt case against Rahul Gandhi for making the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ remark against Modi in the Rafale fighter case ensured her being given the ticket. Sonia Gandhi is the only sitting woman MP from the Congress who has been re-elected. NCP leader Supriya Sule managed to hold on to her seat from Baramati.

Also read: More Women, Younger MPs: Who Will Represent Us for the Next Five Years?

The wives of Punjab’s most prominent families fared well. Preneet Kaur – wife of Captain Amarinder Singh – wrested the Patiala seat from the SAD candidate by 1.60 lakh votes. Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of SAD president Sukhbir Badal won from the Bathinda constituency in Punjab by a margin of 21,000 votes. Both women are known to be bitter rivals as indeed are their husbands.

The Trinamool Congress leader distributed 17 out of 42 seats to women candidates. Many of those seats went to Tollywood actresses such as Nusrat Jahan, Mimi Chakraborty, Satabdi Roy and Moon Moon Sen. Nusrat Jahan won with a 3.5 lakh majority form Basirhat constituency. Jahan had to face a great deal of criticism during her campaign but she seems to have emerged stronger and claims she is determined to work towards the welfare of the people. Mimi Chakraborty won from Jadavpur with a 2.9 lakh margin and Satabdi Roy won by 88,924 votes.

Moon Moon Sen – who had emerged as the giant killer in the last election – lost from Asansol primarily because of her foolish remark that she was not aware of the violent clashes that had erupted in her constituency since she had been served bed tea “very late”. Equally foolish was her dismissal of the desecration of the Ishwar Chandra Vidyasager’s bust as being a “tiny incident”.

The BJP unleashed its own brand of women power to counter this Trinamool attack by making Bengali actress Locket Chatterjee, who had been heading the BJP women’s cell in Bengal, fight from the Hooghly constituency. Chatterjee went on to defeat TMC’s Ratna Dey Nag by a narrow margin.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s gamble to give one-third of the Lok Sabha seats of his party to women seems to have paid off with six of these women candidates having won. The most prominent of these has been the 70-year old class II dropout Pramila Bisoi, who represents the 70-lakh odd members of women self -help groups that the BJD has nurtured. Bisoi has won from the prestigious Aska constituency.

Of course, the most controversial victory remains that of Pragya Thakur, the Malegaon blast-accused who defeated former chief minister and Congress candidate Digvijaya Singh by a margin of three lakh votes. This despite her calling Nathuram Godse a patriot and claiming it was her curse on IPS Hemanat Karkare that resulted in him being killed by terrorists in Mumbai in 2008 .

Several high profile women candidates have lost. Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao definitely received a huge setback when his daughter K. Kavita lost from the Nizamabad constituency to BJP candidate Dharmapuri Arvind.

This constituency was in the forefront because it saw 185 candidates contest from here, from which 178 were farmers. These farmers had been demanding a fair price for turmeric which is grown extensively in Telangana. Over-production saw turmeric prices crash and the perception in the state was that Kavita, who had promised an MSP on it, failed to take any action.

Another high profile woman candidate who had to bite the dust was former J&K chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti from the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat. Mufti’s popularity had plummeted to an all time low after her party entered into an alliance with the BJP to rule the state and Kashmiris continue to hold her responsible for the spiralling violence the state has witnessed in the last two years.

Not only did she lose to the National Conference Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi but also the Congress state unit president Ghulam Ahmed Mir who got more votes than her.

Also read: How BJP Held off the Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh

Other key losers include Jaya Prada who contested on a BJP ticket from Rampur constituency against the Mahagathbandhan candidate Mohammed Azam Khan.

Jaya Prada had earlier won from Rampur in 2004 and 2009 on the Samajwadi ticket but broke away from the party along with Amar Singh. And though they formed their own party, it has made little headway in the election mix of the country.

Former Bollywood star Urmila Matondkar lost from the Mumbai north constituency against BJP candidate Gopal Shetty.

Another bitterly contested fight was between BJP MP Poonam Mahajan and Congress candidate Priya Dutt for the Mumbai north central seat. Dutt held several nukkad meetings and promised to work for the poor but ended up losing by 1.86 lakh votes.

The biggest surprise this election was Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to parachute Poonam Sinha, wife of actor Shatrughan Sinha, and get her to contest against the home minister Rajnath Singh from UP’s nerve centre – the city of Lucknow. Sinha has no claim to fame as an actress, nor has she any history of activism.

Why she was brought in remains a mystery because, from the start, it was obvious she was not match to the home minister. The lack of wisdom in choosing candidates can also explain why Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple lost from Kannauj, given that she too has failed to make a mark as a parliamentarian.

More Women, Younger MPs: Who Will Represent Us for the Next Five Years?

A gender, age and occupational break up of the newly-elected representatives for the 17th Lok Sabha.

New Delhi: The dust has settled on the Lok Sabha election, with the BJP once again emerging as the single largest party with 303 MPs. The Congress could win in 52 seats. The NDA’s tally stood at 352, significantly ahead of the UPA’s 91. Other parties secured 99 seats.

The Wire takes a closer look at the profiles of the newly-elected MPs.

Of the 542 newly-elected representatives of the 17th Lok Sabha, 300 MPs are first-timers. 197 MPs were re-elected, while 45 members have been members of the Lok Sabha previously. According to PRS Legislative, this is in line with previous general elections.

The distribution of MPs according to their party.

In this election, fewer MPs aged above 70 have been elected, while more representatives are below the age of 40. 12% of the MPs are below 40 years old and 6% are above 70 years old. In the firs Lok Sabha, 26% of the MPs were below the age of 40. In the 17th Lok Sabha, most MPs (42%) are between 56-70 years old, while the average age is 54 years old.

left: age of MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha. Right: Age profiles of MPs in previous Lok Sabhas

Of the 716 women who contested the general election, 78 have made it to the Lok Sabha. In 2014, 62 women MPs were elected. While the representation of women MPs in Lok Sabha is slowly improving – it was just 5% in the first Lok Sabha and is 14% now – it is still quite low. Countries like Rwanda (61%), South Africa (43%), UK (32%), USA (24%), Bangladesh (21%) have better representation.

Left: Male and female MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha. Right: Women MPs in previous Lok Sabhas.

Of the 542 newly-elected MPs, 394 have at least graduate-level education. 27% of the Lok Sabha MPs are have studied till 27%. This is a higher proportion of non-graduate MPs than the previous election. Since 1996, at least 75% of MPs have been graduates.

Most representatives (39%) said their occupation is “political and social work”. About 38% said they were engaged in agricultural activities and 23% are businessmen.

#PollWatch | Elections 2019 Live: ‘EVMs Can’t Be Tampered with’, Says Former CEC O.P. Rawat

All of today’s important election updates, in one place.

Voting for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is now over, and results will be out tomorrow. The exit polls have predicted another win for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

Voting took place in seven phases – on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. On this page, The Wire will bring you all the important information you need to follow what’s going on today – news updates, analysis and more. You can read our complete election coverage here.

#PollWatch | Elections 2019 Live: EC Calls All Reports of ‘Alleged Movement of EVMs’ False

All of today’s important election updates, in one place.

Voting for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is now over, and results will be out on Thursday. The exit polls have predicted another win for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

#PollWatch | Elections 2019 Live: Shiv Sena Hits Out at Opposition Alliance

All of today’s important election updates, in one place.

Voting for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is now over, and results will be out in three days. The exit polls have predicted another win for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

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