Patna (PTI): Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), dubbed the ‘X factor’ in the Bihar polls, was yet to open its account in the 243-member assembly.
As per trends available with the Election Commission, most of the JSP candidates have secured less than 10 per cent of the total votes polled.
The party, floated by the former political strategist, failed to galvanise votes in its favour, despite a high-pitched campaign and raising pressing issues such as unemployment, migration and dearth of industries.
A majority of the JSP candidates in 238 constituencies look set to forfeit their security deposit, according to the Commission data.
As per rules, candidates must secure at least one-sixth of the total votes polled to retrieve their security deposit – Rs 10,000 for general candidates and Rs 5,000 for SC and ST nominees.
Failure to meet this threshold results in deposit forfeiture, an official said.
In many seats, the count is less than the NOTA (None of the Above) category.
Mohammad Ekramul Haque, a JSP candidate from the Forbesganj assembly seat, secured just 789 votes after the 24th round of counting, while 2,253 votes were registered under NOTA.
Among the very few JSP nominees who secured above 10 per cent of votes include Tripurari Kumar Tiwary alias Manish Kashyap (16.58 per cent) from Chanpatia seat after the 18th round of counting, and Sarfaraj Alam (16.34 per cent) from the Jokihat seat after the 23rd round.
Kishor had earlier claimed that his party would win 150 seats, but later asserted it would either be on the top or at the bottom in the seat tally, but that there is no middle ground in the Bihar polls.
Meanwhile, JSP spokesperson Pavan K Varma said the party would undertake a "serious review" of its performance in the Bihar elections.
The NDA was set to sweep the Bihar polls, surging ahead in close to 200 out of 243 seats, with the BJP winning in eight seats and leading in 83 others, as the the EC data.
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Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
