Second phase Kerala local body polls see turnout of over 60 pc till 3 pm
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): The second phase of polling in the crucial local body elections in seven districts of Kerala on Thursday witnessed a turnout of over 60 per cent after eight hours of polling.
Voters began casting ballots from 7 am at the 18,274 polling stations in the districts of Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod.
People of all ages and professions, including political leaders, queued up at polling stations since early morning.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan turned up to vote along with his family in Kannur.
Speaking to reporters after casting his vote, he expressed confidence about a historic win for the LDF and said that the Sabarimala gold loss issue would not affect the prospects of the Left front.
He claimed that the government took stringent action in the matter and if it were any other party in power, such steps would not have been taken.
Regarding the reported claims by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief Sunny Joseph of a conspiracy behind the second complaint of sexual assault against MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, the CM hinted at the presence of a "criminal gang of sexual perverts" in the grand old party.
Vijayan said that such persons intimidated their victims to prevent them from coming forward.
Leaders of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a key ally of the Congress, like Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal, P K Kunhalikutty and M K Muneer were confident of a huge victory for the UDF in the local body polls.
The Congress also expressed confidence of a historic win and its leaders, Joseph, Ramesh Chennithala and K Sudhakaran, said that the Sabarimala gold issue would affect the LDF prospects in the polls as they were protecting those involved in the scam.
The local body polls are viewed by many as a key indicator ahead of next year's state assembly elections.
In the second phase, over 1.53 crore voters will elect representatives to 12,931 wards across 604 local bodies, including grama panchayats, block panchayats, district panchayats, municipalities and corporations.
A total of 38,994 candidates are in the fray.
The first phase of polling in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki and Ernakulam districts of the state concluded on December 9 with a turnout of around 70 per cent.
The results of both phases of polling will be announced on December 13.
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Govt using women's quota pretext to push delimitation: TMC
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New Delhi (PTI): The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday accused the government of using the pretext of early implementation of women's reservation law to "bulldoze" its "real agenda of delimitation".
The TMC said it has always supported women's reservation, but the government cannot "rush" through a bill that will "change the political map" of India based on the 2011 Census.
Parliament is set to meet from April 16 to 18 to consider bills to ensure the implementation of the 33 per cent quota in legislative bodies for women in the 2029 elections. It includes increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816 seats, with 273 seats reserved for women, and amendments to the Delimitation Act to enable redrawing of constituencies.
In a post on X, TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O'Brien shared a video of his earlier speech on the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, 2023 -- also known as the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam -- and underlined his party’s long-standing advocacy for women’s reservation.
He recalled that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee had raised the issue in Parliament as early as July 14, 1998.
Highlighting his party’s track record, O’Brien pointed to the proportion of women candidates fielded and elected by the TMC, stating that the party had given 41 per cent tickets to women in 2014 and currently has one of the highest shares of women MPs.
"Modi govt cannot rush through a bill in a special parliament session bang in the middle of Assembly Polls, a bill that will change the political map of India based on the 2011 census (data which is fifteen years old) in 2026 without greater discussion (sic)," TMC Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose said on X.
"Mr Modi-Shah must be reminded: India is not a single-party democracy. Bulldozing and bullying is against the parliamentary spirit," she said.
In a post on X, TMC leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale accused the government of running a "fake and malicious agenda " claiming it wants “early reservations for women in Parliament”.
"In reality, Modi is using women as an excuse to bulldoze his real agenda of delimitation (which is redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha & Assembly seats in states to benefit the BJP)," he alleged.
He said that at the time of passage of the bill on women's reservation in 2023, opposition parties had expressed concern that its implementation would be delayed, but the government had ignored them, and said it would happen after the Census in 2026.
"Now, suddenly, just when Bengal and Tamil Nadu are going to elections, Modi decides that delimitation will be done before the 2026 Census. Instead of conducting delimitation based on India’s actual population, the Modi government has come up with its own unknown formula," he said.
He questioned the connection between delimitation and women's reservation, and what is stopping the government from implementing it on the existing 543 seats without delimitation.
The Union Cabinet has cleared draft bills to operationalise the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. The proposed changes include increasing the strength of the Lok Sabha from 543 to 816 seats, with 273 seats reserved for women.
The legislative package is expected to include a Constitution amendment bill to modify provisions of the Act, alongside amendments to the Delimitation Act to enable redrawing of constituencies in line with the expanded House strength.
Another bill is also likely to extend the implementation of the reservation framework to Union Territories with legislatures, including Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry.
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