Biden wins Republican stronghold Georgia
Washington: President-elect Joe Biden has won the Republican stronghold of Georgia, a top state official said after a manual recount, becoming the first Democrat to have won the key battleground state since 1992.
After a hand recount of nearly five million votes, that lasted for several days, Democrat Biden won by 12,284 votes over President Donald Trump. Before the recount Biden's lead was about 14,000 votes.
Georgia's historic first statewide audit reaffirmed that the state's new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results, said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Thursday.
Georgia hadn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1992. Officials said that the audit confirmed that there was no widespread fraud or irregularities in the election held on November 3.
This is a credit to the hard work of our county and local elections officials who moved quickly to undertake and complete such a momentous task in a short period of time, the Republican official said.
Georgia has been a traditional Republican stronghold. Biden is the first Democratic president to have won Georgia since 1992. The election results in Georgia, which has 16 electoral college votes, is expected to be certified on Friday.
Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election on November 7 after flipping Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to the Democrats' column.
With Georgia's 16 electoral votes, Biden will now have 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. Trump won Georgia by 5 percentage points in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, Trump campaign's senior legal advisor Jenna Ellis accused the media of falsely reporting that Biden has been declared the winner in Georgia as the State has not yet certified its results.
"Headlines are already falsely reporting that Biden is declared the winner in Georgia. Sorry, media, that's not how it works. The State of Georgia has not certified its results, and it should not.
"This so-called hand recount went exactly as we expected because Georgia simply recounted all of the illegal ballots that had been included in the total. We continue to demand that Georgia conduct an honest recount, which includes signature matching. We intend to pursue all legal options to ensure that only legal ballots are counted," Ellis said.
President Trump has refused to concede the November 3 US election and has filed multiple lawsuits challenging poll results in several States.
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Cong to distribute over 40 lakh pamphlets focused on 'Mahalakshmi' scheme
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress is set to step up its outreach to women ahead of the sixth and seventh phases of the Lok Sabha polls with plans in place to distribute more than 40 lakh pamphlets focused on its proposed "Mahalakshmi" scheme under which Rs 1 lakh will be given every year to a woman from a poor family, sources said.
In a video message, Sonia Gandhi had said last week that women of the country are facing tough times in the wake of a "severe crisis" and the party's proposed 'Mahalakshmi scheme' for them will help change their lives.
"The Congress' 'Mahalakshmi' scheme guarantees that we will give Rs 1 lakh every year to a woman from a poor family," she had said in her video message.
Sources said the Congress is all set to distribute more than 40 lakh pamphlets with key focus on "Mahalakshmi" scheme in poll-bound constituencies across the country ahead of the sixth and seventh phases.
Addressing a rally here on Saturday, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi spoke about the Mahalakshmi scheme the party intended to bring if the INDIA bloc came to power.
"We will make crores of lakhpatis. Under the scheme, a list of all families living below the poverty line will be drawn and a woman will be chosen from each family and the INDIA bloc will give them one lakh rupees in a year by depositing Rs 8,500 per month," he had said.
At a public meeting earlier, Gandhi had said that on July 1, when the poor women will check their accounts, they will find that Rs 8,500 have 'magically' been deposited.
And this will happen on the first of every month, he had said.
Sources said it was during Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, that several women met Gandhi and shared their grievances with him, and after that the Congress came up with the Mahalakshmi scheme.
Mahalakshmi scheme is among the main five guarantees that the Congress has promised.
"The Congress resolves to launch a Mahalakshmi scheme to provide Rs 1 lakh per year to every poor Indian family as an unconditional cash transfer. The poor will be identified among the families in the bottom of the income pyramid," the Congress manifesto has said.
The sixth phase of the Lok Sabha pills will be held on May 25 while the seventh and final phase will be held on June 1.
The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
