Trump, Biden's Indian-American supporters intensify their campaign
Washington: With less than 50 hours to go for the US presidential elections, Indian-American supporters of both President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden on Sunday intensified their campaigns, particularly in battleground states, asking the community members to get out and vote and support their respective leaders.
Trump, a Republican, is seeking re-election to the White House in the November 3 presidential polls. He is challenged by Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Unlike in the previous years, the campaigning among Indian Americans have this time restricted their campaigns to mainly the digital domain and phone banking due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both the campaigns have planned to intensify their phone calls to Indian-American supporters, send them messages on WhatsApp, and reach out to them through other social media and emails.
Indian-American supporters of President Trump's campaign organized a couple of events for the community including a fire chat conducted by Indian Voices for Trump with Nikki Haley, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations.
President's two sons Donald J Trump Jr and Eric Trump engaged with the community respectively at a meet and greet event in New York and Atlanta in Georgia.
Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump paid floral tributes to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi along with members of the Sikhs for Trump and India Voices for Trump.
The Biden Campaign outreach has been mainly in the virtual domain. Former vice president Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris organized a special India Independence Day event for Indian Americans.
Biden and Harris have greeted Indian Americans on the occasion of various festivals including the recently concluded Navaratri.
Biden also wrote an op-ed in the ethnic India West newspaper, asserting the strong relationship that he has with the community and his strong ties with India.
At least two recent surveys indicated that the majority of Indian Americans support Biden. But they also indicated that the support base of Indian Americans for the Democrats has shrunk a little bit and have started moving towards the Trump campaign.
Another survey conducted by Al Mason, from the Trump Campaign, claimed that in battleground States at least 50 percent of the Indian Americans who voted for the Democrats in 2016 will vote for Trump this election cycle.
Engaged in outreach with messaging - to Indian American Voters in the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, and Wisconsin, Sridhar Chityala, who is on the advisory board of Indian Voices for Trump Coalition, said that his campaign activities are very different from the Democratic party-perfect messaging structured with public views - not political or personal views -which resonates.
How else do you see 30 Million impressions thus far on the video four 4 More years -plus grass root-level contributions, he said, referring to a Modi-Trump video that was released by Donald J Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle, a top campaign official, during the Republican Convention in August.
Neha Dewan, national director for South Asians for Biden, said former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris have made unprecedented efforts to reach out to the South Asian community this election and earn our votes.
Ajay Bhutoria, who flew from California to Philadelphia to attend the launch of Biden's presidential campaign almost 18 months ago, said that Biden and Harris understand the South Asian community best and they will be the best friend for India and Indian Americans.
India-US relationship has never been so good as under President Trump and his administration, said Al Mason from the Trump Campaign. It is under his administration that for the first time ever we had a cabinet ranking Indian American, he said.
He (Trump) is a reliable friend to India, said eminent community leader Sudhir Parikh.
Community leaders from both the campaigns said that a large number of people are working round the clock through phone banking or through other digital mediums to reach out to the community.
While Indian Americans have raised millions for both the campaigns and a number of them have campaigned aggressively for both of them, the actual voting percentage for the community is far below the national average.
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SC to hear today NGO's plea for release of voter turnout data for LS polls within 48 hours
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to grant an urgent hearing on a plea by an NGO seeking a direction to the Election Commission to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked the counsel appearing for the Election Commission (EC) to take instructions and said it will hear the matter at the end of the board.
The matter was mentioned by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), seeking urgent listing of the petition.
Last week, the NGO filed an interim application in its 2019 PIL seeking directions to the poll panel that "scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part-I (Account of Votes Recorded)" of all polling stations be uploaded immediately after the polls.
"Direct the Election Commission to provide tabulated polling station-wise data in absolute figures of the number of votes polled as recorded in Form 17C Part- I after each phase of polling in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections and also a tabulation of constituency-wise figures of voter turnout in absolute numbers in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections," the NGO said.
It said the plea was filed to ensure that the democratic process is not subverted by electoral irregularities.
"The voter turnout data for the first two phases of the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections published by ECI on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling... on April 19 and four days after second phase of polling... on April 26.
"The data, as published by the ECI in its press release dated April 30, 2024 shows a sharp increase (by about 5-6 per cent) as compared to the initial percentages announced by ECI as of 7 pm on the day of polling," the plea said.
The petition said the "inordinate" delay in the release of final voter turnout data, coupled with the unusually high revision of over 5 per cent in the poll panel's press note of April 30, 2024 has raised concerns and public suspicion regarding the correctness of the said data.
The non-release of the absolute number of votes polled coupled with the "unreasonable delay" in the release of votes polled data has led to apprehensions in the mind of the electorate about the sharp increase between initial data and data released on April 30, it said.
"These apprehensions must be addressed and put to rest. That in order to uphold the voter's confidence it is necessary that the ECI be directed to disclose on its website scanned legible copies of Form 17C Part- I (Account of Votes Recorded) of all polling stations which contains the authenticated figures for votes polled, within 48 hours of the close of polling," it said.
