Delhi: AAP kept its nerve even as BJP breathed fire in the campaign

AAP seems to be cruising to victory in Delhi, the result of not getting diverted by BJP's campaign.

Early trends suggest that the Aam Admi Party is set to get a second term in Delhi and Arvind Kejriwal a third shot as the chief minister. It began as a comfortable cruise for the AAP, turned into a closer contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a bounce back for the AAP.

At the time of writing AAP was projected to win 55 of the 70 seats while the BJP was placed at a distant second with leads in just 15 seats. The Congress seemed unlikely to open its account for the second consecutive time since 2015. However, the spike in the BJP's vote share to a little over 40 percent as of now suggested that a chunk of the Congress votes might have shifted to AAP.

However, the surprise element was that Manish Sisodia, Kejriwal's man for all seasons and reasons, was trailing in his constituency, Patparganj in East Delhi. Sisodia was perceived as the Delhi government's mover and shaker and the author of its far-reaching education and health reforms. The shock reversal of Sisodia's fortunes has been attributed to a statement he made in the penultimate phase of electioneering that was construed as his support to the Shaheen Bagh protests, contrary to the official line that directed that the AAP's stand must be neutral.

However, Sisodia's reversal is a side story to an election in which the AAP fought back every inch of the way against the BJP's formidable organisational machinery and a feverish campaign, that bordered on the vicious, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home minister Amit Shah, with "stars" like Adityanath, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, deployed to accentuate the "faith" divide in the aftermath of the agitation against the Centre's citizenship package.

Delhi Election 2020

3 out of 7 seats in Delhi get more women to vote in this Lok Sabha election

According to the official data, 60.15 percent of women voters came out to vote as compared to 60.82 percent of men. The overall voting percentage dropped to 60.52 from 2014.

Lok Sabha Election 2019 : East Delhi, New Delhi and South Delhi parliamentary constituencies saw more women turning out to vote as compared to men, officials said Thursday.

Delhi recorded a turnout of 60.52 percent in the polls on May 12, five percentage points down from 2014.

According to official data, 60.82 per cent male voters and 60.15 per cent female voters exercised their right this time.

The East Delhi constituency, which is seeing a triangular contest between BJP's Gautam Gambhir, Congress's Arvinder Singh Lovely and AAP's Atishi Marlena, saw 61.80 per cent women exercising their right to vote as compared to 61.50 per cent of male voters.

The New Delhi constituency, which has many VVIP voters, recorded the lowest voter turnout among all seven constituencies in Delhi at 56.86 per cent, but saw a better turnout of women than men. According to the data, 57.21 per cent of women voters cast their votes while 56.58 per cent men exercised their franchise in the seat.

South Delhi, which had the second lowest turnout of voters, saw 58.89 per cent of women voters as compared to 58.60 per cent of male voters.

The Northeast Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, where former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and AAP'S Dilip Pandey are contesting, recorded the highest voter turnout at 63.67 per cent.

While 64.46 per cent of men cast their votes, 62.72 per cent women turned out to vote.

In a first for the city, as many as 17 booths with all women polling officials were established for the Lok Sabha elections in the seven constituencies of Delhi.

Out of the 17 booths, 10 had been set up in East Delhi constituency, two in Chandni Chowk and one each in North East Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi, New Delhi and North west Delhi.

Business Standard

Replace EVMs with 'tried and tested' ballot papers in Lok Sabha polls: AAP

The party has also exhorted all opposition parties to boycott the polls if their demand was not paid heed to.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday demanded that in view of the latest charges against the electronic voting machines (EVMs) by a hacker in London, the old, tried and tested ballot papers should be used again in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The party has also exhorted all opposition parties to boycott the polls if their demand was not paid heed to.

Rajya Sabha member of AAP and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Sanjay Singh told IANS that this was necessary to "save democracy and install faith of the people once again in the election process".

The national spokesman of the AAP further said that the latest revelations clearly shrouded the neutrality of the EVM's and hence should be replaced with ballot papers.

"These EVM's show the benefit of EVM's going to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and takes away from the opposition a level playing field" he said further.

Chief spokesman of the party's state unit, Vaibhav Maheshwari while claiming that the Election Commission was not ready to concede that the EVM's were open for tampering demanded that the poll panel ensure a "public audit" of the EVM's.

Raising doubts on the fairies of the EVM's, the party has demanded that all political parties should write to the Election Commission of India, saying that they will boycott the elections for the Lok Sabha if the EVM's were used for the polls.

"There is no other option but to ban the EVM's and conduct the Lok Sabha and all future elections through ballot paper method" Sanjay Singh said.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday had spoken on similar lines and had cited the example of a "developed nation like Japan" which still used the traditional ballot paper method for elections in their country.

"In view of the recent revelations, further doubts have been created in the minds of people and the EC should taken them into account" the former UP chief minister has said.

The ruling BJP leaders, both in the state and the centre, have trashed the accusations made by the opposition parties and have claimed that by raising doubts on the EVM's, the opposition was making ground for an almost certain defeat at the hustings in the Lok Sabha 2019 polls.

Business Standard

Here's why you won't be able to buy medicines from online pharmacies

The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao while acting on a PIL filed by Delhi-based dermatologist Zaheer Ahmed.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered a ban on sale of online medicines by online pharmacists across the country, according to a report by The Times of India. The HC has asked the Centre and the AAP government to immediately implement the order.

The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao while acting on a PIL filed by Delhi-based dermatologist Zaheer Ahmed. He complained that several thousands of medicines were sold with regulation everyday which posed a huge risk to patients and doctors equally.

He also pointed out in his PIL that online sale of medicines is not permitted under the Drugs and Cosmetocs Act 1940 and Pharmacy Act, 1948. He also highlighted that even though the Drug Controller EGneral of India in 2015 had directed all state controllers to protect the interest of public health by curbing online sale, several thousands of medicines continued to be sold online, often without a prescription. This violate the citizen's Right to Life guranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The petition also claims that sale of drugs through e-pharmacies increase the risk of self-medication wwithout prescription as well as sale of psychotropic substances.

According to Bar and Bench, earlier this year, the Madras High Court had granted an injunction restraining the unlicensed sale of medicines and drugs online, in a plea moved by Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association (TNCDA).

The PIL says that Centre is well aware of the risks involved in sale of medicines on internet as a panel set up by it had cautioned it about the same as late as September.

Centre establishing legal framework to regulate online sale of medicines

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, governs sale of medicines in India. Medicines can be sold from licensed premises only. The Act does not cover e-pharmacies at present and the government had decided to appoint a sub-committee, after receiving complaints of violations.

While the domestic pharmaceutical market size is around Rs 1.25 trillion, e-pharmacies constitute a minuscule portion of it. The collective sales are estimated to be around Rs 2 billion annually.

Under the proposed rules, individuals or companies will have to register with the central licensing authority to run an e-pharmacy; state-wide registration is not required.

According to the rules, the e-pharmacy registration holder shall inform the central licensing authority regarding changes in constitution of the firm. A fresh registration will be required in the case of such changes and existing registration will be valid only for three months, it added. The e-pharmacy will have to mention on the website its constitution, details of directors and partners, name of logistics service provider, and return policy for dispensed drugs.

Sources say brick-and-mortar chemists, too, have to inform about changes in their constitution to the licensing authority, but there is no requirement for them to display directors' names and shareholding details on their premises.

Business Standard

Cong must support alliance between regional parties to unseat Modi in 2019

Despite the CWC projecting Rahul as the PM candidate for the 2019 general elections, leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik and Mayawati might have to be accommodated to defeat the NDA.

Although the recently-constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) anointed Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate in its very first meeting, senior party leaders, including Gandhi himself, have subsequently indicated that forging alliances with like-minded parties to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party from coming back to power would be the Congress’s top priority. In case of a hung Lok Sabha in 2019, the Congress has said that it is open to supporting any non-BJP/RSS backed leader for the top position.

2019’s general elections are still a few months away. More immediately knocking on the Congress party’s doors are the crucial assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, scheduled later this year. Only when it is able to wrest at least two of these states from the BJP, can it think of emerging as the pivot around a larger coalition to take on the formidable Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Despite giving consistent signals that the party may be on an upward swing, it cannot be debated that the grand old party is currently facing one of its worst crises and is short of both funds and a determined workforce. Naturally, the Congress is hedging bets on its performance in the upcoming assembly elections to pull its weight as a national party with other anti-BJP political players. At the same time, it will have to work around the priorities of regional parties, which may be unwilling to let the Congress play big brother, irrespective of its showing in the assembly elections.

Given the current political landscape, the Congress is deeply aware of its strengths and limitations. In any scenario, forging alliances with non-BJP parties will be crucial for the depleted Congress to make a mark in the general elections.

That is why the ‘P. Chidambaram formula’, or what the former Union finance minister proposed in the CWC meeting, is being discussed in political circles. In his presentation at the CWC meeting, Chidambaram proposed that the Congress should work to secure anywhere between 140 and 150 seats in the 12 states where it is directly up against the BJP. In the remaining states, it should form pre- or post-poll alliances with regional parties to garner another 150 seats, which should be enough to form the government in 2019.

However, the problem with such a formula is that it is easier said than done. The former minister’s calculations can be contrasted with the fact that the Congress’s average seat tally was only a little more than 130 from 1996 to 2004, when the party was in a much better shape. While in 2009 it increased its tally largely due to its improved performance in Andhra Pradesh, it has since then been reduced to only 48 in the Lok Sabha.

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PM Modi's South Africa visit: Diaspora may not be a play in Lok Sabha polls

Domestic controversies and effective outreach by BJP's political rivals have led to rising disillusionment with Modi.

Modi Visit South Africa : South Africa has a sizeable Indian diaspora, nearly 1.5 million strong comprising three per cent of that country’s population. But unlike his previous visit there in 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be addressing the Indian community when he visits South Africa from July 25-27.

Modi will be in Johannesburg for three days to attend the BRICS Summit, but not even one event has been planned where he addresses the Indian community. New Delhi fears a repeat in Johannesburg of the PM’s London visit in April that was marred by vociferous protests by sections of the Indian diaspora.

On his way to South Africa, Modi will be visiting Uganda on July 24 and is scheduled to address a gathering of the influential non-resident Indians there. The fight among the various Indian associations in Kampala has become ugly enough for 15 outfits threatening to boycott the event. Interventions from the Indian High Commissioner and BJP leaders in India haven’t helped.

Support from the Indian diaspora was a force multiplier for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The rousing receptions Modi received from NRIs and people of Indian origin on his visits abroad had added to his charisma and international standing.

But increasingly, managing the diaspora has become a headache for the BJP. Domestic controversies over religious, caste and linguistic identities and effective outreach by the BJP’s political rivals has contributed to the diaspora’s increasing disillusionment with the PM.

There have been allegations of mismanagement of funds raised for Modi’s diaspora events, particularly in Canada, and grievances about the dominance of a particular linguistic group that has found easy access in the Modi government and Indian missions abroad, while businesspeople from other regions complain doors have been shut on them.

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