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Despite short ban imposed on Adityanath and Mayawati, the Model Code of conduct is not working well even though Election Commission has a formidable reputation for impartially running the world’s biggest and most complex elections. But its record is poor when it comes to handling hate and inflammatory campaign speeches. EC is being further tested of the vicious propaganda and falsehood circulating on social media.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the campaign entering the last leg, the political parties have slipped into top gear. The top guns have hit the campaign trail with a vengeance, braving the sweltering heat. It is well and truly a no-holds-barred campaign in which no quarter is asked for and none given.

Assam amounts the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats in the northeastern region. Out of the total 25 Lok Sabha seats of the north-east, Assam alone accounts for 14 seats. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP won 7 seats with Congress and AIUDF winning 3 seats each. The rest one was won by an independent.

It is only but natural that an official appointed by the government feels constrained to act against its interest and its functionaries. Of course, there are exceptions, but that is the rule. Some may be less pliable; some may be more. But pliability is a given.

April 23 will witness the most crucial Lok Sabha Election of 2019, the date on which 115 constituencies across 14 states will vote. NDA, UPA, and anti-Modi alliances have been leaving no stone unturned, because there are very high stakes in this phase. It would be opening the window on the next government formation, not only because the largest number of seats is going to poll but also it would mark the end of election on 303 seats leaving only 240 seats for the next four phases.

As Don Draper of AMC’s hit series Mad Men likes to say, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”

Mathura constituency polled in the second phase of polling April 18. BJP candidate and two-time MP from the constituency, Hema Malini, said she would win. But there’s the SP-BSP-RLD Gathbandhan to contend with. The Gathbandhan has fielded an RLD candidate against Hema. The question for Hema Malini: Is the Gathbandhan working at the ground level? Polling took place in eight Uttar Pradesh constituencies in the second phase. These are technically still Western Uttar Pradesh constituencies and include Congress leader Raj Babbar’s Fatehpur Sikri, which borders Agra, another of the ‘8’, where there’s clear division of urban and rural voters.

Chetan Vasantrao Jayle is a 26-year-old young man hailing from Amravati, Maharashtra. His career prospects brightened up when he completed his engineering course in IT from Government College of Engineering, Amaravati. Bright future opened up before him when he landed a job at Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS), Pune, an IT multinational with headquarters at New Jersey, USA, and joined the ranks of its nearly 200,000 workforce in India.

BHOPAL: Finally failing to persuade any party stalwart to challenge Digvijaya Singh the BJP had to borrow an outsider to take up the task on Bhopal Lok Sabha seat. Perhaps BJP realised that Hindu-Muslim polarisation strategy may alone yield the result. How much importance the BJP gave to Bhopal can be appreciated by the fact that the party decided to rush its organisation secretary Ram Lal to Bhopal to formally adopt Pragya Thakur as a party member. After three hours of her admission in the party, she was named as party candidate for Bhopal seat. According to BJP insiders Thakur’s candidature has been decided at the behest of RSS, the Sangh fountain head.

Britain’s shadow Prime Minister Jeremy Corbyn has vowed that a future Labour government will abolish hated primary school SATs. The Labour leader made the pledge in a barnstorming speech at the National Education Union’s (NEU) annual conference in Liverpool.