Concerns Over Election Integrity in Haryana
Cloudbursts. Flash floods. Landslides. Could the Char Dham highway project be making the Uttarakhand Himalayas more vulnerable? Help us investigate the true cost of this infrastructure push.
Rahul Gandhi, a prominent Congress leader, has raised serious allegations regarding the integrity of the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections, claiming that approximately 2.5 million fraudulent voters have been added to the electoral rolls. He presented a photo of a woman, purportedly a Brazilian model, asserting that her image has been misused in multiple constituencies’ voter registrations.
Gandhi accused the Election Commission of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by failing to eliminate duplicate voter entries and allegedly destroying CCTV footage to conceal evidence.
He further claimed that numerous BJP members are registered as voters in multiple states, suggesting that the practice of “vote theft” has become systematic. He warned that similar manipulations could occur in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.
Political Maneuvering in Bihar
On the eve of the first phase of polling for the Bihar Assembly elections, a candidate from the Jan Suraaj party, Sanjay Singh, defected to the BJP, transforming the electoral battle into a direct contest between the National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition Mahagathbandhan. Singh expressed his support for the BJP candidate.
Earlier in October, party leader Prashant Kishor accused the BJP of coercing three other Jan Suraaj candidates to withdraw from the elections.
Union Minister Lalan Singh has claimed that a video, which led to a police complaint against him for breaching the model code of conduct, was manipulated. He stated that his comments were taken out of context and aimed to protect vulnerable voters allegedly threatened by members of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
The Patna district administration filed a first information report against Singh after a video surfaced showing him urging supporters to prevent certain leaders from leaving their homes on polling day.
It remains unclear when the remarks were made, but reports indicate that the “few leaders” he referred to were from the Opposition.
Historic Win for Indian-Origin Candidate in New York
In a significant political victory, Indian-origin Democratic Party candidate Zohran Mamdani quoted former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his acceptance speech after winning the New York mayoral elections. At just 34 years old, Mamdani defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo, marking a historic moment as he becomes the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of the city.
“Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru,” Mamdani stated, referencing Nehru’s famous “Tryst with Destiny” speech delivered on the eve of India’s independence in 1947.
His speech concluded with the song Dhoom Machale from the 2004 Hindi film Dhoom,
