Indian Parliamentary Elections 2014

[Aupmanyav]

EC CASTS NET WIDE, POLLING TO GO LIVE

The Election Commission is taking the polls online and plans to webcast voting live from most of the 1.4 million polling stations across the country.

“We are taking transparency to a different level... rather global. No country in the world has used the digital space as we would this time,” the EC official behind the move told HT on condition of anonymity. It will also help close monitoring of constituencies identified as “sensitive”.

Webcasting is the obvious second step as video-recording of polling is mandatory. With booths as far as in Ladakh and in remote jungles of Chhattisgarh, live streaming won’t be possible for all areas, but for other polling stations, officials have been asked to ensure landline or mobile broadband connections.

Internet companies, too, stand to gain, as they are likely to see heavy traffic on polling days. Social media companies were expected to earn ` 500 crore, with political parties making poll pitch in virtual world as well, news agency PTI said. Of the 814 million Indian voters, around 200m have access to internet and half of them are active on social media.

KEJRIWAL, ANSARI, AND NOW TRANSGENDER KAMLA OUT TO CHALLENGE MODI

BJP’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi now has a transgender challenger in Varanasi.

Kamla, who contested the last two assembly elections in Varanasi, on Sunday said she will file her nomination papers for the Varanasi seat the day Modi files his. Her candidature was finalised at the national convention of eunuchs in Gorakhpur last week. She is confident of attracting enough attention to Varanasi with the help of 10,000 eunuchs expected to converge here to campaign for her.

Varanasi has already made headlines due to the candidature of Modi and his two challengers â€" Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party and Mukhtar Ansari, a Mafia don, presently in jail for murder.