First Partners’ Post

Close to a billion registered voters, over one million polling stations, and a total of ten million polling officials and security staff: these are the numbers that make up this year's general election in India, which started on 19 April and will continue until 1 June for a total of 6 weeks.   One of the largest ever elections that will shape the nation’s political future, as described in this in-depth article by Dilip Yadav, Founding Partner at First Partners, an Affiliate of SEC Newgate Group: https://lnkd.in/ekuATffM

With reference to the Rights of Voters, consider the following statements: 1. Voters have a right to know about the candidate's financial situation. 2. The Indian Constitution and the Representation of People Act 1951of India prohibit prisoners from casting ballots in the elections. 3. It allows a voter to take part in the election process without casting a ballot or selecting a candidate. 4. A person can vote even if another person has already voted as an elector on his behalf. How many statements given above are correct? (a) Only one (b) Only two (c) Only three (d) All Four

Karnataka Congress MLA's 'No Vote, No Electricity' Strategy • MLA Raju Kage warns voters of power outages if party wins fewer votes in future elections. • Criticized for using threats and coercion in political campaigns. • Demands for Election Commission of India intervention. • Political situation in Karnataka unstable due to alleged party misconduct and need for political system reforms. #KarnatakaElections #PoliticalIntegrity #VoterRights

With reference to the Rights of Voters, consider the following statements: 1. Voters have a right to know about the candidate's financial situation. 2. The Indian Constitution and the Representation of People Act 1951of India prohibit prisoners from casting ballots in the elections. 3. It allows a voter to take part in the election process without casting a ballot or selecting a candidate. 4. A person can vote even if another person has already voted as an elector on his behalf. How many statements given above are correct? (a) Only one (b) Only two (c) Only three (d) All Four

The most recent general elections marked a significant political moment for India, with Narenda Modi securing a third consecutive term as Prime Minister of the country. However, the polls also showed a robust resurgence of the Opposition party, closing at 232 seats in a House of 543.   To understand this new political landscape and its possible developments, read this report on India’s general election by First Partners, Affiliate of SEC Newgate Group: https://lnkd.in/eqfaSWdn   #SECNewgate #TheElectionYear

Quite an eye-opener, with all kinds of conventional media going the Modi way for the past decade. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar. The number of missing news consumers is alarmingly worrisome. No wonder the set of YouTubers like Ravish Kumar, Dhruv Rathee and the Wire, The Quint, Newslaundry, Lallantop, NewsClick, etc held the missing 407 million glued to them, and we see them making the 400 paar cry silenced... While their magic worked in UP and Raj, wonder why they failed in MP, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, and Gujarat! What may be stopping the significant part of this 407 million not finding their voice in the media/content sources mentioned above? I also wonder, whether the General Election or State Assembly Elections are the right Moments of Truth to test these allegiances to certain set of media (rooted in left-right-center, ideologies?) Media Houses and Newspapers are business houses, with well declared connections with certain political parties and ideologies, that you noticed in the 400 plus channels and Print media ignoring the 407 million's voices. How many of these 407 million are direct consumers of any media and not the narratives as twisted and manipulated? Intellectually, how many of these voters can make a well informed choices about identifying their right representatives, when we see a term VoteBank" become stronger with time? While we may give a clear verdict on the conventional media that has become partisan and bigoted, we may not be able to sound the same for the other set of media you mentioned.

With so many divisions already existing in society based on factors such as A) Religion B)Caste C) Rural & Urban D) The Rich and the Poor E) Preferred Language etc the new emerging divide is The Preferred Media streams. You can clearly see that characteristics of a TV/ So called National Print & Social Media/ Regional/ Vernacular Print is extremely different in nature and attributes. For a classical Segmentation theory in marketing it’s good to have your TG clearly segmented and identified ( Holds true for Political marketing and campaigning also) But for diverse society like India, it’s not good signs I would say Vanita Kohli-Khandekar #Democracy #media #Society #Division #India

The SC order on electoral bonds is welcome. Secret funding to parties is not conducive to healthy democracy. People have the right to know who funded political parties. But without genuine reforms, electoral bonds will be replaced by unaccounted cash funding. Two central issues need to be addressed: 1. As long as there is no real rule of law, and economic fortunes of enterprises are dictated by political whims, many donors are afraid to openly fund parties of their choice. We need to institute genuine rule of law and create a political culture that does not penalise supporters of rival parties. It will take years of dedicated reform. 2. The real political spend in most states is the illegitimate and unaccounted expenditure to entice the voters. This inexhaustible appetite for illegitimate expenditure in politics can only be addressed by reforms in the electoral system, not by tinkering. Parties now need to bury the hatchet and build consensus on meaningful electoral reforms to make our democracy work for people and not capitalists.

Please Report cases as a citizen. Money flows freely during elections. Also liquor, etc . This may stop / reduce only if 20-40 Netas are punished for giving cash / liquor 🥃, other things to voters. If people report for these incident's. Till then let's continue to see these advertisements in News papers, and imagine amount of cash spent by candidates. Can you imagine election budget of your own constituency?