The Election Commission of India — variously called the Election Commission, the ECI or EC — was set up in 1950 as an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for carrying out election processes in India. It administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, and the offices of the President and Vice President.
Headquartered in Delhi, the Election Commission consists of three members — a chief election commissioner and two other commissioners — who are appointed by the President. They have a tenure of six years or until they reach the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. The Election Commission prepares, maintains, and updates the electoral roll; supervises the nomination of candidates; registers political parties and classifies them on national and state levels; and monitors election campaigns, including political fund-raising.
Our Democracy and electoral politics has regressed to an extent that the Voters buying tickets to watch the election propaganda of political parties in movie theaters….what is the big deal even if manifesto releas banned within 48 hours of elections.
Read as Dr
A strange edict. Each party has the right to release its Manifesto, which sets out its vision and promises. That cannot be treated as inducement to voters. The question that needs to be asked is why parties release what could be helpful to them, so late in the day. To me, that suggests in fact, the non serious nature of the exercise. Neither side to the transaction believes the contents of the Manifesto to be true or meaningful. More like a ritual that must be gone through. Brings to mind that image of the constituents of UPA holding hands and releasing a booklet of their “ Achievements “ on muggy May evenings, a lot more farcical each year as India moved closer to 2014.