Governance

Thamizhachi Thangapandian, also known as Sumathy, hails from Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu. She is contesting for the second time in the Lok Sabha elections representing the DMK party in the Chennai South constituency.A poet, writer, educationist and theatre person, Thamizhachi entered politics following the footsteps of her father late V Thangapandian, who was a minister in the DMK government under M Karunanidhi. She has a Ph.D. in English Literature and was educated at Thiagarajar College of Arts & Science, Madurai Kamarajar University, Madurai and University of Madras, Chennai. In 2019, Thamizhachi contested from the Chennai South constituency and won…

How do you check if your name is on the electoral rolls? How do you locate your polling booth? Who are the candidates in your constituency? Can you still vote if you don't have a voter ID card? Follow the Citizen Matters voters guide for quick answers to these questions and more. Election of the 18th Lok Sabha will be conducted in seven phases in all starting April 19 and ending on June 1 2024. Counting of votes is scheduled on June 4. In this mammoth and most challenging exercise in the world’s most populous democracy, it is crucial for every…

In its recently released Manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024, the IndianNational Congress has promised to bring some much needed reforms in the Indian Parliament. It has promised to ensure that both Houses of Parliament will be in session for 100 days in a year; the opposition parties will be empowered to set agenda for one day in a week and presiding officers (Speaker of Lok Sabha and Chairperson of Rajya Sabha) will not be part of any political party to ensure their impartial functioning. The Manifesto released by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) also acknowledges thatParliament…

In 2021, some street vendors informed Mohit Valecha, Delhi in-charge of the National Hawker Federation (NHF), that officers of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) were giving out loan application forms to shopkeepers at Saraswati camp, RK Puram, under the PM SVANidhi scheme. “By the time we reached there, the officers had distributed applications to around 12 of the 20 shopkeepers there. These were junior officers. When we questioned them, they said they did so to meet their targets, and left soon,” says Mohit, who is also All India Youth President of NHF. “I don’t know if the shopkeepers eventually…

The Lok Sabha elections 2024 are scheduled to be held in seven phases between April 19th and June 1st. For the first time, senior citizens aged above 85 and persons with 40% and above disabilities will be able to vote from home. The voters in these two categories must file Form 12 D with the Election Commission. Those who opt for vote-from-home will not be allowed to vote from the polling booth on voting day.  Eligibility for postal ballots Rule 27A of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 has been amended to provide the optional postal ballot facility to ‘Absentee…

As India gets ready to vote to decide who will represent the country in Parliament, Citizen Matters is speaking to elected representatives from Chennai, ahead of the Lok Sabha 2024 elections. As part of this series, we had a chat with Kalanidhi Veerasamy, incumbent MP from Chennai North constituency. Dr Kalanidhi has been given the ticket by his party DMK to contest from the same constituency in the 2024 polls. Read more: Lok Sabha 2024: Know your MP — Dr Kalanidhi Veerasamy, Chennai North Chennai North and Dr Kalanidhi Veerasamy The Lok Sabha constituency of Chennai North is composed of six…

Name: Shrikant Shinde Constituency: Kalyan Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde is an orthopaedic surgeon and now a full time politician. The two term MP from Kalyan constituency is getting groomed to be the second most powerful leader in Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction, after his father. Shrikant is a fresh face in the Maharashtra Politics. In 2014, this young politician was in the final year of M.S. (Orthopaedics) when he became MP for the 16th Lok Sabha at the age of 27 - the youngest Maratha member of the parliament ever. In the year 2019, he got…

The three-time Member of Parliament (MP) from the Chennai Central constituency, Dayanidhi Maran, a prominent member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party is contesting for the Lok Sabha seat for the fourth time. Dayanidhi Maran is the son of former Union Minister Murasoli Maran and the grandnephew of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi. He stepped into Lok Sabha for the first time in 2004, after winning from the Chennai Central constituency. Subsequently, he was re-elected from the same constituency in the 2009 general elections and the 2019 general elections. In 2004, after his first…

Name: Poonam Vajendla Rao alias Poonam Mahajan Constituency: Mumbai North Central Poonam Mahajan is a two-time Lok Sabha MP who has represented the Mumbai-North-Central constituency in the 16th (2014) and 17th (2019) Lok Sabha sessions. In the 2019 general elections, 53.97% of the votes were cast in Poonam's favour as opposed to her closest rival, Priya Dutt of the Indian National Congress, who got 39.55% of the votes cast by the 8.95 lakh voters. Poonam defeated Priya by 1,30,005 votes, a margin lesser compared to 2014 when she won by a margin of 1.86 lakh votes. Poonam is the daughter of…

Kalanidhi Veerasamy of DMK was elected from Chennai North Constituency in 2019. The son of veteran DMK leader and former state minister Arcot N Veerasamy, he had his debut political journey in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He is a graduate of Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Stanley Medical College, with a specialisation in Plastic Surgery. In 2019, a total of 23 candidates contested from various political parties and as independents from Chennai North constituency, which had a total of 14,87,461 voters. Dr Kalanidhi got 61.85% of the vote share and defeated his nearest rival, Alagaapuram R Mohanraj of DMDK, who…