Pune Loksabha Candidates Comparison – Elections 2014

Pune is fortunate to have been offered decent candidates by most parties. However there are significant differences in their profiles. While several candidates have criminal cases against them, it needs to be noted that the cases against the major candidates are related to political protests and defying police orders in the process.

Below is my quick assessment of the major candidates. It is ofcourse based on my perception. I do not claim to be unbiased or objective. Do add comments with any additional inputs / info.

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Maharashtra Election Results – Vidhan Sabha 2009

The election results for the Maharashtra state assembly elections are supposed to be announced tomorrow (22nd Oct). Like every prior election, the Election Commission has again failed to provide a proper & functional website where you can get the election results. However your best bet still would be to try the Chief Election Commissioner for Maharashtra website http://ceo.maharashtra.gov.in/ or the Election Commission India site for the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha Results.

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Maharashtra State Assembly Elections – Pune Shivajinagar Seat Contestants

No Indian has anywhere near as much scope to change the destiny of other Indians as an elected representative in government. So like it or hate it, we have to take our netas and elections seriously. The assembly elections (Vidhan Sabha) for the state of Maharashtra in India are upon us and 13th Oct 09 is voting day. My vote lies in the Shivajinagar constituency in Pune. So here’s my analysis of the top 3 contenders for the ShivajiNagar seat in Pune city. I do not think I have any deep rooted party loyalties and my choice of party in past elections has varied based on the quality of the candidate. I am attempting to provide my analysis of the candidates & not their parties. Also I do not claim to be unbiased, so please apply your judgement. Read more

Pune Election Results – Final Vote Count

The final vote count for the Pune Loksabha election is now available. Sitting MP, Suresh Kalmadi of the Congress has managed to retain the Pune seat by a margin of about 25000 votes.

  1. Kalmadi Suresh (Winner)     INC     279897 votes
  2. Anil Shirole     BJP     254150 votes
  3. Shirole Ranjeet Shrikant     MNS     75885 votes
  4. D S K Alias D.s.kulkarni     BSP     62963 votes
  5. Arun Bhatia     PG     30329 votes Read more

Pune Election Result – Congress Kalmadi Leads

2:46 pm Update – Kalmadi leds over Shirole by 24158

2:15 pm Update – Kalmadi leds over Shirole by 21525

1:29 pm Update – Suresh Kalmadi from the Indian National Congress leads by 19410 from BJP’s Anil Shirole as on 1.29 pm on 16th May 09.  Counting is still in progress. Read more

India Election Results – Election Commission Website Links

The results of Indian General Elections will be available on the Election Commission Of India site http://eciresults.nic.in/ from 8 am on 16th May 2009. Certain pages of the site are already throwing server runtime errors, so it looks unlikely that the site will survive the hammering it will get through counting day tomorrow.

I am expecting the server running the site homepage to crumble under the load, so am listing internal site URLs below. Hopefully some of the links below will work tomorrow. Read more

India Loksabha Election Results 2009 : Exit Polls Summary

16 May 09 Update:

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Below is a summary of exit poll predictions for India Election Results 2009. However looking at the dismal record of opinion and exit polls in India, we need to look at these numbers more as entertainment than information. Can’t really blame the pollsters as conducting representative sample polls in a country of the size and diversity of India seems almost like an impossible task. Read more

Election Results – Pune Loksabha Elections 2009

Update: 2012 Pune Corporation Elections Results

The election results for the India General Elections 2009 will be announced on the 16th of May. Pune city voted long back, on the 23rd of April 09. So it’s going to be  a long wait before we know if the candidate we voted for will actually make it to the LokSabha, the House Of the People and the lower house of the Parliament Of India. Read more

Voter Apathy Or Election Commission Incompetence?

At just 40%, Pune saw it’s worst ever voter turnout for the Loksabha elections. Mumbai was slightly better at 44%. The dismal voter turnout numbers have shocked most of educated India. Political leaders are smirking on TV saying things like “You blame us politicians for not caring about the country, but even the ordinary citizen does not care.” I have no insider info on the matter, but am just trying to apply some common sense to figure out what could have gone wrong. Read more

Finalizing My Vote For India Loksabha Election 2009

Doing some final checks before I finalize the candidate I would be voting for in tomorrows election. Just visited the websites of all the top candidates to check if they have something new to say. Nothing new there. A couple of sites seem to have actually gone down. Next looking at http://myneta.info/pune for a quick and easy to read synopsis of the affidavits filed by the Pune Loksabha candidates. The details of 3 candidates including BJP’s Anil Shirole are missing from the sheet. Read more

Pune Loksabha Elections – Top 6 Candidates Overview

Below are my short takeaways about who I think are the top 6 candidates. There are 10s of candidates contesting for the Pune seat, so there could be other worthy candidates, unfortunately I haven’t heard of them. Read more

India Loksabha Election Issues – Candidate Attributes

Watching politicians debating about what seemed like non-issues to me, got me wondering about what are the real election issues and what are the qualities that the electorate look for in a MP.  Thought why not create a simple ranking based survey to get the info from friends and readers of HarshadOak.com.  Please fill out the survey – India Loksabha Election Issues – Candidate Attributes Survey . It will take not more than 3-4 min to complete the survey and you will help us all better understand what matters to Indians. I will make the statistics collected through this survey freely and publicly available at http://www.HarshadOak.com on 1st May 2009. Thank you.

Compare Candidates Contesting In India Elections 2009

In a previous post “Wealth & Assets Of Candidates“, I mentioned how you can access the affidavits filed by the election candidates.  However there’s an easier way than having to go through the affidavits of all candidates. Check out http://myneta.info/. The site provides an easy and tabular comparison of the various candidates contesting in a constituency. Read more

Wealth & Assets Of Candidates In India General Elections 2009

Below are the affidavits of the candidates contesting for the Pune Loksabha Seat in India’s General Elections 2009. Click on the names to open the scanned PDF documents. You can check the details of the wealth, holdings, assets of the candidates and their criminal record, if any. Use these links to have a look at candidate affidavits across – Pune, Maharashtra and  India . Read more

Pune Election Candidate, D S Kulkarni (DSK) explains BSP ‘social engineering’

D S KulkarniI would soon be carrying a proper interview with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate for Pune Loksabha elections, Shri. D S Kulkarni (DSK). However while the DSK office processes the full interview, they were kind enough to put me on the phone with Shri. Kulkarni. Below is my record of our brief interaction. Will have the full interview up soon. Read more

Dekho Dekho Kaun Aya… Hindustan Ka Sher Aya!

India’s general elections are just a month away and pre-poll campaigning is now heating up. I certainly would be voting but along with that I also intend to attend all political rallies that might be held anywhere near my place. I want to hear what the leaders really stand for and sound like. Indian media today is in a mess as most TV channels either blatantly provide incorrect reports or distort statements to suit the story they wish to push. So just based on TV reports you can’t really form an opinion about a politician. So yesterday I attended a BJP’s Narendra Modi rally held at the river bed grounds near the Baba Bhide bridge in Pune. Read more

Us vs Them – The Mantra Of Politics

Us Versus Them PoliticsAfter extensive research at Oak Labs, we believe we have discovered the secret of success in politics. It revolves around the simple concept of “Us vs Them”. The key to getting a mass following, winning elections and being a popular leader lies in the ability of the politician to clearly define an “Us vs Them” pattern.So throughout history and in all walks of life, the successful politician always has a clear understanding of who ‘Us’ is and who ‘Them’ are. It is the ability of the politician to convey this understanding that decides how successful he or she is. Here are some examples of Us vs Them. Rulers vs Natives, White vs Black, Democracy vs Dictators, Indian Cricket vs Aussie Cricket, Locals vs Migrants, Secular vs Communal, Believers in a Faith vs Non-believers, Underdeveloped vs Developed Countries and so on.

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Politicians and the government needs to catch up to 21st century presentation technology

In A New Bottle PleaseWhat’s the difference between the prime minister’s speech on 15th Aug 1947 and 15th Aug 2007? What’s the difference between the president’s and chief minister’s TV addresses in the 80s and those in 2007? The content and the speakers sure have changed, but there have been no changes in the medium of delivery. While technology and presentation mediums have improved dramatically, government and political addresses are still consistently delivered in a dry boring format. In their current form, these speeches would be watched only if the nation is going through some crisis and people are looking for direction from the leader, a la Mussharaf in a troubled Pakistan. However at other times, I wonder how many countrymen would watch for more than a few minutes….

(Cont…Click the scanned article image on the left). Published as part of my column for the Maharashtra Herald that’s published on alternate Saturdays )