Hardik Patel, Patidar youths tonsure heads ahead of Modi’s Guj visit

May 21, 2017

Ahmedabad, May 21: On the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to his home state, Patidar quota stir leader Hardik Patel and 50 of his community youths tonsured their heads on Sunday to kick start Nyay Yatra.

The two-day Nyay Yatra (march for justice) began from Lathidal in Botad and will cover 51 villages before concluding in Bhavnagar on Monday.

“Nyay Yatra is for pressing our demands for justice against police atrocities on agitators in 2015 that left 13 youths dead,” said Patel.

“We are starting yatra from Botad where the PM inaugurated an irrigation project during his previous Gujarat visit.”

Patidars, a financially and politically influential community and BJP supporters for three decades, are up in arms against the state government seeking OBC status. Twenty-three-year-old Patel, who was jailed for nine months and exiled for another six months in connection with two sedition cases, has emerged as the face of the agitation.

Modi will begin the Gujarat visit on Monday from Kutch district where he will inaugurate development projects at Kandla and dedicate Narmada Water pumping station at Bhachau.

On Tuesday, he will inaugurate the annual meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar.

The five-day AfDB meeting will have in attendance private sector representatives from across Africa, finance ministers from 80 countries besides heads of states from several African countries.

This is Modi’s third visit to the state in this election year. On April 7, he had visited Botad to inaugurate the Link 2 of the state government’s ambitious SAUNI (Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation) project by formally releasing Narmada water into Krushnasagar dam.

Earlier, on March 8, he had visited Gandhinagar to address women sarpanchs from across the country on the International Women’s Day.

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Over 58 lakh names dropped from draft voter list in Bengal ahead of polls

News Network

December 16,2025

The deletion of over 58 lakh names from West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has sparked widespread concern and is likely to deepen political tensions in the poll-bound state.

According to the Election Commission, the revision exercise has identified 24 lakh voters as deceased, 19 lakh as relocated, 12 lakh as missing, and 1.3 lakh as duplicate entries. The draft list, published after the completion of the first phase of SIR, aims to remove errors and duplication from the electoral rolls.

However, the scale of deletions has raised fears that a large number of eligible voters may have been wrongly excluded. The Election Commission has said that individuals whose names are missing can file objections and seek corrections. The final voter list is scheduled to be published in February next year, after which the Assembly election announcement is expected. Notably, the last Special Intensive Revision in Bengal was conducted in 2002.

The development has intensified the political row over the SIR process. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have strongly opposed the exercise, accusing the Centre and the Election Commission of attempting to disenfranchise lakhs of voters ahead of the elections.

Addressing a rally in Krishnanagar earlier this month, Banerjee urged people to protest if their names were removed from the voter list, alleging intimidation during elections and warning of serious consequences if voting rights were taken away.

The BJP, meanwhile, has defended the revision and accused the Trinamool Congress of politicising the issue to protect what it claims is an illegal voter base. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the ruling party fears losing power due to the removal of deceased, fake, and illegal voters.

The controversy comes amid earlier allegations by the Trinamool Congress that excessive work pressure during the SIR led to the deaths by suicide of some Booth Level Officers (BLOs), for which the party blamed the Election Commission. With the draft list now out, another round of political confrontation appears imminent.

As objections begin to be filed, the focus will be on whether the correction mechanism is accessible, transparent, and timely—critical factors in ensuring that no eligible voter is denied their democratic right ahead of a crucial election.

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