Current Affairs - 18th May 2014
General Election results of India, 2014
The elections in India are over and the results are out. Out of the total 543 constituencies, BJP became the single largest party winning 282 seats alone and thus made a clear road for Mr. Narendra Modi to become the next PM of India overtaking Mr. Manmohan Singh, the incumbent. NDA, the group consisting of BJP and its allies gained total 336 seats. Let’s have a look over the nitty gritties of these elections:-
• The elections were held in 9 phases with a record turnout of around 66% voting.
• BJP becomes the first non congress party to cross the majority mark of 272 required to form government and also the first non congress govt. to gain majority withour the need of any coalition.
• Mr. Modi to become the next PM of India for the coming 5 years and this will be th 16th Lok Sabha.
• Congress, the incumbent party was at its historic low as it won only 44 seats and UPA won 60 seats in total whereas the total seats of others were 149 in which the AAP won 4 seats, all from Punjab.
• AIADMK, Jayalalitha’s party was the third largest by winning 37 seats followed by TMC of Mamata Banerjee winning 34 seats.
• Dushyant Chautala (26 yrs) is the youngest MP in parliament from INLD in Haryana’s HIsar.
• These were the first general elections to have NOTA and VVPAT facility.
• Alongwith General Elections, assembly elections were held in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.
• In Telangana, TRS won total 47 seats out of 95 setas and emerges as the winner. In Andhar Pradesh or Seemandhar, TDP-BJP won 98 seats out of total 160 seats and won the assembly elections. In Orissa, BJD won again and Navin Patnayak will be sworned in again as the CM.
• This Lok Sabha will have the highest number of women MPs with total 62 MPs as compared to 61 in the last Lok Sabha.
• Ladakh constituenvy of J&K was the largest in India.
• Winner by highest margin : Narendra Modi from Vadodara (Gujarat) with 5.7 Lakh votes (2nd highest ever after 5.92 Lakh votes of Anil Basu of CPM in 2004).
• Total 1.1% NOTA votes were casted in these election with highest in Chattisgarh followed by Gujarat.
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day
This day was observed on 17th May by UN with the theme of “Broadband for sustainable development”. This day is celebrated to mark the anniversary of the signing of the "first International Telegraph Convention" in 1865 and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union.
Nakba Day in Palestine
Nakba Day or Day of Catastrophe was observed in Palestine on 15th May. It is also the day of Israeli independence and is observed to mark the displacement of millions of Palestinians from present day Israel following Palestinian War 1948 (Israeli Declaration of Independence).
India to test Nirbhaya
India will soon test its nuclear capable 1000km long range cruise missile Nirbhaya and it comes under the LACM category. LACM stands for Land Attack Cruise Missile. Other missiles in the same category are Tom Hawk by US and Babur by Pakistan.
