Third eye: Festival dilemma for election calendar, labour’ing hard to boost ties & laddoos first, meeting later

Festival dilemma for election calendar:
With the Election Commission (EC) wrapping up review tours in Jharkhand and Maharashtra this week, the stage is set for a poll announcement soon for both states as well as around 50 assembly bypolls. The EC, however, has quite a 'festive' challenge in planning the election calendar this time, given several festivals and holidays in October, a point also red flagged by political parties in Jharkhand. The window for EC, however, is tight as both Maharashtra polls and the assembly bypolls must be completed by November-end.

Labour’ing Hard to Boost Ties:
Congress leaders Salman Khursheed and Gurdeep Sappal led their party delegation to Liverpool, the UK, to attend Labour Party’s national conference. Congress and Labour Party have old ties and with the Labour government in the UK, Congress wants to strengthen ties. Some more visits by Congress leaders are also in the offing.


Laddoos First, Meeting Later:
The Centre's national conference on The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, missed the presence of Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan, who also holds charge of the state’s ministry of panchayati raj and rural development. While originally he was expected to attend the conference, the Tirupati laddoo controversy apparently held him back home.