M A I N   N E W S

Landslide win for Rabri
Family rules the roost

NEW DELHI, May 29 (UNI, PTI) — Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi won with a huge margin in her husband’s vacated constituency, a son picked up where his dead father had left in Nirsa and as three widows emerged victors in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Kalyan Singh’s Rashtriya Kranti Party unseated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Soron (U.P.). Rori in Haryana proved the adage, like father like son.

The Haryana Assembly will now have the distinction of having two fathers and their sons as its members simultaneously following election of Mr Abhay Singh Chautala, younger son of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, by a record margin of more than 86,000 votes in Rori.

The assembly already has former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and his son Chandra Mohan as its members.

Mr Abhay Singh Chautala, President of the Haryana Olympic Association, has succeeded his father and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo in Rori.

Mr Chandra Mohan was returned to the tenth Assembly for the third time in a row from nearby Kalka constituency. Mr Bhajan Lal, now Leader of the Opposition and Congress Legislature Party, represents Mandi Adampur.

Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi today made her maiden entry into the state Assembly by winning the byelection to the Raghopur constituency, a pocketborough of her husband and RJD supremo, Laloo Prasad Yadav, a report from Party said.

Rabri defeated her nearest NDA rival, Beera Devi, by a margin of 61,819 votes, surpassing the victory margin of Laloo Yadav in the last Assembly poll. He had defeated his nearest JD-U rival Vishun Deo Rai, by around 29,000 votes.

While the chief minister polled 1,08,768 votes, her rival Beera Devi secured 46,949 votes.

Another result, out of the three seats where byelections were held on May 26 in Bihar, went in favour of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal ally, the Marxist Coordination Committee. Arup Chatterjee defeated Subroto Sengupta of Forward Bloc by over 16,000 votes. In the February Assembly polls, Mr Gurudas Chatterjee, slain father of Arup Chatterjee, defeated Mr Sengupta by over 10,00 votes.

The NDA backed JD (U) candidate Sushil Kumar Singh was leading by over 2338 votes after the second round of counting against RJD nominee Vijay Prakash Yadav, younger brother of former State Minister Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav.

Rashtriya Kranti Party (RKP) candidate Devendra Pratap was declared elected from the Soron Assembly seat in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh, defeating his nearest rival of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) by a margin of 195 votes.

The RKP wrested the seat from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. It came from behind to claim victory and make its maiden entry into the state Assembly.

State Chief Electoral Officer Noor Mohammad said Mr Devendra Pratap secured 22,118 votes against 21,923 of the BSP. Samajwadi Party candidate Resham Devi Shakya, who had maintained the second position allthrough except the last two rounds of counting, finished third, securing 21,508 votes.

The BJP had to remain content with the fourth position. BJP’s Brijesh Kumar managed just 13,913 votes, ahead of Congress nominee Akhilesh Gaur who secured 7575 votes.

In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Congress retained the Bhongir and Chevella Assembly seats, respectively.

Mrs Uma Madhava Reddy, widow of Panchayat Raj Minister A. Madhava Reddy, defeated her nearest Congress rival Venkateshwara Reddy in Bhongir by a margin of 46,488 votes. Mrs Reddy polled 78,389 votes while the Congress candidate polled 31,901 votes.

Mrs P. Sabita Reddy, widow of former Home Minister P. Indra Reddy, defeated her nearest TDP rival K. Laxma Reddy by a margin of nearly 30,000 votes in Chevalla.

The byelections were necessitated following the death of Mr Madhav Reddy in a landmine blast set off by the banned People’s War Group of Naxalites and Congress Legislature Party Secretary P. Indra Reddy in a road accident.

The ruling Congress retained the Kirnapur Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh when its candidate Pushplata Kaware, widow of slain Transport Minister Likhiram Kaware, defeated her nearest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rival Bhuvanlal Pardhi by 22210 votes.

Ms Kaware polled 40061 votes while former Legislator Bhavanlal Pardhi received 17851 votes in a multi-cornered contest. All others in the fray forfeited their security deposits. Janata Party’s nominee Anubha Munjare who had finished second in the last Assembly poll, was relegated to the third place with 12537 votes.

The byelection was necessitated by the murder of Mr Kaware who won the seat defeating Ms Munjare by 17900 votes in the 1998 Assembly elections.

Mr Kaware represented the constituency thrice as Congress candidate from 1990 to 1998. However, the BJP won the seat twice in 1980 and 1985.

With today’s victory, the strength of the Congress in the 320 member Vidhan Sabha (state Assembly) has gone up to 179 including the Speaker.

According to a report from Orissa, the Biju Janata Dal retained the Aska Lok Sabha seat when its candidate Kumudini Patnaik trounced her Congress rival Umakanta Mishra by a margin of 1,79,473 votes in the may 26 byelection, official sources said.

Ms Patnaik, who is the wife of BJD leader and state Finance Minister Ramkrushna Patnaik, polled 2,88,240 votes against Mishra’s 1,08,767 votes. K. Syambabu Subudhi, an Independent and third contestant in the fray, lost his security deposit.

A former school teacher who quit her job to enter politics, Ms Patnaik is the sixth woman from the state to win an election to Lok Sabha.

The byelection was necessitated by the resignation of the sitting MP and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik following his election to the state Assembly and subsequent elevation as Chief Minister.

With this victory, the BJD has retained all the ten seats it won in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. Its ally BJP had made a clean sweep of the nine seats it contested while the congress won in the rest two constituencies.

A report from Assam said in Babanipur Dr Manoranajn Das of the AGP defeated Congress candidate Sarbananda Choudhury by 289 votes. The AGP wrested the seat from its rival Congress.

In Nalbari Dr Alaka Desai Sharma of the AGP defeated Dr Bhumdihar Burman of Congress by 5391 votes. The AGP retained the seat.

In Karimganj, AGP candidate Ghulam Karim Mohammad Ali is leading over his nearest Congress opponent Madhabendra Dutta by 6,330 votes.

Repolling in eight polling stations of Karimganj was held today and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the areas, the sources said.

United Democratic Party (UDP) candidate Rasor Rani today wrested the Myrang seat from Congress in the Meghalaya Assembly bypoll, a report from Shillong added.

Rani defeated his nearest Hill State People Democratic Party (HSPDP) rival Fuller Lyngdoh Mawnai by a margin of 1794 votes in a five-cornered contest.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Kitor Syiem.

Abhay wins Rori seat by big margin
From Bhupender Dharmani

SIRSA, May 29 — The INLD won the Rori byelection with huge margin. The party’s candidate Abhay Singh Chautala was declared elected with a record margin of 86,011 votes an all-time record in Haryana Vidhan Sabha elections. The previous record was of former Chief Minister, Bansi Lal who won the Tosham byelection by a margin of 80619 votes in 1986.

There were nine candidates in the fray. Mr Abhay Singh Chautala, INLD polled 93402 votes Mahant Baldev Dass of Congress 7391, Mr Kalu Ram of the BSP 1563, independents Dana Ram 118, Duli Chand 117, Madan Mohan 57, Mohinder Kumar 100, Roop Ram 104 and Ruldu Singh 381. All other candidates, including that of the Congress lost their deposits. Of the 1,14,989 voters 1,03,233 cast their votes in this byelections, polling for which was held on May 26.

Counting started today morning at 8 a.m. but the Congress decided to boycott it. The counting process took nearly three hours despite the use of EVMS. The INLD established a handsome lead of over 6,000 votes in first round itself and thereafter the margin went on increasing.

Interestingly the Congress which registered a lead of 95 votes during the Vidhan Sabha elections from Sahuwala village got a single vote this time.

The Congress candidate, however, won from the booths which they alleged had been captured by senior government officials in Rori.