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Monday,
February 25, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Sonia consults leaders on UP
Koshiyari fails to deliver Jaya to return as CM
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Fingerprints point to Katara’s murder Let Kashmiris have right to decide: CPM DD, AIR to beam Budget presentation Indira Goswami receives Jnanpith
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Sonia consults leaders on UP New Delhi, February 24 Though the results in Uttar Pradesh were far below the expectations of Congress leaders, they were drawing comfort from the fractured verdict in the state where the role of Congress has become crucial. Ms Sonia Gandhi began consulting senior party leaders after the election trends started pouring in and an informal meeting of the Congress Working Committee will be held after the results were declared in Uttar Pradesh. AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora and senior leader Ahmed Patel are going to Chandigarh to facilitate the election of the CLP leader. AICC general secretaries Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ambika Soni will go to Uttaranchal while Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar and Mr Pranab Mukherjee will go to Manipur. Mr Azad will also go to Lucknow for a meeting of the newly-elected Congress MLAs. Though the Congress did not get the expected victory in Punjab, AICC leaders were satisfied that the party had a comfortable majority. “We have numbers good enough for a responsive and responsible government in Punjab,” Ms Ambika Soni said. Ms Sonia Gandhi said not only was it a verdict for the Congress but also a verdict against the BJP. Asked if the PCC chiefs would be elected as CLP leaders in Punjab and Uttaranchal, she said while the PCC chief had been made the Chief Minister in most cases in the past two years, it was not the rule. About Uttar Pradesh, she said she was not disappointed as she was not expecting great results due to ground realities in the state. Asserting that it was a clear verdict against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, she remained non-committal on extending support to the Samajwadi Party (SP) to form a government in Uttar Pradesh. She said a decision on the issue would be taken after consultation with senior Congress leaders. Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh affairs, said it was too early to talk of giving support to the SP. He said the question of support would arise only after the exercise for government formation began. Though Ms Gandhi said she was not dissatisfied with the results in her Amethi parliamentary constituency, the Congress today alleged that no decision had been taken by the returning officer, Mr R.A. Prasad, on the complaint of rigging by Congress candidate Ashish Shukla in Amethi. In a statement, the Congress said Mr Oscar Fernandes, general secretary, had also made a complaint to the Chief Election Commissioner demanding a repoll in some Amethi booths. 
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CPM throws weight behind Mulayam New Delhi, February 24 “The verdict of the people in the state is against the communal forces. It is the duty of other parties to ensure a secular government is formed”, CPM General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet said here. Mr Surjeet, who has already sent a message to 10 Janpath for mobilising the Congress support for Mr Yadav, told newspersons that in politics one had to look towards future and not remained bogged down in the past. Asked whether Congress President Sonia Gandhi would “pardon” Mr Yadav, who had opposed extending support to a Congress-led government at the Centre in 1999, Mr Surjeet said that had become an old issue. |
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Verdict a lesson for Mulayam New Delhi, February 24 Mr Yadav, who had prevented the formation of a Congress-led government at the Centre in 1999 under the pretext that his party did not accept the leadership of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, will now have to seek the support of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh if invited by the Governor to form government. |
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Koshiyari fails to deliver Mr Bhagat Singh Koshiyari’s charisma has failed to gain the BJP in Uttaranchal. The reason is simple: the BJP failed to fulfil the aspirations of the mixed diversities of hill folk and the plains. Thus, the Congress was poised to capture power in Uttaranchal with a majority. The BJP was confident of getting the support of the hill folk besides the considerable mass base in the Terai region. Lack of a dynamic leadership in the BJP, particularly in Garhwal and the plains, proved costly to the party. Political observers say the BJP could not win the hearts of the hill folk under the leadership of former Chief Minister Nityanand Swami, who lost the seat this time from Laxman Chowk (Dehra Dun). The gap between the plains and the hills widened under his leadership, forcing the party high command to look for another alternative in the form of RSS pracharak Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. By the time he took over as the new CM of Uttaranchal, the first elections were round the corner. Being a Kumaoni, he, somehow, managed to save the party roots in this area but lost most of the seats in Garhwal, Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar. The BJP failed to deliver in Udham Singh Nagar for going alone in the elections. Had it forged a poll alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal, the equations would have definitely changed in their favour. Earlier, the BJP betrayed the residents of this district by including them in the new state despite their protest against such a move. Similar was the situation in Hardwar district. Here, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party encashed the sentiments of the people of Hardwar who launched a movement last year against the BJP for including this district in Uttaranchal. A local Muslim leader, Maulana Masood Madani, became a hero in the eyes of the Muslim community. He was later tapped by the Congress. And in Garhwal, the issue of the Tehri dam, the controversy of making Gairsen as the state capital and re-naming the state as Uttarakhand were some of the issues directly related to the cultural identity of the hill folk. The Congress made it clear that it would consider these demands and did not get into confrontation with the regional parties like the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, Uttarakhand Janwadi Party and others. As a result, eight ministers in Mr Koshiyari’s council of ministers lost their seats. In matters of leadership, the Congress also lacked a dynamic leader except for Mr Narayan Dutt Tiwari. |
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Koshiyari resigns Dehra Dun, February 24 |
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Results ‘close to survey’ New Delhi, February 24 The exit polls had indicated that the Congress would not only form the next governments in Punjab and Uttaranchal and that the Uttar Pradesh Assembly would be hung, but the projections were close to the final tallies in these three states, particularly in Uttaranchal, a press statement said today.
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Jaya to return as CM
Chennai, February 24 The stopgap Chief Minister, Mr O. Paneerselvam, met the Governor, Mr Rammohan Rao, this evening and handed over his resignation. Ms Jayalalithaa is expected to assume her office on Monday or Wednesday. For Ms Jayalalithaa, it was celebration day twice over her victory in the byelection in which she defeated her nearest rival, DMK candidate Vaigai Sekar, by more than 41,000 votes, and her 54th birthday. A beaming Ms Jayalalithaa told reporters that the Andipatti win “is the best birthday gift I have received in my life so far.” Joining the birthday and election victory celebrations outside Ms Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence were party activists and admirers who burst crackers, distributed sweets and prostrated at the feet of their leader. Ms Jayalalithaa pledged that she would make Andipatti No.1 constituency in Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu No. 1 state in India. Saying that her victory had created “a new political history”, she added:”I do not think that any political leader either in India or abroad, who has been subjected to this kind of victimisation, had to face such trials and tribulations, hardships and obstacles of this kind.” Ms Jayalalithaa said five years ago, everyone had writtern her and party off, and “we have proved all the critics wrong. This victory will serve as a lesson in courage and endurance to everyone who may be subjected to hardships and difficulties.” The DMK leader, Mr M. Karunanidhi, who all through the Andipatti byelection campaign, had blamed the Election Commission for ignoring alleged electoral malpractices in the constituency, repeated his charge today and announced that he would file a petition in a court against the commission. Ms Jayalalithaa polled 78,422 votes as against 37,122 for Mr Sekar. In the also-ran category were two other party candidates, Mr Jayachandran of MDMK and Dr Krishnaswamy, leader of Puthia Tamizhagam, polling 8,426 and 5,175 votes respectively. |
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9 again proves lucky for Jaya Chennai, February 24 Today is her 54th birthday and the numerals 5 and 4 add up to 9. She was elected leader of the AIADMK legislature party after she won from the Andipatti Assembly seat today. Ms Jayalalithaa has faith in astrology and numerology and consults astrologers before taking important political decisions.
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Paneerselvam Cabinet quits Chennai, February 24 A Raj Bhavan communique said later that Governor P.S. Ramamohan Rao accepted the resignation of the Council of Ministers with effect from this afternoon and asked Mr Paneerselvam and his team to continue in office till alternative arrangements were made. Ms Jayalalithaa was elected Legislature Party leader earlier this afternoon.
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Ansari ISI’s top target New Delhi, February 24 A wireless intercept suggested that the ISI had directed some of its conduits in the country as well as neighbouring Nepal to eliminate Ansari at any cost, intelligence sources said. Ansari, presently in the custody of Rajkot police in Gujarat in connection with a spate of kidnappings in the region, has been provided additional guards while being taken to the court of First Class Judicial Magistrate in Radhanpura, the sources said. The wireless message intercepted in the Jassar area of Gujarat suggested that some professional killers from the underworld gangs had been hired to kill Ansari. Ansari had revealed to the CBI his connection with hawala operators in the national capital, Bhopal, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Lucknow. The CBI’s Special Investigating unit had picked up three hawala operators — Sharda Bajrang Lal, Purushotam Das Gupta and Javed Mansoor — for examination after raiding their premises on February 19 following a tip off from Ansari. The CBI had also seized cash of over Rs 40 lakh from the premises of Bajrang and Gupta, the sources said. The three hawala operators were claimed to have supplied money sent by Ansari to his henchman Aqib Ali for paying for an arms consignment that was smuggled into the country from Pakistan. Ansari, who was deported from Dubai and later arrested by the CBI on February 9, also explained in detail as to how his men had been sent to Pakistan using porous Indo-Bangla border. He also admitted to his links with militant leaders of
Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT), Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia (HuJi) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). About his links to the American Centre attack, Ansari admitted to having called the Kolkata Superintendent of Police and other newspapers in the metropolis on phone to say that the attack was carried out by his men. However, he denied having masterminded the attack. RAJKOT: Meanwhile Ansari was remanded to 14 days police custody in connection with the kidnapping case of two city-based businessmen. Ansari, alias Mohammad Farhan Mallick, alias Surendra Jat, was brought to the Judicial Magistrate’s house to seek remand late last night in tight police security when magistrate D.D. Rajput remanded the ultra to police custody up to March 9 to enable the police for detailed interrogation. City police are probing Ansari’s involvement in the case of kidnapping of jeweller’s son Bhaskar Parekh and his friend Paresh Shah and also the criminal’s network.
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Fingerprints point to Katara’s murder Ghaziabad (UP), February 24 According to Senior Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad, Prashant Kumar, the fingerprints taken from a charred body found in Khurja matched and resembled those of the victim, son of a senior Delhi-based bureaucrat. Nitish’s fingerprints were obtained from the Transport Department, which had procured these in the past for the purpose of driving licence record, he said. The police has also sent to Hyderabad samples from the charred body for DNA test after the victim’s mother apprehended it to be that of her son. Meanwhile, a police team which had gone to Gwalior to bring back Vikas and Vishal, continued to interrogate the duo in connection with the case. Vikas, son of Rajya Sabha member D.P. Yadav, and his cousin Vishal were arrested from Dabra near Gwalior yesterday morning. They would be produced in a local court tomorrow and brought to Ghaziabad on a transit remand. Katara was reported missing from a marriage party where he was said to have danced with Bharati, Vikas’s sister. Vikas, a candidate in the Bisauli Assembly constituency, is currently on bail in model Jessica Lal’s murder case.
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Let Kashmiris have right to decide: CPM Kolkata, February 24 Mr Surjeet alleged that the situation in Kashmir was getting from bad to worse day-by-day. It was because of the faulty policy adopted by the Vajpayee government mainly based on communalism and parochialism. He was speaking at a seminar at Moulali Yuva Kendra, near Sealdah on the occasion of the party’s 20th annual state conference last evening. Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami, a CPM MLA from Kashmir constituency, also participated in the discussion. Mr Surjeet felt that more sincere efforts were needed to handle the Kashmir problem and for that matter, the faith and confidence of the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be taken into consideration. But neither the Congress nor the BJP-led NDA government had tackled the issue in that direction he alleged. He felt serious attempt was made to solve the problem during the United Front government in 1996 when a free and fair election was held in Jammu and Kashmir. But that democratic process could not last long as the V.P. Singh government fell shortly. Mr Surjeet, however, said the people of Kashmir should be given right to self-determination and the state government more power and rights to function democratically. Mr Tarigami suggested a more humanitarian attitude towards the people of the state since it had been proved that the theory of ‘bullet for bullet’ so far had failed to solve the Kashmir problem. On the contrary, the problem had aggravated with the growing spurts of terrorist activities in the valley. |
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DD, AIR to beam Budget presentation New Delhi, February 24 The President’s Address to the nation from the Central Hall of Parliament House will be beamed live on Doordarshan and All India Radio from 11 am. The Railway Budget will be presented at 12 noon on February 26 and the live transmission will continue till 2 pm, again going live from 7.30 pm to 8.30 pm to discuss the Budget. The discussion on the economic survey will be telecast from 10.30 pm to 11.30 pm, the same day.
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Indira Goswami receives Jnanpith New Delhi, February 24 Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kant said, “Tensions and conflicts over language issue appear to be totally misplaced and while politics and social inequalities can be divisive, it is literature and creative arts which have a capacity to cross boundaries with facility and ease.” Nobel Laureate Sir Vidhyadhar S. Naipaul, Selection Committee Chairman L.M. Singhvi and Bharatiya Jnanpith president Indu Jain were also present at the function.
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