M A I N   N E W S

Gujarat Assembly dissolved

Gandhinagar, July 19
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today tendered the resignation of his council of ministers and recommended the dissolution of the state Assembly to go in for mid-term poll.

Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari has accepted the resignation and recommendation to dissolve the 10th Vidhan Sabha, Raj Bhavan sources here said.

The Governor has directed Mr Modi to continue as care-taker Chief Minister.

The tenure of the Vidhan Sabha, elected in March 1998, was to end in February next year.

NEW DELHI: A delegation of prominent citizens led by former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral met the three-member Election Commission on Friday and returned with an impression that there was no likelihood of an early poll in Gujarat “whether or not the state Assembly is prematurely dissolved”.

“Determination of the date of elections and the conduct of the poll are the prerogative of the Election Commission which appears inclined to wait until it is satisfied that the right conditions prevail”, the delegation of the Forum for Fraternity and Reconciliation said in a statement after the meeting.

The delegation was informed that the state’s electoral rolls would be revised before the poll, it said.

The delegation told the commission that in view of the continuing environment of insecurity and uncertainty in the state, advancing elections would be inimical to a free and fair poll.

Meanwhile, both the Congress and the CPM on Friday opposed any government move to hold early elections in Gujarat and endorsed the Election Commission’s views that time was not ripe for conducting Assembly poll there.

Chief spokesman for the Congress, S. Jaipal Reddy said Gujarat security adviser K.P.S. Gill had also expressed the view that normalcy in the sense of people’s confidence had not been restored in Gujarat as yet. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, according to him, was also of the opinion that things had not normalised in Gujarat as yet.

However, the Congress was ready for the elections whenever these were held and would win the poll, he said, addressing a press conference here. UNI, PTI

Communal clash in Gujarat town

Ahmedabad, July 19
At least one person was killed and 12 injured when the police opened fire to control communal violence at a town near here tonight, police sources here said.

Curfew was imposed on Virangam taluka town in Ahmedabad rural district where the police fired to disperse clashing groups.

The trouble began when youths from two different communities clashed at around 6.30 p.m. As the stand-off continued, the violence spread bringing in its grip more people from both sides, the sources said.

At least eight of the injured sustained bullet wounds, the sources said. The authorities clamped curfew on the town at 9.30 p.m. and the situation was stated to be tense but under control. PTI