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Key Constituency
Non-issues take precedence
Question mark over
Mufti Govt Ghani Khan remains
popular
First-time Voters
EVMs get rid of invalid votes BJP men removing
Cong posters, alleges DCC In graphic: Minority
report
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Key Constituency Sundernagar (Mandi):
The most crucial electoral battle, which could have far-reaching consequences for factional politics in the ruling Congress, is being fought in the Mandi constituency where Rani Pratibha Singh, wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, and BJP stalwart Maheshwar Singh are locked in a keen contest. At stake is the prestige and pride of Mr Virbhadra Singh as the outcome of the contest will not only reflect on his government’s performance over the past one year but also his personal popularity. Rani Pratibha Singh is in the electoral arena for the second time. She lost to Mr Maheshwar Singh in 1998. However, Mr Virbhadra Singh was not in the saddle at that time as the election to the Mandi seat was held in June, 1998, three months after the formation of the BJP-HVC government in the state. A convincing victory for the Congress will not only consolidate his position as the Chief Minister but also silence his detractors within the party. The BJP has tried to raise the stakes further by publicly declaring that Mr Virbhadra Singh will have to quit office if his wife loses the election. The party’s strategy was to make going tough for the “Rani” so that Mr Virbhadra Singh was forced to devote maximum time to the Mandi
constituency. However, this has not happened so far. A shrewd politician Mr Virbhadra Singh fielded his wife after carefully weighing the pros and cons. He lost no time in mending fences with his one-time bete noire, Mr Sukh Ram, to pave the way for merger of the Himachal Vikas Congress into the Congress. Mr Sukh Ram was instrumental in the defeat of Rani Pratibha in 1998 when he retired from the contest in favour of Mr Maheshwar Singh after a post-Assembly poll alliance with the BJP. It is a marriage of convenience as Mr Sukh Ram was equally keen to have his son Mr Anil Sharma, rehabilitated in the Congress. The advantage of being the wife of the Chief Minister apart, Rani Pratibha Singh is not a novice in politics. She has been managing the affairs of Mr Virbhadra Singh for the past over 15 years. With the Congress in power in the state and Mr Sukh Ram back in the party she sees the contest as the best opportunity to settle scores with Mr Maheshwar Singh. Besides women voters, she is targeting the youth, particularly the unemployed, by devoting much time to the alleged irregularities in the recruitment scam during the Dhumal regime when jobs were sold and merit was ignored. The BJP is banking on the charisma of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who has a cottage in Prini village in Kulu, which forms part of the constituency. Mr Vajpayee considers the hill state his second home. Having won two Lok Sabha elections in a row he has also to contend with the anti-incumbency factor and he is quite aware of that. He has not only reconciled his differences with his rivals within the party but also taken back all those who were expelled from the party. The merger of the Him Loktantrik Morcha, a breakaway faction of the HVC, into the BJP and there induction of former HVC ministers, Dr Ram Lal Markanday and Mr Mansa Ram, will add to his support. The battle is thus keenly poised. With no discernible wave in favour of any party, the situation varies from one segment to the other. If the Congress has emerged stronger with the merger of the HVC in Mandi and Balh, the entry of Mohinder Singh and Mr Mansa Ram has bolstered the prospects of the BJP in Dharmapur and Karsog. The BJP has also gained ground in the Congress stronghold of Drang with some influential leaders like Mr Jawahar Thakur (HVC),Mr Chandra Mani (Congress ) and Mr Dina Nath Shastri joining the party. The Congress is banking on Rampur, the home segment of Rani Pratibha, and adjacent Ani, besides the tribal areas of Kinnaur and Bharmour. Mr Maheshwar Singh is confident of doing well in his in Kulu, Banjar and some segments of Mandi. Both candidates have been so far concentrating on small village meetings. Mr Maheshawar Singh had started moving around in the constituency even before the elections were announced.
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Panchayat dream extends to LS Demru Khurd (Moga), April 29 Contesting the elections for the first time, Kulwant Singh is undeterred by his dismal performance in the grass-root panchayat elections and has directly aimed for the high-level parliamentary elections. Without a strong party support, without any fanfare and charisma, this candidate is trying his best to win the hearts of people he comes across. Only two posters of his candidature are pasted outside his house and two on his car, as he does not have enough funds to “waste.” Though he has a lot to say about his decision to contest as well as his plans after winning, the family members confide that they are basking in the glory of VIP status conferred upon him in the form of two bodyguards. He is in the fray on ticket of the Mool Bharti Party (S) and is luring the voters on the issue of unemployment. “I have many supporters in seven out of the nine Assembly segments. I do not know many people in the Lambi and Malout segments but I am sure I will secure at least 10,000 votes each from the rest of segments,” he asserts with confidence. He adds that he was mobilising his friends and relatives to campaign for him. Having worked for the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Lok Bhalai Party for past many years, Kulwant Singh, an under-matric, got disillusioned with “corrupt and opportunist” leaders and decided to fight it alone to make his presence felt. “I did not withdraw for the same reasons though I had received feelers from many candidates, who feared that I would spoil their votes. Even if I lose my security deposit, I would fight till the end,” he adds. Canvassing from one village to another in his old Ambassador car, driven by one of his body guards, Kulwant Singh is not shy to admitting that he is finding it difficult to feed his guards and spend money on petrol. “I had told the president of my party that I would not be able to spend that much of money. It is a battle worth crores in this constituency. But I am sure the electorate would vote for me as I would be setting an example of fighting elections with minimum resources and not wasting nation’s money,” he adds. After returning from his campaign in the evening, a tired Kulwant Singh meets some villagers to decide the further course of action. Women of his family also chip in during the meeting only to be snubbed by him on the plea, “Tusi chup karo. Tuhanu ehna gallan da ki pata?” (You keep quiet. What do you know about these affairs)? Having not been able to set up a single election office in the parliamentary constituency comprising three districts, Kulwant Singh feels that at least an office is required for smooth functioning. “Doesn’t matter even if I lose this time. At least I will leave a mark on the minds of people that I fought a lonely battle for their cause. I will make them believe that I contested only to give them a self-less leader, which has become a rare commodity in the present scenario.”
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Non-issues take precedence Banda:
The best way to get a feel of the place is to get to know its history. And Banda has an awesome record going back to the period when Lord Rama, during his 14 years in exile, rested in Chitrakut, now a separate district. The temple of Bamdeo, a local sage said to be a contemporary of Lord Rama, provides evidence of how Banda got its name. Bamda was the land of Bamdeo before it became Banda. This easternmost district of Bundelkhand is, perhaps, among the most backward of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh. Why has it remained an insignificant dot on the map of India is for historians and political scientists to answer. Banda is certainly worth a detailed study. Right now like the rest of the country it is caught in the heat and dust of the Lok Sabha elections. Make no mistake; this constituency may astound pollsters and pundits alike. In a manner of speaking the people of Banda hate being driven like dumb cattle. They have an amazingly evolved level of political awareness that has seen them play a leading role in the fight for freedom right from the 1857 uprising. The people of Banda willingly joined Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement and the salt satyagrah. As recently as 1975 they threw their weight behind the anti-Emergency campaign. Unfortunately, here too non-issues have taken precedence over the ones that touch the lives of ordinary folks. Ask the politicians about what they know about the constituency they want to represent in the Lok Sabha and they look bewildered. Neither the BJP nor the BSP nor the Samajwadi Party nor the Congress (listed in the order of their importance in the constituency) knows that Banda may help the country revive conventional agricultural practices once the hybrid bubble bursts. This point was explained at some length by Dr Mukti Dev, a retired farm scientist, while we were looking for clues about which party would win the 2004 contest. He pointed out that the economy of Banda is based on agriculture. Today it is backward because it has refused to replace the hardy varieties of seeds with the hybrid ones. “Once the bubble bursts, and it will in the next 50 years, Banda will be among the few pockets that would be able to supply the traditional varieties of seeds to the rest of the country” according to the retired agricultural scientist. Perhaps there is something in the soil of Banda that makes its inhabitants follow their own instinct rather than be influenced by the views of outsiders. This reflected in their history and also the choice of candidates the people have sent to the Lok Sabha since 1952. For the first two elections it followed the pattern of electing the Congress candidate. In 1957 Dinesh Singh, the former ruler of Kalakankar, represented this constituency. But it began sending out conflicting political signals after 1967, the year when it broke from the accepted pattern of voting and sent Jageshwar Yadav to the Lok Sabha on the Samyavadi ticket (not to be confused with the present Samajwadi Party). Thereafter, every political shade, including that of the Jan Sangh, the Lok Dal and the CPI has been given a chance by the electorate to work for development of the constituency. And they have all failed. Since 1991 the BJP and the BSP have been taking turns in representing Banda. In 1999 Banda elected Mr Ram Sajiwan of the BSP. Will it be the turn of the BJP to get the electoral nod? No it is not as simple as that. The Congress and the BJP have decided to use Banda as a political laboratory for trying new equations for beating the Dalit-OBC combination that has helped Ms Mayawati and Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav emerge as regional satraps. While the BJP has replaced Mr Ramesh Chandra Dwivedi with Bhairon Prasad Misra, the Congress has fielded Mr Prakash Narayan Tripathi. Will the Brahmin magic work, or will Mr Ram Sajiwan of the BSP set a record by winning the seat for a second term? May 13 will provide the answer.
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Factors at Play Karnal, April 29 The anti-incumbency factor seems to prevail in the rural as well as urban areas. This is going against both the INLD candidate, Mr Ashok Arora, and BJP candidate, Mr I.D. Swami. The only hope for the INLD candidate appears to be from the rebel Congress candidate, Mr Kuldip Sharma, who is likely to put a dent in the urban vote bank of both the Congress and the BJP. An interaction by TNS with a cross-section of voters show that development works initiated by the state government and the battle of supremacy between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Congress President Sonia Gandhi are not dominating the electioneering scene. Dissatisfaction with the performance of the Union and the state governments appears to be quite widespread. The local people allege that the BJP candidate neglected the local people during his tenure as Union Minister. There have been reports of his criticism at a few occasions during the initial stage of the campaign by the people, which is giving sleepless nights to Mr Swami. Mr Narinder Singh, a resident of Urban Estate Karnal, alleges that the BJP leader who enjoys the key post of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs has not provided jobs to the people of Karnal in the central police forces. On the other hand, the introduction of value added tax (VAT) has annoyed the business community of the state. “The time has come to settle scores with both the BJP and INLD,” commented a local trader. A few industrialists of Karnal and Panipat on the condition of anonymity do not even hesitate to ‘grumble’ over the very functioning of the INLD leadership that has been alleged of adopting corrupt practices to fill their pockets. Though the Chief Minister of Haryana, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, claims at election rallies here that his candidate has a clean image, it does not seem to convince the businessmen community or the educated electorate. As far as the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) or the Congress candidates are concerned, they are trying hard to capitalise on the anti-incumbency factor against the state government and the weaknesses of the BJP candidate. The HVP candidate, Mr Ram Chandra Jhangra, has made inroads into the backward and lower classes in the urban settlements, besides, the Jats and Sikhs while the Congress candidate, Mr Arvind Sharma, is trying to woo the Brahmins who are the traditional vote bank of the Congress. The other main contender is Mr Raj Kumar Sharma of the newly registered party Ekta Shakti that has consolidated the vote bank of the Ror community by adopting an aggressive campaign against the three political stalwarts of Haryana — Mr Bhajan Lal, Mr Bansi Lal and Mr Om Prakash Chautala. This has helped lure a section of the electorate.
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Yearning for govt college Ferozepore, April 29 Peepal Singh, a Rai Sikh belonging to a village 7 km away, rues that his children are not getting proper education due to the non-availability of teachers in rural areas, especially the border belt. His plight is shared by Mr Mangat Ram of Hazara Singh village at the far-off Hussainiwala border. In Pattan Post village near Fazilka, situated ahead of the first fencing line, children are deprived of primary education again due to the absence of teachers. Education facilities are dismal in this border district of Punjab. Though there are a few places where primary schools have not been opened, the authorities have failed to ensure the presence of sufficient teachers there. No wonder that the people talk about the lack of education facilities as one of their main election issues. As many as 57 years after Independence there is not a single government college in this largest parliamentary constituency of the state. On March 2, 1995, Late Chief Minister Beant Singh laid the foundation stone for a government college on the border of Mohan Ke Uthard and Basti Gobindgarh villages just beside the busy Ferozepore-Fazilka-Abohar road. The choice was strategic. The location is almost in the centre of the district and would have catered to the needs of all. Enthusiastic villagers had donated 22 acres of land for the college. They had dreamt that their children would get quality education at low expenses. The construction of the college would have brought prosperity also as markets would have come up. Land prices too were expected to rise. The foundation stone is non crumbling. Its damaged condition is a cruel reminder of the people’s hopes. Barely 10 days are left for the elections but no candidate has visited them so far. Villagers are going to vote for one who gives them some sort of undertaking on the issue. There are many private colleges in the district but these charge high fees. “The admission fee of private colleges is too high. I am working in a shop after doing higher secondary” said Naseeb Chand. Congress leaders had assured in the Assembly elections that the college would be constructed, “It was a hollow promise” said village lambardar Zanzeer Singh.
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Question mark
over Mufti Govt Jammu, April 29 This has further widened the rift among the coalition partners and it was expected to have wider political ramifications. The coalition partners were playing the role of opposition against each other and were engaged in a mudslinging campaign. All this has negated the achievements of the Mufti Government and the people were disillusioned. They were posing a threat to candidates of their own partners in the government. Certain ministers of the Congress, Mr Bhim Singh, Chairman of the Panthers Party, and Mr Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, a CPM MLA, who are coalition partners, were attacking the government left and right. The chaos began with the Congress fielding Mr Ghulam Rasool Kar as its candidate against the PDP nominee, Mr Nizamuddin Bhat, for a friendly contest in the Baramula constituency. Thereafter, Mr Tarigami locked his horns with Ms Mehbooba Mufti, President of the PDP, in Anantnag and Mr Bhim Singh crossed swords with Mr Lal Singh, Health Minister, who is the Congress candidate for the Udhampur seat. The Congress was earlier pressuring Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed to expel Mr Bhim Singh from the coalition, but its playing a friendly match in Baramula has weakened its case. Moreover, the two ministers of the Panthers Party, who had virtually deserted Mr Bhim Singh, have now come out to campaign for him which has strengthened his hands in the government. While Congress leader Manmohan Singh said recently that there was no threat to the Mufti Government, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, PCC President, warned that the Congress would reconsider its support to the PDP-led government in case the common minimum programme was not implemented. The coalition partners have been accusing the Mufti of not implementing the common minimum programme, but only pursuing the PDP agenda. Mr
Tarigami was criticising the Mufti for trying to “befool” the Kashmiris on
the issue of reopening of the road between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad in PoK. He
was telling the people that various parties have exploited them on the issue
during the past 50 years and the PDP was now following in their footsteps. With the presence of Mr.Tarigami in the fray, the votes of Mehbooba Mufti in Anantnag would come down. On the other hand, there were allegations that it was a game-plan of the Mufti to make Mr Tarigami contest the election as his presence would prevent the anti-establishment votes to go to the kitty of the National Conference (NC). Not only the ruling coalition, but also the opposition NC has witnessed sharp dissensions within. A senior NC legislator, Mr.Dillawar Mir, created a stir when instead of campaigning for the party candidate, Mr A.R. Shaheen, in the Baramula constituency, he urged the electorate to vote for the PDP. Even the NC President, Mr Omar Abdullah, was not spared when certain legislators did not come out to campaign for him in the Srinagar constituency. There were reports that the electorate belonging particularly to the Shia community Mr Abdullah was banking upon, generally remained away from the polling booths. The two MLAs of the NC, Mr.Iftikhar Ansari and Aga Syd Roohullah Mehdi, have as considerable influence over the Shias. Even NC activists believe that by his shrewd political acumen, the Mufti has put Omar in a tight spot in Srinagar. An
interesting factor of the election was that the Presidents of four mainstream
parties were in the fray. They include Mr Omar Abdullah (NC), Ms Mehbooba Mufti
(PDP), Mr Nirmal Singh (BJP) and Mr Bhim Singh (Panthers Party). Besides, Mr
Thupstan Chhewang, Chairman of the autonomous Leh Development Council, was the
candidate of the Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF) in Ladakh.
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Ghani Khan
remains popular If, at this state, I am to tell my people what I have done for Malda, I am helpless, says Ghani Khan Chowdhury. The high-profile former Railway Minister in Mrs Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet, Mr A.B.A Ghani Khan Chowdhury, has been still as popular as the mango of Malda despite his failing health and morbidity. After successfully winning at a stretch for seven times the Malda Lok Sabha seat since 1980 and protecting the Congress(l)’s fortress in Malda, Mr Ghani Khan is once again in the fray, which, he forecast, could be his last election. In this election, “the Badshah of Malda” is locked in the battle with another “Badshah” — Badsha Alam, a young man of south Kolkata inducted recently into the BJP who happens to be the son-in-law of Mr Sadhan Gupta, a former CPM MP and a prominent barrister. The CPM has not fielded any party stalwart against Mr Ghani Khan this time after failing seven times successively to dislodge him from his fortress. And taking Malda as their losing seat, the CPM has chosen a young worker, Mr Pranab Das, only to register presence. Like Mr Ghani Khan, the CPM is also confident about the Congress victory in Malda. From Malda station to Kotwali is about a 30-minute drive now which in the early seventies was a few hours journey in a bullock-driven cart — then the main mode of transport in Malda and its suburbs. Mr Ghani Khan first became an MLA of the Congress in 1962 and till 1977, he successively won the Assembly elections. In the Ray Government he held an important Ministry of Power and Irrigation and made his name by setting up Santaldih and Kolaghat thermal power plants, which saved Bengal from its long dark-days of power cut in the sixties and early seventies. Mr Ghani Khan was picked up Mrs Gandhi after the 1980 Lok Sabha elections to join her Cabinet as the Power and Irrigation Minister and later he got the coveted Railway portfolio. What Mr Ghani Khan did for Bengal, particularly Malda, had been known to all. The Kolkata’s metro rail and circular rail were his contributions. When Mr Ghani Khan joined the state government as Power and Irrigation Minister, he had taken the initiative in re-building Malda “village” into a clean modern city with all amenities and he did it. Malda’s mango and rayon industries were also re-juvenated at his instance. He gave Malda a railway workshop, a hospital and the railway recruitment centre. Malda’s unemployed youth irrespective of their party colours got jobs in the Railways, the colleries and elsewhere with his efforts. Malda’s perennial problems of the erosion of the Ganga were much eased following the implementation of the anti-erosion master plan that Mr Ghani Khan as Union Irrigation Minister had sanctioned. But the people of Malda still have complaints against Mr Ghani Khan. They charge him with corruption. They say as Mr Ghani Khan has bad health he should retire. BJP candidate Badsha Alam wants to decribe Mr Ghani Khan as an ineffective, old guy. He claims as a young man he should have the legal and moral right to get his place for doing good to the people while CPM contestant Pranab Das feels the Malda people will vote in large numbers for him for the development and progress which the Left Front Government had done for Malda during its long tenure. But people feel Mr Ghani Khan’s achievements as a minister as well as an MP are endless. And that is why they would vote for him again.
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Sidhu again in focus Patiala, April 29 The match-fixing scandal in 2000, which threatened to stain the game in a big way, had Sidhu in a bind. Every sport is allowed its warts as long as its heart is viewed as clean. Here things were different. Like a leaf in a sudden storm, Navjot’s credibility was shaking. For his Sikh brethren, there was no sound worse than that of his pedestal cracking. However, a CBI inquiry ensured that Navjot came out of the scandal unscathed. Those were times when he would talk of ‘muqaddar’ and say that God would see him through his worst phase. His tenure as a commentator has been colourful. He is one person, who despite stretching the Queen’s language to the extreme limits, dares to call a spade a shovel. He may have trampled on quite a few sensitive toes, but for him it hardly matters. Truth has to be told. Be it in cliched proverbs or stale idioms. That’s vintage Navjot Sidhu. A man who listens to his own drumbeat. His plunge into the world of politics has surprised his fans and followers alike. Early on, when his father, who retired as Punjab’s AG, tinkered with politics, he would not touch it even with a barge pole. In 1999, Navjot’s telephone rang and he found none other than Congress President Sonia Gandhi calling from the other side. She wanted to field the cricketer from the South Delhi constituency, which has a heavy sprinkling of Sikh voters. But he declined the offer. Now, he has decided to swim the political tide from ‘Guru-ki-nagri’as Sidhu is fond of calling Amritsar. Indeed, it will be interesting to see where the politician in him goes from here.
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First-time Voters Jalandhar, April 29 A survey conducted by TNS revealed that lack of job opportunities was pinching youngsters the most. All other issues are secondary for them. Sumandip Kaur (21), a first-year student of MCA at the local CT Institute of Management and Information Technology, said she would vote for a party and not an individual, even as the biggest issue for her was increasing unemployment in the country. “I will go for a party which ensures better job avenues for youngsters like me, women welfare and better educational facilities. Another important issue for me is the rising cost of higher education, making it out of the reach for common people,” said Sumandip. Yuvraj Singh, a student at Lyallpur Khalsa College for Men and a first-time voter, says “In my view, a candidate can understand problems and requirements of people of a constituency better than a party. Moreover, he or she should not be a puppet into the hands of a party and should be more sensitive towards people’s feelings and requirements. For instance, a candidate of Jalandhar can tell it better as to how to create job opportunities through enhancing the city’s tourism potential and speedy completion of projects like science city. Opening of the Indo-Pak borders for common people, particularly, for professionals like doctors can result in boosting the economy of the state,” said Yuvraj Singh. Arpan Jindal, a 24-year-old-student at the local Apeejay College of Fine Arts, said he would vote for the SAD-BJP candidate for a number of effective steps taken by Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “My primary concern remains to be better career opportunities. I want that new technology should be used for upliftment of the poor,” said Arpan Jindal. Gurpreet Singh and Kaushal Chauhan, the first-year students of electronics and computer science at the local Mehar Chand Polytechnic, said for them the possibilities of getting a government job were very remote so they would vote for any candidate or party, who ensured better employment avenues even in the private sector.
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EVMs get rid of invalid votes Bangalore, April 29 EVMs do not give any room for electors to waste their votes deliberately or otherwise, thereby helping to swell the kitty of the candidates. During the 1999 simultaneous elections witnessed in the state, 7,99,421 votes (3.41 per cent) were rejected in the Lok Sabha poll while a whopping 9,55,636 votes (4.12 per cent) was declared invalid in the Assembly elections. The shift of rejected votes to candidates could make or break the prospects of a winning candidate. Though the impact might not be that big on candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections, a study of the margins between the winning and second-placed candidates in the Assembly elections in 1999 reveal that in as many as 53 constituencies, the number of rejected votes was higher than the margin. The EVMs leave no scope for rejection of votes as an elector should press a button to cast his vote once the polling agent clears the EVM for the person.
— UNI
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BJP men removing
Cong posters, alleges DCC Bilaspur, April 29 Presided by district
president Hoshiyar Singh Thakur the district level party meeting here yesterday
expressed joy and happiness over, what it called, “unprecedented response”
from the masses in favour of the Congress party in all four Assembly segments of
the district. It criticised the claim of the BJP Mahila Morcha that the BJP
was the champion of the cause of women. It was stated that these mahila morcha
leaders could not get a single party ticket out of four in Himachal Pradesh. On
the contrary, the Congress had given the party ticket to Mrs Pratibha Singh for
the Mandi seat while another woman leader Mrs Vidya Stokes was heading the
Congress in the state.
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Video
Malda, April 29