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Post-poll violence claims nine lives Cong spirits buoyant but worries over Pawar
persist They are all selfish, Kanshi says of
siblings BJP still hopeful of 272
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Cong unlikely to go back on Telangana issue: TRS
chief 8 of Babloo Srivastava
gang held Stampede PIL hearing on May 28 Rocca asks Pak not to issue Kashmir-centric statements
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Post-poll violence claims nine lives Kolkata, May 12 In the clash at Barasat in north 24-parganas, two CPM workers were killed with gun-shot wounds. The clash had taken place between two rival groups of the local CPM at Sashan in which firearms and other lethal weapons had been freely used. Two other critically injured were admitted to Barasat Government Hospital In Midnapore, activists of the CPM and Trinamool Congress were involved in a clash in which pipe-guns, bombs, spears and daggers were used by the warring groups, causing death to three persons- two belonging to the Trinamool Congress and one to CPM. At Murshidabad, Congress and CPM activists fought over booth capturing killing two Congress workers. One CPM supporter sustained bullet wound, who later succumbed to his injuries. In Birbhum and Jalpaiguri also two political groups were involved in a clash immediately after the polling was over resulting in the death of two a BJP and a CPM activist. In Purulila, the CPM party office was attacked by BJP workers, which was set on fire. Mr Mukherjee said elaborate security arrangements had been made for ensuring peaceful counting. The para-military forces had been already deployed in all counting centres where the central observers would have the over all charge of counting and the announcement of the poll results. Re-polling took place today at 31 booths in 20 different Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The constituencies include Dum Dum, Barrackpore, Barasat, Birbhum, Malda, Darjeeling and Kolkata South from where prominent leaders like Somnath Chatterjee, A.B.A Ghani Khan Chaudhury, Tapan Sikhdar and Dr Ranji Panja were contesting. The re-polling was more or less peaceful though the average percentage of polling was was low at 40 per cent to 50 per cent. (against 70 per cent to 75 per cent on the election day of May 10). The state Chief Electoral Officer, Mr Basudev Bandopadhyya, said the EVMs had been kept in the government strong rooms under the protection of the para-military forces, which were keeping a round the clock vigil. Replying to a question, Mr Bandopadhyya said he had already filed an FIR with Taltala police station against the Left Front Chairman, Mr Biman Basu, as per Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurti’s direction. A city court today granted anticipatory bail to Mr Basu and directed him to surrender before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate by June 10 in connection with an FIR filed by Mr Bandopadhyya. Mr Basu alleged that some central observers had been partisan in performing their duties, directly siding with the BJP and the Trinamool Congress against the ruling Left Front candidates, for which he admitted he had asked the cadres to teach those observers a lesson. |
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Cong spirits buoyant but worries over Pawar
persist Mumbai, May 12 As a resurgent Congress decimated Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Congress workers in Maharashtra broke into song and dance across the state only to sober up fast. “We expect to perform better than what the exit polls predict,” says a state Congress party leader. Exit polls have predicted 28 to 30 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra for the secular alliance. While the Congress is contesting 26 seats, the Nationalist Congress Party is in the fray in 18 leaving four seats to the three factions of the Republican Party of India. Though the combination looks formidable on paper, observers say the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and supporters of a separate Vidarbha state could still cause major upsets. Reports from several constituencies indicate that the SP and the BSP are making a major impact in the state. The SP had mounted an aggressive campaign to woo the Muslim community over the arrests of several its members under POTA in the past two years. The BSP too has been growing in strength in the Marathwada region where tensions between Dalits and dominant Marathas continue to simmer. BSP leaders have covered a lot of ground in the past few years taking control of civic bodies in the area. Meetings by BSP leader Mayawati, too, have attracted large crowds worrying Congress and NCP contestants in the area. Though the NCP is tipped to win just between 9 and 12 seats in the state, the imprint of Sharad Pawar marks the secular front. Pawar crafted the alliance in Maharashtra after his attempts to join the National Democratic Alliance were scuttled by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. The Maratha strongman dipped into his famed memory to figure out constituency-wise combinations and even chose the candidates of the Congress and the RPI. Thanks mainly to Pawar, the Lok Sabha elections do not appear to be a cakewalk for the NDA. The saffron alliance which hoped to capitalise the Congress-NCP government’s mismanagement of drought-relief measures in the state and Telgi’s fake stamp paper racket was hemmed in by a caste-based alliance. While Congressmen give credit to Pawar for bailing them out from a near certain defeat, they are now wary of his wanderlust. With NDA convener George Fernandes calling ostensibly to inquire about Pawar’s health hours after the Andhra Pradesh results, speculation mounted that the NDA is out to poach from the Congress fold. Bal Thackeray himself added to the suspense saying the Shiv Sena would support the NDA from outside if the game of numbers lures Pawar into the saffron front. Though Pawar scotched all speculation about crossing the ideological divide, Congressmen in Maharashtra continue to keep their fingers crossed. Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde of the Congress has dangled the bait of the forthcoming Assembly elections before Pawar. The Maharashtra Assembly poll are due later this year and the secular alliance says they will contest these jointly — that is depending on how the dice falls on Thursday. |
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Pawar may meet non-NDA parties Mumbai, May 12 NCP leader Praful Patel, when contacted, however, said : ‘’Mr Pawar is on a personal visit to Bangalore and no politics is being discussed’’. But party sources said even though the visit had been planned earlier, Mr Pawar was likely to talk to the Congress and Janata Party leaders about the post-poll scenario in Karnataka. NCP Spokesman Vasant Chavan said the expectations of the Congress-NCP combine are high after the rout of TDP-BJP alliance in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly poll yesterday. ‘’We hope that the trend would continue in the rest of the country’’, he said and added that the NCP was firm on strengthening the non-NDA alliance and would not join hands with the BJP if it fell short of majority and sought partners to form the next government. —
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They are all selfish, Kanshi says of siblings New Delhi, May 12 Apparently referring to reported statements of his younger brothers that he had been “detained” and Mayawati might “kill” him, the 70-year-old BSP leader today told visiting mediapersons in a feeble voice that “they are all selfish people”. His youngest sister Gurcharan Kaur’s husband Ranjit Singh, who was present in Diplomat Deluxe Room No 535 at Batra Hospital, where Mr Kanshi Ram has been undergoing treatment since he suffered stroke on August 14 last year, dismissed the charges. Mr Kanshi Ram’s younger brothers, Dalbara Singh and Harbans Lal, went to the press yesterday, accusing Ms Mayawati of keeping the BSP leader in “detention and not allowing relatives to meet him”. Ranjit Singh, an MES employee from Zirakpur near Chandigarh, said the family members, including his mother Bishan Kaur, were regularly meeting the ailing leader. However, two weeks ago, his brothers tried to administer some ‘tantrik potion’ to him but the doctors attending on him did not allow that. They apparently felt offended and did not come thereafter. Ms Mayawati and the doctors present in the room confirmed the incident. Ranjit Singh said Kanshi Ram, who devoted his life to the Dalit cause, remained most of the time in Maharashtra and never visited his family in the past 20 years. A bed-ridden Kanshi Ram, who had changed the course of politics by providing an identity to the Dalits, frequently burst into tears when the media posed questions about his health and family members. She asked him to tell the mediapersons whether he wanted to go with her or with his family members after he was discharged from the hospital. “I will go with you,” he pointed to Mayawati as he somehow managed to complete the sentence. Dr S.K. Chaudhry, a neuro-surgeon attending on him, said there was lot of blood clotting in Mr Kanshi Ram’s brain as a result of which he often lost his memory. —
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BJP still hopeful of 272
figure New Delhi, May 12 They were engaged in the arithmetic of possibilities and felt that the BJP-led alliance would end up close to the magic figure of 272. The chilling effect of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly poll verdict was writ large on their faces as they insisted that an NDA government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was inevitable at the Centre. Meanwhile, at a meeting held by BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu with General Secretaries Pramod Mahajan, M.A. Naqvi and Sanjay Joshi yesterday, a seat-by-seat review was done. The leaders expect the NDA’s final tally to remain between 266 and 286. Despite this “positive estimate”, the BJP leaders are keeping fingers crossed over the outcome in Maharashtra and Bihar, besides the crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra and Bihar, two contradictory factors were at play during the elections, they pointed out. In Maharashtra it was the “anti-incumbency” factor and the pooling of Congress-NCP votes. In Bihar, the same factor was at play as anti-incumbency was against the Rabri Devi government but how far this would be neutralised by the coming together of the RJD, the Congress and the Lok Janshakti was the big question. “Despite careful calculations, we are unable to judge how this variable factor would have its impact on the final outcome in Maharashtra and Bihar,” a BJP leader told The Tribune. While the party is confident that the NDA would somehow recover the possible loss it is expected to suffer in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu by registering gains in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab and North-Eastern states, it is keeping its fingers crossed on the outcome in Maharashtra and Bihar as any downfall there will be virtually unrecoverable. |
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Cong unlikely to go back on Telangana issue: TRS chief Hyderabad, May 12 “I think the Congress will now support separate Telangana state,” TRS supremo said while addressing TRS legislators soon after being elected as TRS Legislature Party leader. As the Telugu Desam and the BJP, which opposed the Telangana demand, had been routed, the Congress would not go back on its promise, he added. Mr Rao said the people of Telangana had given their verdict for a separate state by voting to the TRS in a big way. Noting that the aspirations of Telangana people should be respected, he urged the national parties to come to the “rescue of Telangana people and contribute for the formation of separate Telangana state.” Mr Rao claimed that the TRS already had the support of parties like the Congress and the DMK while national leaders like Lok Janshakti leader Ram Vilas Paswan, Janata Dal (Secular) President H.D. Deve Gowda and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha supremo Shibu Soren also extended their support for separate Telangana. The new government to be formed at the Centre must also recognise the need for a separate Telangana state, he demanded. |
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8 of Babloo Srivastava
gang held Lucknow, May 12 The gang members, who were arrested yesterday, were allegedly involved in extortion of money from leading industrialists and businessmen for funding the election campaign of
Srivastava, who is lodged in the Bareilly jail. —
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Stampede PIL hearing on May 28 Lucknow, May 12 A Division Bench comprising Mr Justice Vishnu Sahay and Mr Justice G.K. Gupta fixed the date for hearing the PIL filed by Ram Kumar Bharadwaj, praying that respondents Tandon and Brijendra Murari Yadav, organisers of the function, should be made to pay interim compensation to the families of the deceased. Show cause notices were issued in this connection to both Ms Tandon and Mr Yadav on April 26. The petitioner had prayed for hiking the Rs 1 lakh interim compensation announced by the state government to Rs 2 lakh. Advocate-General Virendra Bhatia told the court that the orders on the interim compensation had been complied with. —
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Rocca asks Pak not to issue New Delhi, May 12 Ms Rocca, who started her Pakistan visit yesterday, today also went to Chitral on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to get a first-hand account of a recent military operation by Pakistan against the Al-Qaida elements in the nearby South Waziristan Agency. She was apprised by senior Pakistani officials of the Waziristan operations. The sources said Ms Rocca asked the Pakistani leadership not to issue so many Kashmir-centric statements and deviate from the Waziristan operations. She also asked Islamabad not interfere in Afghanistan because ultimately Pakistan would be the beneficiary if peace were to return to Afghanistan. Ms Rocca is also understood to have inquired about the outcome of Pakistani officials’ negotiations with the Pakistani tribal warlord Nek Muhammad, who is said to be close to Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. The Pakistanis’ argument is that Nek Muhammad had promised to hand over the Al-Qaida elements to Pakistani forces by May 1 in lieu of cessation of combat operations in South Waziristan. But Muhammad’s contention is that he had not made any such promise and reiterated that the foreigners were their guests, an argument reminiscent of the then Taliban supremo Mullah Omar refusing to hand over Laden to Americans. Apart from General Musharraf, Ms Rocca also met Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri and senior officials. During this visit, issues like nuclear proliferation, Afghanistan and Indo-Pak relations came up for discussion, apart from the main purpose of her visit — the Waziristan operations. |
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