Sunday, April 8, 2007, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

Cong blown away in Delhi
2-thirds majority for BJP, Akali Dal alliance
New Delhi, April 7
The Bhartiya Janta Party and Shiromani Akali Dal alliance defeated the Congress in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections by winning more than two-third seats. This peoples’ verdict was against inflation, the sealing and demolition drive and the anti-incumbency factor.

In video (56k)   HAND DOWN: A scene outside DPCC office. — PTI photo

Low 45% in first phase in UP polls
Lucknow, April 7
A lackluster campaign was reflected in a low 45 per cent turnout in the first phase of polling today in Uttar Pradesh. No violence was reported from any of the 62 constituencies spread over 13 districts of central Uttar Pradesh.

India: The Tasks Ahead
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
125TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS,
INAUGURAL SESSION

Dynasty rule filters down to all parties
Meerut, April 7
There was a time when non-Congress parties without exception used to corner the Congress for pursuing dynastic politics but now no single party appears to be above charge.

BCCI cracks the whip
Contracts go, now perform or perish
Mumbai, April 7
The Board of Control for Cricket in India today decided to act tough on the country’s cricket players by ushering in a performance-based fee system. In video (56k)

Sports page: Bangladesh stun South Africa

16 killed in TN jeep blast
Sendur (TN), April 7
Panic prevailed all over Tamil Nadu as 16 persons were killed and 27 seriously injured in a massive explosion of a jeep carrying huge quantity of gelatine sticks and detonators at this village off the national highway today.

Capt puts Cong in a tizzy
Chandigarh, April 7
The return of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh from London to India scheduled for April 9 has created a sort of crisis in the Punjab Congress. In a way, an internal tug of war has begun in the state unit of the Congress on this issue.

Pranab hurt in road mishap, stable
Kolkata, April 7
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee suffered a head injury when the car in which he was travelling from Murshidabad to Kolkata had a head-on collision with a truck at Nakashipara in Nadia district this evening.

Siachen talks run into a logjam
New Delhi, April 7
The defence secretary-level India-Pakistan talks on resolving the 23-year-old Siachen dispute ended in a logjam in Islamabad today. This correspondent understands that the two-day talks, which concluded in a whimper today, had hit a dead-end within the first hour of the talks yesterday itself.

Ladoos lift a village in J&K Environmentalist Joshi leads the march of Parthal Dehra Dun, April 7 Not many pilgrims visiting Vaishno Devi would know the money spent by them for buying prasad of ladoos made of corn flour and other ingredients there has become a tool of economic emancipation for scores of poor people of Parthal village, about two kilometers from the shrine. A group of women with their day’s offering. — Tribune photo by Raju William