Elections in Uttarakhand as scheduled
Contingency plan for 474 polling stations in snowbound areas
Tribune Service News

Dehradun, December 30
The Election Commission on Friday set at rest all speculations about any postponement of the Assembly elections on account of poor weather conditions prevailing in the snowbound areas, with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi affirming that they would be held on January 30 next year. Nevertheless, the commission would be preparing a contingency plan for 474 polling stations lying in snowbound areas of the state.

Quraishi, who was talking with mediapersons, said none of the political parties had demanded postponement of the election dates. “During our meeting with seven political parties yesterday, there was no demand for postponement of the election date. The election date for the state was set after analysing the snowfall record of the past few years that clearly indicated that snow and rainfall was 10 times more in the month of February than in January. But we have prepared a contingency plan that involves moving the 474 polling booths of snowbound areas to lower areas, and even if the problem persists, the date of the election plan for these areas can be rescheduled. This exercise was done in Jammu Kashmir,” said the CEC.

Besides, he said for snowbound polling stations, adequate clothing for the poll party, snow- clearing equipment and helicopters would also be requisitioned from different sources.

However, on the issue of setting up of booths by political parties at the polling stations, Quraishi said after two parties came out strongly in favour of setting up of party booths, the Election Commission would make a “policy decision” after holding confabulations in New Delhi.

But Quraishi underlined that all the eligible voters would be provided voter slips with photographs by the Election Commission. “The distribution exercise by the booth-level officers (BLOs) would be started in January so that by January 25, almost all the voters in the state get their voter slips,” said Quraishi.

To review the poll preparations in the state, Quraishi also held a meeting with top officials of the state, including the chief secretary, district magistrates, DIG, DGP and others.

Rationalising of poll expenditure
DMs asked to give realistic rates
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 30
Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi today said rationalising the expenditure incurred by the candidates was a part of the election reforms and can only be undertaken by the Central Government. The District Magistrates have, however, been asked to give realistic rates for the expenditure incurred by the candidates. “The Rs 11 lakh ceiling on the candidate’s election expenditure has been set by the government and any hike in the spending can be revised by the government as a part of the election reforms; but for these elections, the District Magistrates have been instructed to check the prevailing market price while the preparing rates of items of election expenditure.

Quraishi expressed these views when it was pointed out to him that during the recent meeting with the District Magistrate, the representatives of political parties had said the rates of items of election expenditure presented to them were not realistic when compared with the market price.

Also, for the first time an election expenditure monitoring team drawn from a wide spectrum of government departments would be deployed to check the misuse of money power in the state during the assembly polls.

"The ECI is going to be very strict on this count and any violation will not be tolerated," said Quraishi, adding that the Election Expenditure Monitoring Mechanism, comprising of officials from revenue department, has been set up to check the misuse of money power in the elections, “The Election Commission’s 24 hour call centre will soon get functional. Anyone can call on toll free number- 1950, in case they find any candidate or political party trying to intimidate voters with cash, liquor or anything else,” said Quraishi. He also said reports appearing in the newspapers about violation of model code of conduct would be treated as complaints and action would be taken immediately. “A separate team would take note of the news appearing in the newspapers and violation of model code of conduct by political parties and candidates would be severely dealt with by the EC,” he stressed.

Monitoring team to check misuse of money power

Dehradun, December 30
For the first time an election expenditure monitoring team, drawn from a wide spectrum of government departments, would be deployed to check the misuse of money power in the state during the Assembly poll.

"The ECI is going to be very strict on this count and any violation will not be tolerated," said Quraishi, adding that the Election Expenditure Monitoring Mechanism, comprising of officials from revenue department, has been set up to check the misuse of money power in the elections, “The Election Commission’s 24 hour call centre will soon get functional. Anyone can call on toll free number- 1950, in case they find any candidate or political party trying to intimidate voters with cash, liquor or anything else,” said Quraishi. He also said reports appearing in the newspapers about violation of model code of conduct would be treated as complaints and action would be taken immediately. “A separate team would take note of the news appearing in the newspapers and violation of model code of conduct by political parties and candidates would be severely dealt with by the EC,” he stressed.— TNS

Tough going for Madan Kaushik in Haridwar
Kumbh fund ‘misuse’ has marred his image
Sandeep Rawat
Tribune News service

Haridwar, December 30
In 2009, during the last parliamentary elections when Madan Kaushik, state Cabinet Minister for Urban Development, was given the BJP ticket from Haridwar and later taken back as the saint community close to the BJP had opposed the move, his political stature and position within the party and among common public was very strong.

But much water has flown down the Ganga since then and now the very strong heavyweight candidate is finding it quite tough to sail through this time for the third consecutive time in Uttarakhand state Assembly from Haridwar.

Post Maha Kumbh fair 2010, his image suffered a major dent as allegations by Opposition parties of Kumbh scam on him and also the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report of Rs 200 crore Kumbh fund misuse have questioned his once tough but honest image.

Being in charge, Cabinet Minister for Maha Kumbh, Kaushik is sure to face opposition volleys as well as voters’ questions on this issue, which has a deep connection with the local people as Kumbh is organised on 12-year interval, and this is the first time that such an allegation has been levelled.

Furthermore, veteran Congress leader and Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Harish Rawat has made quite an inroad into Haridwar politics and is winning over minorities and Dalits, too.

Though the Congress hasn’t finalised it’s candidate, former municipal chairman Satpal Brahamchari is the front runner for this seat. His tenure as chairman from 2003-08 is regarded as the best in recent decades. Brahamchari boasts of an honest and down-to--earth image, carrying religious-social works, too.

Furthermore, being a saint he will draw majority votes of the saint community that resides in Haridwar (city) regions of Har-ki-Pauri, Bhoopatwala, Bhimgoda, Mayapur, Devpura and saint-ashram populated areas.

Gulshan Arora is the official candidate for the Bahujan Samaj Party but as the base vote of the party is almost negligible in this Assembly segment and also due to inexperience of Arora as a politician, the BSP has least hope from this segment from the 11 seats.

From the SP side, veteran leader Rajendra Parashar will be giving a tough fight to the above-mentioned contenders. Parashar boasts of a hard-working party worker image and has a good base among city voters.

Notably, the SP had last time a legislator in 1996 from the Haridwar seat, when Ambrish Kumar had won, and in 2004, Rajendra Badi had won the Haridwar parliamentary election. But since then due to anti-hill stance, party factionism and lack of visionary leaders, the party has been losing its base and facing a void as far as election results are concerned.

38 sitting legislators may score hat-trick
Rajeev Khanna
Tribune News Service

Nainital, December 30
Uttarakhand has a dubious distinction of sorts when it comes to the number of candidates who would go on to maintain their winning streaks and score a hat-trick in the Assembly elections slated for January 30.

For a state that has just 70 seats in the offing, there are no less than 38 sitting legislators who may score a hat-trick. These sitting legislators are sure to be given party ticket to contest the poll by their respective parties. While such candidates are present in large numbers in both the Congress and the BJP, they also figure among other parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and also in the category of Independents.

In case of the BJP, the list includes the names of the Speaker of the outgoing Assembly Harbans Kapoor along with Cabinet ministers, Trivendra Singh Rawat, Matbar Singh Kandari, Madan Kaushik and Prakash Pant. The list also has the name of the state unit president, Bishen Singh Chauphal, along with other legislators from the party, including Suresh Chand Jain, Asha Nautiyal, Anil Nautiyal, Govind Lal, Harbhajan Singh Cheema and Arvind Pandey.

In the Congress, the list of such candidates has the names of both the state unit president, Yash Pal Arya, and the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Harak Singh Rawat. The others figuring on the list include Pritam Singh, Balbir Singh, Kishore Upadhyay, Dinesh Aggarwal, Jyot Singh Gunsola, Kunwar Pranav Singh, Amrita Rawat, Ranjit Singh, Gobind Singh Kunjwal, Dr Shailendra Mohan Singhal, Tilak Raj Behed, Gopal Singh, Mahendra Singh Mahra and Narayan Ram Arya.

The legislators from the BSP have also been consistent in their performance since the creation of the state. Their names include Chaudhary Yashvir Singh and Kazi Nizamuddin (both are now with the Congress and are eyeing party ticket), Haridas, Mohammad Shehzad, Taslim Ahmed, Premanand Mahajan and Narayan Pal.

Pushpesh Tripathi of the erstwhile Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) and

Gagan Singh Rajwar who has been winning as an Independent from Dharchula also find their names on the list of those on the brink of scoring a hat-trick.

How many of these candidates manage to once again return victorious remains to be seen. There is a little doubt in the fact that their opponents would be facing a herculean task in taking them on. Those who manage to emerge the winners the third time would go on to become heavyweights in their respective parties.

Kumaon range IG: Mudslinging in pamphlets, posters not to be allowed
Rajeev Khanna
Tribune News Service

Nainital, December 30
Wary of attempts to whip up communal passions and to launch vitriolic campaigns against rival contestants during the poll campaign, the police authorities in Kumaon would be working in close coordination with their counterparts in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh when it comes to intelligence sharing.

The police would particularly be keeping an eye on the people who frequently cross over from one state to the other and would be laying particular emphasis to check if matter printed and published in one state is taken over to the other for circulation.

“We would be establishing a close working with the police in Uttar Pradesh. We would be sharing intelligence to check any sort of malpractice that can lead to a problem during the campaign or during polling,” Inspector General (IG) of Police (Kumaon range) RS Meena told The Tribune.

The recent incident pertaining to the circulation of pamphlets in Rudrapur that had defamatory content against the sitting Congress legislator has proved to be an eyeopener and a warning to the law and order enforcing agencies that attempts might be made by certain elements wanting polarisation on caste or communal lines to disrupt peace in border areas.

It was the timely action by the police that had led to the situation going out of hand in Rudrapur about a fortnight back. The police had quickly confiscated the pamphlets and had followed it up with raids in printing press units across the district.

Sources in the police reveal that investigations till now have indicated that these pamphlets had probably been printed outside the Udham Singh Nagar district and it is quite possible that they were printed in the neighbouring state and circulated in Rudrapur.

The police officials had been carrying out checks at various printing units while minutely scanning the paper, font and the ink used for printing. The purpose was to tally the three with the pamphlets that had been seized by the police following complaints of the circulation of derogatory pamphlets.

The model code of conduct clearly says that the printed matter to be circulated during the polls must carry the name of the publisher and printer.

Meena said:”We will keep a watch that the matter being circulated does not carry out personal attack on anyone. The contestants can just criticise their rivals on their policies and their stand on issues.”

Even the printing units would have to keep an account of how much printing of posters and pamphlets is being done by them as the expenses form a part of the poll expenditure of the candidates.

Admn takes on training, awareness drive

Nainital, December 30
The administration has undertaken a massive training and awareness drive with regard to carrying out the election exercise. In every district, the officials who would be involved in carrying out the exercise in the polling booths are being made familiar with the functioning of EVMs and the related activities.

The administration in also busy constituting various teams for implementing the model code of conduct in letter and in spirit. The officials who are part of the teams are being told to fearlessly carry out the tasks they are entrusted with. The committees include those required for maintaining a watch on the expenditure of the contestants and to monitor the menace of paid news. These are two areas where the ECI would be laying maximum emphasis.

Meanwhile, the drive for removal of posters and banners of various political parties and individuals is going on in full swing. — TNS

Khanduri in defeat mode, says Cong leader
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 30
The Uttarakhand Congress has asserted that the state BJP Government has morally accepted its defeat even before the elections get under way in the state.

Addressing a press conference in Dehradun, senior Congress leader and party’s spokesman Surendra Kumar Aggarwal said Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri was among the first to register his opposition to conduct of polls in the state on January 30, amply revealing that the BJP was not prepared for the polls. “Similarly, protest was also lodged by state BJP president BS Chufal, who, too, stressed for change of poll dates”, he added.

He said, interestingly, Chief Minister BC Khanduri was still to move to his official residence despite being in power for the last three months, which again reveals the chief minister’s mindset that is already in defeat mode. “The new chief minister’s residence was constructed at a cost of Rs 30 crore but Khanduri is not shifting to the new residence as if he knows his fate after the elections”, he pointed out.

He even question the BJP government’s contention that it had created five new districts in the state. Citing an example, he said a December 19 government order was still identifying Ranikhet as tehsil and a part of Almora district, which evidently hints that Ranikhet is still not a district and BJP was just befooling the people.

Surendra Kumar Aggarwal also alleged that a power purchase scam had taken place in the state. He said the Uttarakhand Government was purchasing power from other states on phenomenally higher rates.

On possible induction of Uttarakhand Minister Rajendra Bhandari’s into the Congress, Surendra Kumar Aggarwal said resignation of a minister in the Khanduri Government was another example of the BJP’s declining prospects in the polls. He, however, refused to say much on the possible date of Bhandari joining the Congress.

Smaller parties take the lead in Haridwar
No potential winners but set to disturb calculations
Sandeep Rawat
Tribune News Service

Haridwar, December 30
With prominent national parties like the Congress and the BJP still embroiled in screening of probable candidates’ names, smaller parties have gained a slight edge as far as naming of the candidates is concerned.

Not only have they started election campaigning but they are also disturbing the calculations of these parties in selecting specific candidates in the district.

Though on many seats outfits like Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, both Pawar and Diwakar faction, the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha, the Muslim League, the Maidani Kranti Morcha, the Rahstriya Lok Dal, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Marxist-Lenin and the Peace Party have minimal base, on more than five seats of the Haridwar district these parties will be playing a pivotal role.

Though chances of winning the seat are lesser, they are sure to disturb the electoral mathematics of the bigger parties. As in the last Assembly elections, when there were 8 Assembly segments, none of the smaller parties won any seat.

The seats where these smaller parties have a say are Haridwar (city),Ranipur-BHEL, Kaliyar,Haridwar rural, Roorkee and Mangalore. Haridwar city and rural have a significant presence, owing to a large number of hilly district voters and also the city being home of state Revenue Minister Diwakar Bhatt.

Similarly, in these two segments, Communist parties have a good base and will certainly draw substantial poll owing to BHEL and SIDCUL industrial area, where CITU and other labour unions have a dominating presence.

In Roorkee, Mangalore segments outfits like Maidani Kranti Dal, NCP, Muslim League and Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha have a good penetration.

A large number of serving and ex-Army personnel live in Roorkee and adjoining areas, where Raksha Morcha has emerged as a viable option for voters.

Though Samajwadi Party may be the second largest party in neighboring Uttar Pradesh, in the context of Uttarakhand the party is considered a smaller one, as it had failed to open its account in the last two Assembly elections.

Dr Rajendra Parashar, city chief of the party, told TNS that despite the party having no legislator, in more than six seats of Haridwar district they hope to perform well and also bag a couple of seats.

While Maidani Kranti Dal chief Naresh Chaudhari said that the party had strengthened owing to anti-plain policies of both the Congress and the BJP state governments and will certainly imbalance the political calculations of these two parties.

But Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Pawar) district chief Aadesh Marwadi and Diwakar faction district chief Surendra Manrwal claim that both will win at least two seats in the district and will be bagging a major share of votes in at least another five Assembly segments.

Politicians make their presence felt at mushaiyra
Sandeep Rawat
Tribune News Service

Women shayars and politicans at a mushaiyra organised by Anjuman Ilmo Adabh at Jwalapur. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Haridwar, December 30
As the pressure of the upcoming elections is building up, politicians are driven to be a part of every public event.

Be it marriages, religious occasions, social functions, showroom openings or even ‘mushaiyras’, these khadi-clad politicians are leaving no occasion to be with public and strengthen their base among voters.

One such scenario was witnessed in suburban-minority dominated Jwalapur, where an all-India level mushaiyra was held. Surprisingly, the politicians seemed to outnumber the common audience.

With mushaiyra continuing late in the evening, the politicians, who often make their prsenece felt late, reached on time.

Organised by Anjuman Ilmo Adabh, participants from different corners of the state participated and mesmerised the audience with their compilations.

Women artists such as Shabeena Adib Kanpuri and Naeem Akhtar Burhanpuri from Maharashtra garnered much appreciation from the audience for their ‘shayari’.

State BJP Cabinet Minister Madan Kaushik, a Bajrang Dal activist in his college days, also didn’t refrain from being a part of the function and sat for an hour. He also addressed the gathering.

Congress politician and former legislator Ambrish Kumar also presided over as a guest in the mushaiyra.

Accompanying him at the dais were politicians Satpal Brahamchari and Rajesh Rastogi, who also tried to gain advantage from the occasion.

They, however, termed their presence as apolitical and denied taking any political advantage from the mushaiyra.

Chief of the Anjuman Ilmo Adabh Mohammed Saqlain said all party leaders, social activists and city dignitaries were invited and they all attended the mushaiyra evenings.

Satpal Brahamchari, veteran Congress politician, told the TNS, “Haridwar is a place where Hindus-Muslims reside in harmony and Assembly election should not be related with our presence. If mushaiyras are organised just after the elections, even then we will be a part of it”.

48 bottles of liquor seized
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, December 30
The Pithoragarh administration today seized 48 bottles of country-made liquor from a house in a village near the town and also arrested one person in this regard.

“The liquor was supposed to be used during the elections,” said RD Paliwal, SDM, Pithoragarh.

Meanwhile, seven “anti-social” elements have been arrested by the SDM, Gangolihat, and five others have been charged with pasting posters on public property. A box of English wine has also been seized by the SDM, Dharchula.

“The vehicles used in these activities have been impounded and a case has also been registered,” said District Election Officer R. Rajesh Kumar.