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with
general election 2014 only a few months away...
Raje holds key in Hadauti region
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Dera Sacha Sauda tight-lipped over support to parties
SSB seeks revival of intel gathering role along Nepal border
Hope 26/11 probe gathers pace: Bashir
AFSPA extended for one year in Manipur
3 GRP men shot by Maoists
Scientist, social activist bag Stree Shakti Award
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general election 2014 only a few months away...  Rajasthan all set to vote today Girja Shankar Kaura Tribune News Service
While the state administration and the police have made adequate security arrangements across Rajasthan to have peaceful polling, the fate of 2,087 candidates who are in the fray for 199 of the 200 Assembly seats in Rajasthan would be decided tomorrow. The poll provides an opportunity to former CM Vasundhara Raje and the BJP to be re-elected to power after unseating Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who is seeking a re-election on the back of his populist and welfare schemes. With just a day to go for polling in India’s largest state, most observers give Raje a slight edge, but are quick to add that this could be neutralised by Kirori Lal Meena throwing his lot in with the Congress. Raje, however, has been haunted by protests, desertions and rebellions. After the names of 176 candidates for Assembly poll were declared in the first list, at least 12 former MLAs and several other party members from lower ranks jumped ship and joined former minister Meena who quit the BJP to join PA Sangma-led National People's Party (NPP). Meena is said to hold sway over at least 25 seats and could emerge as the king-maker and in a position to seek his pound of flesh from his erstwhile party, while observers say that he might end up supporting the Congress. Raje is also facing stiff challenge in the form of Ashok Gehlot’s free medicine and pension scheme that is getting popular with the masses. This has made his government gain ground in the past few weeks. Caste will play a big role in the election. The BJP is paying a lot of attention to this factor in the hope of swinging the vote in the state in their favour. The BJP is also using royal blood to win support by fielding seven members of erstwhile royal families including chief ministerial candidate Vasundhra Raje. Most political observers expect that both the BJP and the Congress would fall short of the halfway mark of 100 seats. Currently, Gehlot runs a government with 96 lawmakers plus six BSP legislators and Independents and has clearly failed to establish any sort of dominance. The government's inability to control the rise in prices of food, petrol and other items in the past few years is one of the top reasons why people in Rajasthan are unhappy. Inflation is set to be a major factor when the state votes.
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Raje holds key in Hadauti region
Jhalawar/Kota/Baran, November 30 Caste and community equations are again likely to play a major role in deciding the fate of the contestants, but the rancour here is against the ruling Congress government. The battle is clearly built around Raje contesting from Jhalawar and Congress CM Ashok Gehlot, even though he is contesting from Jodhpur. People here are upset with the Congress government and say that all these past five years, Ashok Gehlot has robbed them of development. Issues like Kota being deprived of an IIT, despite becoming a education hub due to private teaching centres coming up, and the bad condition of infrastructure run deep here in people’s minds. Raje had in 2006 announced an IIT for Kota, but the Congress-led UPA-I government did not approve it. What hurts the people here more is the fact that after the Congress formed the government in the state, Gehlot proposed the setting up of an IIT at Jodhpur and the same was approved by the UPA government at the Centre. People also blame the Congress minister from the region for letting the IIT go from Kota, which otherwise would have given the region a big educational fillip. With Gehlot insisting on Jodhpur, the ministers from the region did not put any resistance and the case was lost, they say and hence the strong sense of betrayal. Another issue of a “spice park” to be set up in the region was also taken away by Gehlot to Jodhpur. Jhalawar had all the ingredients for the setting up the “spice park” there, but as it is Raje’s constituency, it was deprived even though the region has a well-entrenched network of warehouses. To add to it, more than 50 per cent of the coriander produced by Rajasthan, which is the second largest spice producer in the country, comes from the Hadauti region.
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Dera Sacha Sauda tight-lipped over support to parties
Though the political affairs committee of the dera for Rajasthan has been holding meetings in that state, particularly in Hanumangarh, Sriganganagar, Bikaner -- the districts known as its strongholds, its leaders are keeping their deliberations a closely guarded secret. “I can confirm that dera followers will cast their votes en masse as we will not like our votes go waste,” Sampooran Singh, head of the political affairs wing of Dera Sacha Sauda, told The Tribune. He, however, refused to divulge which way the dera’s “wind will blow” and said they were still to take a decision. He said that they would convey their decision to the followers through their local committee by late tonight. He said the political affairs committee’s decision would largely depend on how the attitude of different political parties has been towards the dera when they have been in power. When asked whether the dera would support a single party in the entire state or could go for different political parties in different constituencies, Sampooran Singh said that the political affairs committee of the dera was in the process of holding deliberations with its followers on all issues. “Post-2007 Assembly elections in Punjab, the dera has learnt a lesson that supporting any political party openly is not in its interest. The dera supported the Congress openly in 2007 and had to face the wrath of the Parkash Singh Badal government that booked dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for dressing like Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru of the Sikhs,” said a political observer in
Sirsa.
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SSB seeks revival of intel gathering role along Nepal border
New Delhi, November 30 The SSB was set up in 1963 as a “people’s force” and its original name was “Special Services Bureau” and was renamed in 2001. Its men and women were also given designated uniform. The original SSB worked in civil clothes mingling with people in the border areas gathering vital human intelligence and working in coordination with the local police. Director General of SSB Arun Chaudhary yesterday said: “We want to revive the earlier role of the SSB that included intelligence gathering. The case for this is pending with the MHA.” Chaudhary was speaking at a function to mark the Golden Jubilee of the SSB. To mark the event, a seminar was organised on “Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan relations security challenges” and a commemorative stamp was released by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs RPN Singh. Chaudhary was categorical that the proposal to fence the Nepal border did not find favour with him. “Border fencing is so far being resisted by the SSB,” said Chaudhary. His opinion was seconded by Jayant Prasad, former Indian envoy to Nepal: “I agree, we don’t fence borders with friendly countries.” Prasad, who retired from service in April, earlier listed out what India needs to do more once the new government in Nepal is in place after the recent elections. “Renew and adjust the 1950 treaty between the two countries, allow Nepal greater movement of its goods by way of roads and a railway network, sign the strip-maps and work out land boundary,” said Prasad. The 1950 treaty has not been renewed as Nepal feels India has not addressed its concerns. Inspector General of SSB Somesh Goyal said smuggling of fake Indian currency, timber, goods, machinery and cross-border poaching were some of the issues that need to be addressed between India and Nepal.
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Hope 26/11 probe gathers pace: Bashir
New Delhi, November 30 Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a Pakistani food festival organised by the Press Club of India here, Bashir said it was in the interest of justice that all legal modalities in the 26/11 issue were completed first. “We hope the probe into 26/11 Mumbai attacks picks up pace. It has in fact picked up pace,” said Bashir. On peace efforts along the Line of Control in J&K, he said it had been left to the Director Generals of Military Operations on both sides to hold talks. On when the DGMOs would meet, Bashir said: “The two DGMOs will decide the date and venue of the meeting... Let us not look at form. Let us look at substance.”
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AFSPA extended for one year in Manipur
IMPHAL, November 30 The Act will be enforced in all the districts of the state except seven assembly constituencies of Wangkhei, Yaiskul, Thangmeiband, Uripok, Sagolband, Shingjamei and Khurai, all in Imphal municipal areas. The Act has been enforced in the state for more than two decades after it was extended annually. — PTI
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3 GRP men shot by Maoists
Munger, November 30 The incident took place in the running train near a tunnel between Jamalpur and Ashikpur railway stations this evening, Jamalpur's Railway Superintendent of Police Amitabh Kumar Das said. Two other GRP men sustained bullet injuries, he said. The Maoists took away five rifles from the GRP men. Those killed have been identified as hawaldar Ashok Kumar, constables Bhola Thakur and Uday Singh, Das said adding that the bodies were being sent for post-mortem. The injured GRP men are Md Imtiyaz and Vinay Kumar, the SP said adding that arrangements were being made to rush them to a
hospital. — PTI
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Scientist, social activist bag Stree Shakti Award
New Delhi, November 30 While the Dayawati Modi Stree Shakti Samman was presented to Rashmi Singh, executive director of the National Mission for Empowerment of Women, the Stree Shakti Science Samman went to Jata S Tyagi, a professor at AIIMS. Rashmi Singh’s citation read that she created a distinguished track record for her innovative work in human services, governance reforms and women empowerment. She is also founder-director of Mission Convergence programme and Samajik Suvidha Sangam in Delhi and was vital in laying the foundation, structures and processes which define this project. Jaya Tyagi was honoured for her original contributions to TB research.
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Jhalawar/Kota/Baran, November 30
Jaipur, November 30
Sirsa, November 30
