CHANDIGARH: Having got a majority on its own for the first time in Haryana, the BJP is likely to decide its chief ministerial candidate here Tuesday.

Well-placed sources in the party said the newly elected BJP legislators will meet here on Tuesday and elect their leader who will be the next Chief Minister. The swearing-in could take place before Diwali October 23.

The BJP Parliamentary Board has deputed Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and senior leader Dinesh Sharma as observers for the meeting here.

The names doing rounds include Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh activist Manohar Lal Khattar, state BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma, BJP spokesperson Abhimanyu, senior legislator Anil Vij and BJP Kisan cell leader O.P. Dhankar. All of them have been elected legislators.

Khattar, despite being a first-time legislator with no administrative experience, is said to have an edge at the moment over others.

The sources said the party could opt for one of the elected legislators to be the new Chief Minister.

Among the available legislators, only Ram Bilas Sharma has been a Minister in the past, while Anil Vij has been legislator earlier also and was leader of the BJP group in the outgoing House. The rest have been elected for the first time and do not have administrative experience.

Other names of leaders, who did not contest, include Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj, Rao Inderjit Singh and Krishan Pal. The name of Congressman-turned-BJP leader Birender Singh is also being mentioned.

This is the first time that the BJP will form its own government in the state. The party had won only four Assembly seats in the 2009 polls.

Results of the Haryana Assembly elections were historic for the BJP as the party romped home with 47 legislators. The INLD followed with 19 legislators, while the Congress, which was in power since March 2005, managed to get only 15 seats. Two seats went to the HJC, one each to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Five Independents were also elected. — IANS

People voted for BJP as they wanted change in Haryana: Cong 

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Monday said the people voted for the BJP in Haryana as they wanted a change, and added that his party respects the decision.

“People wanted a change which is why they gave this opportunity to the BJP and we respect the decision of the people,” said Alvi.

The BJP yesterday got clear majority in Haryana winning 47 of the 90 assembly seats. The Congress has been relegated to the third position with 15 seats.
In Maharashtra, the BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 123 out of 288 seats though it fell short of winning an outright majority.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had yesterday thanked the people of Haryana and Maharashtra for enabling the BJP to emerge victorious in both states, calling the results to be 'historic'.

BJP chief Amit Shah too hailed the BJP's unprecedented electoral performance and said the results reflect that the people have accepted Prime Minister Modi as their 'undisputed' leader.

The BJP central observers will visit Mumbai and Chandigarh today to decide the names of legislature party leaders in Maharashtra and Haryana. –Agencies

CHANDIGARH: The newly elected 13th legislative Assembly of Haryana is a relatively young one, with the youngest just 29.

Nearly half of the 90 legislators elected this time are 50 years old or less.

While the youngest one, Sukhvinder of the BJP, who trounced Ranbir Singh Mahendra of the Congress, who is a former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and son of former Chief Minister Bansi Lal, from Badhra Assembly constituency, is just 29-year-old, the oldest is INLD legislator Hari Chand Middha (Jind seat) at 72.

At least 44 legislators in the new Assembly are 50 years old or less. Of these, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 23 young legislators, followed by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) with 12 and the Congress with four.

Haryana itself was created on November 1, 1966, and will be 48 in the next few days.

Nine of the 13 women legislators elected this time are under the age of 50 years. It is for the first time in Haryana that 13 women legislators have made it to the Assembly. The earlier high was 11 women legislators in the 2005 Assembly polls.

The election results this time have also sent the first legislator-couple case to the Assembly.

Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) president Kuldeep Bishnoi and his wife Renuka Bishnoi will enter the Haryana Assembly as the first elected couple. Both, aged 46 and 40, respectively, have been legislators earlier but were never elected together. Kuldeep is son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal.

Kuldeep's elder brother, Chander Mohan, a former Deputy Chief Minister, lost in the polls this time.

INLD leader Abhay Chautala and his sister-in-law (elder brother's wife) Naina Chautala have also been elected to the new Assembly. Naina is the first woman from the political clan of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal to contest an election and win it. Abhay and Naina are 49 and 47 years old, respectively.

However, Naina's son, Dushyant Chautala, who is the sitting Lok Sabha member from Hisar, lost from Uchana Kalan Assembly seat.

The outgoing legislative Assembly had three people from the same family as legislators. These were INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala, a former Chief Minister, and his two sons Ajay Chautala and Abhay Chautala. Om Prakash Chautala and Ajay Chautala were convicted by a CBI court in Delhi in a teachers' recruitment scam and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. Both are lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail now.

The BJP will form the government in Haryana after the party won from 47 constituencies. 

The INLD followed with 19 legislators, while the Congress, which was in power since March 2005, managed to get only 15 seats. Two seats went to the HJC, one each to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Five Independents were also elected. — IANS

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today awarded the maximum punishment of life sentence to five convicts in the sensational 2010 Dhaula Kuan gangrape case in which a BPO executive from the north-east was the victim.

Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of them while directing them to pay it to the victim as compensation.

"Life imprisonment is awarded to all the convicts for the offence of gangrape. A fine of Rs 50,000 is also imposed," the judge said.

The court also handed down the jail term of seven years and five years for other offences of abduction and criminal intimidation to all the convicts.

The court awarded the sentence to Usman, alias Kale; Shamshad, alias Khutkan; Shahid, alias Chhota Billi; Iqbal, alias Bada Billi; and Kamruddin, alias Mobile, all residents of Mewat region in Haryana.

Moments after the order was delivered, convict Shahid fell unconscious and was taken by cops to the medical centre in the court premises.

The family members of Shahid and other convicts broke down the moment the sentence was pronounced.

While pronouncing the punishment, the court rejected the submission of leniency by the defence counsel that they hail from poor families, saying, "This ground does not raise enough confidence.

"The family and economic circumstances were very much there when they committed such heinous offence. This ground does not deter the court from taking stern against them." According to the police, the convicts had abducted the victim on the intervening night of November 23-24, 2010, when she was returning home from office.

The convicts then took her to Mangolpuri, gangraped her and left her at an isolated road. — PTI

ABUJA: The World Health Organisation on Monday declared Nigeria officially Ebola free, after 42 days — or two incubation periods — without any new confirmed cases of the deadly virus.

"The virus is gone for now. The outbreak in Nigeria has been defeated," WHO country representative Rui Gama Vaz said in Abuja.

"This is a spectacular success story that shows to the world that Ebola can be contained."

The arrival of Ebola in Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous nation, leading economy and top oil producer, sparked fears of its rapid spread throughout the country of 170 million people.

But the doomsday scenario did not happen and health experts involved in tackling the outbreak praised the authorities for their rapid response and comprehensive contact tracing.

In all, eight persons died out of 20 confirmed cases in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, and the oil hub of Port Harcourt, while nearly 900 people were monitored for signs of the disease.

Nigeria's official Ebola-free status comes after Senegal was given the all-clear on Friday.

Both countries are coming under close scrutiny from public health specialists looking to contain the spread of the disease around the world.

More than 4,500 people have died and nearly 10,000 have been infected with the haemorrhagic fever, most of them in West Africa, since the start of the year.

But a number of cases outside the region, particularly in Spain and the United States, have raised fears about its wider transmission and the urgency for a more effective response.

As well as rigorous contact tracing, Nigeria introduced stringent health screening checks at all airport and sea ports for arrivals and departures.

Cameroon, Nigeria's neighbour to the east, shut its border as a precaution, but Abuja did not close its frontiers.

Travel bans were not imposed, although leading carrier Arik Air did suspend its scheduled routes to Liberia and Sierra Leone, which with Guinea have been the worst affected by Ebola. — AFP

HYDERABAD: Thirteen persons on Monday were charred to death and over 15 suffered injuries in an  explosion at a cracker manufacturing factory in coastal East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.

“There was a big explosion in the cracker manufacturing factory,” a senior police official said over telephone. The police put the death toll at at least 13.

The unit at Uppada Kothapalli is some 5 km away from the beach near Kakinada, the headquarters of East Godavari district. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. Senior police officials have rushed to the spot. — Agencies

IMPHAL: Congress candidate Elangbam Dwijamani was on Monday declared elected from Hiyanglam Assembly constituency in Thoubal district of Manipur for which bypoll was held on October 17, state poll officials said.

Dwijamani who had once represented the constituency, defeated his nearest rival Yumnam Radheshyam of Trinamool Congress by 1,829 votes, they said.

While Dwijamani secured 9,008 votes, Trinamool Congress got 7,179 votes.
BJP nominee Maibam Dhanabir got 6,306 votes.

The other two remaining candidates, M Amutombi of Manipur People's Party got 615 votes and Th Laiba of Manipur State Congress Party secured 93 votes.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Maibam Dhanabir's father Maibam Kunjo of Trinamool Congress about three months ago.

Kunjo was once a Manipur Information minister.

Counting of votes which began at around 8 am  concluded at around 9.30 AM this morning at the office complex of the Thoubal district deputy commissioner. — PTI

MUMBAI: Even as the impasse over government formation in Maharashtra continues following a fractured mandate in the Assembly polls, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray today held a meeting with the newly-elected legislators here.

"All the newly elected MLAs met Uddhavji today and they unanimously took a decision to give him the right of choosing the legislative party leader," Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.

The party chief held the meeting at Sena Bhavan, party's headquarters at Dadar in Central Mumbai.

On being asked if any decision on extending support to BJP was taken during the meeting, Raut said, "Today's meet was not about the BJP. Therefore, we haven't discussed BJP at all.

A final decision will be taken by Uddhavji and conveyed to the media in due course." Thackeray had yesterday said that his party would not lend unsolicited support to BJP in forming the government in Maharashtra, saying "let them make the first move".

Raut added, "We want to thank the people for the support they gave us in spite of us fighting all alone in the polls. It will be our endeavour to continue working for Maharashtra's development in the future as well." 

Though the Sena improved upon its 2009 poll performance by winning 63 seats in this year's state elections, it fell short of its best performance in the 1995 elections when it had won 73 seats going to the hustings together with BJP and forming a coalition government.

However, BJP's gamble of walking out of the alliance with Sena paid off as it has secured 122 seats in the 288-member Assembly. — PTI 

No clear mandate, still people blowing victory trumpets: Sena

MUMBAI: A day after BJP emerged as the single largest party in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena on Monday took a swipe at Narendra Modi, saying the "wave" seen during the campaign lost its force even before reaching the shores and expressed doubts over survival of the state amid a hung House.

BJP, Congress and NCP benefited from multi-cornered contests in the elections, the Sena said and asked the voters if they are happy with the fractured verdict.

"Break up of the Sena-BJP alliance and division of votes due to four and five-cornered fights in all seats benefited BJP as well as Congress-NCP. The Sena-BJP split benefited Congress-NCP. Given the Lok Sabha results, both these parties could not have won more than 25 seats together," an editorial in today's issue of Sena's mouthpiece 'Saamana' said.

The Shiv Sena will not comment on how it views the results as of now, because what is important is the view of the "all powerful voters" who gave a fractured verdict, it said.

"With no party getting a clear majority, there are doubts how the state will survive because of the instability," the editorial said.

Taking a swipe at Modi and the BJP, the editorial said, the "wave" seen during the campaign had lost its force even before reaching the shores.

"In some places, there was more foam and less water in the wave," it quipped.
"People have not given a clear mandate to any party.

Still, if people are blowing their victory trumpets, we congratulate them. We will continue to serve Maharashtra because Shiv Sena is born for that purpose only. More than our view on the post poll scenario, we would like to ask people if they are happy with the fractured verdict," the editorial said and lamented that Maharashtra is again being pushed into instability and anarchy.

It said Shiv Sena fought a lonely battle for strong and united Maharashtra against "two powerful rulers." "BJP brought its Prime Minister and the entire Union Cabinet in the state as well as the party machinery from other states ruled by it. Despite all this, the success achieved by Shiv Sena is priceless. We thought Shiv Sena would get a clear majority based on the feedback received during the campaign," it said. -PTI

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Space and Atomic Energy Dr Jitendra Singh, launched ‘Jammu Kashmir Arogya Gram Yojana' on Sunday.

Under this programme, the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), affiliated with the Ministry of Science and Technology, will identify thousand villages in Jammu and Kashmir for the growth of aromatic plants with active participation of local farmers and owners of the land.

The Government will initially spend over Rs.25 crores on this scheme in addition to technical support by a team of CSIR scientists.

Elaborating on the scheme Singh said, “This scheme is a new concept whereby the agricultural land with the potential for growth of aromatic plants will be identified and CSIR scientists as well as aroma experts from different parts of the country will educate and train the local farmers to bring up this cultivation.” 

“This will not only enable the local farmers to usher in a new area of cultivation but will also prove economically beneficial to them since the net profit for the farmers through this venture has been estimated to be Rs. 1 – 1.5 lakhs per hectare per annum,” he added.

Explaining the reason to start this new scheme from Jammu, Singh said, “The IIIM (Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine), Jammu has been actively pursuing research and production of aromatic medicinal and perfumery products for several decades and so
me of the products produced from this laboratory are of international export quality.” 
“Nine varieties of scientifically tested and commercially beneficial plant saplings will be provided by IIIM Jammu and under the guidance CSIR experts, the project will start from the border district of Kathua,” he added.

Once the new scheme gets going successfully from its initial start in Jammu and Kashmir, the same will then be extended to other States and also other parts of the country as well. –Agencies

WASHINGTON: All three NASA orbiters around Mars confirmed their healthy status after each took shelter behind the Red Planet during a period of risk from dust released by a comet that sped past Mars Sunday - closer than any other known comet flyby off a planet.

The Mars Odyssey, the Mars Reconnaissance and the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter were part of a campaign to study a comet named 'C/2013 A1 Siding Spring' and the possible effects on the Martian atmosphere from gases and dust released by the comet.

The comet sped within about 139,500 km of Mars, equivalent to about one-third of the distance between the Earth and its moon.

"The telemetry received from Mars Odyssey confirms not only that the spacecraft is in fine health but also that it conducted the planned observations of comet Siding Spring within hours of the comet's closest approach to Mars," said Odyssey Mission Manager Chris Potts of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California in the US.
Comet Siding Spring observations were made by the orbiter's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS).

Resulting images are expected in coming days after the data is downlinked to Earth and processed.

NASA's newest orbiter, MAVEN, is also studying the flyby's effects on the Red Planet's atmosphere.

The MAVEN spacecraft reported back to Earth after about three hours of precautions against a possible collision with high-velocity comet dust particles.

"We are glad the spacecraft came through. We are excited to complete our observations of how the comet affected Mars," said MAVEN Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has sent home more data about Mars than all other missions combined, is also providing data about the comet that buzzed The Red Planet.

"The spacecraft performed flawlessly throughout the comet flyby. It manoeuvered for the planned observations of the comet and emerged unscathed," said Dan Johnston of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
-IANS