 |
Saturday,
February 9, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
BSP faces tough fight in Harora Amitabh in Mulayam’s courtyard
Shahi Imam appeals against en bloc voting BJP rakes up Sonia’s
nationality Panikkar, Sarkar protest to ICHR |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
BSP faces tough fight in Harora Harora (Saharanpur), February 8 Ms Mayawati here is locked in a fierce contest against another woman stalwart of the Samajwadi party, Ms Bimla Rakesh. Ms Rakesh had been returned from Harora (R) constituency three times. Therefore, the elephant of Ms Mayawati has to tread carefully. Her difficulties have been compounded further as she is the lone star campaigner of BSP in the entire state of UP. Her political guru, Mr Kanshi Ram, is busy in bettering the poll prospects of BSP candidates in Punjab. As she had been busy canvassing for all BSP candidates throughout UP, she had not been able to find time for Harora voters. So far she has visited her constituency only twice. As per her election managers, she is scheduled to address an election rally in Saharanpur on February 9. As one enters Kailashpur (a part of Harora) and a suberb of Saharanpur city, one feels Mayawati’s presence. The entire town is full of buntings and posters of Mayawati. There is not even a single posture or flag of any other party. It was here that Mayawati had constructed an impressive and well-laid out park when she was the Chief Minister of UP. In Gagal Heri town on the Saharanpur-Dehradun road, shops and roadside are full of Mayawati’s posters. The BSP’s main poll office is also located in this town. In Mayawati’s one-room office 10 young men all in their early twenties are sitting on small chairs. There is no tent outside the office and no vehicles are parked there. Only the flags and buntings show that this is the room from where the prospective Chief Minister of UP is guiding her campaign. The office also sans any public addressing system. The boys emphatically say “behanji” as they call her will win convincingly and even there will be an increase in their margin of victory. In fact Ms Mayawati is considered a symbol of the uplift of the poor of this area. The SCs who constitute the core of her support have 84,000 voters spread over 273 villages of the constituency. It is difficult to divide them. Besides, Ms Mayawati enjoys considerable support amongst the Muslims. This time, she is playing the “Swaran” card also. Her party has discarded the slogan ‘Tilak tarazoo aur talwar, inko maro jute char’. Her supporters run her campaign in 30 vehicles. Ms Mayawati won from Harora for the first time in 1996. She again contested in 1998 and polled over 84,000 votes. Her victory margin was about 27,000 votes. But she resigned the seat and in the byelection which followed the BSP candidate, Mr Jagpal, romped home. Ms Mayawati’s supporters now expect that her victory margin will increase. However, despite this Ms Bimla Rakesh, who is fighting on the Samajwadi Party ticket is no-nonsense lady. She won from Harora (R) in 1985 on the Lok Dal ticket. Again she won the seat in 1989 and 1991 on the Janata Dal ticket. She is known for her civilised behaviour. During her three stints, she had been able to create an army of loyal supporters and had created cells in each village. Moreover, as she is a resident of Saharanpur, she is easily accessible. Ms Rakesh’s additional advantage is that this time she is carrying the tag of Samajwadi Party. It is being surmised that if the Muslims patronised the Mulayam Singh party in the past, the path of Mayawati would be beset with difficulties. In all her election rallies, Ms Bimla Rakesh emphatically stresses the point that Ms Mayawati will not be able to devote time for people as she is an “outsider”. She accuses Ms Mayawati of leaving her voters in the lurch after winning from here in the 1998 poll. Ms Rakesh also maintains that her five terms as MLA she had created infrastructure for development in the constituency. The BJP candidate Mr Mahipal Singh Balmiki, is also concentrating on BC voters. The BJPs main strategy is to weaken Ms Mayawati by making divisions amongst the SCs and BCs. The BJP also expects that Jats will support the party because of Ajit Singh. The Indian Ekta party candidate, Mr Mohar Singh, had represented the constituency in 1993 on the BJP ticket. He is being helped by Mr Rashid Masood — known Muslim politician of the area. The Congress has nominated Ms Kusumlata. As yet, the Congress is now here in the race. But the visit of Ms Sonia Gandhi to Saharanpur on February 9 can help the party to show a respectable presence. The National Lok Tantrik party is also in the fray. In all there are 2,44,120 voters’, including 1,33,365 men and 1,10,755 women. As the leader of Ms Mayawati’s stature is fighting from here, the district administration has taken strong security measures to check the entry of anti-social elements in the area. |
|
Amitabh in Mulayam’s courtyard Kanpur, February 8 Continuing with his much talked about veiled election campaign for the Samajwadi Party, the superstar lost no time in enthralling crowds at the historic Phool Bagh here with the superhit film song “Meire angne mein tumahara kya kaam hai.” As he regaled the gathering with a rendition of his famous song from the film “Lawaris”, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his confidant Amar Singh sat with Jaya quietly judging the crowd turnout. The megastar, in a calculated move, abstained from making any direct appeal for the SP candidates, but dropped hints that he and his wife were “solidly behind his father like figure-Mulayam Singh.” The Bachchans also chose not to make any frontal attack on the SP’s adversaries. In an oblique reference to Mulayam’s ongoing campaign, Bachchan said “Suna hai ki aaj kal Mulayam Singh ji aur Amar Singh ji ne samaj ko apradh aur apradhiyon se mukt karane ka bira hutaya hai, mein aur desh ki janata bhi is nek kam mein unke saath hein’’ (it is heard that Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh have taken up the noble cause of freeing the society of crime and criminals, I myself and the people are with them). He asked the crowd to raise hands in unison to assure both the leaders of their support. “Hum to khoon de rahen hain, wei tho khoon chuse rahain hain,’’ (we are giving blood, they (his opponents) are sucking blood) Mr Mulayam Singh said claiming that there was no politics involved in the blood donation camps. While the Bachchans stole the show for the SP nominees, in the Congress Party’s stronghold of seesamau, an anti-Amitabh poster caught attention “kabhi Rajiv ke saath thhey, ab Mulayam ke haath hein.’’(once (he) was with Rajiv, now in Mulayam’s hand)
UNI |
|
Shahi Imam appeals against en bloc voting New Delhi, February 8 Addressing newsmen after Friday congregation in the Jama Masjid Shahi Imam said that while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been encouraging communalism openly the “so-called” secular parties like the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj party had cheated Muslims. Politicians of the secular parties promised that once they came to power they would work for the betterment of minorities. Once they are voted to power, they join the BJP to serve their own purpose, the Imam said. He said that all secular parties come to power had always with the support of Muslims but they did nothing for the benefit of the community. The BSP had worked for the betterment of Dalits while the Samajwadi party did for Yadavs only though they never came to the power without support of Muslim community. Blaming the Congress for the “thousands of anti-Muslim riots”, Imam said that the party had given nothing to the community except the loss of life and property, unemployment, illiteracy, poverty and humiliation. The Congress had not only given patronage to those involved in anti-Muslim riots, but also harmed the interests of the community by reserving Muslim-dominated constituencies for the schedules castes, the Imam said. Shahi Imam appealed to Muslims to have their own political party in the country as other classes and communities like dalits, Yadavs, Sikhs had separate political parties. Once Muslims have their own political party, all so-called secular parties will be wiped out he said. |
|
BJP rakes up Sonia’s
nationality New Delhi, February 8 The BJP, sources said, decided to precipitate the issue as reports from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttaranchal suggested that party’s electoral performance in these states was going to be poor so it decided on aggressive campaigning to sway voters in its favour. Mr Malhotra BJP spokesperson said Ms Sonia, after spending 34 years in India, could not speak any Indian language, she always reads written speeches even in Parliament, where rules do not permit it.” Mr Malhotra said speeches of the Congress leader focused on vote politics and not national interest. Terrorism did not even figure in her speeches, he said. She did not touch issues of cross-border terrorism, proxy war by Pakistan, he added. |
|
Panikkar, Sarkar protest to ICHR New Delhi, February 8 In a letter to ICHR Member-Secretary R.C. Aggarwal, the two historians expressed surprise over the non-publication of their manuscripts even seven years after they submitted them. They charged the council with keeping them in the dark about steps being taken in this regard. They said no alteration by way of deletion or incorporation or any other change that the committee might suggest could be made in the manuscripts as it would be violative of their special rights as authors. Profs Pannikar and Sarkar had submitted manuscripts in 1995 on ‘’Towards Freedom’’ series for 1940 and 1946. They say the manuscripts were submitted to General Editor of the project, Prof S. Gopal, who reviewed them and sent them to the OUP for publication.
UNI |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
In video (
