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Monday,
October 7, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Campaigning ends for final phase
Cong challenges NC domination Peoples Conference, NC join hands |
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No
coalition with NC, Cong: BJP Cong
promises to probe NC’s misdeeds BJP claims credit for ‘fair’ poll Punjab
poll officials withdrawn from J&K Border women on India tour Conductor held for raping, killing 2 minor sisters
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Campaigning ends for final phase Srinagar, October 6 Re-polling in four booths of the Pahalgam constituency in Anantnag district and one polling booth in Kathua, will also be held on October 8. The Election Commission has ordered re-polling in 12 Hardukuthal Sofiapora, 13 Wullerhama, 15 Batakote and 15-A Batkote polling stations of the Pahalgam constituency and 72-Taraf Sanji in the Kathua constituency, an official spokesman said here. The re-polling at these polling stations will be conducted from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on October 8. The National Conference President, Mr Omar Abdullah, concluded his election campaign in Doda, with the hope that the people of the state would overwhelmingly support his party and that he would get at least 50 seats in the ensuing elections. He also sharply reacted to the recent statements of the PCC chief, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, vis-a-vis the National Conference, its leadership and performance of the party over the past six years, and described the Congress leader’s statements as an indication of “frustration”. The Hizbul Mujahideen has threatened to take action against those who participated in the elections, according to a local news agency here. It has also called for a general strike on October 8. An electorate of 62,037 will decide the fate of 11 candidates in the fray from the Lolab constituency, for which 88 polling stations have been set up. Of these, 64 are hypersensitive and 24 sensitive. Security agencies have been working overtime to ensure an incident-free polling. Over 50 additional companies of para-military forces have been deployed. The government here yesterday ordered the transfer of Superintendent of Police (SP), Kupwara, on allegations of bias by some candidates contesting from the Lolab constituency, Protest demonstrations took place in Kupwara on October 2 following the mysterious killing of three National Conference workers, which culminated in the demand for shifting the district police chief. The SHOs of Sogam and Lalpora in the Lolab constituency have also been shifted on complaints made by an Independent, Mr Abdul Haq Khan, believed to be a proxy candidate of the People’s Conference, a constituent of the Hurriyat Conference. Mr Khan had alleged that the police officers and a Naib Tehsildar were instrumental in harassing his supporters. Mr Khan today alleged that the authorities had played foul with him by deploying local polling staff despite an assurance to put on duty 50 per cent polling staff from outside the state. He said he did not have faith in the polling staff members, especially brought down from Budgam
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DODA Doda,
October 6 The campaign remained a low-key affair as no leader of the national level came here because of the threat of terrorism. In fact, this district was kept apart from other places for polling in the fourth and final phase because of widespread terrorism here. The President of the National Conference, Mr Omar Abdullah, the Union Minister and BJP leader, Mr Chaman Lal Gupta, and the PCC chief, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, were the only main campaigners. The security forces have moved in here after completion of polling at other places. Only Doda in the Jammu division and Lolab in Kashmir will go to the polls on Tuesday. Polling in Lolab was countermanded due to the assassination of a minister who was the candidate there. The security forces are on high alert following interception of wireless messages from Pakistan, asking the terrorists to strike in a big way in this district to disrupt the election process. As many as 35 additional battalions of security forces, including the BSF and CRPF, have taken position for ensuring trouble-free polling. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Doda, Mr Saji Mohan, told TNS that the situation was complicated as terrorists had been making efforts to create a scare. Two IEDs were exploded on the main road in Humble and Bagroa. They were also indulging in exploding grenades and firing in certain areas to register their presence. Terrorists have reportedly taken shelter in the Marwat area and places around Doda. The Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jehad-i-Islami, are actively operating in the district. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Basharat Ahmed Dar, said that 363 of the 534 polling parties left today for their respective destinations in the far-flung areas. As many as 46 polling parties will be dispatched in helicopters to the inaccesible areas. The polling staff, who were protesting against the delay in payment of the special allowance of Rs 10,000 to them, resumed duty following the visit of the DC to Kishtwar. All the 534 polling booths in the district have been declared sensitive, 243 of these are hyper-sensitive. There are a total of 56 candidates in the field. Prominent among them are Mr Khalid Najeeb Sohrawardhy, Minister of State for Home, Mr Daya Kishan Kotwal, state chief of the BJP, Sheikh Abdul Rehmaan, State President of BSP, Mr Mohammad Sherif Niaz (Cong), Mr Aslam Goni (NC), Mr Bali Bhagat (BJP) and Mr Abdul Majid Wani (Independent). The district has an electorate of 4,34,080. The highest number of 13 candidates are in the Bhaderwah constituency which also has the largest strength of 91,180 electorate. |
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Cong challenges NC domination Jammu, October 6 Senior Congress leaders attribute it to the organisational capacities demonstrated by the PCC President, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad. It was the same Mr Azad who had, during the past 10 years, contributed, overtly or covertly, to the rapid erosion in the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir. Three PCC presidents, Mr Ghulam Rasool Kar, Mohammad Aslam and Mohammad Shafi Qureshi, had failed to contain groupism and dissidence which had sapped the organisation. When the AICC leadership handed over the reigns to Mr Azad as PCC chief, he carried with him a majority of the dissidents. These dissidents saw that Mr Azad had full support of the AICC President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, and hence there was no room for raising a voice against him. Even the most influential dissident camp, led by Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, accepted Mr Azad’s leadership, notwithstanding some differences over the allotment of the party ticket in the current Assembly elections. Mr Mangat Ram Sharma admitted that Mr Azad had played a pivotal role in revitalising the Congress. He agree that had Mr Azad taken over as the PCC President six months ago, the Congress would have covered the entire ground it had lost by now. Except in 10 constituencies, the Congress has fielded its candidates. Party workers and leaders rose in unity to raise hurdles in the smooth sailing for the NC and the BJP. Several party leaders, however, have blamed Mr Azad for one mistake in having given ticket to non-entities in Bishna, R. S. Pora, Nagrota, Kathua, Vijaypur and Reasi. One leader, who wishes to remain unidentified, said had the party leadership allotted the ticket to suitable candidates, these six constituencies could have gone to the Congress. Still the Congress hopes to win between 25 and 27 seats of the 87. Another organisation that emerged as a potential party was the PDP, led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The Mufti and his daughter, Ms Mehbooba, kept the flock together though limited resources and manpower did not allow it a chance to be the runner for power. Against this, the state unit of the BJP has entered into the poll fray as a fractured organisation. Apart from infighting within the party, the RSS-led State Morcha blew to winds the unity and discipline for which the Sangh Parivar has been known for. Despite a series of negotiations and intervention by the party high command, the BJP-State Morcha alliance remained on the rocks. Under a forced agreement, the State Morcha was to contest nine seats, but it fielded candidates in 12 constituenices. The BJP hit back and fielded its candidates, by proxy, in several constituencies which had been allotted to the State Morcha. The Minister of State for Defence, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, agreed that the cracks within the Sangh Parivar had not allowed the BJP to fully cash in on the anti-incumbency wave in the state. He said had the Sangh Parivar entered the poll fray with a united face, it could have gained from the “anti-NC anger among the voters.” Another BJP leader said two months ago the Congress was nowhere in the reckoning, but had bounced back only because the machinations of the dissidents were nipped in the bud. He said the tough postures adopted by the RSS-led State Morcha in demanding a lion’s share in the seats might ultimately result in loss to both organisations. Despite the fact that Prof Chaman Lal Gupta was appointed head of the election management committee of the party, he was not allowed a free hand in mobilising voters’ support by the belligerent posture adopted by the RSS. He, however, travelled to every corner of the Jammu region and some pockets of the Kashmir valley for enlivening the party campaign. It was confusion writ large on the faces of senior National Conference leaders and candidates. The ruling party was targeted by the BJP, the Congress and the PDP, taking advantage of what they called six years of misrule. For the NC, the situation was made difficult, with a series of rebel attacks on its pre-poll rallies. More than 29 NC activists, including the Law Minister, Mr Mushtaq Ahmed Lone, party candidate from the Lolab constituency, were killed by militants since the first week of August. However, the Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, and the NC President, Mr Omar Abdullah, braved the opposition arrows to keep the party in the race for power. |
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Peoples Conference, NC join hands Srinagar, October 6 Addressing a public meeting at Hayhama in Lolab at the conclusion of election campaign today, Mr Omar Abdullah said the Congress candidate from Lolab had withdrawn in favour of the Peoples Conference proxy candidate. The Peoples Conference, a constituent of the Hurriyat Conference, had earlier denied that it had any proxy candidate in the fray in Kupwara district. Mr Omar Abdullah also claimed that Mr Sajjad Lone and Mr Bilal Lone had met Congress leader and former Union Minister S.D. Soz at Mr Ram Jethmalani’s residence in Delhi “to finalise the details of the alliance”. There were reports of a proxy candidate being in the fray, reportedly from the Peoples Conference, which led to a major controversy within the APHC. While the Peoples Conference, led by Bilal and Sajjad Lone, sons of its founder leader, Abdul Ghani Lone, had vehemently denied that the party had anything to do with the candidates, the Hurriyat Conference later dropped its plan to suspend the party from the APHC. The National Conference president also questioned the functioning of the Election Commission, saying that while immediate action was being taken on the complaints of opposition parties, those of the NC were being ignored. |
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No
coalition with NC, Cong: BJP Jammu, October 6 The Union Minister of State for Defence, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, told newsmen here today that no political party would be in a position to form the government on its own. He said the BJP would not have any coalition with the Congress or the NC. In case the BJP was to play a key role in the formation of the government, it might support those whose credentials were never in doubt and those who supported the Constitution of India, he said. He said for the first time in the history of the state, the National Conference and the Congress would not be in a position to form the government. He said again for the first time, the NC candidates had not been able to poll 50 per cent and above votes as had been the practice in the past. Most of the NC candidates polled between 2 and 10 per cent votes this time, he claimed. The minister said the BJP had decided to persuade the Election Commission to order a probe to find out which agency financed use of helicopter by the NC leaders for their poll campaign. He said some NC leaders used helicopter for two months and certain Congress leaders, too, used helicopter for their campaign. |
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Cong
promises to probe NC’s misdeeds Jammu, October 6 This was stated by the PCC President, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, while addressing a series of public meetings at Kahal Juganar, Changa, Chili Kharangal, Panchshay, Sewa and Ghaie in Doda district. Launching an attack on the NC for allegedly swindling and diverting developmental funds meant for providing basic facilities in remote and backward areas Mr Azad said people of Doda district were deliberately neglected and kept backward by the NC so that they could be exploited for political interests by mere promises. Most of the population in the district was deprived of basic facilities like drinking water, electricity, education and health care. Schools were understaffed and without proper buildings. Medical dispensaries were without doctors and para-medical staff, Mr Azad added. To resolve the problem of large scale unemployment of both skilled and unskilled persons in the district, Mr Azad said the Congress would set up mini hydel projects at different places in the rural areas of the district, which would generate power and employment opportunities for the local people. The PCC President said the NC and its leadership was responsible for spreading separatism and communalism in the state, pushing it in to the present turmoil. He said the NC and the BJP had a long-time hidden understanding of creating communal divide for consolidating their respective vote banks. The report of the Regional Autonomy Committee formed by the NC government proposing division of the state into eight regions on communal lines required no further evidence about its communal policy. |
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BJP claims credit for ‘fair’ poll Jammu, October 6 A senior BJP leader and Minister of State for Defence, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, told TNS here today that it was only under the BJP rule at the Centre that a free and fair poll had been possible in Jammu and Kashmir. He said people had cast their votes without coercion and there had been no cases of booth-capturing. Professor Gupta said if there was any complaint, the Chief Election Commission ordered repoll, leaving none in doubt about the fairness in the conduct of the elections. He said it was the result of free and fair polling that no candidate or party had emerged as winner. There was an element of uncertainity among all contesting parties as there had been no chance of rigging, he said. The Union Minister said the international community should compliment the government, the Election Commission and the voters for having gone through a free and fair poll which the people had not witnessed earlier. He said when the first Assembly poll was held in the state in 1951, 71 seats were bagged by the National Conference (NC) without any opposition. The NC won the remaining four seats also. In 1957, 48 seats had gone to the NC without any contest and the tales of rigging and booth-capturing hit the newspaper headlines in the successive elections. Professor Gupta said the end of regional discrimination was the main poll issue. He said after elections were over, he would persuade the Union Government to take steps to end regional disparities. The first step in this direction would be to hold a fresh census and carry out delimitation of the existing constituencies so that the Jammu region, which has over 23 lakh voters against over 25 lakh in the Kashmir valley, had at least 50 constituencies. At present, the Jammu region has 37 constituencies against 46 in the Kashmir valley. |
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Punjab poll officials withdrawn from J&K Srinagar, October 6 The decision was taken at the request of Chief Electoral Officer Pramod Jain. Earlier it was agreed that the officials would be sent to Doda district for the poll. But most of the officials wanted to return to their homes as early as possible. The commission was requested to concede the demand and allow local officials to function as polling officials in the five Assembly constituencies in the district. The officials from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh were involved in three phases of polling. The authorities have also decided to use helicopters for airdropping more than 200 officials and polling material in far-flung and mountainous areas of Doda district, which remain inaccessible by road. Scores of security personnel have already been deployed in the area to ensure the smooth conduct of elections. The officials from Uttar Pradesh have been airlifted from Srinagar to Lucknow and Ghaziabad by the Air Force in 20 flights in the past three days. Meanwhile,
no foreign diplomat would visit Jammu and Kashmir for monitoring the final phase of polling. More than 50 diplomats from the USA, the UK and European nations visited the valley to monitor the elections in the earlier phases.
UNI |
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Border women on India tour Srinagar, October 6 This is probably the first opportunity for Shahzada Begum (35) to visit the “vast and rich” country. She has left her two children with her husband and mother-in-law, at their home in Dulanja, Kamalkote, on the LoC. “It is good to be here and I feel at home”, she said when asked about her married life on this side of the LoC. “ab kya yaad ayagi”, she commented on her past life with her parents and others near Muzaffarabad. “I was treated well by the Army and the people here after I crossed over to this side along with my husband”, she said. The group of 20 women drawn from various areas along the LoC in the Uri sector, which has been witness to repeated exchanges of cross-border shelling and firing, is scheduled to meet various dignitaries, including the President Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Chief of the Army Staff. They will visit important places and institutions like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, Gulbarga in Karnataka, which has the distinction of having a Panchayat run by women only. The group includes three married women and 17 others, three of them teachers in the Army school at Uri, all in the age group of 20 to 35, with a local guardian and an Army Officer with his wife. Interacting with reporters, the group of women hoped that they would “get a feel of the great country”. They would exchange their views and experiences with women in other parts of the country and visit the historical places in the country. “The aim of the tour is to expose these women to the grandeur of the country and bring them back rich in knowledge and experience”, said Brig Ramesh Halgali, chief of the Kala Pahar Brigade of Dagger Infantry Division on the occasion of flagging off ceremony here last evening. He said that this was as a sequel to the last year’s event when 20 schoolchildren from the area were sent on a similar tour of the country. Brigadier Halgali said the Army had taken up various activities towards the empowerment of women and children in the Uri area, close to the LoC. He added that as part of this activity, Usha International Fashion Designing School was being set up in the area. For this purpose groups of women were being sent to Delhi and Jalandhar for imparting training to them during the next three months. Recalling the launch of “Operation Sangam” five years back, Lt-Gen V.G. Patankar, GOC 15 Corps, said that with the launch of “desh sampark yatra” communication between the people of Kashmir and rest of the country was “on the increase”. |
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Conductor held for raping, killing 2 minor sisters Srinagar, October 6 Kamaljeet Singh, a bus conductor living in the neighbourhood of the victims, was arrested last evening following the interrogation of his brother Narinderjeet Singh after the bodies were found in a house earlier in the day. The youth confessed to having raped and strangled the two sisters, aged six and three, under the
influence of alcohol, the police said. He told the police that after committing the crime, he confessed before his mother and wanted to flee to Jammu, but she stopped him, saying that this could make the neighbours suspicious. The girls went missing while returning home from school on October 3. The police said the girls had tried to escape from his clutches after biting his thumb.
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