H I M A C H A L   P R A D E S H

BJP didn’t give clean govt: Stokes
Shimla, March 1
The people of Himachal had stalled the Hindutva march of the BJP and expressed faith in the leadership of the All India Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi by defeating the ruling party, Congress leaders said here today.

ANALYSIS
Cong kills BJP with corruption weapon
Shimla, March 1
Electoral history has been repeated in the hill state, with the people exercising the power of ballot to change the political set-up. Indeed, the anti-incumbency factor has taken the toll of yet another government. This time, of the BJP-HVC coalition.

Congress Party workers celebrate their victory by distributing sweets at McLeod Ganj, Kangra, on Saturday. — PTI

HP House to have 20 new faces
Shimla, March 1
The 65-member Himachal Vidhan Sabha will have 20 new faces, most of them youth leaders and rebels. Former ABVP leaders Satpal Singh Satti and Vikram Singh have won from Una and Jaswan, the State Youth Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu entered the Vidhan Sabha from Nadaun.

Sukh Ram to be seniormost member
Shimla, March 1
The HVC Chief, Sukh Ram would be the seniormost member of Himachal Vidhan Sabha to have won seven times since 1962 from the Mandi constituency and never losing a Vidhan Sabha election.

Only 4 of 30 women candidates win in HP
Shimla, March 1
While the political parties had been unfair to the fair sex in the allotment of tickets for the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, the electorate too has been quite harsh to them.

HP BJP leaders to meet on March 8
Shimla, March 1
The Himachal unit of the BJP has called a meeting of party’s office bearers, MPs, district presidents and newly elected MLAs in Shimla on March 8 to take stock of the political situation after the party’s defeat of the party in the Assembly elections.

Dhumal bows to people’s verdict
Shimla, March 1
Caretaker Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here today accepted the defeat of his party in Himachal Assembly elections saying he submitted to people’s verdict with humility.

Solan repeats ’98 performance
Solan, March 1
A repeat of 1998 Assembly election has been witnessed in all five constituencies of Solan district with all five sitting MLAs getting re-elected. The Congress had won its three seats of Arki, Kasauli and Doon. While the BJP has maintained hold over the remaining two seats of Nalagarh and Solan for the second time in a row but margin of victory in both seats has decreased.

TRIBUNE FOLLOW-UP
Widow gets justice after 12 years
Kumarhatti, March 1
Ms Premi Devi of Bashulo village in the Dharampur panchayat, near here, finally got justice when the Northern Railway authorities have offered a job to her son. It took more than 12 years for the authorities to honour the commitment that was made to Ms Premi Devi, who had expressed her inability to join the job that was offered to her after the death of her husband, Deen Dayal, a Grade I painter at the Kalka railway station on June 19, 1989.

7-year RI for rape
Hamirpur, March 1
Mr Dharam Chand Chaudhry, Sessions Judge, Hamirpur, yesterday sentenced Ram Singh of Salasi village of Hamirpur district to undergo seven years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 7,000 for the rape of a minor girl of Lakran village. In default of the payment of the fine, the accused will have to undergo imprisonment for one year more.

BJP didn’t give clean govt: Stokes
Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 1
The people of Himachal had stalled the Hindutva march of the BJP and expressed faith in the leadership of the All India Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi by defeating the ruling party, Congress leaders said here today.

Addressing a post poll result press conference, Pradesh Congress Committee President Ms Vidya Stokes said that credit for the Congress victory was attributable to Ms Gandhi. The Legislative Congress Party (CLP) Leader in the outgoing Assembly Mr Virbhadra Singh, said the people of Himachal had stalled the Hindutva march started by the BJP from Gujarat and had voted for harmony in the society and secularism.

The differences between the two leaders came to the fore when one of the persons present, in the press conference said that a meeting of newly elected MLAs would be held on March 4 and Mr Virbhadra Singh would take the oath of office on March 5.

The former Chief Minister said the Prem Kumar Dhumal government had been voted out for alleged corruption at the lowest level of governance, indulging in political vendetta, mortgaging the interests of Himachal and ignoring the problem of unemployment in the state.

Mr Virbhadra Singh said the Congress government would attempt to bring to the book the corrupt elements but avoided a direct answer to whether the Congress would take action against Mr Dhumal against whom it had brought out a charge sheet before the people. The former chief minister said the “law will take its own course.”

Evading questions on who would be party’s choice for the chief ministership, the two leaders informed that the newly elected members of the Legislative Assembly would meet on March 4 in Shimla in the presence of an observer from the AICC to take a decision.

Ms Stokes said the manifesto of the party would be sacrosanct to the party and it would be implemented in letter and spirit.

Mr Virbhadra Singh specially congratulated government employees for the support extended to the party. When asked if the party would have a post of the Deputy Chief Minister, the two leaders said the state did not have a tradition of a deputy Chief Minister. Ms Stokes said the Congress government would re-examine saffronisation started by the BJP.

The two leaders denied that there was any groupism in the party but Ms Stokes accepted the presence of a large number of rebels might have harmed the party to some extent.

Differences between Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Union Rural Development Minister and BJP’s Chief campaigner in the Himachal Assembly elections Shanta Kumar today came to the fore with Mr Kumar repeating the charges of corruption against the Dhumal government levelled by the Congress.

“Had the BJP provided a clean government in the state as per its promise, the party would have created a history by returning to power in Himachal,” the Union Minister said in a statement issued here today.

The former Chief Minister who had been trying for his projection as Chief Minister with Mr Dhumal, also indicated at the party’s approach saying “the party should be ready for discharging the duty of an opposition party and should introspect and go through penance.” He said the BJP had not been defeated by the Congress but by its own internal weakness and faults saying it had been felt for sometime that the party had been lacking in providing good governance.

ANALYSIS
Cong kills BJP with corruption weapon
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 1
Electoral history has been repeated in the hill state, with the people exercising the power of ballot to change the political set-up.

Indeed, the anti-incumbency factor has taken the toll of yet another government. This time, of the BJP-HVC coalition. The politically intelligent voters of the state have been exercising their democratic rights judiciously to show the door to the parties, which failed to deliver. As a result, power has been changing hands between the Congress and the BJP since the 1985 elections.

The victory of the Congress, which came close to securing a two-thirds majority, would have been more spectacular had the rebels not played spoilsport for the official candidates in about a dozen constituencies. The undercurrents had been so strong that even the rebels contesting as Independents emerged victorious in six seats.

The anti-establishment sentiment tilted the scales decisively against the ruling dispensation and even the euphoria created by the landslide victory of the BJP in Gujarat and its high-pitched campaign failed to influence the mind of the electorate. The development plank of the BJP fell flat and the issue of corruption proved an invincible weapon for the Congress. The BJP was put on defensive from the day one when Capt Amarinder Singh, Punjab Chief Minister, levelled charges of corruption against Mr P.K. Dhumal, Himachal Chief Minister, and accused him of amassing assets in Jalandhar.

Despite the clean chit given to Mr Dhumal by Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee and his deputy L.K. Advani, the charge of corruption stuck. This is also evident from the fact that the close associates of Mr Dhumal like Mr J.P. Nadda, Health Minister, and Mr Praveen Sharma, Excise Minister, who were also charged with corruption have also been defeated.

The belated effort of the BJP high command to use the clean image of Mr Shanta Kumar, Union Minister, as a napkin to wipe out the dirt of corruption from Mr Dhumal and other ministers failed to yield the desired result. The party could not convince the people that there was no corruption under the Dhumal regime. The arrogance of some ministers also played a role in the BJP’s debacle.

The internecine factional war between the rival camps headed by Mr Dhumal and Mr Shanta Kumar also affected the BJP. The party was vertically divided in its stronghold of Kangra district from where it had 12 seats in the dissolved House.

The marginalisation of Mr Shanta Kumar within the BJP led to a virtual collapse of the party in the region. The Congress took full advantage of it to increase its tally from four to 12, while the BJP could win only three out of the total 16 seats in the district.

Paradoxically, the BJP government earned the image of being anti-Kangra, even though Mr Dhumal himself is from the lower hills of Hamirpur, which had been part of Kangra and continued to be identified with it. The election result also made it clear that the people had not approved of Mr Dhumal’s tactics to dismember Kangra by creating three more districts out of it. The move was dropped after Mr Shanta Kumar and other party MPs opposed it. However, by then, irreparable damage had been done to the party.

Finally, the BJP high command must also own the responsibility for its rout. It failed to take any corrective measures to check infighting or improve the corruption-tainted image of the party. It also lightly brushed aside the charges levelled by its own ministers against the government which provided much ammunition to the Congress to attack it.

Further, instead of striking a balance between the two factions, it sided with the Dhumal camp, virtually reducing the Shanta faction comprising old partymen to naught. The script for the party’s defeat was written much earlier when many Shanta loyalists were thrown out of the party and others denied ticket.

It is hoped that the defeat will lead to an honest introspection and the high command will also realise that the party cannot afford to ignore old dedicated workers and cadres and that compromising with corruption could be suicidal.

HP House to have 20 new faces

Shimla, March 1
The 65-member Himachal Vidhan Sabha will have 20 new faces, most of them youth leaders and rebels.

As many as 31 out of 61 members of dissolved Vidhan Sabha have been reelected while 14 former MLAs have got elected. PTI

Sukh Ram to be seniormost member

Shimla, March 1
The HVC Chief, Sukh Ram would be the seniormost member of Himachal Vidhan Sabha to have won seven times since 1962 from the Mandi constituency and never losing a Vidhan Sabha election.

Two other seventh-timers were Ishwar Dass (Cong) who won for the first time in 1967 from outer Seraj renamed as Ani and Rangilla Ram Rao (Cong) who entered the Vidhan Sabha for the first time in 1972 from Gopalpur.

Former Chief Minister V.B. Singh and former Speaker Kaul Singh were among the five members to have been elected for the sixth time.

The other sixth-timers included Singhi Ram, Gangu Ram and Prem Singh (all Congress).

Former HPCC president Sat Mahajan and former Ministers Chander Kumar, Vijay Singh Mankotia and Ram Lal Thakur were among the four fifth-timers.

There were five fourth-timers in the House including Ishwar Dass Dhiman (BJP), Mohinder Singh (HLM), Sujan Singh Pathania, Lajja Ram and Asha Kumari (all Congress) while eight members had won for the third time.

The three-timers included Harsh Wardhan, Kuldeep Kumar, R.K. Gaur, Chandresh Kumari, Harsh Mahajan and Dharam Pal (Congress) and Damodar Dass, Ravi Inder Ravi and Atma Ram (all BJP) and Kuldeep Singh Pathania (IND).

Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal was among the 10 members who have won for the second time.

The other repeaters were Anita Verma, Mast Ram, G.S. Bali (all Congress) and Baldev Sharma, Rajiv Bindal and Jai Ram Thakur (all BJP) and Biru Ram (IND). PTI

Only 4 of 30 women candidates win in HP

Shimla, March 1
While the political parties had been unfair to the fair sex in the allotment of tickets for the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, the electorate too has been quite harsh to them.

Of the 30 women candidates, including 10 fielded by the Congress and six by the BJP, only four have won.

The strength of women candidates was six in the dissolved House. Four of them, including parliamentary secretaries Urmil Thakur and Sarveen Chowdhary and former Congress minister Viplov Thakur have lost while Nirmla of the BJP did not contest the elections and her son Naveen Dhiman won as a rebel BJP candidate from Pragpur.

In the prestigious Hamirpur and Banikhet constituencies, Anita Verma and Asha Kumari, defeated women BJP candidates Urmil Thakur and Renu Chaddha, respectively.

Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader Vikram Singh caused a major upset, trouncing well-intrenched Congress leader Viplov Thakur in the Jaswan constituency while Sukriti Kumari, who replaced her husband Vijendra Singh as Congress candidate from Nalagarh was defeated by a huge margin of over 12,000 votes.

Himachal Mahila Congress president Krishana Mohini also failed to defeat her traditional rival Rajiv Bindal of the BJP from Solan while senior BJP leader Shyama Sharma finished third in the Nahan constituency. PTI

HP BJP leaders to meet on March 8
Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 1
The Himachal unit of the BJP has called a meeting of party’s office bearers, MPs, district presidents and newly elected MLAs in Shimla on March 8 to take stock of the political situation after the party’s defeat of the party in the Assembly elections.

The meeting is likely be stormy in the wake of Union Rural Development Minister, Shanta Kumar obliquely accusing the BJP government under Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal of corruption.

The party Vice-President and Rajya Sabha member Suresh Bharadwaj accepting the verdict said though the Congress had mustered majority yet it was to be seen how the Congress would handle internal contradictions in the party to provide a stable government. The BJP Vice-President apparently to indicate of the squabbling in the Congress over the chief ministership.

Mr Sharma said the prospects of the party had been damaged by the presence of the party rebels. He said the image of the party had also been dented before the voter because of the rebel factors.

The party Vice-President, who had been acting as the President in the absence of the party President Mr Jaikishan Sharma unsuccessfully contesting election from Santokhgarh, said the voters had been misguided by the Congress through a baseless campaign of corruption.

He expected the allegations amounted to character assassination and would be proved baseless in future. He said the Congress had been avoiding a debate on development and indulged in personal attacks on the party’s Chief Minister.

Dhumal bows to people’s verdict
Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 1
Caretaker Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal here today accepted the defeat of his party in Himachal Assembly elections saying he submitted to people’s verdict with humility.

In a statement issued by the Chief Minister, he assured the Congress of constructive cooperation in the interest of people of the state and its development.

Mr Dhumal said his government had tried to serve the people of the state with devotion during the past five years and the same would be his party’s endeavour in the future in whatever capacity it would be. The outgoing Chief Minister thanked the people for the cooperation during the past five years.

Solan repeats ’98 performance
Our Correspondent

Solan, March 1
A repeat of 1998 Assembly election has been witnessed in all five constituencies of Solan district with all five sitting MLAs getting re-elected. The Congress had won its three seats of Arki, Kasauli and Doon. While the BJP has maintained hold over the remaining two seats of Nalagarh and Solan for the second time in a row but margin of victory in both seats has decreased.

In Solan constituency, BJP’s Dr Rajiv Bindal won defeating Mr M.N. Sofat, a BJP rebel, by 1309 votes. In Arki, Congress candidate Dharam Pal won for the third time defeating his BJP rival, a new comer, Mr Govind Sharma by 1043 votes. Congress candidate Raghu Raj registered victory by defeating BJP’s Mr Kashyap by 3759 votes. The seat was bagged by Congress candidate Lajja Ram.

BJP’s former state Minister of Town and Country Planning H.N. Saini captured the Nalagarh seat for the second time by defeating Congress candidate Sukriti Kumari by 3083 votes.

The BJP won two seats of Solan and Nalagarh for two consecutive terms.

TRIBUNE FOLLOW-UP
Widow gets justice after 12 years
Jagmeet Ghuman

Kumarhatti, March 1
Ms Premi Devi of Bashulo village in the Dharampur panchayat, near here, finally got justice when the Northern Railway authorities have offered a job to her son. It took more than 12 years for the authorities to honour the commitment that was made to Ms Premi Devi, who had expressed her inability to join the job that was offered to her after the death of her husband, Deen Dayal, a Grade I painter at the Kalka railway station on June 19, 1989.

She was offered a Class IV job on September 27, 1990, but she could not join the job as no one was there to look after her minor children. However, she pleaded her case on compassionate grounds following which she was assured by the Ambala-based authorities to give her son a job in place of her after he would attain the age of 18 years. When her son attained the desired age on February 23, 1997, she approached the authorities for the job but denied on the pretext that there was no justification of job after eight years of the death of Deen Dayal.

The Tribune carried a detailed report, “Railway man’s widow denied relief’, in these columns on June 29 last year. Taking a serious view of the report the authorities finally appointed Mr Ganesh Dutt, the son of Ms Premi Devi, as fitter at Ambala this month. Mr Vijay Chopra and Mr S.N. Bharti, president and secretary, respectively, of the Uttariya Railway Mazdoor Union, Ambala division, had managed to press the authorities for the fair deal in this case.

7-year RI for rape
Our Correspondent

Hamirpur, March 1
Mr Dharam Chand Chaudhry, Sessions Judge, Hamirpur, yesterday sentenced Ram Singh of Salasi village of Hamirpur district to undergo seven years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 7,000 for the rape of a minor girl of Lakran village. In default of the payment of the fine, the accused will have to undergo imprisonment for one year more.

The judge also convicted him to undergo three years’ imprisonment under Section 363, five years under Section 366 and one year under Section 344 of the IPC with a fine of Rs 3000, 3000 and Rs 1000, respectively, for the above offences.

Mr Chaudhry ordered that in case of the realisation of the fine, Rs 11,000 would be given to the victim as compensation.

According to Mr Kushal Singh Thakur, public prosecutor, on May 14, 2002, Ram Singh kidnapped the girl from her village by means to criminal intimidation with an intent that the girl may be compelled to marry him and have illicit sexual intercourse with her against her will. He raped her between May 14, 2002 and June 9, 2002 and confined her in a room in Sanjay Nagar, Faridkot, Punjab.