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Dikshit,
Pilot’s widow enter poll fray
NEWS ANALYSIS Poet case: murder
weapon found Top Mumbai cop relieved of duty |
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Telecom scam:
Runu Ghosh dismissed No new taxes in
UP Budget SC notices to
Centre, states on green belt
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Dikshit, Pilot’s widow enter poll fray
New Delhi, November 14 Beating the deadline, aspirants, accompanied by their supporters, thronged election offices in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan to submit their papers. In a move that rattled the BJP, Ms Rama Pilot, an MP and widow of Rajesh Pilot, filed her nomination from the Jhalrapatan constituency where the saffron party has fielded its chief ministerial candidate Vasundhara Raje. In a play-safe strategy, the BJP had yesterday announced that Raje would contest the Pidawa seat also. BJP leaders, including Pramod Mahajan, went into a huddle soon after Mr Pilot entered the race to chalk out poll strategies. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh filed nomination from his traditional stronghold Raghogarh constituency. He is pitted against the BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Accompanied by hundreds of supporters, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit filed her papers from Gole Market constituency where she is facing Poonam Azad, wife of cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot filed four sets of nominations from the Sardarpur Assembly constituency. The scrutiny of nominations will take place tomorrow and the last date for the withdrawals is November 17.
— PTI |
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NEWS ANALYSIS New Delhi, November 14 While the battle is primarily between the BJP and the Congress in north India, as many as a dozen other political parties are trying to sabotage the two pan-India political parties chances to emerge as the sole challenger to power. In the ensuing political battle, which is going to set the tone for the Lok Sabha elections, the political parties would leave no stone unturned and use all possible tricks to create a niche which could be used as a bargaining chip at the general elections. Though nearly 3,000 candidates, after having earned the recognition of their respective leaders for getting the party ticket, have filed nominations, the real contest is going to be between the Congress and the BJP with others playing a role of spoilsport. In Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, popularly known as Diggy Raja, has to face the wrath of the electorate for poor infrastructure, particularly bad roads and lack of electricity. Despite these factors, the BJP has an upper hand at the moment but nothing can be said with certainty as Diggy Raja has an opponent in saffron sanyasin Uma Bharti who is said to as unpredictable as the London weather. Even seasoned election watchers are not prepared to hazard a guess here as Mr Digvijay Singh is well known for making smart political moves. In Rajasthan, where caste politics weighs heavily on the real issues, a photo finish is awaited with the rains washing away the BJP’s main poll plank of drought. While the BJP is banking on three-in-one combination of a
Jat, a royal and a woman in its chief ministerial candidate Vasundhara Raje coupled with the incumbency factor, the Congress is depending on established, mature and sober leadership of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. From all available indications, the contest is going to be a no-holds-barred battle with the Congress enjoying an edge. The most intriguing electoral contest is being fought in Chhattisgarh where Chief Minister Ajit Jogi is taking on not only the BJP but even the former Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla, who is leading the NCP. Mr Jogi, who is extremely unpopular in urban
centres, has an upper hand at the moment as he has focussed on tribal-dominated countryside. Moreover, the BJP is a divided house as it has failed to project one single leader as the chief ministerial candidate. In New Delhi, the sailing for the Congress appears to enjoy an upper hand as Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has succeeded in keeping the contest to her government’s performance and track record. In veteran leader Madan Lal Khurana, Ms Dikshit has an opponent whose charisma has faded out over the years as the national Capital’s demography has challenged radically from refugees from West Punjab, now in Pakistan, to more from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and
Uttranchal. |
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Poet case: murder weapon found
New Delhi, November 14 The CBI achieved a breakthrough in the wee hours of today when Pandey took the CBI team to a person, Pinku at Gorakhpur, and handed over the weapon used by him to kill Madhumita on May 9. Pandey had taken the country-made pistol from Kalu Tiwari, who in turn had taken it from Pinku, the CBI alleged. After murdering Madhumita at her Paper Mill Colony residence on May 9, Pandey had sent back the weapon to Pinku, the CBI alleged. The local police was informed about possession of the weapon illegally by Pinku to facilitate them to initiate a case against him. The weapon was sent for ballistic examination which would ascertain whether the same weapon was used by the killer to eliminate the 24-year-old poetess. In a related development, the CBI today served a notice under Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code(CrPC) asking Madhumani, wife of former BSP minister Amarmani Tripathi, to appear for questioning. The notice was served at her residence after she went missing since last night. Asked whether Madhumani was likely to be arrested, the sources said the CBI was awaiting a detailed interrogation report of Rohit Chaturvedi, Tripathi’s cousin, Santosh Kumar Rai, an accomplice of the murderer, and Pandey. Rai and Pandey were identified by Desraj, servant of Madhumita and the lone eye-witness in the case, during the test identification parade. The sources said that Rai and Pandey had so far told the investigators that they had committed the murder at the instance of Chaturvedi, who in turn has allegedly put the blame on Madhumani. Meanwhile, the CBI was also looking for some of the UP policemen who had allegedly either tampered with the evidence or attempted to destroy it. The sources did not rule out arrest of some of the cops in this connection. Madhumita’s murder had rocked the political establishment of the Uttar Pradesh leading to unceremonious exit of Tripathi from the Cabinet of the then Mayawati Government.
— PTI |
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Top Mumbai cop relieved of duty Mumbai, November 14 It was officially announced today that the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mr Satya Pal Singh, would be the acting Police Commissioner. In another development, IG (State Intelligence) Shridhar Vagal, the first IPS officer to be arrested in the stamp paper scandal, was today suspended. His suspension was confirmed by Commissioner of State Intelligence V.N. Deshmukh here this evening. PUNE:
In a significant move, prosecution in the fake stamp case on Friday referred to some of the tapes submitted by the Karnataka Government to the Special Investigation Investigation to oppose the bail application of accused Ramesh Manoj Mehta. A special MCOCA court reserved orders till tomorrow on the bail plea of Mehta. |
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Telecom scam: Runu Ghosh dismissed
New Delhi, November 14 The dismissal of Ms Ghosh, who is at present the GM (Finance), DoT Cell, Ahmedabad, was ordered by the government following a departmental inquiry, a CBI official today said. The CBI had filed a charge sheet against Ms Ghosh and Mr Sukh Ram in March 1997 for entering into a criminal conspiracy with Managing Director of Advanced Radio Masts (Pvt) Ltd P. Rama Rao, who gave them a pecuniary inducement of Rs 1.68 crore for awarding a contract for the purchase of 2/15 MARR Systems. According to the chargesheet, the bribe money of Rs 1.68 crore to Mr Sukh Ram and Ms Ghosh had resulted in a corresponding loss to the Department of Telecommunications. Special Judge V.K. Jain, in his order of July 15, 2002, had convicted all accused and Ms Ghosh was sentenced to two years' RI and a fine of Rs 50,000 in default of which she was to further undergo simple imprisonment of two months. Following Ms Ghosh's conviction, the Central Government had constituted a departmental inquiry. On the basis of the inquiry report, the dismissal order was served on her.
— UNI |
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No new taxes in UP Budget Lucknow, November 14 “I have no hesitation in admitting that the state is caught in a debt trap. We borrow money from others to carry out our day-to-day functioning,” Mr Yadav told reporters here after presenting his first Budget after taking over as the Chief Minister of the state. The total expenditure in the Budget was shown as Rs 71223.24 crore against the revenue collection of Rs 65145.67 crore. He said the state borrowings had increased by 48 per cent and 88 per cent of the total revenue
collected goes in payment of salaries and pension of the employees and on the interest. |
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SC notices to Centre, states on green belt New Delhi, November 14 The notices were issued by a Bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare and Mr Justice S B Sinha on a PIL filed by Dr B Singh seeking directions to these governments for protection of green belt and the space reserved for agriculture and afforestation around Chandigarh. The petitioner requested the court to direct the respondents to use the land for the purpose for which it was reserved in the master plan.
— PTI |
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