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Mulayam opposed to anti-BJP
front NCP, Shiv Sena workers clash BJP woos Apna Dal
leader
Centre considering early LS poll:
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NHRC seeks report on rape in
Faridabad No back wages for acquitted
employee
78 Indian ultras sought from Bangladesh 16 militants surrender in Assam
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Mulayam opposed to anti-BJP
front New Delhi, January 2 Talking to newspersons after his meeting with the Election Commission, Mr Yadav made it clear that through there were no differences with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh but past experiences had proved that such fronts had only helped the BJP. In his effort to justify his stand, the SP supremo said: "There were differences on the issue of seat sharing among morcha partners which helped the BJP. That is why now I have decided to contest on issues and give and take support based on issues". Asked about Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s efforts to contact him, the SP leader said he would be meeting her "whenever necessary". "I will meet Soniaji whenever necessary. I will continue to meet her. I came to know that she rang me a few days back to talk to me but I was away. My office wanted to connect me to her, but was told that Ms Gandhi herself would ring up again. If I had her permission, I myself would have gone to meet her". He thanked the Congress chief for extending support to his government and said there were no differences between the two parties in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Yadav had come here to meet the Election Commission to complain against large scale discrepancies in voters’ list in a number of constituencies in the state and sought corrective measures from the commission in the wake of likely advancement of the Lok Sabha poll. Asked to comment on Ms Gandhi’s telephonic conversation with BSP chief Mayawati to rope her in the secular front, the Chief Minister said he was aware of it and dubbed the BSP a "corrupt and communal" party, which came to power thrice in the state with the support of communal forces, inspite of the fact that it promised no truck with them before the poll. To a question whether his meeting with Mr George Fernandes was aimed at uniting all socialists, the SP chief said the Defence Minister was a part of NDA alliance and he never talked about uniting all socialists. Mr Yadav, however, said if all socialists were united then there would be around 100 such members of Parliament even today and there would be no need for any third front. The Chief Minister said Mr Fernandes, an old socialist, would be welcomed in the new front if he left the NDA. The SP chief said he would be meeting Railway Minister Nitish Kumar to thank him for sanctioning the Etawah-Mainpuri railway line. The state government had already agreed to provide land for the proposed project, he said. |
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NCP, Shiv Sena workers clash Mumbai, January 2 The police said NCP and Shiv Sena activists rioted in the town of Alibaug in Raigad district, a popular beach resort outside Mumbai. The violence followed elections to the local gram panchayat which saw the candidates of the two parties win three seats each in the district. In all the police arrested 13 NCP and 17 Shiv Sena activists in Khalapur taluka. In Roha taluka nearby the police arrested 11 activists of the NCP after a woman activist of the Shiv Sena was roughed up. The police say, the area is tense as both parties are actively trying to extend their areas of influence. Though Shiv Sena was gaining in strength in the area, Bhujbal has managed to wean away a number of local level leaders to the Congress and then the NCP which he floated along with Sharad Pawar in 1999. Thackeray had on New Year day told journalists that deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani had mooted the idea of the NCP joining the NDA coalition. Though Thackeray was in favor of it, he noted that the local level leaders must be taken into confidence. On Friday, the NCP categorically denied that it would be joining the NDA. “This is a political conspiracy. This is an attempts to create doubts about our secular credentials,” Maharashtra’s home minister and NCP general secretary R.R. Patil said on Friday. Observers say, relations between the Shiv Sena and the NCP workers at the grassroots level have deteriorated over the past year and a half when both parties came up with a number of agitational programmes targetting each other. Attempts by the Shiv Sena and the BJP to make inroads into the sugarcane and cotton co-operative sector haven’t gone down well with the NCP whose chief Sharad Pawar is a force to reckon with here. |
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BJP cautious on pact with
NCP, ADMK New Delhi, January 2 “No decision has been taken so far (on the NCP and the AIADMK joining the NDA fold). But there is always scope for entry of new friends into the fold,” BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told newspersons here. The cautious approach of the BJP was essentially due to the fact that although the NCP chief Sharad Pawar had expressed his willingness to contest the forthcoming poll as part of the NDA fold, he had declined to sacrifice his colleague and former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Chhagan Bhujbal, a pre-condition set by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. On the other hand, the AIADMK had also not given a clear signal about the pre-poll alliance with the BJP in Tamil Nadu although the latter had openly revealed its willingness to forge an alliance with Ms Jayalalithaa’s party in the State. Meanwhile, the BJP General Secretary took a dig at the attempts of the Congress to forge a “secular alliance”. “The effort by the Congress to forge an anti-NDA alliance is an exercise in futility as they lack leadership, policy, intent and partners,” Mr Naqvi said. Confusion on the issue of coalition politics was evident in the Congress throughout the five month journey from the Shimla conclave to the recent Mumbai rally, he said adding that “In Shimla the party, which exuded confidence of forming a coalition under the leadership of Ms Sonia Gandhi, has now changed its tune to forge an alliance without a leadership.” |
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BJP woos Apna Dal
leader New Delhi, January 1 Mr Patel, whose Apna Dal secured 3.5 per cent votes in the 1995 Lok Sabha poll, has a considerable following among the Kurmis and Patels in eastern UP. Allahabad, Varanasi, Fatehpur, Mirzapur and other districts have a considerable representation of Patel and Kurmis. Despite the Apna Dal’s failure to register any wins in either the Lok Sabha or Assembly elections, it has a great potential to tilt the electoral balance in the Patel and Kurmi-dominated constituencies, a senior BJP leader pointed out, saying that if “we are able to bring Mr Patel into the partyfold, then our position in at least 25 Lok Sabha seats would become stronger”. In UP, the BJP had won only 25 Lok Sabha seats in 1999. How to improve the electoral prospects, sources said, would be decided at the coming session of the National Executive in Hyderabad in 10 days. In the case of Mr Kalyan Singh, BJP leaders are deliberating over the post to be offered to him, if he were to rejoin the party. The demand by the Rashtriya Kranti Party (RKP) supremo to confer with his aides has complicated the issue. A senior BJP leader said talks with Mr Kalyan Singh were on, but a decision would be taken at the national executive in Hyderabad on January 11-12. “Senior BJP leaders in UP have left the matter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is expected to decide on the issue soon,” he added. The BJP leader further said that due to the Kalyan issue, dates of the BJP organisational poll in Uttar Pradesh were still to be announced. Mr Kalyan Singh is keeping mum over the issue but is in regular touch with the BJP. A BJP source maintained that Mr Kalyan Singh had demanded accommodation of his confidants in the BJP before rejoining. However, a clear picture would emerge during the proposed meeting of the RKP leaders here on January 4 and birthday celebrations of Mr Kalyan Singh on January 5. Mr Kalyan Singh also said he would be electioneering for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in the Gunnaur Assembly constituency from where the SP chief is contesting the bypoll. Meanwhile, sources claimed Mr Kalyan Singh’s entry into the BJP has been protested by his confidant and state Public Works Minister Kusum Rai. Mr Kalyan Singh, a former BJP stalwart, was expelled from the party for six years on November 27, 1999. His party is an ally in the Samajwadi Party-led UP Government. |
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Centre considering early LS poll: Advani Tirupati, January 2 “The Vajpayee government has been considering the probability of having elections earlier,” Mr Advani, who arrived here on a two-day pilgrimage, told reporters at the Renigunta airport. He said Mr Fernandes was presently consulting NDA partners in this regard. He said Mr Fernandes had recently met Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who also favoured early poll. Immediately after the return of the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from the SAARC summit, the NDA would hold a joint meeting, followed by BJP’s national executive meeting, he said. —
PTI |
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NHRC seeks report on rape in
Faridabad New Delhi, January 2 Taking suo moto cognisance of the incident reported in a national daily, the commission has asked the Chief Secretary of Haryana to look into the allegations in the report and submit his comments within two weeks, an NHRC press note said here today. “If the contents of the newspaper report, which appeared on December 22, are true, it raised serious issues of violation of human rights,” the commission said. The commission cited the report as saying that a 20-year-old girl had been repeatedly raped and strangled and her half-naked body was found tied to a tree almost two weeks back at Faridabad in Haryana. It said the family members of the victim had repeatedly approached the police, which in turn merely enquired whether they suspected anyone, and even after 15 days the police was clueless on the issue. Besides,
neighbours of the victim said they were living under fear and girls in the locality did not step out of their house alone. |
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No back wages for acquitted
employee New Delhi, January 2 “If an employee or a public servant got involved in a criminal case and after initial conviction by the trial court, is acquitted on appeal subsequently, the department cannot in any manner be found at fault with for having kept him out of service,” a Bench comprising Mr Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat in a recent judgement said. Since the law obliged a person convicted on an offence not to be retained in service, he could not be entitled to get the back wages from the date of his conviction by the trial
judge, the court said. Setting aside a judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordering the Centre to pay full back wages to its employee Jaipal Singh, acquitted
by it in a murder case, the Supreme Court said the government was within its right to deny the back wages to the respondent
for the period he was not in service. Stating that the government could not be made liable to pay for the period when the employee was out of service, the Bench said “the High Court, in our view, committed a grave error, in allowing back wages also, without
adverting to all such
relevant aspects and
considerations.” However, Jaipal Singh, would be entitled to the wages from the date he was acquitted by the High Court, the court said, while ordering his reinstatment. He was convicted by a Sessions Court at Rewari in a murder case on March 5, 1997 but the High Court had subsequently acquitted him in the case. |
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78 Indian ultras sought from Bangladesh Kolkata, January 2 India demanded that the Bangladesh Government should immediately take necessary steps in dismantling all ISI camps there and hand over the militants to them. The demand was made earlier also by the BSF DG, Mr Ajoy Rai Sharma, at a border meeting held last year with Bangladesh in Shillong. But so far, no concrete steps have been taken by Bangladesh in this regards, alleged Home Ministry officials. India now wants that like in Bhutan, a flush out operation of the Indian militants from Bangladesh be immediately launched since many militants belonging to the ULFA, BDRB and KLO had recently sneaked into that land from Bhutan during the operation. |
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16 militants surrender in Assam Kolkata, January 2 This is the first major surrender in upper Assam since the Bhutan operations began last month. The surrendered militants include 15 of ULFA and one of MULTA. The operatives of the Eastern Command Liaison Unit operating in the region motivated the militants to surrender along with a large number of assorted weapons, ammunitions, explosives and sensitive documents. Among those who surrendered include Rup Jyoti Dutta (Karuna), Haren Gogoi, Mantu Borah, Pankaj Baruah, Atul Saikia, Nipu Neog, Chandra Kanti Nath, Ritul Kalita, Sanjeeb Bor Thakur, Prashanta Dutta, Bhaskar Bordoloi, Abouri Dutta (Sharma), Ranjit Boruah, Rajen Borah and Bipul Chander Boruah of ULFA. Along with them, Jahir Ahmed of MULTA also surrendered, the statement said. —
UNI |
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Telgi’s accomplice arrested Hyderabad, January 2 Quadri, who was tipped to have been taking care of Telgi’s operations in the city, was today produced before the first Metropolitan Sessions Judge and remanded in judicial custody till January 8. Public Prosecutor Rajeswar Reddy told reporters that an incriminating evidence had been found establishing Quadri’s links with Telgi in the multi-crore stamp paper scam. The accused, owner of BINR Transportation company in the city, was arrested from his Goshamahal residence, the police said. —
UNI |
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