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Bollywood enters ballot battlefield
Cong candidate owns
assets worth Rs 20 cr It’s Cong vs BJP in Himachal Drought-hit voter Acid test for CPM triumvirate Canvass at own risk in Noida BJP undermining EC’s role: Left TV channels dominate campaign Pranab keen on Jangipur seat Ex-bureaucrats join politics ‘Evergreen’ MP from Bidar 2 soldiers to fight it out
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Bollywood enters ballot battlefield
New Delhi, March 28 If it’s “Govinda ala re” for the Congress to take on Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, a five-time BJP MP in Mumbai (North), ‘Dafli girl’ Jayaprada has been fielded by the Samajwadi Party in Rampur (UP) to upset the applecart of Congress stalwart Begum Noor Banu, who represented the seat in the dissolved House. Former Miss India Nafisa Ali of the ‘Junoon’ fame is pitted against the feisty Union Minister Mamata Banerjee, who once defeated CPM veteran Somnath Chatterjee in the Communist bastion of West Bengal. There is talk in the party of ‘Balika Badhu’ Moshumi Chatterjee, who joined the Congress recently, of getting the ticket. The Congress also has veteran actor Sunil Dutt seeking re-election from the North-West Mumbai constituency. But it is the saffron party that appears to have gone overboard in its drive to cash in on the popularity of the cine stars. While Dadasaheb Phalke awardee musician Bhupen Hazarika has been pitted to boost the saffron fortunes in Guwahati to raise its tally in Assam from the present two seats, “he-man” Dharmendra has been roped in to woo Jats in Rajasthan by fielding him from Bikaner, party sources say. The BJP has already announced the renomination of ‘Punjab da puttar (son)’ Vinod Khanna from Gurdaspur even as Samajwadi Raj Babbar would contest from Agra for perhaps the third time now. With the last word on candidates’ list still awaited from parties, the scope for a few more stars getting the ticket is not ruled out. The parties have been apparently smitten by celluloid as they welcome musicians like Bappi Lahiri, Ravindra Jain, Anup Jalota, Kumar Sanu among others to sing paens for the leaders and help percolate the “feel-good” feeling among the masses. Unlike before, when stars like Shatrughan Sinha campaigned for the party and were rewarded with Rajya Sabha seats and ministerships later, the great Indian exercise is proving to be an exercise in oneupmanship. “Dreamgirl” Hema Malini, Poonam Dhillon, Moshumi Chatterjee, Moon Moon Sen, bahu Smriti Irani and many other actors have responded to the “clarion call of the party leaders” or sense of “dharam (duty)” to the motherland to “contribute as loyal and humble soldiers”. Giving it all a professional touch, BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu even conducted a crash course on party ideology in a five-star hotel in Mumbai recently for the new Bollywood members lest their goofs leave the leaders redfaced in front of the politically conscious 65 crore-strong electorate.
— PTI
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Cong candidate owns assets worth Rs 20 cr Bareilly, March 28 He is virtually a one-stop centre of information on the political trends in the belt comprising the neighbouring Anwala, Pilibhit and Bareilly. He has political ambitions and also loads of patience. He was made an offer to join the Bharatiya Janata Party by the sitting member and Central minister, Mr Santosh Gangwar, and head the district unit of the party. He said a polite no, because he would like to make his political moves only after the elections. He would back only the winning horse. As of today, he has pockets of influence in every party. He almost managed to get the BSP candidate from Anwala to visit his chemist shop for an exclusive interview with The Tribune. The candidate had left for campaigning, otherwise Mr Gurdatta would have shown his influence over candidates and parties to a newspaper that is read by his in-laws in Mohali. There are others, including Mr Ram Singh, who admit that Mr Gangwar’s re-election should not be taken for granted. But who is going to challenge him? The Congress. Yes, the Congress whose candidate, Mr Parveen Singh Aron, seems to have already run away with the verdict. The talk of the town is the formal declaration of assets he has made for contesting. He is worth Rs 20 crore. If this piece of information is not enough to make folks rub their eyes in disbelief, consider the other admissions he has made in the declaration. He has consistently been paying income tax in the range of Rs 22 lakh to Rs 30 lakh for over 10 years now. He is a practising lawyer whose proximity to Uttaranchal Chief Minister Narain Dutt Tewari helped him come close to the Congress. The average income of his law firm is about Rs 1 lakh per day. Ripley, are you listening? Mr Aron knows that he is in with a chance to cause a political upset in favour of the Congress. In most of western UP we have covered so far, the BSP had a major roadside presence compared to other parties. Slogans like “Hathi nahi Ganesh hai, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hai” are part of the party’s strategy to extend its reach beyond the Dalits. Aggressive slogans in favour of the candidates are another common feature of the BSP’s writing on the walls. But it is Mr Aron’s writ that runs on most available wall space in Bareilly. He is indeed running an extremely aggressive campaign. Although Mr Gangwar has a good image among the voters, he cannot rest on the work he has already done for being re-elected. According to Mr Gurdatta, most of the 30,000 Sikh voters support the BJP. But Mr Aron’s image has given the Congress an honest chance to upstage the sitting member. Mr Gurdatta recently became the convener of the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh Unity Forum of the region. He wants to use it for combating communal and caste-based propaganda from dominating the campaign. As vice-president of the local Vyapaar Mandal, he hopes to play a similar role for keeping the election clean and tension-free. The BSP has given ticket to the one and only Akbar Ahmed Dumpy. Mr Islam Sabir is the Samajwadi Party candidate. According to local calculations, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has entered into a tacit understanding with Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee on post-election power-sharing. He will remain Chief Minister with BJP support in UP while and Samajwadi Lok Sabha members would be inducted in the new Council of Ministers in the event of the NDA being returned by the electorate. Then why is he contesting the Lok Sabha election? If the secular parties spring a surprise, he can position himself as a comprise candidate for Mr Vajpayee’s post. The local analysts seem to have a case. This is reflected in the choice of candidates the Samajwadi Party has put up in some constituencies. For instance, Mr Islam Sabir is an unknown quantity. He can only cut into the Muslim votes of Mr Akbar Ahmed. The advantage of the splitting of Muslim votes will go to the BJP. As far as the Pilibhit contest is concerned, the popular opinion supports Mrs Maneka Gandhi retaining the seat for the BJP. The presence of rebels from virtually every party has made the Anwala contest extremely unpredictable.
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It’s Cong vs BJP in Himachal The ongoing realignment of political forces is reverting the state back to the two-party system with leaders of the third parties scrambling to join either the ruling Congress or the opposition BJP. Over the past one month, most prominent HVC leaders have deserted the party. Similarly, five Independents have become associate members of the Congress Legislative Party and the sixth has sided with the BJP. A third force emerged on the political horizon during the 1998 Assembly poll when the Himachal Vikas Congress won five of the 68 seats, polling 9.63 per cent votes. Mr Sukh Ram, the party supremo, played the kingmaker by installing Mr P.K. Dhumal as the Chief Minister in the wake of a hung Assembly. The party spread its roots quickly and managed to win the Shimla Lok Sabha seat in alliance with the BJP in 1999. The two parties together polled 59 per cent votes, the highest ever for non-Congress parties. It also managed to secure representation in the Rajya Sabha, courtesy the BJP. However, the decline started early as Mr Mohinder Singh, the righthand-man of Mr Sukh Ram, split the HVC to float the HLTM. The split spelt doom for both parties in the last Assembly poll. The HVC contested 49 seats but won only one, though it still polled 5.87 per cent votes as against 9.63 percent in 1998. The HLTM fielded 14 candidates and managed to win just one seat. It polled 2.17 per cent votes. The dismal electoral performance dashed to the ground all hope of a third political force in the state, forcing prominent leaders of the third parties to join the main parties. Not only that both the Congress and the BJP are welcoming the estranged partymen, who contested as rebels, with open arms. The BJP has taken back almost all leaders who were expelled or had resigned from the party in Mandi, Kulu, Kangra and Chamba districts. The process is on and all rebels who organised themselves under the banner of “Mitra Milan” were likely to be taken back before the general election. The Congress has also readmitted most estranged leaders, despite opposition from some sections of the party. The fast-changing political scenario has set the stage for a straight fight between the Congress and the BJP. The Congress which lost all four seats in 1999 is making a determined bid to wrest the seats this time.
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Drought-hit voter Bangalore, March 28 The ruling Congress has to counter multiple challenges, including drought management and the significant emergence of the BJP, besides tackling the Janata Dal (S), for a renewal of mandate to rule the state for the next five years. Karnataka, with the second largest rainfed area in India, is facing nature’s wrath for the fourth successive year, with 162 talukas out of 176, accounting for 98 per cent of the area, being affected by acute drought, following monsoon failure. As the rural masses struggle with the effects of drought, parties are making a beeline to them, asking for their votes, with sky-high promises. The electorate faced a similar situation during 1985-88, when the erstwhile Janata Dal was in power.— PTI
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Acid test for CPM triumvirate Kolkata, March 28 Even after vacating the Chief Minister’s chair for his young protege Buddhadeb, Jyoti Basu and some other senior leaders played a vital role in the party’s electioneering in the 1999 Lok Sabha and the 2001 state Assembly elections. But in this election, because of his old age and ill-health, Basu has been sidetracked and Buddadeb has been put in his place as the party’s main poll-campaigner. Basu remained as a ‘back-bencher’ in the selection of party candidates for the coming elections. Biswas had much earlier taken over as the party secretary after the sudden death of Sailen Dasgupta in 2000. Initially, Biman was to succeed Dasgupta as the party’s ‘iron man’. But Biswas, the then Ganasakti’s editor and the party’s state and central committee member, was brought in as the party secretary as he was considered more acceptable for being a moderate. However, Biman was afterwards made the chairman of the Left Front Committee, the post which the previous three party secretaries, the late Promode Dasgupta (PDG), Saroj Mukherjee and Dasgupta held successively since 1977. During the PDG’s lifetime, it was the party which had the last word in all matters and Basu as Chief Minister was to ‘obey’ the party directives. But after PDG’s death, there was a change Nin the style of functioning in the party. PDG’s successor Saroj Mukherjee was a man of amiable nature who was not only a junior person to Basu in age but didn’t have a personality and command on a par with Basu. As a matter of fact during Mukherjee’s tenure as party secretary, it was Chief Minister Basu who was gradually playing the main role in the running the party. And after Mukherjee’s death though Dasgupta assumed the charge of the party secretary, it was Basu who virtually ran both the party and the government. But the situation changed in the following days when the party’s young leaders were gradually coming up in the forefront to replace the old guard. Senior leaders like Benoy Chowdhury (second man in the Jyoti Basu ministry for four successive terms) who was also a Politburo member, voluntarily quitted all posts he was holding to make room for the young leaders. Prasanta Sur, another old guard (former city Mayor and an important minister in the state), soon followed Chowdhury. Senior leaders like Amin, Benoy Konar, Rajdeo Goala, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Chittabrata Majumdar and Subhas Chakraborty had been made politically ciphers. However, Sailen Dasgupta was there till 2000 as the party secretary to run the organisation. But Basu meant everything. He was virtually the last word in the party and the government. After Dasgupta’s death when Biswas was placed in his chair, there was pressure from the young leaders to replace Basu with Buddhadeb as PDG desired. Basu himself also wanted to quit to make room for Buddhadeb. Basu was then physically weak and ill. He wanted to retire but the party’s senior leadership, particularly Harkishen Singh Surjeet and others, insisted that Basu should continue. The Chief Minister-designate Buddhadeb also pressed for his continuity in the government and the party. But at long last, when Basu found it too much for him to stand erect in the face of a direct insult and disobedience by a section in the party, he left the Chief Minister’s chair to accommodate Buddhadeb in his place. Since then Basu had been playing a secondary role in the party by dissociating himself from direct involvement in any matters.
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New Delhi, March 28 The upcoming suburb of Delhi has the reputation of being especially ‘‘deadly’’ for chief ministers who visit there as they either lose their post, or worse, their life, it added. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who will undertake a hectic campaign in the state for the coming Lok Sabha elections, is likely to skip the most well-developed and upcoming city of Noida. The report said in 1995, Mr Yadav, as the then Chief Minister, had rubbished the superstition that Noida was jinxed and had visited the city only to lose power soon after. The bitter memories still seem to haunt him. The superstition started in 1988 with the death of Chief Minister Vir Bahadur Singh of the Congress soon after he visited Noida, just 20 km away from the Capital. Mr N. D. Tiwari, also of the Congress, lost his chief ministership after he visited the city. BJP’s Kalyan Singh wanted to disprove the jinx and visited the place for a rally but was also removed after the Babri masjid demolition. BSP chief Mayawati too suffered the same fate. Later, when the much-talked about DND flyway was being inaugurated, the then Chief Minister Rajnath Singh chose Delhi as the venue and not Noida. Since then, none of the chief ministers has dared to visit Noida. The people of Noida think that it is a shame that their leaders are plagued by such superstition, the report said. “Noida is such a great place, it has done so much for me. There is something amiss if CMs don’t come here,’’ a local resident told NDTV. “Because of some coincidences, leaders have become superstitious and are afraid to come to Noida,’’ MLA Nawab Singh Nagar told the channel.
— UNI
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Dissidence crops up against Ram Naik Mumbai, March 28 According to sources, a meeting of the coordination committee comprising workers of the two parties in the Palghar-Virar area resulted in allegations and counter-allegations levelled by both sides. Shiv Sena activists are particularly peeved that Naik did not allocate petrol stations to workers from their party, sources said. Shiv Sena sources in Mumbai say requests from their party office-bearers for allocation of petrol stations were turned down by Naik’s ministry. Naik continues to be under a cloud after reporters uncovered details of large-scale allotments of petrol stations being made to office-bearers of the BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other wings of the Sangh Parivar nearly two years ago. Sections of the Shiv Sena in the Palghar-Virar area, which is the least developed among the six Lok Sabha constituencies in Mumbai have even threatened to work for the Congress candidate, actor Govinda, who hails from this area. Shiv Sena leaders have been demanding that Naik should spend a larger share of money from his MP’s contingency fund for the development of this area. Aware of the differences, the Congress has been wooing disgruntled Shiv Sena leaders to work for Govinda, sources say. State-level leaders of the two parties have called for a meeting of all Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in the area to discuss the matter before campaigning for the Lok Sabha poll hots up.
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BJP undermining EC’s role: Left New Delhi, March 28 Objecting to the BJP’s reaction, the Left parties today alleged that the BJP was making deliberate attempts to weaken the Election Commission’s authority and undermine all constitutional bodies in the country. It said the saffron party’s move amounted to interference in the commission’s
independent functioning. Mr Mahajan had termed as ridiculous the Congress representation to the EC, protesting against TV ads on the foreign origin issue and said the EC’s role was to ensure impartial poll and non-violation of the Model Code of Conduct. The
CPI(M) said the BJP was trying to undermine all democratic institutions which were the pillars of the Indian democracy. Under the Model Code of Conduct the EC had the authority to tell the political parties what issues could be raised, they added. The parties alleged that the BJP leadership was making efforts to pressurise its
administrators to let it (BJP) go scot free despite the party’s “unethical and undemocratic practices”. The CPI national secretary D. Raja said political parties are given registration by the EC. “We don’t understand why the BJP is raking the foreign origin issue at all ?” the CPI leader said. As per the Supreme Court order, there is no rule or law preventing Congress President Sonia Gandhi from becoming an MP. Taking serious note of various complaints about unfair advertisements on television channels, the commission had yesterday directed the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to take “appropriate action” against advertisements that are “slanderous in nature” and violative of the advertisement code. The Commission has given time till Monday evening to submit the action taken report in this regard. The Election Commission has convened a meeting of all political parties on April 6 to discuss, among other things, political advertisements on television channels and publishing of opinion and exit polls.
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New Delhi, March 28 Working in shifts, round the clock, these young people, in the age group of 25-30, are lapping up the news on the many 24-hour TV channels so that their leaders are not at sea on any news when interacting with the people or the media. “It is an information warfare, and the one who is one up in this area will emerge the winner. If our political rival makes a statement, we should get to know about it as soon as possible and be armed with the reply,” said Siddharth Nath Singh, all-India joint convener of the BJP’s Media Cell. Noting that the electronic media has brought about a sea change in the monitoring of news, he said for these elections, the cell was working in three shifts, with around seven persons each, looking at around 10 channels. He said an example of the nimbleness of the BJP’s cell was the speed with which it downloaded the Congress manifesto from the various news sources and knew of its main aspects within half an hour of its release. The BJP’s main political rival, the Congress, is also aware of the need for “quick reactions”. “Now, even as a piece of news is being shown on TV, our phones start ringing for a reaction. The electronic media has made it important for us to keep pace with the news breaks,” said Tom Vadakkan, secretary and in charge of the Media Department, the Congress. The Congress has also held a workshop of the party’s spokespersons from all over the country to prepare them to be fast in reacting to news breaks. Apart from looking out for election-related news on the TV channels, the Congress youth activists are also checking for biases and disinformation. “Especially on Doordarshan, we want a level playing field for all parties and have even approached the Election Commission to ensure that those in power do not dominate the DD airtime,” he said. The parties have also speeded up the internal distribution of information, with the latest technology being put to use to network the central and state unit offices. This has necessitated the help of professionals. While the BJP has hired experts to put the technology in place for the information warfare, the Congress is also taking help of a public relations firm to fine-tune its media management. Not willing to disclose the amount of money spent on the media warfare, the BJP spokesman said, “It is not much”, while Vadakkan declared his party would “match with every paise spent by the BJP on the media campaign.” On the other hand, D. Raja, national secretary of the CPI, said while the leading parties may claim to have not spent much on the media strategies, it was obvious that they were paying the professionals they had hired. “There are many more parties like our’s that can’t afford to have such a corporatised media department,” Raja said, calling for electoral reforms that would bring the parties on a level playing field in terms of the money spent on the campaign. “Money power has to be done away with. The election process has become such an expensive affair that only those with big money bags can make their presence felt,” he said.
— PTI
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Pranab keen on Jangipur seat Kolkata:
Will WBPCC chief Pranab Mukherjee contest the coming Lok Sabha elections from the Jangipur constituency in
Murshidabad. In the changing political situation, Mr Mukherjee wants to try his luck once again in the Lok Sabha poll after receiving an overwhelming response from the Murshidabad district Congress, which insists that he should contest the Jangipur seat. However, he has left the matter to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the party President. District Congress president Adhir Chowdhury, the party’s sitting MP from Berhampore and other leaders had approached Mr Mukherjee, persuading him to file his nomination from
Jangipur. They also sent a memorandum to Mrs Gandhi, requesting her to allow Mr Mukherjee to contest from
Jangipur. However, Mrs Gandhi turned down their request on the plea that Mr Mukherjee would be needed for supervising the party’s over-all electioneering in the country. However, Mr Mukherjee, said after meeting a series of deputations from the Murshidabad district Congress, he would once again talk to Mrs Gandhi and persuade her to allow him to contest the Jangipur seat. He said Congress workers and supporters were demoralised that he was not contesting from
Jangipur. He hoped that he would be able to persuade Mrs Gandhi to allow him to contest the Jangipur seat. However, it will not be an easy task for Mr Mukherjee in
Jangipur, which has been a strong base of the CPM in the past decade. In the 1999 elections, CPM candidate Abul Hasnat Khan won the seat by defeating Mainul Haque of the Congress with a margin of over 60,000 votes. Incidentally, in that election, TMC candidate Syed Mustaque
Murshed, a former bureaucrat, hit the Congress candidate’s poll prospect. In the coming elections, the TMC has fielded Madan Mitra as its candidate in
Jangipur. He controls the party’s youth wing and the trade union front. Mitra has a large number of followers. The Murshidabad Congress has assured Mr Mukherjee that it would ensure his victory from
Jangipur.
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Jaipur, March 28 The Congress has already announced the nomination of Mahendra Singh, a retired additional chief secretary of the state from the Bayana Lok Sabha seat reserved for Scheduled Castes. Two former administrative and police officials N.K. Bairwa and N.N. Meena, who joined the Congress yesterday, are tipped to be fielded from the Tonk (SC) and Sawai Madhopur (ST) constituencies. While Bairwa, a senior IAS officer, resigned as chairman of the Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC), Meena resigned as a member of the Rajasthan Human Rights Commission, prior to the poll. Meena was appointed a member of the RHMS by the Congress government last year after he resigned from the Indian Police Service. The BJP has also renominated Jaskaur Meena, a former district-level government officer, from Sawai Madhopur in the coming poll. The joining of politics by bureaucrats and their getting ticket so easily is a new phenomenon in the desert state which saw former IPS officer Ram Narain Bairwa winning the Lok Sabha election from Tonk on BJP ticket for the first time. However, Mahendra Singh unsuccessfully has tried his luck at the hustings twice in the past.
— PTI
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‘Evergreen’ MP from Bidar Bidar, March 28 He, however, switched over to the BJP in 1991. One of the oldest vanguards of the dissolved Lok Sabha, the agile Veerappa with Arya Samaj leanings and a freedom fighter is still “very young in spirit and enthusiasm”. “I will never retire from social service and people still call me MP sab”, he said with pride. Though he had his political baptism in 1952, he got elected as MP from the Bidar reserved constituency for the first time in 1962 as a Congress candidate. Before the reorganisation of states in 1952, he became an MLC in the Hyderabad Legislature and later shifted to the Mysore Legislative Council in 1956. Soon after the reorganisation of states in 1957, he was elected MLA from the Aland Assembly constituency.
— PTI
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2 soldiers to fight it out
Dehra Dun, March 28 The Union Minister for Surface Transport and Highways, Maj-Gen B. C. Khanduri (retd), the sitting BJP MP from the seat, is taking on the Congress candidate, Lieut-Gen T. P. S. Rawat (retd), Tourism Minister in the N. D. Tiwari state government. The presence of a large population of ex-servicemen and their dependents in the constituency has apparently persuaded both parties to field high-ranking soldiers in the election. Lieut-Gen Rawat is a veteran of the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars being an infantry commander. Maj-Gen
Khanduri, on the other hand, was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers and has never fought a war. Maj-Gen Khanduri has represented the constituency three times after joining the BJP after his retirement. He suffered his lone defeat at the hands of Satpal Maharaj in 1996.
— PTI
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CPI leader’s plea to EC Tiruchirappalli:
CPI’s Tamil Nadu unit secretary R. Nallakannu on Sunday appealed to the Election Commission to monitor the action of Government of India’s Rural Development Department extending loans to labourers in the unorganised sector and the Tamil Nadu Government offering “liberal credit” to the women’s self-help groups.
— PTI
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NRI taken for a ride Insurance cover for staff Rajni fans back AIADMK-BJP
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Shimla, March 28