Development of border areas is Jagmeet’s dream
Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

Ferozepore, March 31
For Mr Jagmeet Brar, claimed as “Awaj-e-Punjab” by his supporters, the nomination from this parliamentary constituency by the party high command for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections is a major achievement.

Mr Brar has contested a number of elections against family members of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Now his nomination from Ferozepore for the forthcoming elections though he is the sitting MP from Faridkot is a big challenge.

But for him, this parliamentary constituency is not a new thing. He unsuccessfully contested from here in the Lok Sabha elections in 1989. He got about 1.93 lakh votes in a four-cornered contest.

Born at Bam village of Muktsar district in the family of a politician, the late Gurmeet Singh Brar, who remained minister in the Akali government, Mr Brar is known as an expert on elections.

An advocate-turned-politician, Mr Brar was brought into the Congress party by the late Chief Minister Darbara Singh. He later nominated him as Administrative Member of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB).

Mr Brar’s dream is the overall development of border areas of Ferozepore district which have been neglected by the previous SAD-BJP government and BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. He says that even the Centre did not bother to give compensation to all farmers whose land were mined or became uncultivable due to erection of fencing wire on the Indo-Pak border.

Mr Brar also pens poems and writes stories. He says that he will also work hard to make Ferozepore district one amongst the fully developed districts of India. He will work for the inclusion of the Rai Sikh community in the list of Scheduled Tribes. Apart from it, a big hospital on the pattern of the PGI, Chandigarh, will be set up in this district.

In connection with the revolt in the Ferozepore Congress against his nomination, he says that he is not an outsider as he has already contested a Lok Sabha election from here. Also, he claims that all sitting MLAs of the Congress of this district have committed their support to him.

Mr Brar, who developed sharp differences with every Chief Minister ever since he joined the Congress, says that tragedy of his political life is that workers love him but a section of party leaders have always opposed him. He once left the Congress and joined Congress (Tiwari). Claiming to be a principled politician, he has always criticised nepotism in politics. He got his brother Ripjit Singh Brar nominated as Chairman of the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA).

“My stand on all issues concerning Punjab, Punjabiyat and farmers in Parliament in the past four years and sacrifices made by me for getting the dues of Punjab from the Centre are embedded in the hearts of everyone. These sacrifices and raising of issues concerning Punjab and farmers will fetch me votes,” claims Mr Brar.

BJP gears up to increase tally in Bengal
Subhrangshu Gupta

Kolkata, March 31
In 1969, when the United Front government in Bengal came to power for the second term with Ajoy Mukherjee (Bangla Congress) as the  Chief Minister and Jyoti Basu the Home Minister, the state Assembly had a lone Jan Sangh member, Dr Haripada Bharati.

Prof Bishnu Kanto Shastri (at present UP Governor) after Dr Bharati’s sudden death contested in the 1972 Assembly elections from the same Burrabazar area on the Jan Sangh ticket and won.

Oddly enough, Dr Bharati and Prof Shastri, two main torch-bearers of the party, then had failed to develop the party as a mass-base organisation in their founder, late Dr Syama Prasad Mukherjee’s, Kolkata where he was born and lived.

But a section of the younger generation was gradually attracted to Jan Sangh’s frontal militant unit, the Rastriya Sangram Samiti,(RSS) which was then building several units in some districts around Kolkata. However, Jan Sangh’s main concentration was in the Burrabazar area here and the business community there became the Jan Sangh’s members and supporters.

Today also, the party (now BJP) does not have any wide-spread networkers in the state. It has no representation in the Bengal Assembly. There are, however,  two party  MPs in the Lok Sabha after their re-entry into Bengal politics  with the help of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

In this election, the BJP which has been fighting under a seat-sharing arrangement with the Trinamool Congress, is determined to with at least six seats and go ahead further ‘independently’ in spreading its network in rural Bengal without much depending on Mamata Banerjee’s mercy.

The party is contesting 13 seats with the seat-sharing arrangement with the Trinamool Congress against the CPM and the Congress and probably, they will be fighting  in two more seats (Purulia and Bankura) on a friendly basis with the Trinamool Congress.  

During Dr Mukherjee’s life time also, the Jan Sangh did not have much followers in Bengal and the party did not develop as a well-net mass-base organisation. 

A handful of people who had migrated from Rajasthan and UP and settled down in the Burrabazar area and were doing business there became the party supporters and sympathisers. There was no representation in the party from the Bengali middle class and the poor section of the people, especially, daily-wage-earners and peasants.

When the party was re-named as the Bharatiya Janata Party also, it did not have any much network in the state and the party’s followers and supporters were negligible in number. It was in 1998 that the lone BJP leader, Tapan Sikhdar, the state unit president, was elected for the first time to Lok Sabha from the CPM bastion at Dum Dum with the help of Mamata Banerjee. In the 1996 elections also, the BJP had its entry into the state Assembly. But in the 2001 Assembly poll when the Trinamool Congress forged an alliance with the Congress after  severing all ties with NDA partners, the BJP lost even that lone Assembly seat.

Now like the Trinamool Congress, the state BJP is also divided into two groups — one headed by present president Tathagata Roy and another by Sikhdar, a Union Minister. The party which earlier left the NDA on the Tehelka issue and re-entered the NDA has now been fighting the Lok Sabha poll jointly with the BJP in the state.

In fact, Ms Banerjee who had already developed enmities with several sections, in this elections will be fighting not only against the CPM but also a strong group within her party.

In this political scenario in Bengal, this election will be another test-game for the BJP to prove its strength in the Marxist bastion of Bengal. The BJP as such does not have any threat either from the Trinamool Congress or the Congress. The party’s main enemy is the CPM, which has made a vow to oust the BJP as well as its partner, the Trinamool Congress from Bengal, The CPM alleges both these parties have been now destroying the country vis-à-vis Bengal  on communal cards and factionalism.

The BJP too has been gearing up at full-strength to make a larger inroad into Bengal by winning a larger number of seats and it considers the CPM as well as the Congress as its bitter enemies.

Cong, BJP, AGP main players in Assam

Guwahati, March 31
The forthcoming parliamentary elections to the 14 constituencies in Assam are poised to be a show of strength among the three major contenders — the Congress, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the BJP.

Assam, an extremely sensitive state due to prevailing insurgency, will go to the polls in two phases with voters in six constituencies to elect their candidates on April 30.

Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Guwahati, Mangaldoi, Nagaon and Tezpur, all in Lower and Central Assam, will go to the polls in the first phase the nominations for which will end tomorrow.

The Congress swept the poll in the last elections winning 10 of the constituencies while the AGP was completely wiped out with its candidates failing to capture even a single seat but the BJP made considerable inroads, winning two seats, including the prestigious Guwahati parliamentary constituency.

The BJP hopes to make further gains in the forthcoming elections and has fielded candidates in 12 of the 14 seats leaving the Kaliabor constituency for the Janata Dal (United) and supporting sitting MP S.K. Bwismuthiary in Kokrajhar.

The Congress, however, has been rocked by infighting over the selection of candidates and is yet to formally announce the candidate for the Guwahati seat though party sources said that senior leader Kirip Chaliha had been selected for the seat.

The focus of the first phase of poll will be on the Guwahati Parliamentary constituency where noted Assamese singer, composer, director and ‘Dada Saheb Phalke Award’ winner Bhupen Hazarika is the BJP candidate while former Home Minister and signatory to the Assam accord Bhrigu Phukan is the AGP candidate.

Mr Phukan left the AGP twice due to differences with former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, and was till recently Vice-President of the Nationalist Congress Party following its merger with the Congress.

The BJP was expected to go all out to retain the Guwahati seat which was represented by Union Minister of state for Water Resources Bijoya Chakraborty in the outgoing ministry who was denied the ticket this time to accommodate Hazarika.

In the Bodo-dominated Kokrajhar (Scheduled Tribe) constituency which will go to the polls for the first time after the creation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) last December, sitting Independent MP S K Bwismuthiary is expected to have an edge with the AGP not contesting the seat while the Congress is yet to announce its candidate. — PTI

Cong lags behind in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, March 31
The delay in selection of party candidates and roadblocks in seat-sharing negotiations with electoral partners have caused the Congress campaign to lag behind in Orissa.

With barely a day to go for closure of filing of nomination papers for the first phase elections in the state, the Congress is yet to finalise the list of its candidates to contest the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Eleven Lok Sabha and 77 Assembly seats would go to the polls in the first-phase elections.

The Congress, which has so far released the names of party candidates in 16 of the 21 parliamentary and 99 out of 147 Assembly seats, is yet to announce the names of party nominees for the Berhampur and Kalahandi parliamentary constituencies and 14 Assembly seats going to polls in the first phase.

“We are losing vital campaign time and the delay is hurting Congress prospects,” a concerned party leader said.

PCC spokesman Arya Kumar Gyanendra said the list of party nominees was expected to be released by the evening.

The BJD and the BJP, the main opponents of the Congress, who have an electoral alliance for the past six years, have already finalised their lists of candidates for the simultaneous poll, and have swung into electioneering.

The BJD has announced the names of its candidates for 12 of the 21 Lok Sabha and 84 Assembly seats it would contest.

The BJP, actually, was the first party to declare the names of its nominees for nine Lok Sabha and 62 Assembly constituencies, ahead of all others.

The BJP, however, is yet to finalise the name of its candidate for the Begunia seat, represented in the dissolved House by matinee idol Prasanta Nanda.

The seat-sharing talks the Congress was holding with the CPI, however, floundered with the former not willing to concede five Assembly seats to the latter.

The differences spilled into the open on Saturday night after the CPI announced its candidates for five seats —Kabisuryanagar, Kakatpur, Chhatrapur, Malkangiri(sc) and Bijepur.

CPI state Assistant Secretary Dibakar Nayak insisted that the five seats had been decided at a meeting between party General Secretary A.B. Bardhan and AICC chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi.

Rumblings are being heard about the seat-sharing adjustment the Congress had with the JMM with the latter announcing at Baripada yesterday that it would contest the Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha and seven Assembly seats —five in Mayurbhanj and two in Sundargarh districts.

The Bahujan Samaj Party has decided to field candidates in seven Lok Sabha and 48 Assembly seats. “We may decide to contest more parliamentary and Assembly seats which will be known on April 1”, party’s state President Akhyay Mallick said.

The Samajwadi Party has decided to set up candidates in five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly seat. — PTI

Elder brother BJP ‘ignores’ NDA partners in Jharkhand

Ranchi, March 31
Coalition partners of the NDA government in Jharkhand — the BJP, JD(U) and AJSU — are set to contest against one another in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections and the junior partners blame the BJP for the situation.

“No doubt we are fighting one another in some seats because the BJP did not allot a single seat to us. But it will not affect the NDA dispensation in the state,” said leaders of the JD (U) and AJSU.

While the BJP has fielded candidates in all 14 seats, its coalition partners have nominated five and four, respectively.

The JD(U) has allotted Godda and Palamu to former MP Suraj Mandal and Radha Krishan Kishore after they joined the party.

A senior BJP leader on a condition of anonymity said the political scenario in the state had become an embarrassment for all three coalition partners. “What will be the issues ? Will they accuse each other during the campaign?’’ he asked.

JD (U) leader and Energy Minister Lalchand Mahto said the party would go to the people and describe how its repeated requests for reservation to backward classes in the panchayat and tribal status for Kurmis fell on deaf ears.

“We have all along treated the BJP as an elder brother, but our elder brother did not bother to allot a single seat. Neither had it allowed us to contest in three bypolls in the past,’’ Mahto said.

He, however, dismissed any threat to the NDA government.

AJSU vice-president Praveen Prabhakar also denied that failure in seat-sharing posed any danger to the Munda government.

Asked whether it would be bothersome for Janata Dal (U) leaders like George Fernandes, Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar if they came to Jharkhand for campaigning, the Energy Minister said, “In the event of the leaders coming here, I hope they would visit all five constituencies where the party has put up candidates.’’ — PTI

Stalwarts’ kin join fray in Punjab, Haryana

Chandigarh, March 31
Several constituencies in Punjab and Haryana are set to witness ‘prestige contests’ with close relatives of several key political personalities, including those of present and former Chief Ministers, in the fray for the Lok Sabha poll.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur, his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal’s son, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala’s elder son, Mr Ajay Singh, and his predecessor Bansi Lal’s son, Surender Singh, were among the relatives of at least six top leaders of the two states trying their luck in the May 10 poll.

All four — Preneet Kaur, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Ajay Singh Chautala and Surender Singh — are entering the fray from their traditional seats of Patiala, Faridkot and Bhiwani respectively.

While Preneet Kaur, Sukhbir and Ajay are seeking re-election, Bansi Lal’s son, Mr Surender Singh who finished third from Bhiwani in the 1999 poll is vying to make entry into Parliament from the same constituency contesting against his arch rival, Mr Ajay Singh Chautala.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD-Badal) General Secretary and former Rajya Sabha member Sukhbir Singh Badal had contested the 1999 poll unsuccessfully, losing by just 5,046 votes against Congress candidate and firebrand leader Jagmeet Singh Brar.

Ms Praneet Kaur is contesting from Patiala on the Congress ticket. In the last elections she secured a comfortable victory over SAD (Badal) candidate Surjit Singh Rakhra by polling over 40 per cent of the votes.

This time, Preneet Kaur faces SAD General Secretary and former Punjab Finance Minister Kanwaljit Singh.

Mr Ajay Singh Chautala who registered a comprehensive 2.25 lakh votes victory against Mr Surender Singh, the HVP candidate, would fight it out without the support of the BJP as both the INLD and the BJP had severed ties.

Besides the relatives of present and former Chief Ministers, former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral’s son, Mr Naresh Gujral, is trying his luck on the SAD ticket from Jalandhar (Punjab) from where his father had earlier contested thrice. Pitted against BJP stalwart Kishan Singh Sangwan in the Sonepat parliamentary seat in Haryana is state police chief M.S. Malik’s wife Krishna Malik who is fighting on the INLD ticket. However, she has landed in a controversy even before the campaign picked up with her main rivals Mr Sangwan (BJP) and Jagbir Singh Malik (HVP) — accusing the INLD Government and the state DGP of misusing official machinery in favour of Ms Malik.

Though the Congress is yet to announce its candidates in Haryana, among the race for contesting on the party ticket are Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, steel magnate and Congress leader OP Jindal’s son, Mr Naveen Jindal, and Mr Randeep Singh Surjewala, son of Congress leader Shamsher Singh Surjewala. — PTI

Tohra factor to work in Patiala, Ropar
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 31
Veteran Akali leader Gurcharan Singh Tohra is an election factor whether he is campaigning or not. In hospital and likely to be on rest through the forthcoming parliamentary elections, his absence will be felt most in the Patiala and Ropar constituencies which have been his home ground for decades.

Tohra’s writ ran large in both Patiala and Ropar districts during SAD-BJP rule in the state. Even after the Badal-Tohra spat, the latter continued to retain a hold on the minds and hearts of people of both constituencies. Candidates put up by Tohra in Patiala and Ropar spoiled the SAD applecart, resulting in Congress victories in both the seats in the last Lok Sabha elections.

In the forthcoming elections, both Patiala and Ropar are considered to be strong Akali citadels with a predominant rural population backing the party. Tohra was instrumental in the selection of candidates for both the constituencies. While he chose his confidant and former Rajya Sabha Member Sukhdev Singh Libra for the Ropar seat, from Patiala he ‘blessed’ former state Finance Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh after refusing ticket to his former trusted junior Prem Singh Chandumajra.

In both constituencies, Tohra had already started the process of reaching out to the electorate and introducing the two candidates to the people. While in Ropar, he was faced with the task of asking for votes for his confidant, in Patiala he had to first stem the controversy generated following refusal of ticket to Chandumajra. He deflected criticism from Chandumajra by claiming that he had given a lot to the leader for the work rendered by him for the party.

The absence of Tohra is being felt most in Ropar. He was the main pivot around whom the campaign was being run. He was going to the grassroot level with the candidate, Mr Sukhdev Singh Libra.

Staunch supporter Rajbir Singh Padiala who contested the Kharar seat on the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal ticket says that the people are feeling the absence of Tohra.

Though Capt Kanwaljit Singh may be slightly better placed individually, he also feels the loss of the SGPC leader at large meetings and rallies. “Badal (Parkash Singh) cannot come here everyday to address meetings and it was left to Tohra to rally everyone behind Kanwaljit,” said a local leader while summing up the situation. Though Tohra’s son-in-law Harmel Singh Tohra, a former minister, is likely to try to breach the gap left by his father-in-law, he is a poor replacement as he not known outside the Dakala Assembly segment which he represented in the SAD-BJP government. A few Akali leaders when contacted said they expected a sympathy wave in favour of the Akali candidates due to Tohra’s indisposition.

Now SP flags off ‘Vijay Raths’

Lucknow, March 31
Apparently taking a cue from Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani’s “Bharat uday yatra”, the Samajwadi Party today flagged off a fleet of 100 “Vijay Raths” that would cover all 69 constituencies being contested by the party in UP in the coming Lok Sabha poll.

“These Vijay Raths will apprise the people of the achievements of the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government’s six-month, tenure with the help of cultural troupes, besides campaigning for the party nominees on all these seats,” party general secretary Amar Singh, who flagged off the raths here, said.

About 1000 folk artists in small groups would accompany these raths, Mr Amar Singh said, adding that a five-minute film featuring the brand ambassador of the state, Amitabh Bachchan, would also be screened on these raths .

Mr Amar Singh said the film would consist of poetry recitation by the superstar who would also appeal to the people to vote judiciously in the coming elections and speak about the achievements of the state government.

About the BJP’s high-tech campaigning, Mr Amar Singh said that it should help people identify with it. People in the villages did not know anything about the devices being used by the BJP. Mr Amar Singh expressed satisfaction over the momentum of his party’s campaign which, he claimed, was far better than other political opponents. — PTI

SP term for giving up contest in Amethi

Lucknow, March 31
The Samajwadi Party today said it could consider not contesting the Amethi Lok Sabha seat from where the Congress has fielded Rahul Gandhi if the party agreed to support the SP candidate against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lucknow.

“If the Congress extended its support to Samajwadi Party candidate from Lucknow Madhu Gupta, we could think on not fielding our candidate in Amethi from where Rahul Gandhi is in the fray,” SP’s national general secretary Amar Singh told reporters after flagging off election campaign vehicles here.

“The Samajwadi Party has not yet declared its candidate from Amethi and its options are still open,” he said, appealing to the Congress and the BSP to support his party in Lucknow against the BJP “which would also send a strong message against communalism”.

Accusing the BSP of foiling attempts to field a joint candidate against Vajpayee, Amar Singh said his party has never been against the idea.

“It was, in fact, BSP leader Mayawati who was the first one to field her candidate from Lucknow,” he said. “It was only after the BSP went ahead and announced its candidate that the SP declared its nominee from Lucknow,” the SP leader said. “The BJP is terming the SP challenge in Lucknow as ‘very ordinary’ but if the BSP and Congress backs her (Gupta) she could put up a very good fight,” Amar Singh said. — PTI

Plea to derecognise BJP, AIADMK

Pondicherry, March 31
Pondicherry Congress President V. Narayanasamy on Wednesday said the PCC would petition the Election Commission demanding that it rescind the recognition given to the BJP and AIADMK as these parties “were continuing to make personal attacks against AICC President Sonia Gandhi by raking up the issue of her nationality. Narayanasamy told reporters here that the PCC would also seek disqualification of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa as member of the Assembly for her “violation of code of conduct” as she had been repeatedly harping on the “foreign origin issue.” Narayanasamy said the Supreme Court had stated in its verdict that Sonia Gandhi was an Indian citizen. Further, she was also the Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha. Under the circumstances, BJP and AIADMK leaders calling her a foreign national was a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, he said. — PTI

Parties face caste pressure in Rajasthan

Jaipur, March 31
Caste groups in Rajasthan which managed to extract benefits ahead of the Assembly elections have once again begun exerting pressure on political parties with various demands in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

To cash in on their numbers in the battle of the ballot, Jats, Rajputs, Gurjars and even Jains are raising demands in the hope that parties would concede these in election time.

While Jats, Rajputs and Gurjars are demanding a bigger share in the party ticket, Jains are demanding their recognition as a religious minority in the desert state.

Although the Rajasthan Samajik Nyaya Manch, which unsuccessfully tried to become a deciding factor in the Assembly poll by demanding reservation for Rajputs and Brahmins, is in a disarray while a split in the Jat Mahasabha weakened it, other groups of Rajputs and Jats have emerged to extract political mileage in the poll.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje held talks with Khsatriya Mahasabha leaders in Udaipur yesterday apparently to placate them after a social body of Rajputs, which supported the BJP in the Assembly poll announced to work against the saffron party for giving the ticket to only two Rajputs against six Jats.

Similarly, the Gurjar Mahasabha, like in the Assembly poll, is also demanding a bigger share for their caste candidates in the Lok Sabha elections although they have been less vocal than Rajputs and Jats. — PTI

BRIEFLY

TIKAIT’S BKD TO GO IT ALONE
MUZAFFARNAGAR: The Bahujan Kisan Dal led by Mr Mahendra Singh Tikait will contest the Lok Sabha elections alone after its efforts to forge a pre-poll seat adjustment with the Congress failed. The party has decided to go it alone in the elections after the Congress turned down its request to give the Basti, Pilibhit, Muzaffarnagar and Aligarh seats during talks for pre-poll seat adjustment, party general secretary Ashok Balian said here today. The first list of candidates and the manifesto would be released on April 2, Mr Balian said. — PTI

OBSERVERS START WORK ON APRIL 12
JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Lai Kotari has said all poll observers, deputed by the Election Commission (EC) in the state for the coming Lok Sabha (LS) elections will begin their work from April 12. Two IAS officers have been appointed as general observers in each of the 25 constituencies in the state. — UNI

HELMETS EXEMPTED
KANPUR: In view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the district police administration here has exempted two-wheeler drivers participating in electioneering from wearing helmets. Several political parties have requested to exempt them from wearing helmets during poll campaigns, Superintendent of Police Ratan Srivastava said. This relief would be given only during the elections, he said. — PTI