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BJP
urges EC to declare Haryana sensitive News
Analysis Tough
triangular contest in Ambala |
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First-time
voters excited, wary of politicians Pilfering
campaign material for assembly poll BSP MLA
to support INLD in LS poll More
Central forces for Haryana Rajora
joins Congress New
age managers have to be fit, alert: seminar High
Court
8 Nari
Niketan inmates tie the knot 200
bags of poppy husk seized
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BJP urges EC to declare Haryana sensitive Jhajjar, April 29 Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Yadav said, “The Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, was issuing unconstitutional statements as his party’s defeat was imminent”. He said the state BJP had also requested the commission to keep close watch on the functioning of 47 officers deputed by the INLD government. The government had released as many as 300 criminals on parole and the commission should keep a close watch on their movements, he said. The BJP leader said a meeting of office-bearers of the party was also held today to make arrangements for the Prime Minister’s rally on May 2. He said the rally would be held in Jahanara Stadium. However, the venue could be changed to Nehru Park due to security reasons. Mr Yadav said a 61-member organising committee had also been constituted headed by Mr Ranjeet Singh. “The committee comprises all office-bearers of the state unit and four Lok Sabha candidates, Mr Kishan Singh Sangwan, Mr Abimanyu, Ms Sudha Yadav and Mr Ram Bilas Sharma”. Mr Yadav claimed that an Atal wave was sweeping the state and his rally would set the stage for a clean sweep by the party. |
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News Analysis Chandigarh, April 29 Observers of the Haryana politics read two meanings in Mr Surender Singh’s statement. They feel that Mr Surender Singh, who is number two in the HVP after his father, has cautioned the electorate of Bhiwani in his own style that if they favoured somebody else than him while casting its vote on May 10, they should not dream of having chief ministership in their district for years to come. Since the Assembly elections are to be held within months of the Lok Sabha elections, his defeat would send a wrong signal to the electorate of Haryana about the strength of the HVP, which performed remarkably well in the Yamunanagar and Fatehabad Assembly byelections after its dismal performance in the 2000 Assembly elections. Mr Surender Singh and his father share a love-hate relationship with the people of Bhiwani. If in one election, the Bhiwani electorate expressed their disapproval for the first family of the district, in the next they overwhelmingly voted for their “Bau ji” and his son. In the last Lok Sabha elections, the Bhiwani electorate had moved away from Mr Surender Singh to elect Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, the elder son of the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, with a huge margin. By fielding Mr Kuldip Bishnoi, the younger son of the former Chief Minister, the Congress has made the Bhiwani contest keener than ever. Naturally, the stakes for the three political families of Haryana are very high. The winner’s father will have a psychological gain in the next Assembly elections. Mr Bansi Lal and his family are known for keeping their word, unlike many of the other politicians. The observers feel that by announcing their retirement from politics in case of his defeat, Mr Surender Singh has made an emotional appeal to his voters in a typical style. Mr Surender Singh’s statement also reflects his confidence about his victory. Incidentally, the observers point out that the “satta market” bets justify the HVP candidate’s confidence so far. They also point out that towards the last days of campaigning, Mr Bansi Lal moves from door to door in Bhiwani, seeking votes for him or his candidate. In the past, Mr Bansi Lal’s similar appeals have usually evoked a favourable response from the voter. Will he succeed this time also? The answer will be known only on May 13. |
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Tough
triangular contest in Ambala Ambala, April 29 The parliamentary constituency, having 12,00061 electorate, is spread over in nine Assembly segments. Four segments — Naggal, Sadhora, Mulana and Naraingarh— are represented by the INLD MLAs. The BJP has its two MLAs in Ambala City and Chichroli. The Congress has lone MLA from Panchkula. The BSP MLA representing the Jagadhri Assembly segment, has recently joined the INLD. Since the 1952 Lok Sabha elections, this constituency has witnessed direct fight between the Congress and the Jan Sangh (now BJP) except 1998, when the BSP-INLD alliance won this seat. The former Governor of Himachal Pradesh, Mr Suraj Bhan, had been elected MP from this seat a number of times on the Jan Sangh and the BJP ticket. In 1999 elections, the INLD had offered its support to the BJP candidate, Mr Ratan Lal Kataria, who had defeated the Congress candidate, Mr Phool Chand Mulana with a margin of around 1.25 lakh votes. This time the INLD itself contesting the elections. Mr Kataria is depending much on the feel good factor and his performance of last four years. He visited almost all 1500 villages in his constituency. He is promising the electorate that he will bring big industry to provide jobs to thousands of unemployment. He claims that he will recapture this seat for the second time. Ms Selja has started her election campaign a bit late. The other parties have been raking up the issue of her being an “outsider”. Claiming that Ms Sonia Gandhi has sent her to serve the people of Ambala and promising people that she will make Ambala an industrial hub like Gurgaon. Groupism in her party may, however, pose a hurdle for her victory. Mr Kotkachua, who has a stronghold in villages, is intensively going round in all nine-Assembly segments. He is seeking votes on development works done under the “Sarker Aapke Dwar” programme in the constituency. He is giving word to people that all pending development works will be completed during the remaining one year of the state government. He is also assuring the sugarcane producer farmers of the Naraingarh area to solve their problems. Candidates of the HVP, BSP, Samata Party, Lok Jan Shakti, Haryana Akali Dal and the Ekta Shakti are also in the fray. Some of them may play an important role in deciding the fate of the three “bigs”. |
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First-time voters excited, wary of politicians Karnal, April 29 They realise the importance of their vote. They are young and have a dream of a better and brighter India. They are excited with their new-found power and role in the selection of a leader. The youth believes that their vote would influence the strategies of political parties and poll results.
But they take speeches of politicians with a pinch of salt. They are clear about what they except from their leaders. Harendra Kalyan (19), a student of arts at a local college is excited but cautious not to digest everything the politicians say. Rural areas remain under-developed, the rich have lot of wealth and the poor are steeped in poverty, he feels. He feels that the young must enter politics and believes that only the young can make the real difference. I hope that the next government will work for the welfare of the people, alleviate poverty and also prevent the recurrence of the CET or the CBSE paper leaks, he adds. Pooja Kashyap (20) who works in a private firm, agrees with Kalyan that the politicians are basically selfish, make money from politics and work only to remain in power. Virendra Verma (18), Jundla wants change in leadership from older generation to the younger generation. For him, the youth in power can change in the overall political and administrative set-up that is getting polluted day-by-day. He says, “I will vote for a new candidate to break the monopoly of traditional leaders. A few others are not really bothered about politics. They even do not bother to vote in this election because of the decline in the moral values of the politicians. Randeep Mann of Assandh says that the elections don’t interest him at all. The communalisation and criminalisation of politics in recent years has disappointed him. He further says that the politicians should talk of development, primary education, gender equality and rural poverty. Today we have only politicians and no statesman to choose from, he adds. A majority of the youngsters whom The Tribune talked to feel that the politicians need to translate their words into action and not their interests into money. |
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Pilfering campaign material for assembly poll Hisar, April 29 The reason: their own party leaders in different assembly segments are pilfering the material for their own use in the assembly elections due early next year. Every party has about half a dozen aspirants for the party ticket in every assembly segment. Since publicity material accounts for about 15 per cent of the campaign cost, these aspirants are storing publicity material for their own use later. The campaign manager of one of the candidates here said he was surprised to find that though this time the demand for flags, badges and buntings had shot up several times as compared to the previous elections, he could not find many flags in the area. His enquiries then revealed that aspirants for the assembly poll were keeping the material for their own use. Inquiries from other constituencies by The Tribune revealed that the candidates of different parties were facing the same problem. In Hisar one of the leading candidates said he tried to solve the problem by asking the suppliers in Delhi to print his picture on a corner of the party flag. However, they refused saying it was too late for them to get special flags printed and that they could only supply the standard party flags. In Rohtak and Kurukshetra two contestants had some premises raided by their campaign managers to recover the material stored there by their own party leaders hoping to contest the next assembly poll. Likewise, in Sonepat, Ambala and Faridabad campaign managers of at least three candidates are now distributing material villagewise instead of handing it over to party leaders constituencywise to reduce the chances of pilferage. Despite the increasing demand for publicity material there are fewer flags in the countryside this time. While one reason is pilferage, the other is that people are reluctant to hoist party flags atop their houses now because they do not wish to commit their support to a particular party publicly. Mr Risal Singh, a resident of Dhana village, near here, said one of the reasons for the reluctance was the anti-establishment wave in the area and people were not too keen to express their choice publicly for fear of reprisals. |
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BSP MLA to
support INLD in LS poll Yamunanagar, April 29 He said he had tried to increase the popularity of the party but due to wrong policies of the party high command, the BSP had lost its footing in the state. He said two senior leaders of the BSP, Mr Aman Kumar Nagra, founder president of the party in Haryana, and Mr Ashok Sherwal, a former state president of the BSP, had resigned from the party due to this. Dr Saini alleged that due to reasons best known to the BSP high command, it had not gone in for an alliance with any political party due to which the party would have to pay a high price. Dr Saini said on May 2, Mr Abhay Singh Chautala would address a public meeting at Jagadhri in support of INLD candidate Balwant Singh. Since inception of the party in Haryana, only two BSP candidates have won the elections, Mr Surjit Kumar Dhiman from Naraingarh in 1991 and Dr Saini from Jagadhri in 2000. Meanwhile, Mr Pawan Dhiman, general secretary of the state BSP, has resigned from the party and extended support to the INLD. |
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More Central
forces for Haryana Chandigarh, April 29 While stating this here today, Ms Urvashi Gulati, Chief Electoral Officer of Haryana, said in 50 per cent of the polling stations in every Lok Sabha constituency, the Presiding Officer and at least one Polling Officer would be deployed from outside the district concerned. She said the Chief Secretary had instructed all Deputy Commissioners to provide ramps to enable the physically challenged persons to cast their votes. They would be also provided with an escort. She said in view of the extreme hot weather conditions prevailing in the region, the district administrations had been instructed to make arrangements for drinking
water, oral rehydration medicine as well as sugar and salt for oral rehydration therapy at the polling stations. The district administrations had been asked to make arrangements for para medical staff also for treatment of heat stroke. |
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Rajora joins Congress Jhajjar, April 29 Mr Rajora was elected to the Assembly last time as an Independent candidate and supported the Chautala-led INLD government. In fact, he was got elected with the tacit support of Mr Chautala in the elections as this seat had gone to the BJP in the seat-sharing arrangement between the INLD and the BJP. But the INLD supporters backed Mr Rajora. He had also been INLD MLA from here. He was shown the door by Mr Chautala last week when he accused the MLA of supporting the BJP nominee and working against the party interests. |
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Ex-MDU VC joins Congress Rohtak, April 29 Addressing a press conference, he said the NDA government and the BJP had pushed India backwards. Unemployment had risen and the economy had suffered during the past five years. He said the Congress was a secular and a progressive party. — TNS |
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New age managers have
to be fit, alert: seminar Kurukshetra, April 29 Dr Chawla observed to remain competitive, a company had to be vigilant about five basic issues like managing people, innovativeness, quality, customer satisfaction and the lowest possible cost of production/service. Also human resources of the organisation should be encouraged to be physically fit, mentally alert and morally strong. The Vice-Chancellor maintained that the new-age managers were facing several challenges extremely complex to handle. In his keynote address, Prof B.P. Singh of the Department of Commerce of Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, divided his address in nine dimensions. These included World Macro Setting, World Development Indicators, Selected Global Growth Indicators, India and China: A Comparison, Globalisation and the Business, Today’s Competitive Environment. Earlier, Chairman, Department of Commerce, Kurukshetra University, Prof R.K. Mittal welcomed the guests. He informed that 100 teachers from different Universities of State and from other parts of the country were participating. |
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High Court
Chandigarh, April 29 Mr Bansi Lal has moved the High Court seeking Z category security for himself on the premise that he faces grave threat to his life. In his application, Mr Bansi Lal has claimed that since the son of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala is facing his son in the Bhiwani Lok Sabha constituency he is not sure if he would be protected properly during his visits to various parts of the state. Claiming that the present government has freed many undertrials from jails who are freely roaming around, Mr Bansi Lal has said that in order to secure his life, Z category security be provided to him. The case will now come up on May 3. Bail granted Mr Justice Rajive Bhalla of the High Court on Thursday granted bail to Amarjit Singh Bawa, president of the Himachal Pradesh unit of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).
In his petition, Mr Bawa had sought bail in an attempt to murder case registered against him by the Kalka police in 1998. |
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8 Nari Niketan
inmates tie the knot Karnal, April 29 Government officials, too, attended the mass marriage. The couples were given crockery, watches and clothes worth Rs 30,000 each. A senior official of the district administration said 41 inmates had so far been married off. A team constituted by the administration selected the grooms, he said. The District Red Cross Society gave Rs 5,100 each to the couples as “kanya daan”. Seven marriage ceremonies were performed according to Hindu customs while one marriage was performed as per the Muslim customs. The district administration may face the ire of the Election Commission for organising the mass marriage at the time of the elections. Mr Anil Swaroop, a poll observer, said he would look into the matter. Asked whether it was a violation of the poll code, he said: “I cannot say anything at the moment.” |
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200 bags of poppy husk seized Sirsa, April 29 The persons travelling in the truck produced papers belonging to the CRPF. According to the information, these papers had been prepared in Madhya Pardesh. When the police checked up the load in the truck it found 200 bags of poppy husk. These persons have been identified as Laghu Lal and Babu Ram of Rajasthan. The truck has been impounded. |
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Ambala, April 29
