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Ghising roots for
Cong nominee Congress to lead
alternative secular front BJP disowns
Joshi’s remarks on Vajpayee Missing candidate
meets CEC
Scam-tainted
Assam minister quits |
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Poll duties
follow expiry of contract PM’s compliment irks Mulayam Congress leader
backs Vajpayee Maya silent on Congress Cong ally seeks
motion on Telangana RJD leader
murdered
Centre to probe
ex-servicemen’s travel to Iraq Madani gets bail
in 19 cases Consider
vendors’ plea, SC tells Admn Another arrest in CBSE-PMT
leak case PWG activist
shot Lunar eclipse
after midnight today
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Ghising roots for Cong nominee Kolkata, May 3 In the past three Lok Sabha elections in 1996, ‘98 and
‘99, Darjeeling residents boycotted the poll at the instance of Mr
Ghising which had helped the CPM candidate to have an easy win with the
support of the people in the plains in the Siliguri-Phansidewa-Duars
area where the CPM dominated. In this election also, CPM leadership in
the district was given an understanding after Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee’s meeting with Mr Ghising last month that the hill people
would once again boycott the poll in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong
like the previous years. They had taken Darjeeling as their sure seat
and accordingly, they had been campaigning mainly in the plains. The
Congress as well as the BJP were also claiming to have Mr Ghising’s
supports. But last evening, Mr Ghising breaking his silence on the
issue, directed the hill people to go to the polling stations and cast
their votes in favour of the Congress candidate. An official statement
was also issued in this connection by Dipak Gurung, GNLF’s district
committee president, which was duly signed by Mr Ghising.
Incidentally, though the GNLF did not participate in the last three
elections, they supported the Congress nominee, Mr Inderjit, a
journalist, in the 1989 and ‘91 elections and got him elected. Inderjit
played an important role in negotiating with Ms Indira Gandhi on behalf
of Mr Ghising in settling the hill problems through the Gorkha Hills
Council Accord of 1984. Congress leader Buta Singh, a former Union Home
Minister, had met Mr Ghising in Darjeeling in February and requested him
to support the Congress in the election. But Mr Ghising did not make any
promise. The CPM Hill Areas Minister, Mr Ashoke Bhattacharyya, also met
Mr Ghising more than once requesting his support to their candidate. The
Chief Minister met Mr Ghising in Darjeeling only a fortnight ago with
the same request. Mr Ghising, however, was non-commital. The CPM has
nominated Mr Moni Thapa, a school teacher as their candidate replacing
sitting MP S.P.Lepcha, which had annoyed a section of the CPM workers
and supporters in the hills. A five-party People’s Democratic Front
(PDF) involving the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the BJP and the
GNLF ( D. K. Pradhan group) already took the decision to support the
Congress candidate against Thapa. They were also opposing the GNLF’s
poll boycott call. According to a PTI report, the CPM is annoyed with
the GNLF’s decision to support the Congress in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha
seat. The party today alleged that an effort was being made to create
an “atmosphere of unrest” in the hills “for which the Congress is
responsible”. CPM Politburo member and state unit Secretary Anil Biswas
in a statement said that it was also to be noted that Mr Ghising had
also raked up the issue of fresh agitation for a separate Gorkhaland. “In
the past too, the GNLF set the hills afire with the help of the
Congress, which led to colossal waste of property and loss of lives,” Mr
Biswas said. |
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Congress to lead alternative secular front New Delhi, May 3 Responding to a
spate of queries on this subject, Mr. Reddy merely stated that the
ideological priority is to unseat the NDA and “the political and
historical necessity is that this can only be achieved through the
instrumentality of the Congress.” Although Mr. Reddy refused to be
drawn into any further discussion on this issue, Congress managers
maintained that as the largest party of this alliance, it is only
natural and obvious that it should be heading it. Again, though it is not
being said officially, Congress president Sonia Gandhi remains the
party’s sole claimant for the top job. Publicly, of course, Mrs. Sonia
Gandhi has consistently maintained that the issue of leadership would be
settled after the elections through a process of consensus. Eventually,
however, it is the final tally of each party which will determine the
shape of things to come. Congress insiders maintained that in case their
party crosses the “psyhchological barrier of 150 seats”, it will call
the shots in government formation. The Congress is very clear that it
will not prop up a third front government or repeat its earlier mistakes
of lending outside support to an alternative dispensation. If the
secular alliance notches up a total of 250 seats, the Congress and its
allies will be forced to do business with either Samajwadi Party leader
Mulayum Singh Yadav or Bhaujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati. Given
the antipathy of these two leaders to each other, the secular alliance
will be forced to make a choice between them. This, again, will be
dictated by the number of seats each of them holds and the figure
required to reach the half-way mark. Finally, whether it is the SP or
the BSP, both can be expected to be demanding partners, who will extract
their price for lending their support. The Congress is well aware of
this ground reality and has, therefore, toned down its attack against
the Samajwadi Party and has gone out of its way to describe it as a
secular party. It has also opened channels of communication with its
leaders through CPM leader Harksihan Singh Surjeet, who is known to
enjoy a good rapport with SP chief Mulayum Singh Yadav. |
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BJP disowns Joshi’s remarks on Vajpayee New Delhi, May 3 “There are no number
one, two and three in the party. If there is number one, it is Mr
Vajpayee. The NDA leadership has unanimously reposed its faith in the
leadership of Mr Vajpayee and only he will lead the government for five
years,” party spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told newspersons
here. Faced with a volley of newspersons questions on the issue, an
apparently embarrassed Naqvi said “Vajpayeeji was his own
successor”. “There is no confusion and there has been no discussion on
the issue at any level within the party,” he said when asked about
Joshi’s remarks that there were number one, two and three in the party
and the issue of successor to Mr Vajpayee would be decided by the
“political conditions and ground realities at that point of time.” To a
question whether it was Dr Joshi’s personal view or that of the party,
he said “we don’t consider it any view.” |
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Missing candidate meets CEC
Gangtok, May 3 “The candidate, who has been reported missing, appeared before me today and given his submission in writing. I have not read the submission but he has said that he is physically and mentally fit. However, he looked to be under some threat,” Mr Krishnamurthi said. Palden Bhutia went missing on the last day of filing nomination papers allegedly from the office of the District Collector where he had gone to file his papers. There was no trace of him for about two days, and there were rumours that he might have been killed or abducted. A few days later, a caller claiming to be Palden Bhutia met mediapersons saying that he was physically and mentally fit and that he was unable to file his papers because he was misled by the legal adviser of the Congress. Meanwhile, the Congress had filed a complaint at the Mangan police station about the abduction of its candidate. Meanwhile the Election Commission on Monday ruled out countermanding elections in any of the Assembly constituencies of Sikkim saying that rejection of nominations of some Congress candidates were all valid. Talking to reporters at the end of his three-day visit to the state, Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy said the question of countermanding the poll in the three Assembly constituencies did not arise as there were “substantive errors” in the nomination papers that were rejected. “The entire nomination process was video recorded and the papers were validly rejected,” Mr Krishnamurthy said. The opposition Congress in Sikkim had urged the CEC on his
arrival here on Saturday, that the polls in four Assembly constituencies
in the state be countermanded as the rejection of the papers of three of
its candidates had been “mala fide and unjust” whereas its candidate
from another seat had not filed his papers because of his “abduction” by
the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF). — UNI, PTI |
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Scam-tainted Assam minister quits
Guwahati, May 3 Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s right-hand man Minister of State for Planning and Development Himanta Biswa Sarma resigned following his alleged involvement in the oil scam. Talking to newspersons in Bagdogra on way to catch a flight back to Guwahati, Mr Sarma said he had resigned to serve his constituency better. He informed that he had sent in his papers to the Chief Minister’s office this morning and his resignation had not been accepted yet. Political observers feel it is a “typical stunt’’ of Mr Sarma. Mr Sarma and Transport Minister Anjan Dutta along with the state police top brass had been accused of being involved in the oil scam amounting to several hundred crores of rupees. Mr Dutta’s six-page letter to the Chief Minister offering to resign had created a political storm. The scam, which reportedly has been going on for the last two decades, was exposed when the police picked up Putul Gogoi for failing to pay the required protection money. But when he revealed information about the scam, it caused so much furore that the Chief Minister lost no time in ordering a CBI inquiry despite the initial opposition by the top brass of the Assam police, including DGP P.V. Sumant. Several hundred crores of rupees had been looted over the year by a complex network, allegedly consisting of businessmen, police officials, oil exploration company officials and politicians by stealing crude oil from Upper Assam’s vast oil fields by blasting or perforating pipelines and ascribing it to the ULFA. The modus operandi of the
scamsters was to make a small hole in the pipeline through which a
tanker was filled up in just 15 minutes with oil, worth Rs 4.5 lakh.
These trucks would then leave for Rajasthan and Punjab to supply to the
retail outlets for sale. — UNI |
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Poll duties follow expiry of contract
New Delhi, May 3 Nearly 250 teachers were provided employment as teachers in various Delhi Government schools in 1994 and were put on contract for one year which was renewed every year on April 1. After the expiry of their contract this year, the Delhi Government did not issue any fresh orders till date although the teachers continued to attend the schools. Under election rules, only employees on government pay rolls could be drafted for election work. The teachers, after
receiving poll duty letters, approached Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer
Arun Goyal to apprise him of the situation, including their uncertain
fate in absence of renewal of their contract by the Delhi Government.
— PTI |
|
PM’s compliment irks Mulayam
Aligarh, May 3 “Who is he to ask Muslims to vote for us? The Prime Minister is using devious methods for his campaigning which do not behove a person occupying the highest office of the land,” Mr Yadav alleged referring to Mr Vajpayee’s appeal to members of the minority community to vote for the SP instead of the Congress. “Mr Vajpayee is trying deliberately to malign the SP in the eyes of the minorities by his recent utterances,” he alleged addressing an election meeting here. Mr Yadav said: “It is an absolute lie that the SP has some sort of a secret understanding with the BJP. Such rumours are being deliberately spread by the Congress which is a master in the art of double crossing.” “Unlike the Congress, we do not believe in the politics of betrayal. Whatever I do is always in the open,” he said. Lashing out at the Vajpayee government, the Chief Minister alleged that “this government is tainted with more scandals that any previous government.” Referring to the recent tragedy in Lucknow in which 22 women were killed in a stampede during the birthday celebration of senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon, he said: “this tragic incident is a reminder to the people of regarding the hollow claims by the BJP through its ‘India Shining’ campaign.”
— PTI |
|
Congress leader backs Vajpayee
Lucknow, May 3 “No true Congressman can support Ram Jethmalani who attempted to save the killers of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’’ he told reporters here. Mr Jethmalani, lawyer and former Union Minister, is Congress-backed Independent candidate against Mr Vajpayee. Alleging
that the UP Congress had been “captured by outsiders’’ and old party
loyalists had been cornered, Dr Rizvi expressed dismay that the party
was supporting the same Ram Jethmalani, who asked 10 questions a day
from former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors case. The image of
the Congress has been tarnished after its support to Mr Jethmalani, he
said. — UNI |
|
Maya silent on Congress
New Delhi, May 3 “We will never forge any alliance with the BJP even after the election. The question does not arise at all,” she said at a series of rallies in the capital for the first time during the ongoing election process. She, however, remained silent over the possibility of her party aligning with the Congress after the elections. The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister alleged that BJP was trying to get “political mileage by framing” her in the Taj corridor scam and asserted that she would never allow it to happen.
— PTI |
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Cong ally seeks motion on Telangana Hyderabad, May 3 “We will resort to any kind of pressure
on the government to ensure that a resolution is passed in the Assembly
to pave the way for a separate state,” Mr A. Narendra, second-in-command
of the TRS, said from New Delhi. The TRS had entered into a poll pact
with the Congress in the state on the condition that the latter would
respect the wishes of the people of Telangana for a separate state.
However, a former Congress Legislature Party leader, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara
Reddy, who is waiting in the wings to take over as the Chief Minister in
the event of a Congress win, has been insisting that a second States
Reorganisation Committee (SRC) will have to go into the merits of such a
demand before any resolution could be adopted. “The Congress-TRS win
will be a clear mandate for the division of the state and the Congress
should take note of the aspirations of the Telangana people,” Mr
Narendra, former BJP MP, said. |
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Cong nominee booked Junagadh (Gujarat), May 3 Congress candidate Jasu Dhana and 39 others, including
Dhana’s two brothers, were booked for attacking and injuring BJP MLA
Govindbhai Parmar and his supporters at the function at the Mamlatdar
office in Talala town of the district. — UNI |
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RJD leader
murdered
Nawada (Bihar), May 3 Police Superintendent Baldeo Prasad said here that Mr Sidiqqui was kidnapped from the village on April 29. Sources said the body of the RJD leader was buried under the house of a co-villager. The body was exhumed in presence of a magistrate during the day. The officer-in-charge of Roh police station had been suspended for dereliction of his duty. At least three RJD workers were injured in clashes with JD(U) activists at Nauagarhi village in the Munger parliamentary constituency today. The police said that the incident took place when workers of both the parties were raising slogans in favour of their respective leaders. Workers started throwing stones at each other, injuring three JD (U) activists in the process.
— UNI |
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Centre to probe ex-servicemen’s travel to Iraq
Chennai, May 3 He told a press conference that his ministry had asked the Union Labour Ministry to launch an inquiry into the episode and take appropriate action against the agencies, which had fraudulently taken these men without valid documents. These men were originally permitted to go to Jordan and Kuwait, he said. The Indian Government had imposed the ban on April 15 following the deterioration in security in that country. The ban would be lifted after the security situation improved there, he said. He said the Protector of Emigrants had been asked to exercise “greater caution” even in permitting people to go to Jordan and Kuwait, he said. He said before the ban came into force, some Indian companies had requested the Ministry to send 360 men to safeguard their offices in Iraq, which was permitted. NEW DELHI: In the wake of reports of casualties among Indian ex-servicemen drafted for security work in Iraq, Defence Minister George Fernandes today said the government could not stop former soldiers from seeking lucrative assignments abroad. “If a citizen chooses to go there how can we stop him,” Mr Fernandes said in reply to a question whether the government would prohibit recruitment of ex-servicemen for security duties in Iraq in the face of recent incidents of killings and kidnappings of foreign nationals there. The Defence Minister pointed out that the people taking up such assignment were aware of the risks involved. However, when asked if the government was planning to issue a travel ban advisory for Iraq, he said the matter had not come up for discussion so far. Mr Fernandes was speaking on
the sidelines of a function to launch the NDA website at his residence
here. — PTI |
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Madani gets bail in 19 cases Kochi, May 3 The Ernakulam Additional Chief
Judicial Magistrate, Mr P. Muraleedharan, granted bail after the
government did not oppose the bail plea. Mr Madani has been charged
under various Sections of the IPC, including 153 (inflammatory speeches)
and destruction of public property, filed in various courts in the
state. The Magistrate said Mr Madani’s physical presence before the
court could not be secured as he had been lodged in the Coimbatore
central jail. — PTI |
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Consider vendors’ plea, SC tells Admn New Delhi, May 3 A Bench of Chief Justice Mr S. Rajendra Babu and Mr Justice
G.P. Mathur issued the direction on an appeal filed by several vendors, who were carrying their trade from rehris in Sector 26 grain market. They had filed an appeal against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order rejecting their plea for restraining the Union Territory Administration from implementing its order for their removal. The SC said though under the bye-laws framed by the Chandigarh Administration, no person was permitted to use a handcart, yet the vendors case needed to be considered sympathetically. “However, having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, their plea is disposed of with a direction to the Chandigarh Administration to consider their case sympathetically as and when it decides to grant fresh licences either for the grain market in Sector 26 or for any other market,” the apex court said. |
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Another arrest in CBSE-PMT
leak case
New Delhi, May 3 Ranjan, a student, was arrested by the team which had gone to Bihar to probe the All India Pre-Medical test paper leak, following disclosures by some of the accused in the case, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Dependra Pathak said. ‘’He has been arrested and is being brought to Delhi on a transit remand.’’ The DCP said Ranjan had been instrumental in arranging for experts to solve the leaked question paper besides roping in ‘buyers’ for the PMT papers. ‘’Ranjan had been associated with the leak of papers for the last couple of years. Last year too, he had been into this and once again this year.’’
— UNI |
|
PWG activist shot Bangalore, May 3 Karnataka Director-General and Inspector-General
of Police T. Madiyal said Kudrapati Narasimha Reddy was arrested in
Bellary yesterday. He was being taken to Tumkur this morning for
collecting evidence in various cases involving him, when he snatched a
gun from one of the policemen and started open firing at the police
party. The police returned the fire, killing him on the spot. On
information, Tumkur Superintendent of Police and other senior police
officers rushed to the spot, Mr Madiyal said. The activist, who carried
a reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head, was suspected to be the mastermind
behind the recent abduction of Deccan Mining Company Managing Director
Rajendra Jain. Mr Jain escaped when a police party and his captors were
engaged in a shootout. — UNI |
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Lunar eclipse after midnight today New Delhi, May 3 “The partial phase of the eclipse will begin at about 12.18
am on May 5,” the Director of Nehru Planetarium, Dr N. Rathnasree, said
here today. “The total phase of the lunar eclipse will begin at about
1.32 am and end at 2.38 am,” she said, adding that the partial phase of
the eclipse would end at 3.42 am. India is very well-placed to observe
the current lunar eclipse in full, she said. However, the country is
not well-placed to view the next lunar eclipse on October 28 as the moon
would set soon after the eclipse starts. It would be visible from most
of the Americas as well as the western portions of Europe and Africa.
This is the third such event within a span of less than a year, the
two previous lunar eclipses having occurred during 2003 on May 15-16 and
November 8. |
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