Shimla, November 23
There has been a virtual revolt in the BJP over allotment of ticket, as senior leaders like former education minister Karan Singh resigned from the party today.

Karan Singh was in the race for the party ticket from Banjar in Kullu district. The sitting MLA from Banjar, Khimi Ram, was given the party ticket by the BJP parliamentary board, which finalised 57 candidates at Delhi, yesterday.

Speculation is rife that Karan Singh might be fielded by the Congress or he might chose to contest from any other party or as an independent.

The entire BJP unit of Kumarsein-Sunni in Shimla district also tendered its resignation to the state BJP chief in protest against giving of the party ticket to Bhagat Ram Chauhan. They said he had never been loyal to the party and had secured merely 1,700 votes in the last assembly elections.

It was Sandipni Bhardwaj, who was in the race for the party ticket from Kumarsain seat.

Rood Dass Kashyap, district BJP chief of Shimla, who has been denied the ticket from Kasumpti seat could also jump into the fray against the official nominee, Tarsem Bharti.

There are indications that Des Raj, former MLA from Ganggath, who has been denied the party ticket will also be holding a meeting of party workers to decide the future course of action. He along with former MLA Rakesh Pathania could jump into the fray as independent candidates.

There are indications that some more resignations might follow in the next few days due to resentment over unfair distribution of tickets.

Meanwhile, the issue of ticket allotment in the BJP has brought to the fore the bickering, as the rival factions, led by Shanta Kumar and P.K. Dhumal fought over securing tickets for their loyalists at the cost of winnability and merit.

Even though the BJP was able to finalise candidates from 57 of the 65 assembly segments, which will go to the polls on December 19, many partymen were denied the ticket solely because of the sharp division of the party into various camps.

The possibility of under cutting of the official nominee by the BJP men themselves cannot be ruled out under such circumstances, in many places, including Kumarsain.

It was reliably learnt that there were heated exchanges between senior leaders over allotment of ticket to sitting MLA. Rajiv Bindal from Solan, who is facing serious allegations in land deals. Even though finally the ticket was given to Bindal but there were dissenting views that people with only clean image should be fielded.

With both Shanta and Dhumal vying for the post of Chief Minister in the state, the first battle is being fought over ticket allotment.

Had it not been for the intervention of the central leadership, tickets of some of Dhumal loyalists, including former minister Roop Singh Thakur, Sharveen Chaudhary, former Speaker, Thakur Gulab Singh, party MLA Baldev Sharma and Randhir Sharma would have been doubtful.

Shimla, November 23
A former chairman of the State Subordinate Services Selection Board (SSSSB) S.M.Katwal said today that Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had no moral right to speak about irregularities in recruitment as the infamous “jobs-on-chits” scam took place during his tenure.

In a rejoinder to Virbhadra Singh’s statement that the Congress would expose the Dhumal government by making public the content of the “hard disk”, he said the Chief Minister should explain why no action had been taken in the matter over the past four years and why only the SSSSB was being targeted. He should come out with full details on how many names were recommended, to whom and how many of them were selected.

Regarding his conviction in some cases to which Virbhadra Singh had been repeatedly referring to, Katwal said these were not the final orders. In no case was there any allusion to his complicity with the Dhumal government yet the Chief Minister was spreading a canard in this regard. He said by the same token how Virbhadra Singh could escape complicity in the PMT case, fake degree case and other cases. The high court had already ordered the registration of a case in the recruitment-on-chits scam.

The Chief Minister had conveniently ignored the fact that unlike him(CM) there was no complaint that he(Katwal) had demanded and had been paid money or that he had assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. If Virbhadra Singh had done nothing wrong why he was trying to block the release of CD. He should allow the truth to come out.

Dharamsala, November 23
One person has filed his nomination paper as an independent candidate from the Palampur constituency of Kangra district.

Kapoor Chand, a resident of Aarath Lahla village of the subdivision, filed his nomination paper before the office of the subdivisional magistrate-cum-returning officer of Palampur.

There were no other reports of filing of nomination papers from any other part of the district. The last date of filing nomination papers is November 30.

The Kangra DM Ashwani Kapoor said the scrutiny of nomination papers would be carried out on December 1 and the last date for withdrawal of the candidature would be December 3.

As per the notification, polling for 65 assembly constituencies would be held on December 19, while counting of votes would be held on December 28.

The DM said the contesting candidates should submit their dues certificate as per the returning officer's statutory conditions.

Additional SP Prem Lal said the district police had got three companies of Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force and one company of Uttarakhand police as extra force for the smooth conduct of the elections.

More than one-third polling booths had already been identified as sensitive and hyper-sensitive in the district.

HAMIRPUR: On the first day of filing of nominations for the present assembly polls, one nomination was filed by an independent candidate from Mewa (reserve) assembly constituency today. Amin Chand filed his nomination as an independent candidate before Bhoranj SDM, returning officer for the Mewa constituency.

KANGRA: No one flied their nomination papers for Kangra and Nagrota Bagwan assembly constituencies in the local SDM office here on Friday.

Meanwhile, Vidya Sagar, BJP candidate from this constituency, on his arrival here from New Delhi was accorded a reception from Purana Kangra enroute to his Zamanabad residence by party workers and residents. 

Hamirpur, November 23
The district administration has marked 49 polling booths as hypersensitive and 85 as sensitive out of the total 414 polling booths established in the district and as many as 1,816 security personnel would be deployed for security arrangement during the election.

Giving details about the preparations for the elections in Hamirpur district, deputy commissioner Nandita Gupta and superintendent of police Asif Jalal in a joint press conference today said all preparations for the five assembly constituencies in the district have made as per the guidelines of the Election Commission.

The deputy commissioner said the election process began today with the starting of filing of nomination papers which would continue till November 30.

Scrutiny of nomination papers would be held on December 1 and withdrawals can be made on December 3. The final list of contesting candidates will also be displayed on December 3. The polling will be held on December 19 from 8 am to 5 pm.

The DC further said that the control room, complaint room and media centre have also been established for the polling.

Shimla, November 23
Irrigation and public health minister Kaul Singh Thakur today refuted the BJP charge that the scheme started by the government to provide subsidised ration through the public distribution system (PDS) was an election gimmick and asserted that it would be included in the Congress election manifesto.

He said the BJP was misleading the people on the issue as under the scheme essential items like wheat, rice, three pulses, edible oil and salt were being supplied at fixed rates to the people irrespective of their economic status. It was the first scheme of its kind which had been appreciated across the country and had helped in maintaining the price line. These commodities would be continued to be supplied at the same rate even after the election.

He said making corruption an issue would boomerang on the BJP as the Dhumal government was the most corrupt to date. The charges of corruption, favouritism and nepotism were levelled against Dhumal by four ministers and three legislators.

Shimla, November 23
The CPM said today that the communal violence in Gujarat should not be trivialized by comparing it with the happenings in Nandigram, a situation arising due to delay on the part of the Centre in rushing the CRPF to the area.

Talking to mediapersons here today, CPM politbureau member Sitaram Yechury said had the Centre acceded to the request of the West Bengal government for the CRPF to control the situation, the violence in Nandigram could well have been averted. He added that the CPM was also concerned at the unfortunate happenings in Nandigram.

“It was on October 27 that the West Bengal government asked the Centre to send the CRPF but was told that due to the elections in Gujarat and Himachal, it was not possible to spare forces,” he stated. The CPM leader said had the CRPF reached Nandigram in October and not on November 12, the scene would have been totally different.

He also took strong exception to a parallel being drawn between the Godhara incidents and Nandigram. “The incidents in Gujarat were a state-sponsored genocide which cannot be compared to a mere police firing affecting less than two of the 341 blocks in West Bengal,” he asserted.

He also lashed out at the BJP for patronising forces working against national interest. “One must understand that the issue in Nandigram was not of land acquisition but fight against the Indian state by CPI Maoists,” he said. He said the CPM-led government in West Bengal would ensure that rule of the law prevails unlike the failure of the Congress regime in Andhra Pradesh and of the BJP governments in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand.

Kangra November 23
The state Archaeology Department is celebrating the World Heritage Week from November 19. R.M.Kandwal of the Archaeoligical Survey of India (ASI), said the ASI held a photo exhibition 'Timeless heritage' at the rock-cut temple of Masroor in this district, one of the centrally protected monuments of Himachal Pradesh, on the first day of the week on Monday. The photo exhibition, inaugurated by veteran freedom fighter Atma Ram, depicted a brief history of all protected monuments of the state, their conservation problems and means to redress them.

The exhibition highlighted major activities of the ASI. A painting competition on 'Masroor temple' and an essay writing competition titled ' Monument and We' were organized on the occasion.

A cultural evening was organised in the Kangra Fort last night as a part of the heritage week celebrations. 

Kumarhatti, November 23
Criticising the Congress government for the defunct agriculture policy in the state, Jagdish Bhardwaj, an HP state secretariat member of the CPI, has said the lack of an effective policy has aggravated the animal menace.

Bhardwaj said in 1996 he had submitted a memorandum to the then central forest ministry led by Saifudeen Soz .It was pleaded then to kill the animals, particularly monkeys, in order to save the crop, he said.

Acting on the memorandum, the ministry had allowed culling the animals responsible for major losses to crop, he asserted. Ironically, these arrangements were not implemented in HP, he pointed out.

Moreover decision to ban the export of monkeys to European countries in 1978 had not only cost the central government, the major revenue but had helped to swallow the monkey population manifold, he said. Had the ban on export not been forced the monkeys would not have become a major threat to agriculture in the state, he maintained.

Each monkey was exported at a whopping amount of Rs 5lakh, thanks to its 70 per cent feature resemblance with the humans, he said. The Janta Party had banned the export terming it against the country religious values, he remarked. The animals’ problem has emerged as a challenge now, he said adding there was an urgent need to either sterilise them or to kill them.

Mandi, November 23
Some rural troupes, including the Indian People Theatre Association (IPTA), has accused the district youth services and sports officer of promoting and inviting just “11 pet and patronised groups” for the district-level non-student youth festival held at Sundernagar last Sunday.

IPTA convener Lawan Thakur, who has also submitted a memorandum to the director, youth services and sports, and the deputy commissioner, Mandi, said the district officer was working in connivance with certain “pet and patronised troupes”. The nexus made a mockery of the youth festival.

As per guidelines, the event was meant for the rural youth in the age group of 15 to 35 years. He alleged officials not only ignored over 250 rural groups registered in the district, but telephonically invited only those “favourite tropes or groups” with which they had entered a nexus over the years. This denied opportunity to rural youths, the real repository of folk art.

The festival was meant for rural youth then how come the department invited urban groups like the Mandvaya Kala Munch that bagged all prizes at the festival, officials of yuvak mandals have alleged.

The department had selected a team for the state-level festival to be held at Kullu from November 23 to 26 out of the 11 groups that participated in the festival, they said.

Thakur alleged fovourite troupes and individual artistes were selected in violation of the guidelines. “When we approached the district officer in charge, he denied us information on the festival and we have to seek information under the RTI Act,” he added.

District youth and sports officer Arun Sharma claimed the festival was open for the youth in which 11 teams participated. There was no favour shown towards any team. The team for the state-level festival was selected by a penal of judges on merit. Only one or two groups were urban,” he added.

Nurpur, November 23
Following the denial of BJP ticket to the local former MLA and ex- chairman of the HPTDDC Rakesh Pathania from Nurpur assembly constituency by the party high command, the irate BJP activists held a protest rally at Jassur town near here today.

Raising slogans in favour of Rakesh Pathania, a large number of BJP activists in the absence of Pathania assembled at Jassur and took out a procession in the town. The BJP ticket has been given to Kangra district BJP mahila morcha president Malvika Pathania, who is allegedly said to be close to former union minister and all-India BJP vice-president Shanta Kumar, whereas Rakesh Pathania is a loyalist of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Meanwhile, the office-bearers of the local unit of the BJP and other state and district office-bearers of the frontal organisations of the BJP have faxed a signed ultimatum to BJP national president Rajnath Singh (copy of which is in the record of The Tribune) in which they have warned to reconsider the allocation of the party ticket within the next two days as the declared candidate Malvika Pathania had no mass base in the local assembly constituency. She had switched over her loyalty from the Congress to the BJP just five years back.

Alleging a political conspiracy they also claimed that only Rakesh Pathania was a winning candidate of the party. They also warned that if the party high command did not changed its decision and allocate party ticket to Rakesh Pathania they would all resort to mass resignation along with numerous party workers.

Similarly, a lot of resentment is prevailing among the BJP workers in neighbouring Gangath (reserve) assembly segment following denial of party ticket local BJP MLA Des Raj.

According to Ghansham Lal, president of the Gangath BJP mandal, the party workers are meeting at Dahkulara at the residence of Des Raj tomorrow and will formulate a strategy to face the injustice done by the party high command.

He said the BJP workers as well as the people of the constituency would never accept the candidature of new face Anita Dhiman. With a strong resentment among the BJP workers at Nurpur and Gangath assembly constituencies, a revolt-like-situation is prevailing which may play a spoilsport to the party in the area.