New Delhi, December 8
The Congress in Delhi has emerged victorious the third time, bagging 42 seats out of 69 that went to polls on November 29. This result has defied the anti-incumbency factor and this is also a hat-trick in Delhi.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and all ministers in her government emerged victorious. Dikshit scored 39,747 votes defeating her BJP rival Vijay Jolly with a margin of 14,078 votes from New Delhi constituency.

Urban development minister Rajkumar Chauhan won election from Mangolpuri with a margin of 30,145 votes. Haroon Yusuf who was seen trailing behind Lok Jan Shakti Party candidate in Ballimaran, finally bagged the seat with a margin of 6,236 votes for the third time in a row.

Finance and planning minister A.K. Walia scored 52,080 votes in Laxmi Nagar constituency defeating his nearest rival, the BJP candidate with a margin of 17,208 votes. Education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely scored 59,791 votes defeating the BJP candidate Kamal Jain with a heavy margin of 31,925 votes from Gandhi Nagar. Health minister Yoganand Shastri got 21,740 votes in Mehrauli constituency defeating the BJP candidate with a thin margin of 1,108 votes.

Minister of industries Mangat Ram Singhal got 36,438 votes and defeated joint candidate of BJP and Akali Dal with a margin of 4,525 votes.

Naseeb Singh, parliamentary minister bagged 48,784 votes defeating the BJP candidate O.P. Sharma, the personal assistant of BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley, with a margin of 9,633 votes from Vishwas Nagar.

Former transport minister in Delhi government and general secretary in All India Congress Committee, Parvez Hashmi was trailing behind the RJD candidate in Okhla, but when votes of Madanpur Khadar, Sarita Vihar were counted, he went ahead and defeated his rival with a thin margin of only 400 votes.

The Bharatiya Janata Party heavy weights, including its chief ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra bagged 42,197 votes defeating his rival and Congress candidate with a margin of 11,218 votes from Greater Kailash.

Delhi chief of the BJP, Harsh Vardhan secured 47,852 votes defeating his nearest rival and the Congress candidate with a margin of 3,204 votes from Krishna Nagar constituency in East Delhi. Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly, Jagdish Mukhi got 50,624 votes defeating his rival and the Congress candidate with a margin of 17,433 votes from Janakpuri.

Besides, the BSP opened its account in Delhi assembly this time, winning two assembly seats—Gokulpuri in East Delhi and Badarpur in South Delhi. Gokulpuri candidate of the BSP, Surender Kumar defeated his rival and Congress candidate with a margin of 3,039 votes and Badarpur candidate, Ram Singh Netaji defeated his rival and Congress heavyweight Ramvir Singh Bidhuri with a margin of 13,305 votes.

In this election, the main contest was between the Congress and the BJP. Besides INLD and LJSP secured one seat each.

Thanking the people of Delhi for reposing their faith in her government, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said she was overwhelmed by the response. In the next five years we need to work harder,’’ Dikshit said. A total of 863 candidates tried their luck in the 69 assembly constituencies where polling was held.

Polling for the Rajinder Nagar seat has been postponed to December 13 following the death of BJP candidate and sitting MLA Puran Chand Yogi.

New Delhi, December 8
After BJP’s debacle in Delhi assembly elections, the party leaders are now engaged in blame game.

Malhotra as the party’s chief minister-designate is now being widely questioned, with even the former party chief Venkaiah Naidu saying: “It is time for analysis. Factors like candidate selection have resulted in a lot of damage.”

The state BJP leaders decried the party’s choice of deputy leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha V.K. Malhotra as the chief ministerial candidate.

“It seems the party’s poll campaign ‘mehngi pari Congress’ has turned into ‘Mehnge pare Malhotra’,” said one of the state leaders, in a blunt criticism of the party’s decision to bring in Malhotra to the state politics.

Though the BJP’s Delhi election in-charge owned up the defeat, the senior party leader Vijay Goel, who was also in the race for the chief ministerial candidate, remarked that the BJP lost golden opportunity to wrest the capital city from the Congress.

“It was a golden opportunity lost and a major setback,” party general secretary Vijay Goel told reporters here on Monday. He added, “We need to work a lot in the slum clusters and the unauthorised colonies to make up for the damage in this year’s elections.”

The BJP leaders, not going on record, said that Malhotra proved no match to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. “The debate between the two leaders had shown an adverse opinion among the electorate against Malhotra. With Delhi being a cosmopolitan city, Diskhit succeeded in projecting herself as a more progressive face for the capital city,” said a senior BJP leader. The BJP leaders claimed that the state party chief Harsh Vardhan after being ignored as the chief ministerial choice also failed to bring the state party unit around Malhotra. “The decision to not field the municipal councillors too cost the party dear, while the candidate selection process was too controversial,” said another BJP leader.

New Delhi, December 8
The Bharatiya Janata Party, securing just 23 seats against Congress’ 42 seats, is thunderstruck by the outcome of the Delhi assembly elections, and terms it as “quite shocking and unexpected”.

Most importantly, today’s outcome points out to the fact that the Capital’s denizens are quite judicious and matured otherwise the constant ranting of the BJP party representatives taking up the issues of terrorism, inflation etc. would have surely tilted the mandate of any emotional electorate.

However, one of the senior BJP leaders though accepting to having lacunae in the working style of his party, said, “The Delhi public is quite flexible and it is ready to suffer under the leadership of the Congress government. It wants to live with the pains of insecurity of all sorts.”

“Aatang Harega, BJP Jitaga”—The campaign slogan of the BJP failed to fuel the anti-incumbency waves gradually developing in the minds of the Delhiites due to the BRT-Corridor issue, frequent security lapses, and installation of electric metres. The Capital’s citizens comprehend that terrorism is a national concern, and hence they cast their ballots unfazed by BJP’s accusations that the Congress is involved in politics of appeasement and pseudo-secularism.

In this context, the BJP veteran V.K. Malhotra had said, “After the Batla encounter, the Congress is in fear of losing its minority voter base, and hence, it is projecting the militants as Hindus for restoring its faith among the Muslims.”

Again, the BJP coterie had thought that the Mumbai blasts which took place just three days prior to the polling day would add momentum to the anti-incumbency sentiment gaining grounds in the minds of the Delhiites.

Then, during its campaign, BJP had focussed on the spiraling prices of the essential commodities to capture the middle-class and poor section voter bank. But, here also the party failed in its much-worked strategy as Delhiites proved to be quite rational, understanding that inflation is not only concentrated to India, but is a global phenomenon.

The BJP, which had always banked upon the support of the middle-class voters, was stunned to find that the maximum dent that was created in its victory dream was due to its losses in constituencies like Wazirpur, Tri Nagar, Model Town, Patel Nagar, Vikas Puri, Matiala, Jungpura, Kasturba Nagar, Malviya Nagar, Pahadhjganj, which are supposed to be amongst the posh areas of Delhi.

And senior BJP leaders are amazed that the party has registered record victory in village areas like Trilok Puri and Rithala, where it has won by an unexpected margin of 27,000 votes.

Thus, the people’s verdict makes it clear that the voting pattern of city’s denizens is more inclined towards rational and progressive politics rather than caste or class politics. It would have been much better for the BJP to have surveyed and studied the trends governing the Capital’s electorate’s psyche before gearing in for the campaigning sessions and making polling bets.

New Delhi, December 8
All the four candidates of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) that had alliance with the BJP were defeated. The Akali Dal contested three seats–Shahdara, Adarsh Nagar and Jangpura on BJP symbol while it contested the Rajouri Garden seat on its own symbol.

The Rajouri Garden candidate of the Akali Dal, Avatar Singh Hit was defeated only by 38 votes. Hit secured 31,079 votes while the Congress candidate got 31,117 votes. The Akali candidate from Shahdara, Jitender Shunti was defeated only by 1,536 votes. The Congress candidate and former Delhi minister Narender Nath secured 39,188 votes while Shunti was polled 37,652 votes. In Jangpura Akali-BJP candidate, Manjinder Singh Sirsa secured 20,362 votes while Congress candidate Tarwinder Singh Marwah secured 39,747 votes defeating Sirsa with a margin of 19,385 votes and Adarsh Nagar BJP-Akali candidate Ravinder Khurana secured 31,913 votes while the Congress candidate Mangat Ram Singhal secured 36,438 votes. Singhal defeated BJP-Akali candidate with a margin of 4,525 votes.

Delhi Akali Dal chief said though all candidates of Akali Dal were defeated, the party was satisfied with the performance.“In alliance with the BJP, the Akali Dal fielded its candidates against the heavyweights. But we were defeated with a thin margin,” he said.

He said in the last election, the Akali Dal had lost the Shahdara constituency with a margin of 14,000 votes and in this election with only 1,536 votes. It had lost the Rajouri Garden seat with a margin of 13,000 votes and in this election the Akali Dal lost with a margin of only 38 votes. Besides Adarsh Nagar, the Akali Dal had lost in the last election with 9,500 votes while this time only with a margin of 4,525 votes. But in Jangpura the situation is the same more or less, he said.

New Delhi, December 8
Three women were charred to death, while two of their co-passengers grievously injured when the car they were travelling in hit a divider and caught fire on GT Karnal Road near Narela in Outer Delhi today morning.

The accident took place around 6.30 am near Sandhu Border while the car was coming at a high speed from the Haryana side.

According to statements given to the police by eyewitnesses, the car lost its balance and hit the divider. The car took many turns before coming to rest and caught fire within seconds.

Ambulance, PCR and fire brigade vehicles rushed to the site and pulled the occupants of the car outside. However, by that time, three women had already died.

According to the police, five persons were travelling in the car. While, Sonam, Priyanka and Juhi, all between 20 and 25 years of age, were charred to death beyond recognition, Vineet and Ruby were severely injured with about 20 per cent burn injuries.

The injured, along with the dead, were taken to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital in Jahangirpuri where the condition of Vineet and Ruby is said to be critical. “Vineet has received more than 15 per cent burn injuries on the head and shoulders, but the girl is burnt badly. She was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state. Both are under observation and nothing can be said as of now,” said a doctor from the hospital.

Vineet told the police about the names of the dead and that they were coming from Punjab after attending a wedding.

The families of the deceased and injured have had been informed about the accident.

All the five were residents of the Dwarka area in Southwest Delhi and are said to have known one another from school days.

New Delhi, December 8
Announcing the candidates for the upcoming Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC) elections in Delhi University, Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) has expressed concern at the alleged delay in pay revision of university and college teachers.

“All other employees are already drawing the increased pay and allowances. The cabinet has now also approved the pay hike of the public sector undertakings (PSU) in the last meeting, but teachers are again left in the lurch,” said Rajib Ray, DTF candidate for EC.

He added, “Ironically, the present Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) leadership is silent on the issue. In the last meeting of DUTA executive, the president informed members that cabinet approval of the pay revision is awaiting clarification from the Election Commission on whether the central government can take policy decisions when elections to the state assemblies were on. However, the approval of the PSU pay hike announced recently has made clear that this was not true.”

The teachers’ front maintained that the delay in revision has increased apprehensions that the central government is again out to give teachers a bad deal.

“The teaching community remembers the irreparable loss during the last pay revision when the NDTF was in the leadership of the DUTA. We urge the DUTA leadership to give up its inaction and prepare for a determined struggle for the revision of pay scales. This is the only language that the government understands. We hope that the DUTA leadership will not strike any deals behind the backs of teachers,” said Shaswati Mazumdar, president, DTF.

DTF’s candidates for the AC are outgoing AC member Abha Dev Habib, member of DUTA executive Sheo Dutt and first-timers Rakesh Kumar and Vijaya Venkataraman.The election is on December 19.

New Delhi, December 8
Post the Mumbai carnage and the massive tragedy that the nation witnessed when its financial capital was caught in the grip of terror, sources within Indira Gandhi Open University inform that many academics reached a consensus on “media irresponsibility” and “lack of proper coverage”.

The general opinion is that the coverage of the recent Mumbai mayhem by some Indian electronic channels indirectly helped the terrorists who could change their guards within the Taj Hotel rooms to safely fire at the security agencies.

Academics and teachers at IGNOU feel that the media must know that the term ‘trial by media’ is not quite rational, for the right to try is only vested in the judiciary and the media can only interpret the trial with logic and wit. In the background of this concept, a five-day residential training of journalists and legal correspondents began this Sunday at the IGNOU Convention Centre. The training programme is the brainchild of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice KG Balakrishnan.

Taking the cue from the Chief Justice, the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) and IGNOU think-tank has jointly organized the training programme free of cost to journalists reporting on courts. The Press Council of India and Editors Guild of India were also roped in association to give the training programme a comprehensive shape, so that journalists be able to catch the idea that the statute-ordained Freedom of Press entails a certain degree of responsibility.

The training programme is part of a larger series of workshops which have been organized to stimulate a vigorous dialogue about the role of the mass media in relation to the administration of justice. A few more similar initiatives are in the pipeline soon after at Bhubaneswar, Kochi and Mumbai. Two more will be organised thereafter, one at Jammu and the other at a centre of North-Eastern part of the country, probably at Shillong or Guwahati.

Inaugurating the ‘Five-day Residential Training on Reporting of Court Proceedings by Media and Administration of Justice for Legal Correspondents/Journalists’, and

addressing the elite gathering of the IGNOU academics and administrators, the CJI said, “Often the new members in the media organizations forget this point. The framers of Indian Constitution safeguarded the press freedom mostly on account of their experience of governmental repression during the colonial rule. The importance of press freedom was further underscored after the Emergency.

New Delhi, December 8
Intuitive, childlike, mischievous, bizarre and colourful are some expressions which reverberate through Shahid’s paintings that depict a mixture of human and animal figuration.

The exhibition entitled, ‘Telling tales’ has a selection of 20 canvases, 11 works on board and 10 etchings showcased at Dhoomimal Art Centre, Connaught Place, open for the general public till December 13.

This Indore-based Rajasthani artist Shahid Parvez, played with his imagination by making elongated arms, wide open eyes, dangling hands and strange countering of body parts. Even calligraphic markings were used which gave it a fresh and bold outlook.

The exhibition displays artist’s core artistry through images that are ornamental as well as mystical. They reflect contemporary life in an urban setting as well as showcase the India connected with global trends. “The figures in the paintings are made vocal through their dress, their gestures and the cultural references they interweave into the canvas setting,” said Prema Sharma, visitor to the fair.

Besides, the artist also includes his own concerns and experiences of everyday life, particularly while working with children, so that the art becomes an assimilation of fun-filled incidents, age-old myths and telling tales, confirmed an official. The titles of the paintings reveal their character. ‘Fizzy Secret’ with its reclining erotic figure, examines intimate relationships as fizzy stuff bottled and masked over. The carefree youth, mobile in hand and ear plugs to match, is a picture of generational culture, while ‘Sharing the Candy’ is an impressive composition depicting sensuality, which attracted many visitors.

The ‘No More Junk Food’ harkens the concerns of our times while ‘Waiting’ in contrast, draws upon the age-old yearning of parted lovers. “I liked his creations a lot because they are very different, full of vibrant colours and emotions that give a special comfort to eyes and mind,” says Nandita De, 23.

“These works bring out a close association that humans enjoy with nature, and the use of tribal motifs in the works give a tweak to traditional forms in the hands of this spirited artist,” said Anita Jha, an artist herself.

The artist has no preconceived notions readied in his mind when he begins a work. On a clean canvas he sketches the main forms, but as the art advances, these strokes are submerged in layers of paint and gather a strong imagery of their own, said an official.

Noida, December 8
Daughter of an advocate in Allahabad, married to a software engineer settled in Germany, has allegedly eloped with her cousin, with whom she reportedly had an affair.

A case of kidnapping has been registered against the girl’s cousin and two others with Noida Phase-II police.

Shivani (changed name) living with her advocate father in Allahabad was married to a software engineer in Germany a year and a half ago. But, she allegedly had an affair with her first cousin (son of mother’s sister). On being pressured by the family and social stigma, she agreed to marry, but was living in her father’s house even after her marriage and had been avoiding staying with her husband in Germany.

Shivani then left her father’s house on the excuse of getting her visa issued for Germany. But she actually went to live in her cousin’s friend, Vijay Sharma’s house in Sector-93. There, she was also joined by her cousin Ajeet, who is a builder.

However, when Shivani’s parents did not hear from her, her father went to Vijay Sharma’s house. But he did not find her there. He then lodged a report against Ajeet, Vijay Sharma and their friend Maha Alam.

S.K.S. Pratap, in-charge of Phase-II police station, said that Vijay Sharma was a friend of both Ajeet and Shivani, while Maha Alam used to help them out with money.

New Delhi, December 8
A city court on Monday issued warrants against five suspected perpetrators of the September 13 Delhi blasts, four of whom are in the custody of the Gujarat police for their alleged involvement in the Ahmedabad terror attacks.

Chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja sought presence of Zeeshan Ahmad, Mohammed Shakeel, Zia-ur-Rehman and Saquib Nissar from the Gujarat police in the court on Decemeber 18.

The fifth accused, Mohammed Saif, is at present in the custody of the Rajasthan police. He is being interrogated for his alleged role in the May 13 Jaipur serial bombings that killed 68 people.

The Gujarat police on October 27 secured the custody of the five suspected members of the Indian Mujaheedin, claiming their names emerged during questioning of the 27 people accused of the July 26 serial blasts in Ahmedabad that claimed 56 lives. But Saif was later transferred to Rajasthan on December 6.

The serial blasts in the capital left 26 people dead. Saif was arrested after the shootout in the Jamia Nagar area of South Delhi on September 19 while Zeeshan was apprehended the same evening from the Jhandewalan area in Central Delhi.

The other three accused - Shakeel, Zia-ur-Rehman and Saquib - were arrested from Shaheen Bagh on September 20. — IANS