Chandigarh, March 27
The BSP plans to start its campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in Haryana with a bang. Party supremo and UP Chief Minister Mayawati will come to the state for two days in the first phase of the campaigning. She will open the campaigning by addressing a public meeting in Ambala on April 4. The same afternoon she will address another public meeting at Jind, which falls in the Sonepat Lok Sabha constituency.

Mayawati will again be in Haryana on April 6, when she will address two public meetings. The first meeting will be in Nuh, headquarters of Mewat district, which is part of the Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency. In the afternoon, she will address her supporters in Palwal, which is part of the Faridabad constituency.

The BSP is so confident about its cadre strength in the state that it has dared to organise two meetings each on both days. The party plans to put up an impressive show in Jind, which is virtually the central point in the state. It is believed in Haryana political circles that whichever party is able to organise a highly successful rally in Jind before the elections, puts up a good performance in the elections. Perhaps the BSP wants to go with this belief.

While the Congress and the INLD are still busy in deciding their candidates, the BSP has even planned its election rallies.

It is not known if Mayawati will come to Haryana again for campaigning, though she has a plan to come to Chandigarh and Ludhiana on April 28.

Sources in the party say since Mayawati will have to intensively campaign in the entire country, it may not be possible for her to visit Haryana again. However, her man Friday, Satish Mishra, who is the secretary-general of the BSP, will address election rallies at a number of places, including Rohtak, on April 30. Polling in Haryana will take place on May 7.

BSP general secretary Mann Singh Manhera, who is in charge of the party affairs in Haryana, claims that the party’s social engineering formula, successfully tried in UP, will also be a success in the Jat-dominated state. The party has fielded two Brahmins, two Scheduled Castes, one Punjabi, one Aggarwal, one Muslim, one Rajput, one Saini and one Ror candidates in the state.

Chandigarh/Jhajjar, March 27
INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala seems to have decided not to announce his party’s candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections in one go. Instead, he is visiting various constituencies and declaring the candidates individually in each constituency.

The INLD is contesting five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state in alliance with the BJP, which is contesting the other five. The INLD will contest the Rohtak, Hisar, Kurukshetra, Bhiwani and Sirsa seats while the BJP is contesting the Ambala, Karnal, Sonepat, Faridabad and Gurgaon.

The BJP has already announced its candidates for all five seats it is contesting.

Chautala today addressed a joint meeting of INLD and BJP workers at Hisar and announced the candidature of former Finance Minister Sampat Singh from that constituency.

Similarly, while addressing his party workers at Jhajjar, which is part of the Rohtak constituency, Chautala declared that former Bahadurgarh MLA Nafe Singh Rathi would be the INLD candidate from Rohtak.

Chautala not only asked the workers to suggest a suitable name for the party nominee from Rohtak but also got their approval before making the announcement of Rathi’s name.

Addressing the workers, Chautala hit out at the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government at the Centre and the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in the state, dubbing both as “anti-people”.

Describing the Congress as the party of “capitalists”, he alleged that Congress governments had always ignored the interests of farmers, many of whom were trapped in debt and consequently committed suicide due to poverty.

The INLD supremo said despite being authorised by the political affairs committee and the executive committee of the party to nominate party candidates for all five LS constituencies, he was announcing the party nominees only after getting approval from the party workers of the constituency concerned.

Sirsa, March 27
The Sirsa parliamentary seat has always been prestigious for the Indian National Lok Dal and the Chautalas as both the native village as well as the Assembly constituency of party supremo Om Prakash Chautala come under the constituency.

The INLD has been considering the Sirsa parliamentary seat as its stronghold of late although the Congress has won this seat seven times of the 12 elections held so far for this seat since 1967.

However, post-1987, the INLD or its previous avatars have won this seat on four of the seven occasions.

This time too, the INLD is not leaving anything to chance as Chautala himself is coming here tomorrow and has announced to remain in the constituency for a week.

According to Padam Jain, district president of the INLD, the former Chief Minister will address workers’ meetings at Fatehabad and Sirsa on March 28 and then address rural meetings in the Sirsa parliamentary constituency till April 3.

Interestingly, going by the record, Sirsa is the stronghold of Union Minister Selja and her family as she and her father Dalbir Singh have won the Sirsa seat on six of the 12 occasions when elections have been held after 1967.

While Dalbir Singh won from here in the 1967, 1971, 1980 and 1984 parliamentary elections, Selja won this seat in 1991 and 1996.

Chand Ram of the Janata Party won this seat in 1977, Het Ram, representing an earlier incarnation of the INLD, won in the bypoll held in 1988 and the general election held in 1989 while Sushil Indora won this seat on two consecutive occasions in 1998 and 2000.

The Congress won the Sirsa seat again in the last elections held in 2004, when Atma Singh Gill defeated Indora.

The Sirsa parliamentary constituency includes Chautala, the native village of Om Prakash Chautala; Rori, the constituency he and his son Abhay Singh has represented in the past; and also Dabwali from where Chautala has been planning to contest the Assembly elections after the delimitation.

Even the Narwana Assembly seat, which Chautala represented during his term as Chief Minister, has come under the Sirsa parliamentary seat after delimitation.

Interestingly, if it is former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal’s legacy on which the INLD has been trying to cash in on in this constituency, the challenge it is facing also comes from within Devi Lal’s clan.

Former Deputy PM’s sons Ranjit Singh, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, and Partap Singh Chautala and his son Ravi Singh Chautala, besides Chautala’s cousin KV Singh, former OSD to Bhupinder Singh Hooda, have avowedly said on several occasions that they would repeat the Congress feat of 2004 in the coming elections.

The constituency which has been witnessing almost straight contests between the Congress and the INLD or its previous avatars in the past will see a multi-cornered contest this time as the BSP and the CPM have already announced their candidates, while Kuldeep Bishnoi’s HJC is also expected to announce its candidate soon.

Chandigarh, March 27
Haryana has withdrawn security cover provided to 68 protected persons. The cover provided to another 14 has been downgraded.

The state has also withdrawn security provided to persons staying outside Haryana and Chandigarh. The only exception is the security arrangements made at the Haryana bhawan, the state guest house, and the Chief Minister’s residence at Delhi.

The action follows high court directives to reassess the threat perception and downgrade the security cover on the basis of the fresh assessment.

In a status report placed before Justice Surya Kant in response to the court orders, superintendent of police (security) Sukhdev Singh added security, provided on the basis of court orders, has also been withdrawn in 14 cases.

The affidavit said the security provided on the basis of high court and subordinate court orders was also reviewed. Prior to the issuance of directions on December 23, last year, 49 persons had been provided security on the basis of court orders. The cases were reassessed in light of the high court orders, and the withdrawal was ordered.

Another report, enclosed along with the status report, said “z plus” security has been given to Haryana governor AK Kidwai, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, ex-chief minister Bhajan Lal and Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Singh. None has been placed in the “z” category.

Two security vehicles for pilot and escort have been provided to the Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice during his road journeys in the state; and Haryana power and parliamentary affairs minister Randeep Singh Surjewala.

While Minister of State (independent charge), Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has been provided with PSOs, another minister Rao Inderjit Singh has not been included in the category of protected persons. Two MLAs Anand Singh Dangi and Venod Sharma too have been provided with the PSOs.

Sirsa, March 27
The Suryakiran Formation Aerobatic Team (SKAT) of the Indian Air Force today exhibited its aerobatic show in the Air Force Station here.

Highly profession pilots of the team, led by Wg Cdr Joy Thomas Kurien, showcased a myriad of aerobatic skills of the SKAT during the display that continued for about half an hour.

Hundreds of men, women and children from Sirsa and the surrounding areas watched with awe as six Kiran MK II aircraft, painted in red and white, exhibited manoeuvres like turns, wingovers, loops and barrel rolls.

After a short while, the formation split into two groups to carry out a plethora of manoeuvres like splits, level and rolling crosses, inverted runs and heart loops.

The precision flying and fineness of manoeuvres spoke volumes about the high degree of training by the pilots performing the show.

Among those who viewed the show were Gp Capt GS Bedi, Station Commander of the Indian Air Force, Sirsa, SK Goyal, Deputy Commissioner, Sirsa, SP Subhash Yadav, District and Sessions Judge HP Singh, Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa, Director-General of JCD Vidyapeeth, KV Singh, former OSD to the CM, JK Abhir, SDM, Fatehabad, besides a large number of government officers, teachers, students of various schools and colleges and people drawn from the town and the neighbouring villages.

“I have seen such a show for the first time in my life. It was very motivating too. My five-year-old son Ajay Vir said after the show that he could also join the IAF after completing his studies,” said Pallavi, a housewife after the show.

Gp Capt Bedi said the entry to the show had been kept free and open to all so that the maximum number of people could see it and draw inspiration from the brave pilots of the IAF.

Ambala, March 27
Untimely rain during this time of the year has left many farmers in the district a worried lot. The district has been witnessing continuous rain since this morning, while the farmers state that there is nothing to fear as yet, there is still an element of doubt in their voice.

The doubt, the farmers state, crops up form a similar situation they witnessed in 2005, when rain wouldn’t stop and many had to lose their crop to the bad weather.

“We were planning to go ahead with cutting of the crop, however, nonstop rain on Wednesday made us to delay it,” said Om Prakash Pinto, a farmer of Sambhlkha village.

While the large-landholding farmers are still not raising their brows, it is the small-landholding farmer who is worried.

At present, the farmers are still confident that this is just one odd case of rain. “The maximum we will have to do is to cut the crop manually in place of by machines, which is still okay,” informs Sahipal of Toba village.

Gurgaon, March 27
A large number of parents of schoolchildren today took out a protest march against the recent fee hike affected by the management of private schools.

The protesters burnt an effigy of the Haryana Education Minister in Sadar Market and then took out a candlelight demonstration.

The parents, including members of the Millennium Parents Association, marched to the local Minisecretariat and submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Deepti Umashankar.

It may be pertinent to mention here that the parents have been protesting against the sharp increase in the school fee since January this year.

Vashisht Goel, president, Millennium Parents Association, said most private schools had increased their fees exorbitantly after the implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission, putting a huge burden on the middle-class parents.

Acting promptly, the DC asked SDM Shakti Singh and DTO Narinder Kumar to arrange a meeting of parents’ association representative and school administrations by March 30.