Chandigarh, April 11
The Congress campaigning in Haryana got off to a rolling start here today. A modified rath complete with facilities was flagged off from the party headquarters of the state in Sector 9 here today.

Carrying pictures of Congress leaders, past and present, the rath began its journey of Haryana with an idea to take the policies of the UPA government at the Centre and the Congress government in the state to the people.

The rath rolled out with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, party president Phool Chand Mullana, Congress working president Kuldeep Sharma and a few other leaders on board.

Carrying photos of Jawaharlal Nehru, BR Ambedkar, Vallabhbhai Patel, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and present-day Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the rath also lists out the achievements of the state government in picture form.

The façade displays smiling farmers, children in school, some power projects among others. The rath has a capacity of eight people, relaxing seats, a hydraulic lift and an address system. It is equipped with a microwave, laptops and wi fi, audio-video systems and is air-conditioned.

Addressing a press conference earlier, Hooda said the rath would stop at Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Sonepat before heading for Delhi tonight.

Sirsa, April 11
Due to infighting between the local Congress at Kalanwali town in this district, a group of party workers have refused to participate in the election campaign of party nominee Ashok Tanwar till Block Congress chief Raj Kumar Bansal is removed from his post.

The two groups of the party workers came to blow before the inauguration of the office of the Congress nominee in the town.

Ranjit Singh, deputy chairman of the State Planning Board rushed to Kalanwali to intervene in the matter, but one group of the party workers, which claim the support of 11 municipal councilors, have announced to remain away from election campaign till Bansal is removed from his post.

Bansal is alleged to have slapped a counsellor Bhagwan Dass, when the latter gave some suggestions regarding the poll campaign and that led to a free for all between the supporters of the two groups.

One worker has received minor injuries in the incident.

Senior leaders of the local Congress, who have decided to boycott election campaign, are president of the local municipal committee Mangat Nagar, vice-president Tarsem Star, Bhupinder Gill, Nek Chand, Bhagwan Dass, Yogesh Jain, former city president of the Youth Congress; Ravi Danewalia, district secretary; Happy, Pawan Jindal, district general secretary and Om Parkash Singla.

When the Congress nominee went to Dabwali town to inaugurate his election office in the town, separate programmes were organised by KV Singh, a former OSD to the Chief Minister as well as by Ravi Singh Chautala, a son of Partap Singh Chautala.

Chandigarh, April 11
Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal is all set for the battle of the ballots. A veteran leader and nine-time MLA, Bhajan Lal has chosen his home turf, the Hisar parliamentary constituency, to contest as a candidate of the Haryana Janhit Congress.

While his younger son and HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi has decided not to contest the election to “make himself available for campaigning” all over the state, Bhajan Lal, an MLA from Adampur, will face a triangular contest with Congress candidate Jai Prakash and INLD’s Sampat Singh from his seat.

He is the only prominent face in the list of 10 candidates, seven of whom were announced by Bishnoi today.

While party sources maintained that they had attempted to balance all caste equations in the final list, the HJC has decided to field candidates of the category A in Scheduled Caste from the two reserved seats of Ambala (Dalbir Balmiki) and Sirsa (Rajinder Dhanak).

This is contrary to the line toed by other parties, including the Congress, the BJP, the INLD and the BSP which have fielded candidates from Category B of the Scheduled castes, inviting a lot of resentment.

Also, while the Congress is facing the resentment of Punjabis for not giving the party ticket to their candidate and is in damage-control mode after Haryana’s Minister AC Chaudhary resigned from the Cabinet to lodge his protest, the HJC has attempted to cash in on this grouse. The party has fielded Dr Ramesh Chhabra from Karnal and Chander Bhatia from Faridabad, maintaining that voter statistics favour Punjabis from the two seats.

Haryana Agriculture Minister Harmohinder Chatha’s son-in-law Jaswant Singh Cheema, too, has found a place in the HJC ticket list to woo Sikhs.

Party sources said it was unanimously decided that Bishnoi would be the party’s star campaigner and would not limit himself to one constituency alone.

“Also, we want to send out a message that those who have not been given the ticket should rise above self-interest and work for the party,” sources in the HJC said.

Meanwhile, the remaining candidates announced by the Janhit Congress are Rao Narinder Singh (Bhiwani-Mahendragarh), Umesh Sharma (Sonepat), Rajinder Dhanak (Sirsa), former minister Krishan Murti Hooda (Rohtak), former MLA Chander Bhatia (Faridabad) and former minister Rao Narbir Singh (Gurgaon).

Sirsa, April 11
The Left parties, which had been earlier making an indirect appeal to non-Congress and non-BJP parties in Haryana to form and alliance, today made a direct appeal to Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party and Kuldeep Bishnoi’s Haryana Janhit Congress to take steps to avoid division of votes.

The CPM today urged the HJC and the BSP to come forward to form a platform of parties other than the Congress and the INLD-BJP in Haryana in order to avoid division of votes in the Lok Sabha elections.

In an open letter sent to HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi and BSP leader Maan Singh Manhera, Inderjit Singh, state secretary of the CPM, has conveyed that there is an objective scope for evolving a third alternative in Haryana on the lines of many other states.

He appealed to the HJC and the BSP not to put up candidates in the Sirsa and Karnal Lok Sabha seats where the Left parties were contesting. He has suggested that this gesture would pave the way for a common approach in the remaining eight seats of Haryana.

Sonepat, April 11
True to speculations and rumours doing the rounds here for the past one week, Karnail Singh, a US-based businessman and son of Telu Ram Jogi, state general secretary of the INLD, today announced to contest as an Independent candidate from the Sonepat parliamentary constituency.

Talking to mediapersons, he said he took this decision with the motive to serve the population, which was in need for better education and health facilities. “My election manifesto will be to provide free education and free medical facilities to every section of the society,” he said adding that the government would pay for the expenses on these free facilities.

He said besides winning 38 awards for different outstanding performances, he had also won the best businessman award from the then US President George Bush in 2005. “I was the state media secretary of Hillery Clinton in California during her election campaign for her nomination as the candidate of republican party against Barack Obama,” said Karnail.

His announcement has sent confusing signals in the political circles that his decision to contest as Independent would adversely affect the INLD-BJP alliance in the constituency where the BJP had fielded its sitting MP Kishan Singh Sangwan as alliance candidate.

Karnal, April 11
A comparison of assets declared by BSP candidate Virender Maratha and BJP-INLD candidate ID Swami at the time of filing of nominations from the Karnal seat revealed that Maratha was more than 10 times rich than former Union Minister of States for Home ID Swami.

As per the affidavit filed by Swami, his assets stood at Rs 70.91 lakh while Maratha put his assets at Rs 7.79 crore.

The major asset of Swami is a house at Gurgaon worth Rs 65 lakh, a Maruti 800 car, bank deposits of Rs 4.10 Lakh, Rs 1.36 lakh in PPF and 79 UTI shares valuing Rs 38,000.

Maratha owned 27 acres of land valuing about Rs 7-crore, 100 tolas of gold worth Rs 15 lakh, deposits of Rs 35 lakh, two Jeeps, a tractor and a farmhouse worth Rs 25 lakh.

In an affidavit showing property details submitted by Congress nominee Rao Inderjit Singh while filing his nomination papers from Gurgaon, he has Rs 1 lakh cash and bank deposits of about Rs 1.6 crore.

Besides, he has shares and bonds worth Rs 13,12,700 and has mutual funds of Rs 4,79,376. He owns a Mitsubishi Lancer car and a Toyota Innova. In this way, he has movable property amounting to a total of Rs 1,23,81,456.

Singh has agriculture land worth Rs 3.40 crore in Rampura village. He also owns a ground floor and basement measuring 3,000 sq feet in Basant Lok of Delhi, valued Rs 65 lakh. He has a 2.5-acre house in Satbari village, Delhi, valued Rs 25 lakh and owns a house in Kasouli, HP, Rs 10 lakh. With this his immovable property amounts to Rs 4.66 crore.

Manu Digvijay Singh, an Independent candidate from Hisar, has declared his property worth Rs 1.5 crore.

According to the affidavit submitted by Chander Bhatia, a nominee of the HJC (BL) for the Faridabad seat, he has hard cash of Rs 5.8 lakh and a bank balance of Rs 87,720. He owns a Tata Safari and a house in Sector 22 worth Rs 40 lakh. He has LIC policy of Rs 7.5 lakh.

Chandigarh, April 11
As many as 16 candidates filed their nomination papers on the first day of filing the nominations for the Lok Sabha General Election-2009 scheduled to held on May 7 in all 10 parliamentary constituencies of the state.

A spokesman of the Election Department said one candidate each had filed his nomination papers from the Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Gurgaon and the Hisar parliamentary constituencies, two each from Sonipat, Faridabad and Rohtak and three each from Karnal and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh. None had filed the nomination papers from the Ambala parliamentary constituency today.

He said from the Karnal parliamentary constituency ID Swami filed his nomination papers today as the BJP candidate, Virender Verma filed his nomination papers as the BSP candidate and Suman Devi filed her nomination papers as the BSP candidate.

He said an independent candidate, 33-year-old Manu Digvijay Singh had filed his nomination papers for the Hisar parliamentary constituency as Independent candidate, Vishnu Bhagwan filed his nomination papers from Kurukshetra as Independent candidate and Jaiveer from the Sirsa parliamentary constituency as an Independent candidate.

He said Rao Inderjeet Singh of the Indian National Congress today filed his nominations from Gurgaon. Shiv Narain, Independent candidate and Jitender Malik of Indian National Congress had filed their papers from the Sonipat parliamentary constituency. Comrade Anoop and Sudesh of SUCI and RPI, respectively, had filed their papers from the Rohtak constituency. Chander Bhatia and Babu Lal of HJC (BL) and the Janta Uday Party, respectively, had filed their nomination from Faridabad.

He said Hans Raj of the RPI, Surinder as an Independent candidate and Saroj Yadav of Samajwadi filed their papers from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seats.

Hisar, April 11
NDA candidate from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat Sampat Singh today said if elected he would resign as MP if he failed to solve the problem of shortage of irrigation and drinking water in the Adampur and Nalwa Assembly constituencies.

Addressing meetings in several villages of the two segments, he said if he was elected as MP and Om Parkash Chautala became the Chief Minister of Haryana, he would solve the problem within two years and if he failed to do so, he would resign.

He said he was a disciple of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal who always advocated the need to provide for recall of elected representatives if they failed to deliver. But since the provision had not been made in the Constitution, he would quit if he did not come up to the expectations of the people.

Sampat Singh criticised former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal for having failed to solve the basic problems facing the two Assembly segments. He said Bhajan Lal had been the Chief Minister for more than a decade and had been representing Adampur for more than five decades, yet Adampur faced basic problems.

Gurgaon, April 11
Union Minister of State for Defence Production and Congress nominee for the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat Rao Inderjeet Singh, who filed his nomination papers on the very first day of nominations, faces a tough challenge to retain his seat by remaining ahead of his rivals at the counting centres as well.

The supporters of Rao Inderjeet may be upbeat on his success in getting the Congress ticket from Gurgaon despite stiff opposition from party insiders, but they know that they have a daunting task ahead.

Several Congress leaders, including some sitting MLAs of the ruling party, had opposed Rao Inderjeet's candidature from the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat tooth and nail. Some of them, like Haryana Irrigation Minister Capt Ajay Yadav and HPCC spokesperson Khazan Singh, had even sought the party ticket.

Though Rao Inderjeet has emerged successful in getting the party ticket, but in the given circumstances, expecting wholehearted support from local Congressmen would amount to wishful thinking. Critical comments made by him against the state leadership may also pose difficulties for him in the poll fray.

Apart from facing these in-party challenges, the Union Minister is also locked in a tough contest with prominent Meo leader and Bahujan Samajwadi Party's candidate Zakir Hussain, whose position has been strengthened by BSP president Mayawati's recent visit to Mewat.

Besides, BJP's Sudha Yadav and HJC's Rao Narbir Singh are also making all-out efforts to ensure that this election is no cakewalk for the sitting MP. The detachment of the Mahendergarh segment from the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency will also have its effect on the coming poll.

Nonetheless, Rao Inderjeet's clean image and considerable hold among the electorate of his area can turn the electoral tide in his favour. All in all, the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat seems all set for a curious poll contest.

Ambala, April 11
Sitting MP from the Ambala (reserved) constituency Kumari Selja is preparing for her second stint as MP from this constituency. Confident that she will win the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections with a thumping majority as she did last time, she hopes to make it to the ministry once again.

At present she also holds the independent charge of Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.

Notwithstanding the late declaration of the candidates by the Congress, she feels that the work done in the constituency for the past five years should speak for itself. “I don’t need to list what has been done and what will be done. It is for everyone to see the changes I have brought about in the past five years.”

Termed as an outsider in 2004 when she contested from the Ambala reserved parliamentary constituency for the first time, Selja is very much at home now. Campaigning extensively for the last week, she said hers was a unique constituency with a mix of urban and rural and with the districts touching Himachal all kinds of problems had to be addressed.

Rubbishing all claims of her being absent from her constituency she called such statements as rumours and stories played up unnecessarily by the media. “The voter and the people need to understand that I have the opportunity to be part of the ministry and they should look at it is a positive step as because of it I can bring so many projects into the state and also do good fro my constituency.”

Standing by the party’s decision to withdraw candidature of Tytler and Sajjan Kumar she stated that she stood by the decision of the party high command, but it was important for the voters to understand that they had nothing against the Sikhs.

Kumari Selja will file her nomination papers on April 15, while BJP-INLD candidate and former MP Rattan Lal Kataria will file his nomination papers on April 16 from the Ambala parliamentary constituency (reserved). 

Yamunanagar, April 11
INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala today criticised the move of throwing a shoe on politicians include Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Congress MP Navin Jindal by the individuals to express their anguish stating that the public anger was genuine but means they had adopted was not right. He also denied the INLD hand behind yesterday’s incident, which took place in Kurukshetra, where old man had hurled shoe on MP Naveen Jindal.

While addressing the press conference at Rampura, he said Delhi-based journalist Jarnail Singh anguish against Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Singh was genuine, however, he had adopted wrong mean to show his anger. Similarly, old man’s anger was justified, but he did wrong thing by throwing shoe on Jindal. The public anguish in the recent incidents also reflected that the politicians should not to make false promises to the public and sentiments of public always taken care.

While justifying the Congress stand of dropping Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as candidate for the lok sabha tickets, Chautala said finally Congress realised its mistake regarding the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and prevented Tytler and Sajjan Kumar from contesting the elections. The decision of the Congress of allotting tickets to these two leaders had hurt the Sikhs.

Gurgaon, April 11
With campaigning in full swing, politicians have started shifting loyalties. The INLD suffered a huge jolt when its southern Haryana in charge and state general secretary Prof Surjit Singh along with his wife Shiksha Yadav, a former chairman of the Zila Parishad (Gurgaon and Mewat) and general secretary of the women’s wing of the party, joined the BSP.

This is a major blow for the INLD which has been struggling to find leaders from the Yadav community. The INLD has only two other leaders from this community with respectable base namely Rao Ajit Singh and Jagdish Yadav. The move of Shiksha and Professor Singh has left tremors in the camp of all the three Yadav leaders contesting from Gurgaon Parliamentary constituency.

The Congress has fielded MP from the Mohindergarh constituency Rao Inderjeet Singh from Gurgaon, whereas the BJP had fielded Sudha Yadav, former MP and the HJC has fielded Rao Narbir Singh from Gurgaon. The BSP has adopted its formula of social engineering and had given the ticket to Zakir Hussain. With three Yadav candidates and the BSP still managing to woo two top INLD Yadav leaders, the move has created a sense of uncertainty in opposite party camps.

Yamunanagar, April 11
Again raising question on the safety of senior citizens, a 65-year-old woman, Parkasho Devi, a resident of Laxmi garden, was beaten to death allegedly by seven youths here late last night. The accused were trespassed into her house at 12.30 am to take revenge with her grandson following dispute, however, who was incidentally not present there.

Despite family members attempts to stop them, the accused brutally beaten the old woman till she lost her conscious and finally collapsed. After the postmortem, the body was today handed over to the deceased’s family member.

Police sources said the deceased’s grandson Vicky had heated arguments and scuffle with youths of Chandpur in the vegetable market in the last evening. With the interference of locals the matter was resolved. Later, the youths tried hard to trace Vicky there, however, they did not found him anywhere.

Finally the youths managed to trace out Vicky’s house to take revenge. They first damaged the motorcycle, parked outside the house, and also others items. When Parkasho Devi came out to prevent the youths from damaging household items they beaten the old woman to death, the police sources further added.

The case has been registered against youths on the complaint of deceased’s son Shivcharan. “The police has registered a case against seven youths under the Sections 302, 147, 148, 149, 427 and 450 of the IPC in the Gandhi police station, however, no one is arrested yet. “We have been raiding different places to arrest the accused,” said investigating officer of the case Om Parkash.

Kurukshetra, April 11
Dr Neelima Shangla, Additional Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra, today sentenced a drug smuggler, Surender Singh, alias Chhindi, a resident of Shahabad, to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh under Section 18 of the NDPS Act for smuggling about 6 kg of opium and 900 gram of opium latex, from co-accused Rajinder Singh, a resident of Rajasthan, who had already been declared proclaimed offender.

On a tip-off, Avtar Singh, the then SHO, along with other police officials, on November 10, 2006, conducted a raid on the house of the accused, where he was apprehended and seized 6 kg of opium and 900 gram of opium latex.

Earlier, he was sentenced for two years’ imprisonment by the Sessions Court, Ambala, on April 17, 2002, under Sections 15 and 18 of the NDPS Act.