Lucknow, August 21
The ruling Bahujan Samajwadi Party received a shot in the arm when it wrested three of the four seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly byelections held on August 18. Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal retained the remaining seat.

The BSP’s candidate in Bidhuna in Auraiya district, Mahesh Verma, won by a margin of 27,284 votes. Verma’s father and former assembly speaker, Dhanni Lal Verma, a senior SP leader who had joined the BSP later vacated his seat in favour of his son. The SP candidate came second and the Congress and BJP forfeited their deposits.

Similarly, BSP candidate Sidharth Shanker won the Malihabad in Lucknow district by a margin of 2,6444 votes. His father, Gauri Shanker, who had won the seat on an SP ticket in 2007, later resigned to join the BSP and unsuccessfully contested the general elections. After his sudden death a few weeks ago the party ticket for the constituency was given to his son. In Moradabad (West) the BSP’s Balram Singh Saini won by a margin of 17,710 votes, defeating his nearest Congress party rival. The BJP, which had won there in 2007, came third this time whereas the SP forfeited its deposit.

Mithlesh Pal of the RLD retained the Morna seat in Muzaffarnagar district by defeating BSP candidate Noor Saleem Rana by a margin of 4,584 votes. Rana’s brother, Qadeer Rana, had won this seat on a RLD ticket in 2007 but later stepped down after joining the BSP and is now the party’s MP from Muzffarnagar.

Expressing satisfaction over her party's performance, BSP chief Mayawati declared the results had “proved the BSP has not lost ground” in the state. Calling it a victory of the party’s ‘sarvjan hitai, sarvjan sukhai’ policy, she said the results showed her government “clearly enjoyed the support of all sections of society”. Mayawati said after the Lok Sabha polls her party’s workers and cadres had been “instructed to fan out and apprise people as to how the Congress, SP and BJP had reached an understanding to stop a ‘dalit ki beti’ (daughter of a ‘dalit’) from becoming the prime minister”.

On the other hand a demoralised SP, which forfeited its deposits in two of the bypolls, blamed the “state’s official machinery” for its defeat. During his concluding speech today at the party’s national convention in Agra, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav accused the state government officials of “rigging” the polls in favour of the BSP. ''Crores of rupees were spent to buy votes in these byelections by the ruling BSP. State officials with the help of the police had grossly misused the machinery,'' he alleged.

Yadav also accused the Election Commission of “being helpless in preventing such state sponsored rigging.”

Bangalore, August 21
Priyank Kharge, Congress candidate from Chittapur and son of Union Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, figured among the losers as the results of the byelections in five Assembly constituencies of Karnataka were announced today. The Congress had held four of these seats -Chittapura, Govindarajanagar, Channapatna and Kollegala - while Ramanagara was held by JD(S).

Mallikarjun Kharge resigned his Chittapura seat after he successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Gulbarga (reserved) constituency and went on to become a Union minister. V Somanna quit the Govindarajanagar seat and joined the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections and was rewarded with the Housing Minister portfolio and sought re-election from this constituency. CP Yogeshwar (Channapatna) also joined the BJP and contested against former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who resigned his Ramnagaram seat in Bangalore Rural. Dhruva Narayana won from Chamarajanagara Lok Sabha constituency after resigning his Kollegal assembly seat.

As the votes cast in the byelections were counted , it turned out that Congress had been the biggest loser by having lost three out of four seats represented by it in Assembly originally. While Priyank Kharge lost to BJP’s Valmiki Narayan by 1,606 votes, in Kollegal the Congress candidate lost by a margin of 8,267 votes. In Channapatna, the Congress candidate figured in the third position.

The JD(S) retained the Ramnagaram seat and also bagged the Channapatna seat in addition. The ruling BJP made a net gain of two seats by having won Chittapur and Kollegal. The defeat of Housing Minister V Somanna in Govindarajanagar to Congress party’s Priya Krishna by a margin of over 5,000 votes, however, came as a big embarrassment to the ruling party. The byelection results would have no bearing on the stability of the BJP government in the state. The break up of the parties’ respective strength in the Assembly has now become BJP 116, Congress 74, JD(S) 27, Independents six, nominated one and Speaker one. 

Chennai, August 21
The ruling DMK-Congress alliance has emerged winner in the byelections to the five Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu. While the DMK won three seats, its ally the Congress emerged successful in the other two constituencies. Though, the victory of the ruling DMK-Congress alliance in all the five seats was a foregone conclusion, the strong performance of Vijaykanth's party DMDK, contesting without the support of any party, came as a surprise to many.

The DMDK polled 30,288 votes (23.36 per cent) in Bargur and 40,863 votes (20.28 per cent) in Thondamuthur, once again proving that his party is very strong in northern and western districts of Tamil Nadu. In the southern districts, he secured 24,142 votes (21.8 per cent) in Cumbum and 22,468 votes (26.58) in Srivaikuntam. The DMK-led alliance has secured 89,481 votes (69.03 per cent) in Bargur, 1,12,350 votes (56.61 per cent) in Thondamuthur, 81,515 votes (73.61 per cent) in Cumbum, 61,084 votes (71.84 per cent) in Ilayangudi and 53,827 votes (63.69 per cent) in Srivaikuntam.

Jaipur, August 21
After a week-long drama which saw her virtually defying the BJP’s central leadership, Rajasthan Assembly’s Leader of the Opposition Vasundhara Raje Scindia today left for New Delhi where she is likely to put in her papers after meeting LK Advani and BJP chief Rajnath Singh tomorrow. However, it would not be the end of troubles for the BJP in Rajasthan.

Once the BJP parliamentary board cracked the whip, Raje’s resignation was a matter of time, but the bigger challenge for the party now would be to find a replacement for Raje who would be acceptable to all factions in the state BJP where infighting continues. According to sources, though the BJP high command has more or less finalised the name of former Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria for the key post, in view of strong opposition from Raje loyalists the announcement has been deferred. 

The MLAs supporting Raje have publicly opposed the party’s move to name her replacement, contending that the MLAs could not be denied the right to elect their leader. Therefore the BJP is now contemplating to make deputy leader of legislature party Ghanshyam Tiwari the in charge for the brief upcoming Assembly session. The move will give adequate time to the party to placate the Raje camp and announce her replacement before the winter session. 

It would be interesting to see whether Raje can win this game of one-upmanship by getting one of her loyalists appointed as the assembly opposition leader. 

New Delhi, August 21
Track II diplomacy between India and Pakistan could well be on the cards. Pakistan’s former national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani would be in New Delhi early next month to deliver the inaugural RK Mishra memorial lecture on India-Pakistan relations.

Durrani would be the first high-profile visitor from Pakistan to visit New Delhi after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. A former Pakistan army officer, Durrani is considered by the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) an American agent in Islamabad working for US and Indian interests.

Sixty eight-year-old Durrani was sacked as NSA in January this year by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani after he acknowledged that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured during the Mumbai terror attacks, was a Pakistani national, much before the Pakistan government formally admitted it.

Sources in the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) said Durrani was being invited for the event since he was a close friend of Mishra. He would be in New Delhi from September 4-7 and deliver the lecture at the Indian International Centre on September 5.

The Pakistan High Commission here, meanwhile, said it had no knowledge of Durrani’s visit as he was not holding any official position. He may not be occupying any post in Pakistan currently but Durrani is said to be close to President Asif Ali Zardari even now.

Like SK Lambah, India’s special envoy on Kashmir, Durrani is a veteran of Track II diplomacy. While it is not known whether he would be meeting any Indian politician or senior official during his visit, he may utilise the opportunity to meet some of his old Indian friends, including former diplomats.

New Delhi, August 21
Responding to a question on a news report in The Tribune regarding legalisation of stay of some Indians in Spain, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said the cooperation extended by Spanish authorities and flexible approach adopted by both sides led to a solution in the matter.

“It is our hope that this will enable those Indian nationals, who wish to continue to reside in Spain to pursue their normal activities in a law-abiding and productive manner and will now have the opportunity to do so,” he added.

“The government has been engaged for several months in trying to find a solution to a problem faced by some of our nationals in Spain, who wish to regularise their status, but have been unable to do so on account of legal and technical issues about the jurisdiction and competence of authorities,’’ he said.

New Delhi, August 21
With new National Literacy Mission pledging today to cover 70 million illiterates (60 million women and 10 million men) during the 11th Five Year Plan, the government said it would achieve 80 per cent literacy in the country by 2017.

The mission, named by the President as National Mission for Female Literacy during her address to the Parliament in June, has been expected to launch on September 8, although its working title has not yet been finalised due to ongoing gender debate. The Human Resource Development Ministry has been planning to change the title to take males on board, as the current title sends out a woman-exclusive message.

Also, the mission would have Rs 6,000 crore in the 11th plan as against Rs 2,800 crore that had been spent on adult literacy during the movement that first started in later 1980s.

Admitting that the old movement failed to address the literacy problem, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said unlike past, the state government would now be made full stakeholders in financial management.

“Earlier, the centre was directly dealing with the districts. Now, the state governments are going to be involved, so are the Panchayati Raj Institutions,” the minister said. The mission also fixed its targets today and would cover illiterates in 365 districts of the country, where the levels of female literacy have been below 50 per cent.

The recast mission would also, for the first time, provide for outcome-based incentives for trainers, but there would be no entry-level incentives. “The movement will be purely voluntary,” Sibal told The Tribune.

As for the focus of the new literacy programme, it would mainly concentrate on seven states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tajasthan, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand.