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Exhorts voters to repeat LS poll results
‘Silent’ voters hold the key
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Dera followers may go with Cong
To play crucial role in Karnal
Hooda faces acid test
Surjewala harps on development
Ambala, Kalanwali
Gharaunda, Indri poised for exciting finish
Deol roots for BJP’s Malik
BJP rules out post-poll alliance
EC directive to admn on ‘outsider functionaries’
We’ll realise Tau’s dream, says Mulayam
1 killed in wall collapse
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Oppn’s promises hollow: Sonia
Jhajjar, October 11 “The future of Haryana will be brighter if the party returns to power as the achievements of the present government have been remarkable and these should continue without a break. Don’t be misled by the tall promises made by some of the opposition parties and their leaders as these are hollow,” she asserted. Addressing a well-attended election rally at HUDA Sector grounds here today, the Congress supremo compared the progress during the previous governments in the state, especially in the tenure of the INLD- BJP rule, and asked the people what they had done for them during those years. “Did they waive off the loans of farmers or provided reservation to women at any stage?” she asked the people, who were waving fervently towards her. It was the Congress government which gave 33 per cent reservation to women in local bodies and it had been raised up to 50 per cent now, she claimed. “Tab dande or arajakta ka raj tha or ab logon ka hai” (then it was stick and chaos and now it was people’s rule) she said in chaste Hindi. Now the budget of the present state government had gone up more than five times which reflected how well it had been doing. “Yeh log (opposition) bade- bade vaade karenge, yeh khokhle hain (they will make big promises which are hollow),” she claimed, adding that the Hooda government had carried out development without any discrimination to any region or area. ‘The waiving off of the loans to the tune of Rs 71,000 crore of the farmers and artisans and launching of various schemes, including Rs 2,400 crore worth Mahatma Gandhi Dalit Basti Yojna (housing) and setting up of the Agriculture Development Fund worth Rs 25,000 crore, were a proof of how much the Congress had been concerned with the interest of the farmers and the poor, she said. Hinting that she had been satisfied with the work of the Chief Minister, she asked the people to support the party in the present elections for a bright future of the state. Earlier, Hooda, who appeared cautious of the opposition campaign, claimed that he had tried his best to make the state number one and the voters ought not to be misled by anyone. “Tumne koi kasar chhod di to Sonia ji meri chhutti kar dengi” (Sonia ji will remove me if you falter) quipped Hooda, leaving many amazed. Deepender Singh Hooda also sounded confident of winning from all the nine Assembly segments of the Rohtak parliamentary constituency. An introduction parade of Congress party candidates of Jhajjar, Beri, Bahadurgarh, Badli, Rohtak and Kalanaur seats was carried out on the stage. |
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Exhorts voters to repeat LS poll results
Nuh (Mewat), October 11 While Sonia, flanked by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and a handful of other Congress leaders, addressed the rally from a high, weatherproof platform, the local masses braved the noon heat as they listened to the claims of the progress made by the “aam aadmi” and promises of an “even better future” if they voted the party back to power. Clad in a maroon cotton saree, Sonia asserted that the Congress had always worked for the uplift of the downtrodden, while the BJP and other opposition parties had ignored the interests of the weaker sections. “Development is meaningless if it does not benefit the common man,” she said, adding that on coming to power, the Congress would bring Mewat under mainstream development. Speaking in Hindi, the AICC president appealed to the voters of this backward region to repeat the results of the recent Lok Sabha elections and vote the Congress back to power in the state. Sonia pointed out that the UPA government at the Centre was implementing the recommendations of the Sachhar Committee for the benefit of the backward classes. She also showered praises on Hooda and maintained that the state had witnessed all-round development in his leadership. Sonia sought votes for the Congress candidates from Mewat, including Aftab Ahmed from Nuh, Maman Khan from Ferozepur Jhirka, Haji Akhtar from Punhana and Dharmbir Singh from Sohna. Listing the local achievements of the Congress regime, Sonia said as many as 137 schools of Mewat had been upgraded, six Kasturba Gandhi schools for girls were opened, the work on a medical college was in progress, the number of seats in technical courses had been increased to
78,000 and a quota for the OBCs had been ensured in the premier professional institutes like the IITs and the IIMs. Speaking of women empowerment, the AICC president said the Congress government had increased the percentage of seats reserved for the women in panchayats to 50 per cent. Earlier, Hooda maintained that on the basis of large-scale development works carried out during his tenure, he was confident that the people would vote the Congress back to power in the state. |
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‘Silent’ voters hold the key
Hisar, October 11 This giant represents the “silent” voters who pretend complete indifference to the poll process throughout the campaign and then make up their minds hours before the polling. The number of such voters is so huge that they can turn the tables on any aspirant overnight. There are some uncanny commonalities among these voters. For one, they never give out their minds. Two, they consider their vote as an extremely valuable asset which they would never want to squander. Thirdly, they remain undecided till the night before the polling. Fourthly, they are among the common faces at every party’s election meetings. And last but not least, they want their vote to be on the winning side irrespective of ideology because for them a vote for a loser is “wasted”. In this process they often end up making their choice a winner. These voters are also known to be inclined more towards less aggressive personalities. The concept of extended family comes into play when these voters decide who to vote for. The extended family includes immediate family members, cousins, friends and their families too. So there, their voting pattern has a ripple effect. As if this scenario wasn’t scary enough, this time there is an added dimension to it. And that is that there were no issues in the poll to help the voters make their choice. In the past factors like anti-incumbency, prohibition, SYL Canal and boundary disputes have influenced the outcome of assembly poll. However, this time the Congress plank of development and the INLD’s bundles of populist promises were non-issues. Inflation, unemployment, shortage of power and water failed to influence voters as people have learnt to live with these. The absence of issues has lent a touch of mystery to the silent voters. |
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Dera followers may go with Cong
Sirsa, October 11 Though the political affairs wing of Dera Sacha Sauda, that held a series of meetings with dera followers ever since the assembly elections were announced, has asked them to vote on the “call of conscience”, the message is loud and clear to all. As a matter of fact, dera followers have already participated in the election campaign of Congress candidates in several assembly segments. Narsi Dass Goyal, a member of the local committee of the dera, who had earlier filed his own nomination papers from the Fatehabad seat, has started campaigning for Congress candidate Dura Ram now. Bachan Dass Bajaj, a prominent dera follower, who filed his nominations from the Sirsa seat, has come out in support of LD Arora, the ruling party’s
candidate. His son, Rakesh Bajaj, revealed that they have extended their support to Arora on the intervention of the political affairs wing of the dera. Chandi Ram, a member of the seven-member political affairs committee of the dera that met today, told The Tribune that over 90 per cent of the sangat (followers) were in favour of voting for the Congress
candidates. “When we began ascertaining the views of the sangat during our meetings, an overwhelming majority of them was in favour of supporting the present government in Haryana,” Chandi Ram revealed and added that directions had been issued to the dera followers to exercise their right to franchise “as per their conscience”. When his attention was drawn towards some dera followers like Satdev from Rania and Roshan Lal from Tohana, who are contesting polls as Independents, Chandi Ram maintained that they had jumped into the fray on their own and they did not enjoy the support of Dera Sacha Sauda or its sangat. He maintained that a majority of the dera followers would vote against them and in favour of the “party that lives up to the conscience” of dera followers. Meanwhile, a senior functionary of Dera Sacha Sauda revealed on condition of anonymity that sentiments of the dera followers were quite harsh against a particular party. He said one such follower even went to the extent of posing a question before Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh during the daily “majlis” (congregation) as to why leaders of the party that played a “negative role” and used “objectionable words” against the dera after the Dabwali incident, were not reminded of their conduct, when they came to seek his blessings during the
elections. |
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To play crucial role in Karnal
Karnal, October 11 There are 5,000 to 10,000 dera voters in these constituencies who can tilt the balance in favour of or against any candidate. The situation was a bit different in Indri as a dera supporter Mahinder Kumar Insa was himself contesting the poll. The dera voters are maintaining a studied silence and have not openly announced support to any party or candidate. Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Gujjar Manch has unanimously decided to support the
BJP, keeping in mind that for the first time a Gujjar leader, Krishna Pal
Gujjar, has been nominated as state BJP president and the party has given seven tickets to
Gujjars. On the other hand, All India Bairagi Maha Mandal has extended support to the Congress and its national president Krishnan Kumar Bawa campaigned for the party in
Ambala, Pehowa and Karnal. Bawa claimed that Bairagi Maha mandal has a mass following in the state. Meanwhile, the candidates and their supporters swarmed into their constituencies as electioneering came to a close this evening. The police and paramedical forces led by District Returning officer JS Ahlawat and SP KK Rao today staged a flag march through main roads of Karnal and similar flag marches were organised in other four constituencies
also. Ahlawat and Rao urged the police and security forces to maintain law and order at all costs and deal strictly with anti-social elements. |
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Hooda faces acid test
Chandigarh, October 11 The results came. Hooda defeated the grand old man with a margin of about 30,000 votes. People thought it was just a fluke victory. But Hooda went on to defeat Devi Lal continuously for two times in 1996 and 1998. He had politically arrived. He became the president of the state Congress in 1997 and remained so for the longest tenure ever enjoyed in the state. He was made Chief Minister in 2005 by the Congress high command by ignoring the claims of many leaders senior to him in the party. Many considered him to be an “imposed Chief Minister”, who lacked the popular support. Hooda somewhat silenced his critics by ensuring the victory of his party on two of the three byelections held in the state in 2008. He further demonstrated his claim of popular support when his party won nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2009. The results of the Assembly elections will establish or demolish Hooda as a popular leader. This is the acid test, he faces. |
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Surjewala harps on development
Kaithal, October 11 Addressing roadside meetings, Randeep said the tremendous response he received from people today showed that people of this area had given thumbs up to the development, launched during the last four-and-half-years of the Congress rule, when his father was MLA from Kaithal. He said, despite being a district headquarter, Kaithal lacked basic civic amenities and the roads were in a bad shape. Kaithal was not given due attention by the elected representatives for a long time till the Hooda government took the reins of the state. However, for the last four years, many development projects were completed in this area and many other important projects were at a final stage of completion. The new bus stand building , Rs 14 crore sewer treatment plant , the under-construction BR Ambedkar college building , Rs 24 crore railway over bridge and multi-speciality hospital were among them. |
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Poll din comes to an end
Chandigarh, October 11 All last day rallies, needless to say, turned out to be massive and impressive for the contestant parties had put their entire might realising them to be the last effective mean to give a message to the electorate. Interestingly, leaders of all major political parties - the Congress, the INLD, the BJP, the HJC and even some Independents - exuded confidence of good showing in the major battle for electoral supremacy in the 12th Haryana Vidhan Sabha. Never before the intensity of campaigning has been so severe in the assembly elections. It is also after a long time that all major political parties decided to contest on their own leaving alliances to the post-election scenario. Only exception had been the INLD-SAD tie-up. Unlike previous elections, mode of campaigning too changed. All major political parties relied a great deal on electronic and print media campaigning. Though top political leadership of the country, including Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi - all from the Congress, LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely, Vijay Goel - all from the BJP, Mayawati (BSP) and Prakash Karat (CPM) campaigned for their respective party candidates, a few Bollywood and sports stars too turned up to drum up support for their selective candidates. They included Raj Babbar and Mohammed Azharuddin. Meanwhile, all external campaigners, including top political leaders, were asked to leave the state. The election administration and the police were directed to ensure that all outsider functionaries who had come from outside and campaigned for their party candidates shall have to leave the constituency immediately after the close of campaign period. Though such a direction of the Election Commission is a part of mandatory exercise, yet it has assumed special significance because of the heavy presence of political leadership of neighbouring Punjab, including the top leadership of SAD. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his son and President of Shiromani Akali Dal Sukhbir Singh Badal and former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur accompanied by former MPs Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Prem Singh Chandumajra actively campaigned for the two SAD candidates and also some INLD candidates during the past one week. At one stage, the Ambala administration had taken cognisance of the presence of their Punjab police security guards with them. Minor incidents notwithstanding, campaigning mostly remained peaceful. Starting with traditional Ragni singers, Haryana witnessed an unusual novelty, including some top Punjabi folk singers sashaying the dais to woo voters. Famous Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans, who unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha elections from Jalandhar as a candidate of the SAD, was cynosure of all eyes in the last rally of his party in Ambala. He has been actively campaigning for SAD and INLD candidates. Another top star of Punjabi folk music, Gurdass Mann, performed for Bhagat Singh, an Independent and a Congress rebel candidate from Kalka. Several top sportsmen of the country, including many hockey Olympians and internationals, campaigned for INLD candidate from Panchkula, former Test cricketer Yograj Singh. How effective these campaigners were will be known on October 13 when 1.28 crore voters of the state exercise their franchise. |
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SAD-INLD alliance opportunistic: Sarna
Faridabad, October 11 The SAD (Delhi), headed by Paramjeet Singh Sarna, urged the Sikhs of the state to vote for the Congress as it was the only party which had the interest of the community at heart. Significantly, Sarna is also president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (DSGPC), a powerful body overlooking the functioning of the Gurdwaras in the national capital. Sarna, during his tour in the state to canvass support for the Congress nominees, asserted that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was a “decent” person and political leader having a “clean” image. Also, the Congress government headed by him had done developmental works on a large scale in the state. Coming down hard on the SAD (Badal), he said the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was following “double standards” in aligning with the INLD and running a coalition government with the BJP in Punjab. Both Badal and the INLD supremo were hand-in-glove to damage both Haryana and Punjab. He alleged that on account of Badal’s relationship with clan of former Deputy Prime Minister, late Devi Lal, he never raised the interest of Punjab vis-a-vis Haryana when the INLD was in power in the state. According to him, the UPA government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh at the Centre under the guidance of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Congress government in the state could ensure the welfare of the Sikhs, not only in the country, but abroad, too. In a counter to Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi), the president of the Delhi unit of Shiromani Akal Dal (Badal), Manjit Singh cautioned the public against the Congress in the state, saying it was angling to divide the Sikh community by creating a separate and independent Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee in the state to fulfil its own interest. This was not acceptable as the Congress had now resorted to its earlier policy of “divide and rule” of the community, he added. Manjit Singh said it was the for the first time in the annals of political history of the state that SAD (Badal) candidates were contesting Assembly election of the state. |
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Ambala, Kalanwali
Chandigarh, October 11 Yet, Ambala City and Kalanwali in Sirsa are special. For, it is from here, that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has made its first foray into the state by lending its name and party symbol to two “adopted” candidates of its alliance partner, the INLD. With the Punjab government’s prestige linked to these two seats, the SAD is leaving nothing to chance, “flooding” the two Assembly segments with its workers, party men and top brass, realising that the first impression being the last impression. In Ambala, SAD candidate Charanjit Kaur Mallour is pitted against Congress heavyweight and sitting MLA Venod Sharma while Kalanwali is seeing a close contest between party nominee Charan singh against Congress candidate Sushil Indora. Everybody from Punjab, including Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, MLAs, former ministers, SGPC members, zila praishad members to just about everybody, has exhaustively campaigned for the party candidates. In Ambala, every single ward and village has been assigned to a SAD leader and virtually all its MLAs and the Chief Minister are virtually camping at the seat. That, Congress candidate Venod Sharma, a former minister as well, says is no cause of concern. He is banking on the “all-round development” in his seat as he goes about campaigning, maintaining that the fight this election is only for increasing his margin while Mallour “anti-Congress” tirade revolves around price rise. In Kalanwali, a newly carved reserved seat, Indora, INLD’s former MLA who switched to the Congress a couple of months back, is seeking votes in the name of pro-people policies of the Congress rule while the SAD candidate is urging people to get back the “farmer-friendly INLD” to power as party men, housed at the university belonging to the Chautalas, have been fanned out all over the seat. However, now the trouble is brewing for the SAD in Ambala where the district congress president (urban), Arun Garg, has complained of “intimidation and public display of arms” by the Punjab police” to the SP, Ambala. In his letter, he has maintained that Punjab police cops with various ministers touring the constituency to campaign for the SAD candidate are intimidating the public. He has urged the SP to ensure that only Central security forces are deployed for election and the Punjab police should not be allowed to enter Ambala without the prior approval of the Election Commission. In a complaint to the EC today, apprehending trouble, he has further sought that all outsiders in the constituency should be asked to leave before polling begins since they are not local residents. General Secretary of the district Congress Rajan Gugnani, says, “The presence of so many outsiders only shows that the INLD has no worker in the seat.” |
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Gharaunda, Indri poised for exciting finish
Karnal, October 11 The outcome of the elections will determine Bhajan Lal’s popularity in this belt. Realising that much water had flown down Yamuna river since the last elections in 2005, Bhajan Lal is concentrating on Karnal and has played the “ministerial card”, promising ministerial berths to HJC candidates in Indri and Assandh seats, if the HJC was voted to power. The overtures of Bhajan Lal are aimed at checking the split in Kamboj votes, which form the largest single caste in the Indri constituency and HJC candidate Rakesh Kamboj is pitted against sitting congress MLA Bhim Sen Mehta. Mehta, who contested as an Independent in 2005, had lost to Rakesh Kamboj (Congress), a staunch supporter of Bhajan Lal, who resigned when his mentor formed the HJC. Later, Mehta joined the Congress and won the byelections, defeating Ashok Kashyap of the INLD, who is also a strong contender for the seat. Mehta has two advantages this time - the Congress is in power and the BJP and the INLD are separately contesting the elections. The consolidation of Kamboj votes in favour of Rakesh Kamboj can make the contest really tough for Mehta who won this seat in 2000 and 1996 as an Independent candidate but lost in 2005 and 1991. The winning margin in this seat is not expected to be big and each vote will matter. Sixteen candidates, including Dharam Pal of the BJP, Sunil Kumar Kamboj of the BSP, Ved Pal of the NCP and six independents, are in the fray. The HJC factor is not much at play in Gharaunda as Harvinder Kalyan, a prominent HJC leader, has joined the BSP and emerged as main rival of Congress candidate Varinder Singh Rathore. Narinder Sangwan of the INLD, Dharam Pal Rana of the HJC and Jai Pal Sharma of the BJP were also among 15 candidates in the fray. Rekha Rana of the INLD had won this seat in 2005, defeating Jai Pal Sharma (Independent) by a thin margin of 0.02 per cent votes, relegating the Congress to the third position. The INLD, denying ticket to Rekha Rana, has fielded Narinder Sangwan while Jai Pal Sharma is contesting on the BJP ticket. However, Kalyan of the BSP has been posing a real challenge to Rathore. |
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Time to dislodge Hooda govt: Chautala
Sirsa/Fatehabad, October 11 Addressing meetings for party candidates - Swatantar Bala Chaudhary (Fatehabad) at Bhattu Kalan and Krishan Kamboj (Rania) at Kharian - here today, Chautala alleged that the Hooda government was biased against Sirsa and Fatehabad districts. He alleged that the two districts had been discriminated against supply of irrigation water, power and jobs. “On the one hand, Hooda has been seeking votes, while on the other hand canals and water channels of your area have been left dry for the past 24 days,” Chautala alleged and said the time had come to dislodge the Hooda government. Addressing meetings for INLD candidates - Nishan Singh (Tohana) and Krishan Kamboj (Rania) - Badal alleged that the Congress had failed to live up to the expectations of the people. |
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Deol roots for BJP’s Malik
Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), October 11 Addressing a gathering, Deol said Malik was like his brother and urged the people to vote for him as he was one of the leaders who had entered politics to serve all sections of society. He stressed that the interests of Bahadurgarh was safe in the hands of Malik, hence people should come forward to help him win the elections. Blaming the Congress for spurt in the prices of essential commodities, Rajnath Singh said the prices of essential commodities always rose whenever the Congress formed government at the Centre. He claimed that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre from 1998 to 2004 did not allow rise in the prices for the entire six-year period. Referring to the global economic recession, the BJP chief said there was slowdown even during the BJP government in 2001, but then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took effective steps and the country was not affected by recession. However, the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government at the Centre failed to effectively tackle the situation arising out of the economic slowdown, Rajnath Singh added. |
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BJP rules out post-poll alliance
Chandigarh, October 11 “The Congress and the INLD have both used wrong means for campaigning in this election. The INLD opposed our candidates during the Lok Sabha poll then also we entered into an alliance. We are not happy with the Akalis supporting the INLD. This is true for our leaders and for our workers as well. However, this does not mean that I am dissatisfied with our alliance in Punjab,” he said. Addressing a press conference, Goel rejected the possibility of a post-poll alliance to keep the Congress out of power as is being propagated by other parties in the opposition. “We apprehend that the Congress will use money to buy voters over the next three days. We have urged the Election Commission to keep tabs on the distribution of money and to deploy additional security at sensitive booths to check rigging,” he said. |
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EC directive to admn on ‘outsider functionaries’
Chandigarh, October 11 Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, Sajjan Singh here today said this “restriction may not be insisted upon in respect of the office-bearer of a political party who is in-charge of the state. Such office-bearers shall declare his place of stay in the state headquarters and his movement during the period in question shall remain confined normally between his party office and the place of his stay.” Sajjan Singh said after the closure of campaign period, no campaign could take place within the constituency, presence of political functionaries and party workers, who have been brought from outside the constituency and who are not voters of the constituency, should not remain present in the constituency as their continued presence after campaign ends may undermine the atmosphere for free and fair poll. |
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We’ll realise Tau’s dream, says Mulayam
Jind, October 11 |
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1 killed in wall collapse
Faridabad, October 11 The dead has been identified as Shree, a resident of village Shaaran, near here. Thirteen of the injured hospitalised in local Badshah Khan Hospital are said to have received serious injuries. The building housed a company and was known by the name of Malco Steel and Buyers Industry. A large number of workers were engaged on the construction works in which the rear side of the wall of the building was being raised. The wall collapsed midway. The administrative machinery got into the act and after about three hours of rescue operation the victims were brought out from the debris. District Town and Country Planner (Enforcement) Satish Prashar said the owner of the company, Jagdish Ratra, had got a building plan approved for the construction. However, he said it was being verified whether the construction was actually taking place as per the approved plan. No case has been registered so far. |
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