Mumbai, October 22
Raj Thackeray’s breakaway Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has emerged as a major political force in Maharashtra with 13 seats in the state assembly. Having hurt the prospects of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine on around 50 seats, the fledgling party aims to bring regionalism under the spotlight in Maharashtra’s politics.

“I have shown that the politics of Marathi manoos still works,” Raj Thackeray told reporters at his residence in Central Mumbai. “We were the only party to raise serious issues that affected the people of Maharashtra,” Thackeray said. Dismissing the victory of the Congress-NCP combine, Raj Thackeray said the ruling combine was not all that successful. “It was not a victory for the Congress-NCP. It’s just that the Shiv Sena-BJP failed a lot more than the ruling parties,” Raj Thackeray said. “You had 110 MLAs in the House, but you did not do enough to make the government accountable,” Thackeray said of the two opposition parties.

Raj said his party would act as an effective opposition in the Maharashtra assembly. “I am happy with my 13 MLAs. We can act as a constructive opposition in the Maharashtra assembly,” Thackeray said.

Barely a stone’s throw away from the headquarters of the Shiv Sena, the mood outside Raj’s house was one of euphoria with firecrackers being burst and sweets distributed by ecstatic workers of the MNS.

On the other hand, the mood at the Shiv Sena’s headquarters remained sombre with a handful of party workers milling about. Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray has retreated behind the doors of his father’s house, Matoshree, leaving behind former Chief Minister and ex-Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi to speak to the media.

“The defeat has to be accepted by everybody,” Joshi said. “Everyone is equally responsible for defeat as for victory,” he said. He also denied that the Sena was routed because of Uddhav Thackeray’s insipid leadership. “Uddhav Thackeray got good response from the people during his public meetings. At some meetings, there were as many people as at Balasaheb’s meetings. So we cannot say that Uddhav is not a crowd puller,” Joshi said.

He admitted the defeat came as a major shock for the Sena-BJP combine. “We never expected these results. It has definitely come as a shock to us,” Joshi said.

Mumbai, October 22
Belying predictions by analysts and pollsters, the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine is poised to retain power for a third term after gaining absolute majority in the Maharashtra assembly. The ruling combine has emerged as the single largest grouping in the 288-member House, winning nearly half the number of seats, many with slender margins.

With victory in the bag, the jostling for the power has begun. The NCP that hoisted a trial balloon about rotating the post of Chief Minister quickly piped down as the first trends began to come in. NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who suggested implementing the “Kashmir model” in Maharashtra, backtracked after his leader Sharad Pawar shot down the suggestion.

Now, the race for the top job is open among the heavyweights in the Congress. Outgoing Chief Minister Ashok Chavan is lobbying heavily to retain the post. “I think the people of Maharashtra are happy with the government’s performance,” said Chavan, who has been in the office for about a year now. On the other hand, his predecessor Vilasrao Deshmukh has not given up.

Union Heavy Industries Minister Deshmukh has also not hidden his desire to return to Maharashtra. Deshmukh’s son Amit has won from Latur and is expected to vacate his seat if Vilasrao becomes the Chief Minister for the third time.

Guwahati, October 22
The Congress has retained power in Arunachal Pradesh with just over two-third majority in the 60-member Assembly while its main rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), put up a very poor show.

The ruling Congress has won 42 seats out of the total 60 seat while the BJP won only three seats. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) won five seats each. The rest five seats were shared by People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) and one Independent candidate.

The Congress win has set the stage for Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu to form the government for the second time in a row. Khandu was elected unopposed from Mukto Assembly constituency in Tawang district bordering China.

On the eve of announcement of the poll results, Khandu had stated that he would be happy if the ruling Congress could retain power with two-third majority by winning at least 40 seats. Khandu’s main detractor within the party and former Chief Minister Gegong Apang was defeated in Tuting-Yingkiong constituency by the NCP candidate Alo Libang in a six-cornered contest.

Senior Apang’s son and Congress candidate Omak Apang too lost in Pasighat West constituency to his BJP rival Dr Tangor Tapak. Other prominent losers from Congress included Pomaya Mithi, wife of Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former chief minister Mukut Mithi. She lost to Trinamool Congress rival Laeta Umbrey in Roing constituency in a direct contest.

Prominent woman leader in the state Congress Yari Dulom lost in Daporijo constituency to her BJP rival Tapen Siga while another senior Congress leader Kameng Dolo lost at Chayangtajo constituency to debutant Trinamool woman candidate Karya Bagang.

The Congress, which contested all 60 Assembly constituencies, fought the election on the plank of its development agenda with a special focus on the Prime Minister’s infrastructure development package. 

Moga, October 22
Actor-turned-politician Baldev Khosa, hailing from Jhandeana, a small village of Moga district, today won the Maharashtra Assembly election for the 4th consecutive term on Congress ticket from Ambola (Andheri West, Mumbai).

He has defeated his nearest rival Shailesh Phanse of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine by a margin of more than 14,000 votes. He earns the reputation of being an honest politician in Mumbai.

A clean-shaven handsome Sikh man, Khosa left his native village in his twenties in 1967 to try his luck in the film industry.

He entered politics in 1984 when Sunil Dutt was elected to the Lok Sabha in the Parliamentary election. Baldev Khosa was fielded from the Amboli constituency to fight the state Assembly elections in February 1985. He won this election. He was consecutively elected to the state assembly in 1999 and 2004.

Talking to The Tribune from Mumbai, Baldev Khosa, delighted over his win, claimed that he was a contender for the ministerial berth in the new government to be formed by his Congress party, which has won majority in the elections.

“I am continuously working for the people of Mumbai for the past over 20 years and had never demanded any ministerial berth in my previous terms as MLA but this time, surely, I am in the seniority list and will stake claim for a ministerial berth”, he added. 

Lucknow, October 22
Saurabh, a 15-year-old dalit schoolboy, was mowed to death near Jigna village in Rae Bareli when his cycle was crushed by the official Ambassador car of the state’s Stamps and Registration Minister Nand Gopal, ‘Nandy’.

The minister was present in the car (UP 32-BG-3446) at the time of the accident and escaped from the accident site in his escort car, said police sources.

Two other boys - Anuj and Prem Shankar - were also injured in the accident and were admitted to the hospital. All the boys were going to school.

According to the police the accident occurred at around 9.30 am under Jagatpur police station area on the National Highway connecting Lucknow to Allahabad. After hitting Saurabh, a class tenth student, the car rammed into a closed shop selling cement and sand.

Police have seized the minister's vehicle and a case has been registered.

The driver of the minister’s car has been arrested and sent to Unchahar police station.

Angry villagers blocked the National Highway for well over half an hour demanding compensation for the family of the deceased from the minister. The blockade was lifted only after senior district officials rushed to the spot and assured them of timely action. 

Lucknow, October 22
An appearance in the court for some well-heeled undertrials in Kanpur included cozying up with sex workers in a hotel opposite the court while their police escort remained on guard. One such constable was suspended yesterday on the charge of dereliction of duty.

According to Kotwali circle officer Lakshmi Niwas Mishra, constable Shyam Singh was suspended for laxity in duty after he allowed undertrial Rohit to meet a woman in a hotel after the hearing in the court.

On a tip-off, the police raided the hotel yesterday afternoon and caught Rohit along with the woman. They also found the constable and the hotel owner keeping watch outside the hotel room.

Both were taken to the police station. While the constable has been suspended. No FIR has been lodged in the case so far.

While Inspector Mahendra Nath Sharma from the Kotwali police station defended Singh and said the woman was Rohit’s wife and his crime amounted to letting him meet his wife, the hotel employees begged to differ.

According to Mahesh, an employee of the hotel, this was not a stray incident. Policemen, for as little as Rs 500, often brought undertrials to the hotel for similar escapades.

Rohit arrested at Kalyanpur in Kanpur for running a narcotics racket visited the hotel every time he appeared in the court, the employees claimed.

New Delhi, October 22
With the World Health Organisation reporting the death of one child a minute in India due to pneumonia, child health bodies back home today urged the government to include pneumonia vaccine in the routine immunisation schedule if it wanted to meet the Millennium Development Goal 4 of reducing child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

The WHO data, recently also published in The Lancet, says India leads the world with 27 per cent of the global pneumonia cases, followed by Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The world body names two bacteria — streptococcus pneumoniae and haemophilus influenza type 2 (Hib) -- as the leading causes of pneumonia in the country - a fact which a coalition of over 50 child health organisations from all over the world will acknowledge on November 2 as they observe the first World Pneumonia Day.

“We have the tools we need to prevent and treat pneumonia,” said the Global Coalition against Pneumonia today, “but two million children under five years of age die from pneumonia each year -- more than that from AIDS, measles and malaria combined.”

World Pneumonia Day is being observed to ensure that necessary intervention reaches children in the world’s most vulnerable countries like India.

Back home also, child rights organisations have been urging the government to focus attention on the issue. “Pneumonia caused by these two bacteria is largely preventable through vaccination,” says Dr Nitin Shah, chairperson of the India chapter of the Asian Strategic Alliance for Pneumococcal disease prevention (ASAP).

“The awareness levels in India are too low for pneumococcal disease that kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined,” he said.

Recently, the Union Health Ministry introduced a pentavalent (five-in-one) vaccine which includes haemophilus influenza (Hib), one of the two bacteria causing pneumonia and meningitis.

“But the need is for the government to follow this up with the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) which immunises children against pneumonia and other diseases caused by streptococcus pneumoniae,” Dr Shah said. 

New Delhi, October 22
A move that will place the Indian Navy in league with leading navies of the world, the government has started a project that entails inter-connection of weapons on board all its warships. In the first phase, 20 warships have been selected and work has begun.

This is aimed at achieving awareness of the maritime domain and network-centric operations. A leading public sector organisation with a good reputation in telecom solutions is carrying out the task. Sources confirmed that weapons on board 20 such warships are to be interconnected and the new aircraft carrier will also be on this list. Only the US and select NATO countries have such systems on board their ships.

The technology, called asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), allows high rate of data transfer that enables the captain of the ship to “communicate” digitally with weapon systems operators on various decks. Scientists at the Kochi-based Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) had been aiming at having such a technology on board ships for the past few years.

Separately, the Indian Defence Ministry today announced that a Naval communication satellite would be launched next year. This is aimed at improving connectivity at sea, said Defence Minister AK Antony as he addressed senior commanders of the Navy here today at a closed-door meeting. Selective details of the meeting were released by the Defence spokesperson here today. Navy would be the first among the three services to have a satellite of its own.

Latter in the evening an official explained this saying the satellite will be geo-stationary and will keep round-the clock eye on the seas where India has interest.

At the meeting with commanders, Antony did not forget to emphasise the coastal security aspect. The Navy is working out standard operating procedures (SOPs) with other stakeholders to tackle 26/11 type terror threats from the sea.

At the meeting, Naval chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said the acquisition plans of the Navy would have to give added impetus to maintenance and upgradation of the existing assets to ensure high readiness. The Admiral also discussed some administrative points like movements of officers and men on temporary duty.

New Delhi, October 22
n New Delhi for the first time after his father’s death in a helicopter crash around two months ago, YS Jaganmohan Reddy today met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who told him to leave the issue of leadership change in Andhra Pradesh to her.

“Leave the decision to me,” Jaganmohan, son of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, later quoted Gandhi as saying.

As per Jaganmohan, the Congress president discussed the political situation in Andhra Pradesh with him. “I explained the overall political situation in Andhra Pradesh to the Congress president. We discussed in detail, in length, about the party situation in Andhra Pradesh. After the briefing, she said leave the decision to me. I will work to strengthen the party… I am with Sonia Gandhi and the party,” he said.

Amid demands by his supporters to make him Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Jaganmohan said, “I have a lot of faith in her. Whatever will be her decision we will abide by it.”

The 37-year-old first-time MP from Kadapa also dismissed as “speculation” when asked whether the campaign to make him the Chief Minister after his father's death was true. “Such kind of speculation is not good,” he said.

However there is little doubt about what's on Jaganmohan’s agenda when he met the Congress president, accompanied by Ramachandra Rao, a close aide of YSR Reddy and the man behind the ‘Jagan-for-Chief Minister’ campaign.

Sources say Jaganmohan had a lot of explaining to do before the Congress president and he is believed to have told her that he did not instigate the signature campaign by his supporters to make him the chief minister. “He also explained to her that whatever his supporters had done was out of love and affection for his late father,” they say.

After YSR’s death, the Congress appointed K Rosaiah as the new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Apparently the top leadership refused to bow down to pressure to make Jaganmohan as the chief minister, especially when he did not have enough political experience.

However, various state ministers, MPs and MLAs led a campaign in his support, much to the Congress leadership’s displeasure. Last month, his supporters demonstrated in Hyderabad demanding he be appointed as the new leader of the state.

Sources say Jaganmohan has now been clearly told that the party was not in a mood to replace Rosaiah and that he may have to wait a bit longer.

After his brief meeting with the party president, Jaganmohan addressed mediapersons at Andhra Pradesh Bhawan, where he said he was grateful to the Congress president for giving him an appointment and that he had full faith in her decision.

New Delhi, October 22
The Supreme Court today warned Punjab and other states against taking the legislative route to defy its verdicts on inter-state water disputes, stating that this would have “serious consequences”.

A three-member Bench headed by Justice DK Jain said it was unfortunate that states, instead of implementing the apex court orders, were looking for ways to circumvent them.

“What is the sanctity of the court passing judgments if every state starts enacting laws to prevent their implementation,” the Bench, which included Justices MK Sharma and RM Lodha, asked.

The court specifically mentioned Punjab for putting in place the Punjab Termination of Agreements (PTA) Act 2004 after a verdict had gone in favour of Haryana. Now it was the turn of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the Bench said.

The Bench made the comments while hearing arguments on the dispute over the Mullaiperiyar dam between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Incidentally, the court had a similar experience on the Cauvery river water dispute between TN and Karnataka.

Kolkata, October 22
Over 55 hours after being taken hostage, Atindranath Dutta, officer in charge of Sankrail police station, was released unharmed by Maoists around 5.30 pm today in Lalgarh after 23 Maoists, including 18 women, arrested by security forces in anti-Maoist operations in West Midnapore district were released on bail by a court.

Dutta was handed over to mediapersons in the presence of two lawyers in the Domihini jungle area of Lalgarah. Accompanied by journalists, Dutta walked about a mile before he reached Jhargram town late evening. The mediapersons said Dutta was safe and sound and looked quite cheerful. Dutta was expected to reach his residence in north Kolkata around midnight

Dutta’s release was quite dramatic. In the morning when 23 detained Maoists were released from the Jhargram court, Maoists leader Kateswar Rao, alias Kishenji, told Dutta’s relatives and several TV channels over phone from a secret location that the police officer would be freed within the next two or three hours.

But the process of his release was delayed as Maoists waited for several hours for nightfall to hide their identity and whereabouts. Around 5 pm, as many as 60 mediapersons, waiting at Lalgarh police station, were allowed to go inside the Domohini jungle with their cell phones switched off. The Maoists, however, did not allow any police personnel to enter the jungle.

Kateswar played a vital role in the kidnapping as well as the release of the police officer. After the Maoists struck at the police station, he himself phoned several private TV channels admitting that Maoists had killed two policemen and kidnapped Dutta for “the release of all innocent women comrades who had been arrested on false changes from Lalgarh by the joint action force during their operation in the past few days”.

Kateswar also talked to Dutta’s wife and other family members and told them Dutta would be released if their arrested women workers were released unconditionally.

Hyderabad, October 22
With conspiracy theories surfacing over the helicopter crash that killed Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy last month, the Andhra Pradesh government today said it would ask the CBI to probe the sabotage angle as well.

“Keeping in view the doubts being expressed over the chopper crash, we have decided to write to the CBI seeking a probe into conspiracy angle,” the state Home Minister P Sabita Indra Reddy said here.

She was talking to reporters after a high-level meeting, chaired by Chief Minister K Rosaiah, discussed the status of investigations into the September 2 helicopter crash and took note of the doubts being expressed in various quarters over the circumstances preceding the air disaster.

The Chief Minister felt that there was a need to examine all angles and decided to write a letter to the CBI, which is already probing the incident.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and a two-member experts committee formed by the state government were also conducting investigations into the crash.

Asked about the Congress MP Madhu Yashki Goud’s demand for her resignation, owning moral responsibility for the mishap, the Home Minister said: “Let the probe reports come.”

A Telugu daily “Sakshi” and a news channel, owned by YSR’s son and contender for Chief Minister’s post YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, ran a string of stories recently raising several doubts regarding the air disaster and questioning the “official apathy before and after the tragedy.”

The newspaper, which is in the forefront of an emotional campaign to anoint Jagan as CM, has been carrying frontpage stories pointing towards sabotage angle behind the crash.

Calling for a probe into conspiracy angle, it raised questions over the air-worthiness of 11-year-old Bell-430 helicopter that went down in Nallamala forest area on September 2, killing all the five occupants.

The media group wondered why the ageing chopper was pressed into service to ferry the VVIP instead of the new and more advanced Agasta-Westland 139 which was purchased by the government last year exclusively for the use of Chief Minister.

Despite the inclement weather, the pilots did not have an alternative route map and none of the occupants was carrying satellite phone which could have come in handy to quickly locate the crash site.

Fresh doubts over the disaster raised the political temperature in an already surcharged atmosphere. Staunch loyalists of Jagan have demanded comprehensive probe including the conspiracy angle.

Senior Congress leader and a Jagan loyalist A Rambabu demanded a thorough probe to clear all the doubts in the minds of the people.

However, party MP Madhu Yashki Goud, who is a critic of YSR, demanded that Home Minister and advisor to government on public affairs KVP Ramachandra Rao quit their offices owning moral responsibility for the tragedy.

New Delhi, October 22
Voices of dissonance grew louder in the BJP today as the results of elections to Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh assemblies started pouring in, showing further dent in the BJP vote base and its credibility among voters.

The results also highlighted the acute need for effective and strong leadership, with sections conceding that it may continue in the same state till the party decides on the successor to party president Rajnath Singh.

BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad virtually acknowledged that the party leaders were speaking in several voices, causing confusion and demoralisation among party workers, supporters and denting party’s credibility among voters.

He acknowledged shortcomings in the party and said, “We have to hastily address these issues and speak in one voice to our workers.”

Even as Prasad was issuing this diktat to fellow leaders, BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was singing a different tune, blaming EVMs for the party’s rout. Naqvi called these Congress’ “election victory machines” implying large-scale manipulation of the EVMs in favour of the ruling Congress.

He dismissed Naqvi’s allegations lightly and blamed the rout of the NDA alliance in Maharashtra to the emergence of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

But BJP sympathisers point out that the numbers of the SS-BJP combine together as well as individually have come down further from what the two won together in 2004. In 2004, the Shiv Sena got 63 seats, while the BJP won 56. This time, their combined figure is stuck at 92 with 45 for the Sena and 47 for the BJP.

Thus even BJP’s emergence as a senior partner in the NDA alliance in Maharashtra, getting two seats more than the Sena, has failed to lift its spirits for it was banking on this victory to boost the morale of its leaders and workers alike.

In Haryana, the BJP has improved upon is past performances, especially whenever it has gone alone. The party has only one MLA in the outgoing assembly that has now gone up to four. This in itself is a record of sorts for the BJP, since whenever it has contested on its own, spurning alliances, it has never gone beyond the figure of two in the 90-member Haryana assembly. “This time, we have won four and may stand second in eight,” said BJP general secretary in charge of Haryana Vijay Goel.

These results have led a section in the BJP to look forward anxiously to an early change of leadership because they believe that the current state of inertia in the party will end only after the election of a new president.

But it has raised other important questions as well. For instance, it was widely believed so far that the Sangh wanted Maharashtra BJP chief Nitin Gadkari to succeed Rajnath and therefore his succession would be smooth. But after the Maharashtra defeat, questions are being raised about Gadkari. A BJP insider commented, “Is there any dearth of leaders here?” implying the central leaders may resist the imposition of a Gadkari or a Manohar Parriker after this.

The mood was pretty sombre in the BJP. The party postponed its parliamentary board meeting scheduled for today and said it might be held tomorrow.