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Infighting leads to BJP defeat at Jawali BJP, Congress draw level Rohru Seat BJP to seek explanation from Rajan Sushant |
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‘Money power led to BJP win at Rohru’ Youth Cong activists flay lathi charge on students BSNL GPRS slow on cell phones ‘DC victim of
RSS, non-RSS lobby’ Snow blocks Saach Pass HoD accused of molestation Two killed
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Infighting leads to BJP defeat at Jawali Dharamsala, November 10 Madan Sharma, brother of Kangra MP Rajan Sushant, who contested as rebel after being denied the BJP ticket, made a major dent in the BJP vote bank. He secured 3,580 votes. According to sources, he managed most of the votes from the stronghold area of his MP brother. Another Independent candidate Ashok Somal managed to get just 952 votes. The BJP campaign in Jawali was marred by intense infighting. Initially, Rajan Sushant, who was in charge of campaign in Jawali Assembly constituency, had alleged that Independent MLA from Nurpur Rakesh Pathania was working against party candidate Baldev Raj. There was an immediate reaction from Rakesh Pathania. He organised a press conference and levelled counter allegations against Rajan Sushant. Later, Rakesh Pathania allegedly withdrew from the election campaign. In his last election rally at Fatehpur, Rajan Sushant once again targeted the state government. He alleged that certain BJP ministers were working against the interest of the party in Jawali. He even went to the extent of saying that the state government was not functioning in an appropriate manner. This had left many senior leaders, including national vice-president of BJP Shanta Kumar and Cabinet minister Ravinder Ravi, JP Nadda and Kishan Kapoor, who were present in the rally, red-faced. While the infighting demoralised BJP workers, the Congress fought the election in a united manner. Youth Congress activists, led by Manmohan Katoch who belongs to the area, played a major role in Congress campaigning for the Jawali by-election. The Congress win in Jawali is likely to start a blame game in the BJP. Rajan Sushant had already claimed that he would expose certain leaders before the party high command. However, today he was not available for comments. Other prominent BJP leaders were also not available for comments. Congress leaders, on the other hand, are upbeat over their win. State president of Youth Congress Manmohan Katoch and state president of the NSUI Yadhupati Thakur held a press conference and claimed that the Jawali defeat indicated the declining graph of the BJP in Kangra district. |
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BJP, Congress draw level Shimla, November 10 The triumph of the BJP in Rohru, where its candidate Khushi Ram Balnatah trounced his Congress rival Manjit Singh by 8,473 votes, was indeed historic. It was for the first time that the party won the seat. In fact, the Congress lost the seat only once, in 1977. Balnatah polled 27,705 votes as against 19,232 votes cast in favour of his opponent. There has been no change in the overall tally of seats in the 68-member House with the BJP sitting pretty with 41 seats and the Congress also holding on to its 23 seats. However, the outcome of the by-polls will have far-reaching consequences for the faction-ridden parties. The triumph of the saffron forces in the Congress citadel of Rohru and the defeat of the BJP in Jawali, a traditional stronghold of the party, has only demonstrated that internal bickering could bring the downfall of a party in its own home turf. The election results also point towards a changing political scenario in the hill state with the Congress losing ground in its stronghold of Shimla region and the shrinking support base of the BJP in Kangra, the biggest and politically the most significant district, which played a vital role in bringing the party to power. The two parties have, for almost the past four decades, pursued the politics of regionalism with the BJP championing the cause of new Himachal with Kangra as the pivot and the Congress banking on old Himachal areas with Shimla providing the main leadership. The two parties raised the bogey of discrimination against each other and the rivalry often took shape of “apple versus orange” battle during the elections as Shimla is famous for apples and Kangra for oranges. Exit of five-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh from the state politics and the announcement of BJP stalwart Shanta Kumar that he would not contest elections in future, is also a factor behind the changing scenario. The two leaders have held sway over the masses in their respective areas all these years. Whatever may be the reasons, both the BJP and the Congress have much to ponder over regarding loss of support in their respective strongholds. They will have to do a lot to end infighting and put the “house in order” to effectively check the downslide. |
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Rohru Seat Shimla, November 10 With the BJP wresting the traditional Congress seat of Rohru represented by Union Minister Virbhadra Singh for the past two decades, party workers danced as Chief Minister PK Dhumal addressed a jubilant gathering. State BJP chief Khimi Ram and state organisation secretary Mahender Pandey were also present on the occasion. It is for the second time that a non-Congress candidate has won from Rohru. The only earlier occasion when the Congress lost the seat was in 1977 when the Janta Dal defeated the Congress. Addressing the gathering, Dhumal said the first-ever victory of the BJP in Rohru was a clear indication that people had finally realised that the BJP was the only party which could safeguard their interests. “It is victory of progressive, developmental and welfare oriental policies of the state government and also steps taken for all- round and speedy development during the past 22 months,” he said. Dhumal said people had also realised that the Congress had always been fooling them with hollow promises and had been involved in dirty politics at their cost to achieve their selfish ends. He assured that the government would continue to make efforts to come up to the expectations of the people. Dhumal said the victory margin of the BJP in Rohru was almost double in comparison to Jawali, which was a stamp on the policies and programmes of the government. Vote percentage of the BJP in Rohru had increased by 22 per cent while in Jawali constituency, the vote percentage of the Congress had come down from 51.2 per cent to 50.72 per cent as compared to the last Lok Sabha elections. |
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BJP to seek explanation from Rajan Sushant Shimla, November 10 It is reliably learnt that Chief Minister PK Dhumal, Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Kumar and state BJP chief Khimi Ram have already had a discussion about the outburst by Sushant which was most ill-timed. The matter has already been brought to the notice of the party high command in Delhi. State BJP chief Khimi Ram has already made it clear that indiscipline would not be tolerated so it is being expected that soon an explanation would be sought from him for his outbursts. On the other hand, Sushant too had indicated that he had complained against some ministers and MLAs to the high command. Sushant, who had been peeved at denial of party ticket to his wife Sudha, did not even spare the CM. “He had the audacity to ask the Chief Minister to come to his constituency only after distancing himself from Nurpur MLA Rakesh Pathania,” said a senior party functionary. Surprisingly, the CM too did not go back to Jawali for campaigning and preferred to focus on Rohru. Dhumal has also taken a serious view of the fact that Sushant made adverse comments about the functioning of the BJP regime in the state during public meetings. “If he had any grouse, he could have spoken to the Chief Minister in private and, in any case, election is no time to air such grievances,” said a party MLA. Rather than focusing on the elections, Sushant, during the campaign, had said that he would complain to the high command about two ministers and some MLAs for harming the party interest. The ministers and MLAs, who were at the receiving end of Sushant’s ire, too want that some action be taken against him. Partly leaders point out that had Sushant handled his campaign as sensibly and maturely as Khushi Ram Balnatah who has won from Rohru, the BJP could have won even from Jawali. “Rather than hurling accusations at one and all like Sushant, Balnatah refrained from petty politics and sought votes without criticising anyone, including his arch rival Virbhadra Singh, which finally paid off,” said a minister while drawing a parallel. |
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‘Money power led to BJP win at Rohru’ New Delhi, November 10 Talking to The Tribune over the phone from Shimla, the former Himachal Pradesh chief minister, however, expressed happiness over the victory of Congress candidate Sujan Singh Pathania from Jawali Assembly segment. “The victory is an indication of the things to follow in Kangra valley,” said Singh. “It’s unfortunate that the Congress lost the Rohru seat, held by me for five terms. We will have to introspect and analyse the reasons that led to the defeat… it’s actually a victory of money power, supplemented by the misuse of state machinery,” he said. The BJP government, he alleged, broke all poll ethics to capture the seat. Singh also pointed out that the way Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal camped in Rohru along with nine of his cabinet colleagues was a reflection of the desperation they had for pocketing the seat. Freebies were distributed to lure voters and everything from inducement to coercion was used unabashedly, he alleged. “While our efforts on behalf of our candidate Manjeet Thakur, whose name was proposed by the Pradesh Congress Committee, improved his chances, they were perhaps not enough to beat state-backed money power and misuse of authority,” added Singh. |
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Youth Cong activists flay lathi charge on students Dharamsala, November 10 While addressing a press conference here today, state president of the Youth Congress Manmohan Katoch and state president of NSUI Yadhupati Thakur alleged that it was a sorry state of affairs that instead of the opposition, the ruling party organisations were disturbing peace in the state. We condemn lathi charge on students irrespective of the fact that they belong to the opposition party, they said. The youth leaders of the Congress, however, added that the ABVP, which was a wing of the BJP, had disturbed the academic milieu in the entire state by disrupting studies in all education institutions. The student’s wing of the BJP had failed to get its own matter resolved from the state government. How can the students in the state expect from the ABVP to get other matters resolved. Now, if the state government shifts the Mandi DC under pressure from the students it would send a wrong message among the administrative officers who go under pressure to follow the line dictated by leaders of particular party rather than working on merit. Katoch alleged that if own MP of BJP Rajan Sushant had questioned the working of the state government, it illustrates the state of affairs. The defeat of the BJP in Jawali had displayed the lack of governance on part of the state government. The party had paid for ousting PTA teachers and neglecting farmers of the Jawali area who had suffered a lot due to drought-like conditions this year. He also appealed to youth organisations of the BJP like ABVP to join Rahul Gandhi. |
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BSNL GPRS slow on cell phones Solan, November 10 This was causing a lot of inconvenience to the subscribers as officials who were not well versed with the technical know how had to cut a sorry figure before the subscribers. Narrating his woes a subscriber said, “I am unable to operate GPRS on my Samsung phone and this had reduced the utility of my GPRS connection. Though I could operate net on the cell phone, it failed to work when connected to a computer with the speed being abysmally low.” “The BSNL should advertise on its site about their GPRS being operational only on Nokia cell phones so that one could decide weather or not to avail it,” he added. Interestingly, the BSNL had advertised on its official website that GPRS offered high-speed data services and provided connectivity to Internet to enable browsing of Internet from laptops and desktop computers. Chief General Manager, HP Telecom circle, Rajesh Kapoor, when questioned, said in the absence of any bundling agreement with key cellular players like Nokia which supported its various services like GPRS, 3G, 2G, etc, the services failed to be assessed properly through other phones. This not only led to inappropriate utilisation but costly machinery also remained under-utilised. He informed that they were trying to workout an arrangement with Nokia whereby some of its models which supported these premium services would be advertised on their website free of cost. He said their Sundernagar-based SGSN system would be commissioned by November 25 and this would solve the existing problems, including low speed in GPRS, which suffered due to low bandwidth of 30 kbps as these services were presently availed from Chandigarh.
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‘DC victim of
RSS, non-RSS lobby’ Mandi, November 10 The government has not bothered to initiate a fair inquiry into the ABVP-DC episode even after more than a month of the incident, it added. Presenting eight-question poser to the government in a press release issued here today, CPM secretary Bhupender Singh alleged that the state government was silent in the matter while PWD Minister Gulab Singh Thakur had given a clean chit to the DC on the issue. Singh said it was strange that the Chief Minister, in a statement, claimed he was not aware about the lathi charge on ABVP activists during the HP university youth festival even though he was the chief guest and was an eyewitness to the show. |
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Snow blocks Saach Pass Chamba, November 10 The low-lying parts of Chamba district, including the Pangi tribal valley, have been receiving widespread rain accompanied with thunderstorm. There is a sharp downfall in the temperature also. As a sequel to this, the entire alpine region of Chamba is under the grip of intense cold waves. According to official reports, the Saach Pass which links the population residing in the snowbound mountainous tribal Pangi valley with the rest of the country, would remain closed for about seven winter months during the snowy season and would reopen most probably in June next year. Meanwhile, the Himalayan ranges in Chamba district and the adjoining ranges of Pir Panjal mountains in Jammu and Kashmir have also been experiencing heavy snowfall continuously for the past 24 hours. Experts working on the hydroelectric projects and the water resource management in the mountainous terrains of the Himalayas guess that the huge deposit of early heavy snowfall would prove ‘a boon’ for optimum hydropower generation, irrigation and drinking water supply schemes during summer. |
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HoD accused of molestation Shimla, November 10 The complainant doctor, who is doing her post graduation, said the HoD had allegedly made advances towards her. “The victim in her complaint said the HoD allegedly started making advances towards her since 2008 and even during a trip outside Shimla he tried to force himself on her,” said, the SP, RM Sharma. The police was likely to summon the HoD for questioning within a day or two. Police officials handling the case said on the basis of the statement of the victim, fellow students who were on the same trip would be questioned to ascertain if the allegations were true. The victim had quoted several instances where the HoD allegedly tried to molest her and threatened her with dire consequences if she did not oblige. The police said the inquiry into the case would be completed at the earliest as the allegations were of a very serious nature. |
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Two killed
Kullu, November 10 The dead were identified as Surender Sharma, the driver, and Man Chand, the owner of the vehicle, both residents of Bandrol village in Kullu. The police confirmed that both died on the spot and their bodies were retrieved today. The bodies were sent to the regional hospital here for a post-mortem examination. The cause of the accident could be the slippery road due to heavy rains and steep gradient, the police added.
— OC |
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Shimla, November 10
