New Delhi/Kolkata, March 21
Accepting the terms set by its alliance partner, the Congress today said it had finalised a seat-sharing pact with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the forthcoming West Bengal Assembly polls.

Announcing the details of the agreement, minutes before the deadline given by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee expired, AICC in charge of West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed said the Congress would contest 65 seats while its ally would field candidates on 229 seats.

Mamata had originally left 64 seats for the Congress, way below its original demand of 90 in the 294-member House. However, the TMC chief was only willing to concede only one more seat, which was eventually accepted by the Congress.

The official announcement this afternoon followed a series of meetings between Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was entrusted to speak to Mamata.

Sonia Gandhi, it is learnt, did not want the Congress-TMC alliance to be derailed, although Mamata’s unilateral announcement of the candidates’ list had not go down well with the Congress leadership. Interestingly, the additional seat for the Congress is understood to be Canning East where Abdur Razzak Molla of the CPM has not lost a single election from 1977 to 2006.

While Ahmed tried hard to explain that the Congress had not “compromised or sacrificed” its interests, some party leaders said they had little choice in the matter. The TMC looks set to end the 34-year-old Left rule in West Bengal and the Congress wanted to be on the winning side. The Congress also realised that it would end up a cropper if it was to contest alone.

Talking to mediapersons at a crowded press conference at her Kalighat residence in Kolkata, Mamata said she was happy that the seat agreement had materialised. She was confident that both parties would defeat the CPM and its allies to form a stable government in the state. The TMC chief said the seat-sharing pact has been reached on the basis of ground realities and the performances of the respective parties in the last Lok Sabha and civic body polls.

Meanwhile, disappointment was writ large on the face of state Congress chief Manas Bhunia. When asked whether the local party unit was satisfied with the deal, all Bhunia could say was: “Ours is a national party… now a decision has been taken by the Central leadership and we will abide by that. It is for the betterment of the state that we defeat the Left Front,” he said.

Chennai, March 21
The doctor, who conducted the autopsy on the body of former Telecom Minister A Raja's aide Sadiq Batcha, has resigned from government service saying he wants to contest the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, giving a new twist to the mysterious manner of the death.

Though reports of his resignation came days after the alleged suicide of Batcha on Wednesday last, Dr V Dekal said he had put in his papers in the first week of March as he had intended to contest the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. "I resigned because I want to contest the elections as an Independent candidate. This is in no way related to the case," he told reporters.

Dr Dekal, whose father was said to have been President of the PMK in Villupuram, said he was undecided on contesting the polls since orders relieving him from service were yet to come though he had put in his papers after elections were announced.

He said he would be responsible as a witness in any hearings on a future date in the Batcha case as a doctor who had conducted the post-mortem. State Health Secretary V K Subburaj said the resignation was done "much earlier" and has nothing to do with the autopsy of Batcha.

The official dubbed such resignations as a "stunt" being done at the time of elections. "Usually during election time they do this stunt. They say they want to contest elections. They resign in the name of contesting elections. But usually we never permit them. They try their best to come out of government service to join private service."

Batcha's body was found hanging at his house in South Chennai on Wednesday last. After performing the autopsy, Dekal had said Batcha's death was due to asphyxia and his body showed compression of the neck with hanging mark.

"We cannot say now whether it was suicide or murder....the report would be available in two weeks," he had said. He had said the death had been caused due to asphyxia though the cause of that cannot be confirmed till the forensic report was received. — PTI

New Delhi, March 21
The BJP, on a high in Parliament last week after WikiLeaks testified to bribing of MPs for winning the confidence vote in July 2008, may now face similar questions thrown at it by the Congress benches when both Houses of Parliament sit again tomorrow.

The latest in the series of WikiLeaks cables characterises the UPA regime as returning to Brezhnev era and contrasted it with its predecessor NDA regime, led by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It had a special word of appreciation for the Home Ministry led by none other than Advani.

Cable number 137328 dated January 14, 2008, sent by the then US Ambassador to India David Mulford to Washington stated that, “We note that under the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it was easier to meet Indian officials and get business done, even in the paranoid Ministry of Home Affairs, but the Congress government has reverted to type, indulging in the sorts of Brezhnev-era controls on its people of which Indira Gandhi would have approved. The Nehru dynasty needs to become more like the Tata dynasty.”

Initiating discussions on External Affairs Ministry demands, External Affairs Minister in the Vajpayee government Jaswant Singh, who influenced Indian tilt towards the US, charged the UPA government of having surrendered to the US.

Following the WikiLeaks expose of the alleged BJP and Advani doublespeak on Indo-US civil-nuclear deal, Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari recently said the “chickens have come home to roost” and the “shoe is on the other foot” now. BJP leaders also apprehend their opponents raising in Parliament the issue of BJP Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath’s name figuring in the NIA investigations into Samjhauta, Malegaon and Mecca Masjid blasts.

Avoiding a comment on these developments, BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Husain said the Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, NDA convener Sharad Yadav and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha have jointly given a notice to Speaker Meira Kumar, demanding a discussion under Rule 193 on the WikiLeaks cables that spoke of bribing MPs to buy majority in the July 2008 confidence vote.He ignored the latest set of WikiLeaks cables.

Chandigarh, March 21
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) has initiated a major exercise to restructure its command and control hierarchy to meet the organisational requirements emerging from the expansion and modernisation of the force. The force, which guards the Himalayan border along China, is being expanded and upgraded to meet emerging security requirements.

“Sanction by the government has been accorded for the creation of four new posts at the level of inspector general (IG), besides nine more posts of deputy inspector general (DIG) and 17 additional vacancies at the level of commandant,” ITBP Director-General RK Bhatia told The Tribune here today.

Approval was recently accorded to increase the ITBP’s strength by 13 battalions by 2015. In addition, the strength of 20 existing battalions would be raised from four companies each to six companies. A company has about 150 personnel, while a battalion has about 1,000 troops, including support elements. The present strength of the ITBP is 49 battalions, including four special battalions.

The modalities of the responsibilities and tasks to be allotted to the new posts are being worked out by the ITBP headquarters.

Approval has been accorded to regularise the ITBP’s Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Mahidanda in Uttaranchal, which was being run on ad hoc basis for the past few years. This is the only counter-insurgency school being run for paramilitary and central police organisations. In addition, three new recruit centres in Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and the North-East have been sanctioned to cater to new raisings.

Panaji, March 21
Five-star hotels and niche hospitality projects were being surreptitiously brought in under the guise of creating infrastructure for the 2014 National Games in Goa, legislators across the spectrum alleged on Monday.

Speaker Pratapsing Rane was forced to adjourn the budget session of the Assembly after a heated debate on infrastructure creation for the National Games turned unruly.

“Why is the government supporting five-star hotels in PPP (public-private partnership) mode, when private investors are ready to invest their own money in hotels projects in Goa,” Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar of the BJP asked, alleging a multi-crore scam in the infrastructure creation.

International food courts, five-star hotels, sports bars, club facilities, fine dining facilities and spas are part of the infrastructure the sports department has planned to construct in PPP mode at various centres throughout the state for the Games. — IANS

BRIEFLY

No dissidence: Yeddyurappa
NEW DELHI: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa dismissed all reports of dissidence brewing in his party in the state. He said, “That is not correct at all. We are all united and shall remain united." — TNS