Ramdev to campaign against Congress
Haridwar, January 12
Yog Guru Ramdev has decided to campaign in the coming weeks against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in all poll-bound states. The yog guru will go to voters of these five states seeking change in the government at the Centre.

Big show of strength as Cong’s Sarita Arya files papers
Nainital, January 12
The Congress Party came up with a massive show of strength on the occasion of its candidate filing her nominations from the Nainital seat. Thousands of supporters from the remote rural areas of the constituency descended on the Lake City and braved snowfall to accompany Sarita Arya to the collectorate for filing of her nomination papers.

Lawyer NN Goel dead
Dehradun, January 12
NN Goel, doyen of Dehra Dun lawyers, died here this morning following a cardiac arrest. He was 92. His wife Rajni of 65 years had died 13 days before on December 31 last.

Dehradun, January 12
Both present and former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand are members of the crorepati Assembly candidates club, whose membership strength continues to swell.

Chief Minister BC Khanduri, who was instrumental in bringing the Lokayukta Bill in the state and will fight the Assembly elections from the Kotdwar (Garhwal) seat, has declared that his movable and immovable assets are worth Rs 2.52 crore while filing his nomination papers.

The movable and immovable assets owned by him has witnessed an increase of Rs 83.19 lakh since 2007 when their declared assets worth was Rs 1.69 crore in 2007.

Former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, who has filed his nomination papers from Doiwala (Dehradun) Assembly seat, too owns assets in crores. In 2012, the estimated worth of Nishank’s assets stands at Rs 71.92 lakh, in 2007 (last Assembly elections) it was Rs 9.28 lakh. His bank balance in 2012 is Rs 63.04 lakh, while he possesses agriculture land valued at Rs 3.5 lakh and a house whose total has been pegged at Rs 78 lakh.

On the other hand Chief Minister Khanduri has an LIC policy of Rs 90,000 in his name, while LIC policy in his wife’s name stands at Rs 1.20 lakh in 2012 while it was 30,000 in 2007. Khanduri is a sitting MLA from the Dhumakote Assembly seat. While the Chief Minister owns a Qualis, the former Chief Minister does not own a vehicle. However, Nishank is also burdened with a loan repayment of Rs 10.57 lakh.

Eunuch Rajni Rawat, who has filed the nomination papers from Raipur (Dehradun), too is a crorepati. She possesses movable assets worth Rs 91 lakh and bank deposit of Rs 53.56 lakh and her house is valued at Rs 25 lakh and gold ornaments worth Rs 11 lakh.

Former PWD Minister and Congress candidate from Haldwani (Kumaon) Dr Indira Hridesh’s economic health has slightly declined as compared to 2007 but she continues to be a crorepati. According to the details of assets (movable and immovable) filed by her, the total value of her movable assets is pegged at Rs 44.69 lakh and that of her husband at Rs 1.45 crore. She is also burdened with a loan repayment of Rs 4.08 lakh. She also does not own a vehicle.

Congress candidate from the Doiwala (Dehradun) Assembly seat Hira Singh Bisht has declared movable assets worth 46.74 lakh in 2012, while fighting the Assembly elections in 2007, he had declared the estimated cost of the movable assets at Rs 25 lakh. He possesses agriculture land valued at Rs 76 lakh in 2012. Vinod Barthwal, Samajwadi Party candidate from Raipur (Dehradun), does not have any cash at hand. Though in the 2007 Assembly elections, he had Rs 2 lakh in hand. His movable assets are valued at Rs 7 lakh.

Rural Development Minister and BJP candidate from Yamkeshwar (Garhwal) seat Vijaya Barthwal’s total assets that she owns with her husband are valued at Rs 1.3 crore. She does not own a vehicle.

Jot Singh Gunsola, sitting MLA and Congress candidate from Mussoorie, has Rs 40,000 cash at hand while his bank deposit stands at Rs 3.27 lakh in 2012. In 2007, it was Rs 7.03 lakh. The estimated value of movable assets is Rs 14.66 lakh.

The sitting MLA from Didihaat (Kumaon) and BJP candidate from the seat BS Chufal has a bank deposit of Rs 8.36 lakh and one Scorpio. In 2007, he possessed an Alto. He also possesses agriculture land worth at Rs 16.65 lakh in Pithoragarh.

Haridwar, January 12
Finally, after seven days scheduled for political candidates to submit their nomination papers for contesting the 11 Assembly segments in Haridwar, a total of 184 candidates submitted their nomination papers for contesting the upcoming Assembly election.

From morning itself candidates in large number were seen thronging the Roshanabad district election office, with the number of nominations exceeding 40 today. Candidates were seen adhering to the Election Commission directions, with heavy deployment of security personnel in and outside the premises.

While most of the political bigwigs had filed in past few days their nominations, yet today a few such candidates were seen. Kunwar Pranav ‘Champion,’ the two-time legislator of Congress, filed his nominations from Khanpur Assembly segment, accompanied by his family members, including wife Maharani Devyani, a zila panchayat member.

Expressing hope that despite delimitation making his home segment Lakshar now defunct, owing to 60 pc of Lakshar area now getting aligned with Khanpur segment, this will surely go in his favour. He also stated that in past 10 years since he got elected in state Assembly, he has been working in nearby regions of Lakshar, the benefit of which will surely accrue on the polling date.

Young, dynamic legislator Qazi Nizammudin of Congress also filed his nomination papers from Mangalore seat. Keeping a low profile, Nizamuddin had refrained his supporters from thronging the nomination venue, which was appreciated by all.

Uttarakhand Kranti Dal-Progressive two candidates filed their nominations, including a woman candidate. Central chief of labour cell of the party Rana Ranvir Singh filed his nominations from Haridwar rural segment, while Sarita Purohit will be contesting from the Ranipur Assembly segment.

Both the candidates ushered confidence that despite the breaking of the parental UKD outfit into two parts and Diwakar Bhatt joining BJP, UKD-P candidates will be a force to reckon with in Haridwar.

Rana Ranveer said that due to a large number of hilly armed forces and statehood agitators in Haridwar, UKD-P is fast gaining mass acceptability as a third option to the voters, who are perturbed by the 10-year governance of Congress and BJP in the state.

Three candidates from the National Panthers Party also submitted their nominations, including Sonia Madam,PC Thapliyal and Sarita Sharma.

Pankaj Gupta, a woman candidate, also submitted her papers from Nationalist Congress Party from Ranipur segment. Samajwadi Party’s Rajendra Parashar filed his nominations from Haridwar city.

Haridwar, January 12
Yog Guru Ramdev has decided to campaign in the coming weeks against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in all poll-bound states. The yog guru will go to voters of these five states seeking change in the government at the Centre.

Three issues will be on the baba’s agenda - Corruption, black money and change of guard at the Centre. He will campaign from January 15 till February 26.

Though, the yog guru made it categorically clear that he will not be campaigning in favour of any party or candidate but will urge voters to think on these three issues before polling for the UPA-led alliance candidates.

Commencing from January 15 from Haridwar, his yatra will traverse through Roorkee, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Lucknow, Badayun, Gorakhpur, Badohi, Gaziabad, Banda, Hameerpur, Hathras and several other cities culminating his campaign in Goa on February 26.

As per Bharat Swabhimaan Trust officials, the final and full itinerary of Ramdev’s five state yatra will be finalised soon and the main focus is to make voters realise the tyrant and corrupt nature of ministers and leaders of the Congress-led UPA government.

Acharya Balkrishan said Baba Ramdev’s yatra should not be associated with any party as it’s being run under banner of the Bharat Swabhiman Trust only.

On Ramdev’s anti-UPA campaign, Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad national spokesperson Baba Hatyogi demanded from the yog guru of the huge money he had accumulated in a span of a decade and accused him of amassing wealth and fortunes with ‘hidden’ ways.

While spokesperson of Haridwar parliamentarian Harish Rawat, Rajesh Rastogi said the baba’s attempt to ask votes against the Congress government means seeking votes for other parties. So they would be complaining to the Election Commission regarding this matter.

Dehradun , January 12
The Roorkee police has collected voice samples of six suspects allegedly involved in the murder of Narinder Thapa, a deputy jailer of Roorkee jail. The collected samples also have voice sample of gangster Sunil Rathi, the main suspect in the murder case. According to the police, the samples will be tallied with that of the apprehended person involved in the killing of the jailer.

The police has also recorded the voice of gangster Sunil Rathi’s mother, sister and his lawyer. The police took the initiative of voice sample testing after recovering few frequent calls made by gangster Sunil Rathi after the killing of the deputy jailer. The police also recovered recording of Sunil Rathis’ conversation with his mother and sister, inquiring about the names erupting in the media which were likely to be involved in the murder of the jailer.

The police became suspicious over such conversations which prompted the Police Department to take the initiative of tallying the calls and sought permission of the court to get voice samples, which was granted by the court. The voice samples have been sent to the forensic laboratory. Deputy jailer Narinder Thapa was shot dead at point blank range on September 12, 2011, outside the Roorkee jail premises near his official residence.