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Uttar Pradesh: Gateway to Parliament
Vikalp rally
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STOCK-TAKING: PARAMJIT KAUR GULSHAN FARIDKOT
Dynasty determines destiny in Himachal
Pratibha Singh, Virbhadra's wife, is likely to be the Congress nominee from the Mandi LS
seat
BJP’s first list to be out on February 27
STOCK-TAKING:
Dr Arvind Sharma Karnal
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Uttar Pradesh: Gateway to Parliament
Luchnow, February 23 However, there is nothing for the BJP to cheer if one goes by its performance in the past 10 years in the state. The party's tally has remained static at 10 seats and its vote share dipped from 22.17 per cent in 2004 to 17.5 per cent in 2009. There is no relation between the seats won and vote share. If that would have been the case, the BSP with the highest (27.42 per cent) vote share in UP in 2009, should have won the maximum number of seats. Besides, the BSP national president Mayawati, as the head of the Left-cobbled alliance, should have been the PM. Similarly, the vote share can also not explain the net increase of votes of the Congress and loss to the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the 2009 polls or why the BJP remained at the same level despite more that 5 per cent drop in the vote share. Consolidating vote bank
The BJP has launched a war-like mission to consolidate its Hindu vote bank by floating ideas of 'love jihad' to create hatred for Muslims, the Muslim appeasement propaganda against the SP government and the 'jenuy kranti' to include Dalits in the mainstream. Similar techniques had been used to consolidate Hindu votes and include tribals and Dalits during the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid movement, which had then worked wonders for the party. For the Congress, there was an opportunity to retain, if not improve its seat tally if the Muzaffarnagar riots could have been strategically used to assure Muslims of their safety and security by some confidence-building measures, including the passing of the Communal Violence Bill. Contrary to this, the ISI statement of Rahul Gandhi further alienated Muslims. Mayawati took advantage of the situation by proactively drawing Muslims to the BSP as a part of her new Dalit-Muslim social engineering formula on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls. Communal riots
In 2012, the SP won the people's trust by winning 224 seats in a house of 404. But the image of the Akhilesh Yadav’s government is today bogged down by a range of factors adding to the anti-incumbency baggage of the SP. The dismal law and order record where 365 communal incidents have been reported in two years is hardly a distinction for the party that claims to be a well-wisher of Muslims. Adding to this is a skewed concept of development where a record 15 lakh free laptops have been distributed within a year, but no effort has been made to improve the power situation in the state. The state with the maximum number of first-time voters will hold the key to the Lok Sabha elections. Low on development
UP is lagging behind in development and the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is targeting the youth in the state by projecting the fairytale development model of Gujarat. However, the Aam Aadmi Party factor notwithstanding, the Lok Sabha elections in UP are not expected to be much different from the previous ones in terms of religion and caste being the deciding factors. How the AAP unpacks its election campaign being kick-started in the state with a public rally to be addressed by party head Arvind Kejriwal in Kanpur on March 2, is yet to be seen.
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Yechury bats big on Third Front
Deepender Deswal Tribune News Service
Hisar, February 23 He was hopeful of the emergence of the Third Front without the Congress and the BJP on a common programme with alternative economic policies. Addressing the Vikalp rally jointly organised by the CPI and the CPM to launch its electoral campaign in Haryana today, Yachury said Mulayam Singh Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Jayalalitha, HD Deve Gowda, Manpreet Singh Badal and other regional leaders would discuss the formation of a "sanjha morcha" (common front). However, he denied that any political party from Haryana is likely to attend the meeting. While the Haryana Janhit Congress is having an alliance with the BJP, the INLD appears to be disinclined towards the third front. On the question whether the Aam Admi Party (AAP) could join the coalition, he said, "We are coming together to keep communal and corrupt forces which pursue anti-people economic policies at bay. AAP should decide where they stand. They are still not clear on corruption and communalism." Five candidates announced
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STOCK-TAKING: PARAMJIT KAUR GULSHAN FARIDKOT Balwant Garg Tribune News Service 
Faridkot, February 23 As this part of Punjab is plagued by arsenic, fluoride, uranium, mercury and other heavy metals in the underground as well as on surface water, the MP claims she made an impact in the Lok Sabha by raising maximum questions on the issue. She says her queries mostly focused on poor quality drinking water and lack of development in the border areas of the state, which has an agriculture-based economy. In Parliament
"I raised several questions based on a survey regarding chemical toxicity in drinking and irrigation water in Bathinda, Ferozepur and Faridkot districts. As a representative of the people, I had clean drinking water on the top of my priority list while allocating funds under the MP Local Area Development Scheme," she says. Against the national average of 76 per cent attendance in Parliament, this 64-year-old MP attended 81 per cent of the sittings in the 15th Lok Sabha. She participated in 28 debates and asked 123 questions. In the Lok Sabha, while seeking to know the details about the steps taken by the Government of India for insulation of investigating agencies and the police against extraneous influence, she also raised the demand to increase the police strength at the national level. "Against the sanctioned strength of 153.08 police personnel per 1 lakh population at the national level, the actual strength is 129.65. The minimum UN norm is 220. So, we need to improve the number so as to strengthen the law and order system," she says. MPLAD funds
The MP had funds worth Rs 19.53 core for her constituency. Of this, Rs 19 crore was allotted under the MPLAD scheme, Rs 32.26 lakh was the unspent arrear of the 14th Lok Sabha, while Rs 20.86 lakh was the interest accrued on the unspent amount. Of this amount, she spent Rs 16.62 crore in the last four-and-a-half years to ensure the supply of clean drinking water by providing portable water tanks in most villages in her constituency. "Citing the high incidence of cancer in the region, I urged the Union Government to extend a special financial package to Punjab for setting up specialised hospitals," she says. "I also demanded opening of a border check-post at Hussainiwala in Ferozepur district to facilitate trade with Pakistan. I also sought a railway coach factory in Faridkot, which would have generated jobs." As Faridkot is a reserved constituency, the MP claims she was quite vocal in raising issues that concern the SC/ST community. "Among my questions in Parliament, I raised a demand to fill vacancies of judges to clear the huge backlog of court cases and increasing atrocities against SC/ST community members across the country," she says. Gulshan claims 146 of the 173 villages in Faridkot district have been provided mobile water tanks (costing Rs 1.25 lakh each and made up of stainless steel) out of the MPLAD funds. She says as there are some small villages, so a tank has been provided for two adjoining villages. In Moga district as well (also a part of the Faridkot constituency), funds have been mainly spent on drinking water. Besides providing 47 water tanks, funds have been spent on over a dozen submersible water pumps that have been dug deep in localities where the residents have no other water source. After water tanks, the MP utilised the MPLAD funds to open fitness centres in rural areas. In Faridkot and Moga districts, over 105 villages got health clubs. Each club received about Rs 1 lakh from the MPLAD funds. For preferring health clubs, the MP says her aim was to involve the youth in sports so as to distance them from drugs. She says if sincere work was the only parameter that fetched votes, she should be elected again. Opposition's take
Criticising the MP for her water tanks, Sukhwinder Singh Danny, the Congress leader who lost the last election to Gulshan by 62,042 votes, says her penchant for the high number of water tanks lay in the fact that her name was broadly painted over these. He alleges the MP was politically selective in disbursing grants and even water tanks. A major part of Faridkot district is still relying on the groundwater, which contains high traces of uranium and other heavy metals, claims Danny. Kulwinder Singh, a RTI activist in Faridkot, says while allotting funds to various sections of society, the MP tried to make her political presence felt. He claims her work, however, has failed to make any visible impact on the life of the common people in Faridkot. Besides providing water tanks, the MP should have raised the issue of water contamination effectively in the Lok Sabha to check the problem at its source, says Umendra Dutt, executive director, Kheti Virasat Mission, a voluntary organisation working for the cause of environment.
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Dynasty determines destiny in Himachal
Shimla, February 23 Unfortunately, politics in Himachal has been reduced to a battlefield between the feuding families of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and leader of the Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal. Rather than development and public issues being the concern, the two families are engaged in a slugfest, which is getting bitter by the day. With Virbhadra and Dhumal being in the saddle alternately for the past 20 years since 1993, the entire state politics revolves around the two and their families, overshadowing everyone else. Even senior leaders of the the Congress and BJP admit to the fact. However, the Congress seems to be more plagued with dynastic rule than the BJP as two of its ministers (Anil Sharma, Sudhir Sharma), three Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (Rohit Thakur, Neeraj Bharti and Vinay Kumar) and four MLAs (Asha Kumari, Ajay Mahajan, Ravi Thakur and Yadvinder Goma) are sons of former ministers and MLAs. Barring Govind Thakur, no BJP legislator’s parents were ministers or MLAs. The two leaders virtually dictate the party as well as the government when in power, relegating everyone and everything else to the backdrop, leaving little scope for anyone else. The acrimony between the two feuding families has reached such a climax that they have declared a virtual war against each other. The electoral battle this time will be fought in Mandi and Hamipur from where Pratibha Singh, Virbhadra's wife, and Anurag Thakur, Dhumal's elder son, are all set to contest the Lok Sabha polls. The level of politics has hit an all-time low with the two families launching a personalised tirade against each other. Perforce, the two families have been left with little choice but to join in the fight between the two titans. Virbhadra accuses Dhumal of bringing the culture of political vendetta. "The first time he assumed office, he got the CD case registered against me. In the second tenure, he got the Sagar Katha case registered, but I got a clean chit from the sessions court after facing trail in both the cases,” he asserted. The Chief Minister said when he assumed office, he deciding against continuing with the wrong precedent set by his opponent. On the other hand, Dhumal accuses Virbhadra of targeting him and his family, especially his elder son who is an MP and president of the HP Cricket Association (HPCA). "Rather than giving credit to the HPCA for bringing the state on the world map and making an international cricket stadium, the sports body has been become a victim of political vendetta," said Dhumal. Whatever was done was for sports promotion. The hostility between the political foes escalated when the Congres government targeted the HPCA. The Vigilance Bureau registered a case against Anurag and the HPCA for converting from a society into a company and for alleged forest and revenue violations in the construction of the stadium and a five star hotel. The escalation of the animosity between the two leaders saw a new entrant to this fight, 37-year-old Arun Thakur, Dhumal's younger son. Though he has been managing his father's elections, he has never been a full-time politician as he runs a school in Jalandhar. Arun made revelations about the alleged financial transactions between the Virbhadra’s family and a businessman, Vakamulla Chandershekhar. Not the one to be deterred by Virbhadra's caustic remarks about his stature and standing to point fingers at the CM, he stood his ground putting Virbhadra under scrutiny. He left everyone impressed with his articulation and handling the situation when his family was being targeted with the change of power. The sons of the two stalwarts have perforce also become major players in this fight. Not the one to be left behind, Vikramaditya Singh, Virbhadra’s son has, too, made his intentions clear. Being the state chief of the Youth Congress, he has announced his plans to campaign extensively in Hamirpur, where Anurag will be slugging it out, despite his mother likely to be in the fray from the Mandi constituency. Although a greenhorn in politics, Vikramaditya is trying to come out on his own as both his parents dominate the political scene in Himachal. He was elected the state Youth Congress president last year and is now travelling extensively all over the state to enthuse Youth Congress activists so that they could play an important role in the ensuing polls. The 24-year-old political heir of the longest serving six-time CM of the state is impatiently waiting in the wings to make his electoral debut in due course of time. While Anurag, a cricketer-turned-politician, is a second-time MP from Hamirpur, aiming for a hat-trick, Pratibha Singh, Virbhadra's wife, will be the Congress nominee from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat. The Lok Sabha elections will prove to be the litmus test for the popularity of Virbhadra and Dhumal as the two political foes clash to not just ensure the victory of their family members, but also to prove their political supremacy in the state.
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In the race
" Being a son or daughter of a politician should per-se neither be a credit or discredit. In a democracy, every individual should get equal opportunity provided they work their way up the ladder and are not thrust on the people only because of their lineage. In a democracy, every individual has the right to choose his or her path and to survive in a profession, they have to prove their worth." Prof Rajinder Chauhan, department of political science, HP University
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BJP’s first list to be out on February 27
New Delhi, February 23 BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi will be part of the deliberations, sources said. The first list of around 50 to 60 candidates may include the names of top leaders like LK Advani, Modi, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj, a few leaders from the Rajya Sabha, including Rajiv Pratap Rudy, and also those contesting from seats where there is no internal party tussle. This means that the announcement of the party’s candidate for the Chandigarh seat may get delayed. President of the BJP state unit Sanjay Tandon and the chairman of the party’s committee on legal and election commission and former MP Satya Pal Jain are vying for the party ticket from Chandigarh. However, for bigwigs like Rajnath Singh and Modi, it is a matter of choice. For Modi, the names of constituencies doing rounds include Vadodra, Surat and Ahmedabad East. A section also believes that his candidature should be kept secret for strategic purposes. BJP president Rajnath Singh may either contest from Lucknow or the seat he currently holds — Ghaziabad. The saffron party’s answer to the Congress’ Gandhi factor —Varun Gandhi — is expected to contest from Sultanpur, which is considered the bastion of the Gandhi family. Varun’s candidature from Sultanpur will help the BJP in some adjacent districts of UP. His mother Maneka Gandhi may shift from Aonla to Pilibhit — Varun’s present seat. In Maharashtra, the state unit has finalised the names for 10 out of the 26 seats in its quota. Former BJP president Nitin Gadkari will contest from Nagpur while deputy leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde will contest from Beed.
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STOCK-TAKING:
Dr Arvind Sharma Karnal Gharaunda MLA says Sonepat-born MP is a ‘parachute’ candidate, Sharma says he is a Karnal resident Parveen Arora Tribune News Service 
Karnal, February 23 But, he has a bumpy ride ahead of him as the Opposition is still targeting him as an “outsider”. And the “outsider” tag will again be one of the main issues of the Opposition against the MP. “I am now a permanent resident of Karnal. I have been living here for the last 10 years and there is no question of mine contesting from any other Parliament segment,” said Dr Arvind Sharma. He claims to have brought several major projects to the segment, including the country’s first synthetic rubber plant at Panipat refinery, Kalpna Chawla Government Medical College at Karnal, inclusion of Karnal in the National Capital Region (NCR) and a domestic airport at Karnal. “It was due to my efforts that the Railways announced the Karnal railway station as an ‘adarsh station’ and facilitated stoppages of the Himalayan Queen, Shan-e-Punjab and Farakka Express at this station. Besides, a railway foot overbridge towards Ram Nagar and a separate reservation counter for senior citizens were opened,” he says. Sharma gives himself the credit of constructing railway overbridges in Karnal and Tarori to avoid traffic jams. He said he was instrumental in stopping setting up of a toll plaza at Bastara in Gharaunda, which was resented by the locals, farmers and industrialists. About his relationship with Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, he said, “I have no enmity with him, I believe in inclusive progress and it is wrong to say that I represent any particular section of society.” In Parliament “I have raised several issues, including connecting the Karnal-Kaithal, Karnal-Saffidon and Panipat-Merut rail links, in the House. Many times, I also raised the issues related to upgrading the Kalpna Chawla Medical College, building an airport in Karnal and including Karnal in the NCR,” says the MP. Also, he says he had demanded a separate ministry and budget for the NCR, which would help in providing better facilities to the people. He says he also sought a simple loan procedure for students. The MP says if he wins the election for the third time, he would want the land acquisition and women reservation Bills to be passed in Parliament. He says he also wants that a compensation amount be fixed for farmers facing losses due to natural disaster. The Karnal MP claims he had fixed two days to redress public issues: Tuesday in Panipat and Friday in Karnal. Rift in party
Notwithstanding the claims of the Congress leaders that the party was united and geared up for the Lok Sabha elections, the rift among cadres came to the fore in the last few days. Kuldeep Sharma and Arvind Sharma have been into a war of words. Two days for public
The Karnal MP has fixed two days to listen to the grievances of the people of his constituency - Tuesday and Friday. The MP also claimed that he was easily available to people in Delhi.
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CPI-M leaders call party ‘incompetent, authoritarian’ Kumar Vishwas told not to use Tricolour in campaign
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Uttar Pradesh is expected to strengthen or ruin the prospects of any political party that hopes to rule in New Delhi. It is believed that if the BJP manages to reach the magical figure of 272, a sizeable number would come from the state's share of 80 Lok Sabha seats.
Dynastic rule in country’s politics is the done thing and Himachal is no exception to it. The fact that both the Congress and BJP swear by this rule in this hill state makes it all the more conspicuous.
Pratibha Singh (left) , Virbhadra's wife, is likely to be the Congress nominee from the Mandi LS
seat .
" Unfortunately, today politics has become a family affair whereas leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and senior Congressmen had joined politics to serve the people. Anyone occupying high position, be it a politician, bureaucrat or capitalist, wants it to become and inherent family affair. Under the neo-liberal regime, this trend of dynastic politics is getting even more strengthened, which is not good for
democracy."
" I am opposed to this trend of dynastic politics and feudalism as it weakens democracy. I have always been airing these views within my party, but unfortunately the BJP is also getting afflicted with dynastic politics. There can be no compromise on the issue of dynastic politics and corruption as they are the biggest threat to the democracy. At one point of time, when I was still a Lok Sabha member and had become the Chief Minister after winning from two Assembly segments, there was a tremendous pressure from workers to make my wife contest, which we both declined. As such I owe a lot to my wife and son for not cherishing political
aspirations."
" Being a son or daughter of a politician should neither be an asset nor a liability for any individual. Like any other individual, if he or she has the capability, there should be no bar on entering politics. I think that politicians’ children should be elected and not given any nominated posts so they also work their way up. They should not be kept out for the reason that their parents are
politicians.”