Solan, February 25
With the literacy rate among youth and women being considerably high in Himachal, it is not wrong to say that they will play a decisive role in the state politics in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The share of women in the Panchayati Raj Institutions has also registered a sharp increase after the state government reserved 50 per cent seats for them. The emergence of a large number of women-led cooperative societies has further enhanced women's participation in politics.

As many as 93,636 first-time voters have been enlisted and the number of youth voters in the age group of 18-19 years is 62,133. Out of the total 46,74, 185 registered general voters, 48.04 per cent are below 40 years and 48.86 per cent comprise women.

New Delhi, February 25
Having missed the mid-February deadline for the declaration of the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, Congress' top poll panel has now scheduled a meeting on February 27 to approve the initial list.

Party sources today said a decision on 96 seats where the Congress does not have sitting members would be taken in the next Congress Election Committee (CEC) meeting, which would be in follow up of the first meeting held on February 17. The preliminary meeting had remained inconclusive.

Non-Congress seats of Himachal, Punjab and Haryana are expected to come up for finalisation in the next CEC meeting although the screening committee chairman for Punjab and Haryana PC Chacko is learnt to have sought advanced date for discussion on five non-Congress seats of Punjab (Amritsar, Bathinda, Khadoor Sahib, Faridkot and Ferozepur) and three non-Congress seats of Haryana (Gurgaon, Hisar and Ambala).

Congress general secretary and in charge of Punjab and Haryana Shakeel Ahmed, however, told The Tribune that efforts were on to include the two states in the February 27 meeting. "We are talking about the schedules and hope to bring up discussions on our states on February 27," he added.

The three non-Congress seats of Himachal, including Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra, are almost certain to be cleared in the next meeting with sources saying that candidates had been cleared by the screening committee headed by Assam Congress chief Bhubaneshwar Kalita.

There is, however, a bone of contention in Himachal - Lok Sabha segment of Hamirpur - where Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is pushing a BJP rebel and Independent MLA from the region, Rajinder Rana, as a candidate, whereas Himachal Congress chief Sukhwinder Sukhu is pitching for state industries minister Mukesh Agnihotri.

The CM had said in screening committee meetings that he could not spare Agnihotri from the state. Sukhu, on the other hand, has objected to Rana's candidature. He said his name figured in the Congress chargesheet against former BJP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

The CEC will take the final decision on Hamirpur after weighing the pros and cons, said sources. Around 20 seats of Uttar Pradesh, 10 non-Congress seats in Chhattisgarh and the rest in Odisha and Jharkhand will also be cleared in the next CEC meeting. 

Chandigarh, February 25
The demand for the registration of defence personnel as voters at the place of their posting has got shriller with another petition making its way to the Supreme Court. Former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, Lt Gen PN Hoon is moving the Apex Court, seeking directions to the Central government and the Election Commission to allow members of the armed forces to exercise their right to franchise at the place of their posting.

At least two other petitions on this issue are reported to be pending before the SC.

Lt Gen Hoon said his petition was seeking registration of defence personnel and members of their family by the electoral authorities concerned at the place where they are posted and putting in place procedures to ensure that they are able to cast their vote. "The petition is ready and we will be filing it in a day or two," Lt Gen Hoon said. "If the PM, while belonging to Punjab and working in Delhi, can contest elections to the Rajya Sabha from Assam, why can't our soldiers vote at their place of posting," he questioned. It needs to be explained why the government is denying voting rights to soldiers, he added.

Under Section 20 of the Representation of the People's Act, any person having a "service qualification" is deemed as an ordinary resident of the constituency in which he resides and can be registered as a voter under by filling Form-6.

Pithoragarh, February 25
With hardly any time left for the Lok Sabha elections, MPs are preparing ground for their next term. Almora MP Pradeep Tamta claims to have pushed the issue of green bonus to the Himalayan state in lieu of environmental services provided by it to the nation. He has also been seeking an integrated Himalayan development policy for Uttarakhand.

The Almora (SC) parliamentary constituency shares international border with Nepal and comprises 14 Assembly segments.

Tamta says that in the past five years he has been active in getting a separate format of development for the Himalayan states in the Union Planning Commission, which includes the green bonus. "The development in the hill state has taken a hit due to the Forest Conservation Act. The Centre should, therefore, give Uttarakhand green bonus as compensation," he demands.

He asks when such compensatory benefits can be given to Naxalite-hit states by the Centre, then why not the Himalayan state?

Tamta says he has urged the Union Government to deal with issues related to the Himalayan state sensitively. "It was due to my relentless efforts that the Centre has given a thought to the green bonus issue and I hope that we will get it," he says.

The MP claims to have brought three railway projects from the Centre. "It was my hard work that resulted in the approval of three railway lines in the region - Ramnagar to Chaukhutia, Tanakpur to Bageshwar and Tanakpur to Jauljibi. A road from Tanakpur to Jauljibi has also been approved and the construction work has already started," he says.

The rivals’ take

BJP leader Ajay Tamta terms the incumbent MP's tenure as a "complete failure". "If we talk of development, Pradeep Tamta has failed to provide anything to his constituency, leave aside the state. He may have been claiming of striving for green bonus for the state but as long as we don't get it, his efforts will be of no meaning," he says.

He says the MP has also undermined his own slogan "jal, jangal aur jameen" (forest, water and land), "which he talked about so much before becoming an MP. Ajay alleges despite their segment being a sensitive boarder area, no infrastructure has been built by the MP in the past five years. He claims the MP also failed to get a bridge built over Koshi near Pindar in Bageshwar for the benefit of farmers.

The BJP leaders are critical of the MP over the "poor" health facilities and other basic infrastructure in the region. "Even when he fell ill during his visit to Kapkot two months ago, he could not get primary health facility at a local hospital and had to rush to Bageshwar for first aid. This ironically shows how much work has been done in the constituency during his term," says Puran Singh Fartiyal, BJP MLA from Lohaghat in Champawat district.

MPLADS funds

The MP claims that he has utilised all the funds allocated to him in the past four-and-a-half years. "The money has been used in several development projects, which helped create additional infrastructure for villages in my constituency," he points out.

He demands that the Union Government should reconsider its decision of allocating MPLADS funds to the MPs. "Instead, the MP should be given a permission to have a say in the centrally funded schemes for the state," he says. He claims he got parameters of the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) changed for villages of his constituency having a population of less than 250 people.

"This policy change helped several villages in far-flung areas connect with the mainland through road," he says.

Tamta says his other projects that are getting Central nod are: a science city centre at Almora, two central universities in the region and approval to install nine mobile towers at border regions of Pithoragarh. 

Mumbai, February 25
Leaders of the National democratic Alliance (NDA) are queuing up to join the Congress in Maharastra. On Monday, the Congress welcomed Shiv Sena's MP from Shirdi Babanrao aka Bhausaheb Wakchaure, into the party. Wakchaure was the managing trustee of the Saibaba Sansthan in Shirdi and enjoys tremendous clout in the area.

Wakchaure blamed Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray for "ill-treating" party members at the behest of a coterie for his departure from the party. Congress sources said Wakchaure would be the party's nominee for the Shirdi seat.

Congress leaders say more outgoing MPs from the saffron alliance were poised to join the party. Sources said senior party leaders, including former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, have been given the task of splitting rival parties. These efforts resulted in former Shiv Sena MLA Namdeo Pawar joining the Congress.

The Nationalist Congress Party which lost several local body polls to the Congress has also joined the poaching game. NCP leaders say Ganesh Dudhgaonkar, Shiv Sena's Lok Sabha MP from Parbhani, is expected to join the party. He will be joined by Shiv Sena MP from Kalyan Anand Paranjpe who is likely to get the NCP ticket to contest from the constituency.

Sources say the NCP is likely to field Dhananjay Munde from Beed. 

Jalandhar, February 16
Dalits form a major chunk of voters in Punjab and have the power to tilt the scales. They are expected to play a decisive role in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls even as most of them still remain unaware about the value of their vote.

Since Dalits have their highest concentration in Punjab as compared to other states, the political fortunes of the two major political outfits of Punjab - the SAD-BJP combine and the Congress - are dependent on their votes. As the Lok Sabha polls are inching closer, both the SAD-BJP combine and Congress have started enticing them.

Dalits constitute 38 per cent of the population in the state and Jats 21 per cent. Adharmis and Balmikis - the two major sub-groups of Dalits - dominate in the state with 17-18 and 11-12 per cent share in the Dalit population of the state.

The rest of the Dalit population constitute other SC miniscule groups formed by Rai Sikhs, Baurias, Saansis and Sikligars in pockets of the Ferozepur, Faridkot, Fazilka, Moga, Tarn Taran and Jalandhar districts. The number of Dalits communities rose to 39 with the inclusion of Rai Sikhs in the SC list after the 2002 Census.

Such is the power of Dalits that 3,668 of the 12,428 villages in Punjab have more than 40 per cent Dalit population with Doaba boasting of maximum Dalit concentration crossing the mark of 45 per cent. Half of the villages in the Doaba region, including Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahar have over 45 per cent of Dalits. Similarly, districts in the Malwa region, including Mukatsar, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Bathinda and districts of the Majha region, including Tarn Taran, have high concentration of the Dalit population.

In the Malwa region, having 69 Assembly seats, there is a tendency among Dalits to vote for their “feudal masters”, a large number of whom are aligned to the SAD. The Dalit support in the Majha region, having 25 Assembly segments, generally gets bifurcated between the SAD and the Congress. In the Doaba region, the Dalits have traditionally been favouring the Congress with its recent and slight but visible tilt towards the SAD-BJP.

Four of 13 Lok Sabha seats - Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Faridkot and Fategarh Sahib - and 34 of a total of 117 Assembly seats, are reserved for Dalits in the state. Prior to the 2009 delimitation process, there were 29 reserved Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats in Punjab.

Apparently, overwhelmed by their numbers, leadership of the SAD-BJP combine and the Congress have been leaving no stone unturned to placate the Dalits. In a calculated urge to appease the Dalits the ruling SAD-BJP combine chose not to act against people involved or who instigated violence in Punjab in the aftermath of the murder of Sant Ramanand in Vienna in 2009 with a sole motive to avoid any confrontation with the community.

The dera politics, particularly, the sway of followers of Sant Ramanand, the head of Dera Sachh Khand at Ballan, is likely to play a major role in deciding the fate of political parties in the Doaba region this time also. The SAD-BJP government has been trying to win over Dalits through the “Atta-Dal” scheme and by constructing Balmiki temples and other religious monuments in the state. The “Atta-Dal” scheme has worked well for the SAD-BJP and it has managed to take control over the Doaba bastion of the Congress in the last Assembly polls.

The Congress which had managed to hold its traditional Doaba bastion for decades largely due to the Dalit support, has been trying hard to make inroads into the hearts of the community again, particularly after visible eroding of faith of the Dalit electorate in the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Dalit leaders say the SAD-BJP and Congress have done little for the welfare of their community. Former MP and Dalit thinker Satnam Kainth said more efforts were needed to channelise Dalit youth power towards entrepreneurship and self-employment. “Even the scholarships for Dalits are not released on time,” he added. Contrary to the general impression that Dalits are going to play a decisive and active role in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Dr Kamlesh Duggal, head, department of journalism and mass communication, Guru Nanak Dev University’s regional centre at Ladhewali, said Dalits need to be made aware of their rights and needs. Parties consider them as a vote bank and nothing is done for their welfare. The poor don’t know the real value of their vote,” added Dr Duggal.

For Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi, another Dalit leader and Chairman of the Nawanshahar District Planning Board, corruption was not a core issue for Dalits. “Inflation affects the poor Dalits. Community leaders are also to be blamed for their poor condition as they have not allowed them to think beyond reservation. Most Dalits fail to make ends meet. In such a situation, made grim by unprecedented inflation, how can they think of their rights and a better future?” asked Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi.

Barabanki: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will formally kick-off election campaign in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh after paying obeisance at the famous dargah of Sufi saint, Haji Waris Ali Shah here on February 28.

Rahul would pay his respects at the dargah at Deva before holding a road show and interact with people at a programme, sources in the Congress said. — PTI

AIADMK’s manifesto out
Chennai: The AIADMK, which has been hoping for a bigger role for its leader Jayalalithaa in the national political scene, promised passing of women’s bill, interlinking of rivers and measures against privatisation in its election manifesto released on Tuesday. “If a Central Government is formed with the participation of the AIADMK, necessary action will be taken to ensure that there is a co-ordinated policy making, cutting across sectors and departments,” the AIADMK manifesto said. - PTI