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Maharashtra Votes 2014
It’s a battle of survival
for Congress
Parties gear up for hung Assembly
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Capt Abhimanyu, Fadnavis BJP’s CM probables
BJP sweeps Gujarat local bodies bypolls
Black money: Top Indian tax team heads to Switzerland
Gadkari’s move to amend MGNREGA not right: Activists
‘Sridevi’ lands RGV in trouble
Tender for 56 copters scrapped
Decision today on flights from Vizag naval base
‘Love jihad’: Case against girl’s parents
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On poll eve, Sena says Cong, NCP dead snakes Tribune News Service
In the long diatribe which came on the eve of elections, the Congress and the NCP were called "dead snakes", while the BJP was identified as the real enemy of Maharashtra. "Do they want to know who is our real enemy? The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party are dead snakes that can no longer threaten us. It is our former friend's "fraud" we have to expose before the people of Maharashtra. It is our duty," Thackeray said. The editorial also noted that the BJP in its hunger for power was solely working to defeat the Shiv Sena. "We installed them at the Centre to defeat Pakistan, but now they have brought their strong army here to destroy the Shiv Sena which took a strong stand against our neighbouring country," Thackeray said. Accusing the BJP of playing vote bank politics, Thackeray said the whole of Gujarat came to Mumbai in order to poison the minds of the Gujarati voters here. Thackeray also tore into Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who campaigned for the BJP in Maharashtra. "What about his pre-election promise of making Marathi Goa's state language? Now he has thrown it in the dustbin," Thackeray said. Saamana also hit out at the BJP for getting former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa to campaign here. "He is the man who committed atrocities on Marathis in Belgaum and insulted the sacrifices of 105 martyrs killed in January 1960 during the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, but the BJP brought him to campaign," Thackeray said. The Shiv Sena chief also warned that the BJP has not given up is stand on breaking up Maharashtra by granting statehood to Vidarbha if it comes to power.
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It’s a battle of survival
for Congress
New Delhi, October 14 In Maharashtra, it has stayed in power for 15 years with the NCP. In Haryana, it faces an anti-incumbency of 10 years, though CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda insists on a pro-incumbency factor on account of the development works he has done in Haryana. If anti-incumbency wasn’t enough, the Congress has lost its ally, the NCP, in Maharashtra and in Haryana it faces a brand new challenger in the BJP, which has so far only played second fiddle first to Bansi lal and later to Om Prakash Chautala. If it goes out of power in Haryana and Maharashtra, it would be left with just two large states — Karnataka and Kerala.
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Parties gear up for hung Assembly
Mumbai, October 14 Pawar himself indicated that all possibilities were open when he praised Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray recently. Pawar, who has been accused of being close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is seen sewing up a regional coalition if both the NCP and the Sena come up with enough numbers. Despite the attacks against it by the Shiv Sena leadership, the BJP has chosen not to retaliate. Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told reporters on the elections’ eve that Pawar’s outfit came closest to the Congress in ideology.
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Capt Abhimanyu, Fadnavis BJP’s CM probables
New Delhi, October 14 A crucial Sangh meeting over this weekend in Lucknow coincides with Assembly election results on October 19. Sources say both the names have the RSS blessings but add that the matter would be finalised when the top Sangh leadership, including sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat and Bhaiyyaji Joshi, assesses and discusses performance of those who worked for the party in these elections. “It is too early to comment as a lot depends upon the final results. It also depends upon how close the BJP gets to the halfway mark in the two states,” a source said. Top saffron leaders, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP president Amit Shah, have also been invited for the meeting. “It is quite obvious that the election results and names of CM candidates will be discussed,” the source said. At least half a dozen CM-hopefuls are currently jostling to catch the eye of the senior BJP-RSS leadership in both states. The BJP, which steered clear of naming the CM candidate to avoid heartburn, is playing close to the chest. With just a day to go before the crucial polls, it obviously wants to keep the situation as conducive as possible with all factions happy and united. BJP leaders say general consensus is that the CM should be young with a clean image and no past baggage. Therefore, in case the saffron party does manage to gain Maharashtra on its own, 44-year-old Fadnavis, who is also the party president in the state, could emerge as the frontrunner. “Union minister Nitin Gadkari, late BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja Munde, former minister Eknath Khadse and leader of opposition Vinod Tawde cannot be discounted yet,” the source said. In Haryana, besides Captain Abhimanyu, who incidentally has never won any election, Manohar Lal Khattar is believed to be close to the RSS. However, Khattar has no political exposure. Apart from them, state party president Ram Bilas Sharma, union ministers Rao Inderjeet Singh and Krishan Pal Gurjar continue to be strong contenders, BJP leaders say. RSS meet this week
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BJP sweeps Gujarat local bodies bypolls
Ahmedabad, October 14 According to the results declared today, the BJP won all the four seats in the district panchayats, 22 of the 28 seats in the taluka panchayats, seven of the 13 seats in various municipalities and the only seat in the Ahmedabad municipal corporation. The Congress won six of the 13 seats in the municipalities. This comes close on the heels of the Congress capturing three of the seven seats to the state Assembly in the by-elections held last month. The state BJP president R C Faldu said the results showed that the voters in Gujarat continue to demonstrate their confidence in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for “development for all”. The by-poll is scheduled to be held for Rajkot West state Assembly seat tomorrow. The seat was vacated by Speaker Vajubhai Vala after his taking over as Governor of Karnataka.
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Sukhoi crashes near Pune, reignites engine failure issue
New Delhi, October 14 The first crash took place in April 2009 at Pokhran due a problem with its fly-by-wire system. Another crash occurred in November 2009 at Jaisalmer, killing two pilots. This was followed by another crash in December 2011 at Pune and one in February 2013 over Pokhran. The IAF has been encountering mid-air engine failures in Sukhois for the past two years. India, in June this year officially flagged the matter to Russia, the planes manufacturer, seeking a correction. The Tribune was the first to report this on July 21 this year. One of the previous crashes is attributed to "engine trouble". The IAF faced an unusually high number of mid-air engine failures between 2012 and 2013. The instances of single-engine Su-30MKI landings were very high during the period. This was lowering the operational ability of the fleet, besides raising questions about war readiness. The Russians have agreed to modify the engine to fix the mid-air engine trouble in its fleet. Some engines - the AL-31FP - produced by NPO Saturn of Russia have been behaving inconsistently over the past two years. Since the engines powering the jet are still being produced, there is a scope for modification. The modification will be carried out on 400 engines of the twin-engine aircraft, besides installation of some spares for emergencies. The Russians will install modified engines on the next lot of 72 jets. They have assured India that the modifications will eliminate the problem of mid-air engine failure, sources said. Russia assures India
Official sources say the Russians will install modified engines on the next lot of 72 jets. They have assured India that the modifications will eliminate the problem of mid-air engine failure
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Black money: Top Indian tax team heads to Switzerland
Sources said that the delegation, which will lay special focus on a number of pending requests, will be led by Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das and will have CBDT Chairman KV Chowdary and two other officials of the finance ministry's foreign taxation wing as its members. The official visit, sources said, was set up in quick time after the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) was taken into confidence by investigative agencies that a one-on-one visit between the officials of the two countries was necessary to take the probe in these cases forward. "The meeting will happen during this week," sources said. Officials said that the decision to send the team has also been cleared by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the officials would be armed with legal documents, dossiers and the charter of the SIT to satisfy the Swiss authorities as to how much "importance India is giving to unravelling the facts in these cases keeping in mind public sentiments and the government's commitment to unearthing black money". The upcoming meeting will be the first high-level one between the officials of the two countries after the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre with a poll-time promise that it would probe all cases of illegal funds stashed away abroad.
PTI Speeding up probe
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Gadkari’s move to amend MGNREGA not right: Activists
New Delhi, October 14 In an open letter to the Prime Minister, they sought assurance that the amendments proposed by Union Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari be withdrawn pointing out that making MGNREGA material-intensive along with shifting the balance to district level, rationing of funds and scaling down its coverage to one-third of the country will only “dilute” the rights-based employment legislation. Documents obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act show that Gadkari has ordered an amendment to the schedule of the MGNREGA to reduce the labour-material ratio to 51-49 to be applicable at the district level from the current 60-40 maintained at gram panchayats. Despite ministry officials concerned about the move that may lead to “a 40% reduction in employment” and fund crisis for wages, they pointed out that the past experience has shown that such material-intensive works brought benami contractors resulting in corruption.
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‘Sridevi’ lands RGV in trouble
Hyderabad, October 14 The movie is about a teenager’s crush on a woman older than him. Following protests from women’s organisations, RGV changed the title of the movie from “Saavitri” to “Sridevi”. The poster, showing a schoolboy lustily staring at a saree-clad woman, has evoked outrage among a section of the people. The controversy took a new twist with veteran actress Sridevi and her producer-husband Boney Kapoor sending a legal notice to him, seeking explanation from him for using the film star’s name without her consent. “The title is bound to make the public at large believe that the film is associated with Sridevi. Our client has already suffered considerable embarrassment due to the queries being raised to her regarding the title. Cease and desist from using the name,” the legal notice said. The movie, produced by RGV and directed by Kiran Prasad, features Anushkriti Govind Sharma in the role of a middle class housewife. On October 3, RGV issued a press note stating that his next movie was titled "Savitri" and deals with a 15-year-old school boy’s crush on his teacher. He had also urged the audience to share stories of their first crush. Courting controversy
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Tender for 56 copters scrapped
New Delhi, October 14 This is the third helicopter tender in the recent months to have been scrapped by the government since the cancellation of ~3600 crore VVIP chopper deal with Anglo-Italian firm AgustaWestland in the wake of bribery allegations on January 1 this year. The tender to procure 56 Naval Utility Helicopters has been scrapped and a fresh acquisition process would be initiated where these choppers would be made in the country involving Indian manufacturers who will be allowed to partner with foreign vendors, Defence Ministry sources said. Two contenders were in the race for this tender, including European Airbus Helicopters and AgustaWestland and they have been intimated about the decision, sources said. The Navy had plans of using these choppers to replace its fleet of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, which have been in service for over 30-35 years. The tender was issued two years ago to procure twin-engine choppers and was sent to major chopper makers, including US firm Sikorsky, Eurocopter, Kamov and Italy's Agusta Westland. The decision to get the helicopters built in India is in line with Narendra Modi government's plans to encourage and build the manufacturing capabilities of the Indian private sector. — PTI VVIP deal: ED books own men, grills ex-IAF chief’s cousin
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Decision today on flights from Vizag naval base
New Delhi, October 14 Civil flights anyway lands at the naval air base, but it has a separate terminal building for passengers to enter and exit. The ground-based downlink antenna of the Naval satellite, Rukmini, has been reactivated. The satellite has downlink capabilities at Kochi, Mumbai and Delhi also. So far, 120 tonnes of supplies have been airlifted to Visakhapatnam from Vijayawada and Rajamundry. Additional engineer units of the Army are being flown to Visakhapatnam. Four medical teams have been deployed in the region. Naval Hospital at Visakhapatnam and Army Hospital at Gopalpur have been kept on standby. Navy Chief Admiral RK Dhowan reviewed the relief efforts and the damage to Navy infrastructure in the aftermath of cyclone Hudhud at its biannual commanders’ conference today.
— TNS
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‘Love jihad’: Case against girl’s parents
Lucknow, October 14 SSP Onkar Singh said a case has been registered against the woman’s parents on her complaint alleging threat to her life. The 22-year-old had charged her own parents with forcing her to make false allegations against the man with whom she had willingly eloped.
— TNS
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Mumbai, October 14
New Delhi, October 14