Congress, SP to discuss LS seat sharing in UP

NEW DELHI: Hard bargaining is expected to be witnessed in the seat sharing talks between the Congress and Samajwadi Party beginning on Monday for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The two parties which were foes till the other day, are coming together to form an alliance in the backdrop of resurgence of Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party which gained power in UP after shoring up a majority in the assembly elections last year.

Rahul Gandhi will himself lead the Congress team which will have party general secretary in charge of UP affairs Digvijay Singh and UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi as its members.

The SP is likely to be represented by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, general secretary Amar Singh and another general secretary and Yadav's brother Ram Gopal Yadav.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the SP had spurned offers of the Congress for a tie up and had emerged as the single largest party in the state by bagging 39 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress had managed just nine seats, including Amethi and Rae Bareli -- the pocket burrows of Gandhi-Nehru family.

The Congress' decline in the state has been rapid in the past 25 years after having secured all the 85 seats in undivided UP in 1984.

Congress general secretary Digvijay singh has already expressed confidence that the seat sharing arrangement will be pragmatic and realistic, implying thereby that the Congress would have to play a second fiddle and have to be content with a far lesser role.


Source : Times Of India

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Deve Gowda backs Mayawati as leader of Third Front

LUCKNOW: Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda on Monday backed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati as a leader of the proposed Third Front which will become political alternative to BJP and Congress.

"I will stand by Mayawati if she becomes the leader of the Third Front. I have no reservations...and I also don't dream of becoming Prime Minister again", Deve Gowda told reporters when asked about the leadership of the Third Front.

"The Third Front is going to take shape. Whether you like it or not, it will become an alternative force to counter BJP and Congress", said Gowda, who was in the state capital to attend state party convention.

He said 11 parties had came together to vote against Indo-US nuclear deal in July and later it was decided that all parties should go across the country and "expose" the UPA government's policies due to which farmers were committing suicide and "misuse" of constitutional bodies including CBI.

A propaganda committee, having a member of each party, was subsequently constituted and another small committee was formed, which also met twice or thrice to finalise modalities of setting up the Front, he said.

"I, as a farmer, will cooperate in formation of the Third Front", he said.

Gowda said that after he met Mayawati at his residence in Delhi he was not in touch with Left and other leaders.

"I am concentrating on my home state Karnataka and the party is going to hold state conventions in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan where the party has its organisation", Gowda said.

Source : Times Of India

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Lalu plays politics over flood issue

MANSI: His repeated claims of not playing politics over devastating floods notwithstanding, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is in his elements as he meets distraught victims in deluge-ravaged districts of north Bihar, cuddling children, making speeches and blasting the state government for its 'callous neglect.'

"Fail kar gaya Nitish. Hum khana aur bhoosa bhejwa rahe hain. Sab station par khidi chokha hai, jaao aur bharpet khao. Nitish has failed. (I have left food and fodder at every railway station. There is khichdi and mashed potato, go and have your fill)," Lalu tells a crowd at Saharsa.

Then he cuddles an infant while seated in his SUV, glass rolled down and puts the child in front of the car airconditioner, saying 'isko hava khilao (let him catch a breath of air).'

"Hum Lalu Yadav hain. Zindabad bolo. Aye bachcha ko paisa do. (I am Lalu Yadav. Greet me. Give money to this child)," he says as an aide hands over a currency note of Rs 500 to the infant's father with the RJD chief saying 'go get him clothes.'

"Kya naam hai bachcha ka? Batao nahin to bachcha ko le kar chal denge. (What's the name of the child? Tell me or I will leave with the child)," he says playfully as the father timidly answers 'Ravi'.

"Aap log mushar (a Dalit caste) hain na?" he asks as the people nod in the affirmative before resuming his journey.

"Nitish Kumar murdabad. Lalu Yadav zindabad (Down with Nitish Kumar. Hail Lalu Yadav)," chants the crowd and the small convoy moves on with Lalu wearing a broad smile.

Village after village, the convoy of 5 to 6 vehicles stops as Lalu meets people, who have made the highways their home.

"Don't worry, the Centre is with you. Soniaji and Manmohan Singh saw your plight at my request. We have given Rs 1000 crore and 1.25 lakh tonnes of foodgrains. I will come again next week and stay with you to see if every paisa is being spent properly or not," he assures another group of people at Baidyanathpur.

"Yeh Nitish Kumar bhi barh pidit hai. Paanch baar barh se jeeta aur 2004 mein haar gaya. Ab jabse mukhyamantri bana hai har saal barh aa jata hai. (Nitish Kumar is also a victim of floods. He won from Barh (parliamentary seat) five times, but lost in 2004. Ever since he became chief minister no year passes without floods."

Lalu says he has sent one lakh sarees to the flood ravage areas and also allocated Rs 90 crore from the Railway Minister's fund.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), RITES and other wings of The railways have pitched in with relief.

"The destruction is as great as a tsunami, but the state government has not yet woken from its slumber. We are with you in your hour of crisis... Lalu Yadav is with you, don't worry," he says.

Lalu, who has Z plus security cover shoos away the commandoes accompanying him while meeting people.

"Some undesirable elements may even kill me, but I am not scared. I don't want securitymen to come between me and the people," he told this correspondent accompanying him.

Like when he called the shots in Bihar, the RJD supremo makes it a point to chide top state government officials over phone whenever anybody in the crowd makes a complaint about the problems being faced by them.

"Humko bhool gaye kya? Rahat nahin pahuncha hai abhi tak aur jaldi nahin pahuncha to hum yahin dharna par baith jayenge. (Have you forgotten me? No relief has reached people. I will sit on a dharna here if relief does not arrive soon)," he tells Disaster Management Department principal secretary as he is surrounded by a large crowd.

"Pillai saheb (Bihar Chief Secretary) kuch kaam nahin ho raha hai .... koi rahat nahin hai sirf sarkar dawa karti hai. "Mr Pillai, nothing is being done. There is no relief, the government is only making tall claims," he blares into his mobile phone as the congregation claps in approval.

Source : Times Of India

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Paswan favours citizenship for Bangladeshis

PUSHKAR (RAJASTHAN): With an eye on elections, Lok Janshakti Party, a ruling UPA constituent, on Sunday favoured giving citizenship to Bangladeshis staying in the country and advocated reservation for the economically weak and minorities in government and private sectors.

"Those Bangladeshis who are already staying in India should be provided citizenship. Further infiltration should be checked. There should be strict vigil on the border," a resolution passed by the party headed by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said here.

The party supported reservation for the "socially and economically" backward groups. "The party feels that in view of their social and economic conditions, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people should get reservation in private sector. Every community or group should have equal representation in all sectors," the resolution said.

The party is also in favour of giving 10 per cent reservation in central government jobs for the economically weaker sections among the upper castes. Besides, employment should be a fundamental right of every citizen in the country, the party resolution said.

Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims should be considered as Dalits and provided quota benefits to help them join the main stream, it said.

The party also criticised the ban on SIMI and demanded setting up of an independent inquiry commission with social scientists and human rights activists as its member to study the role of various organisations in spreading terror and communal tension.


Source : Times of India

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BJP crowd-puller eclipses Cong Mahapanchayat

NEW DELHI: Congress might be hoping to neutralise the anti-incumbency factor and the inflation issue with its announcements to regularise unauthorised colonies during the Assembly elections, but poor attendance at the Mahapanchayat organised by Hastsal MLA Mukesh Sharma and the fact that senior party leaders chose to stay away — coupled with BJP’s star-studded rally with its impressive turnout — boded ill for the party’s hopes of riding the unauthorised colonies bandwagon.

While at the Congress gathering the only senior leader present was Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar, the BJP rally called by former Union minister Vijay Goel saw leader of the opposition in Parliament L K Advani, BJP national president Rajnath Singh, south Delhi MP V K Malhotra, state unit chief Harshvardhan and other senior leaders lambast the Sheila government on its claims of regularisation of unauthorised colonies and take the battle right into the UPA court with Advani launching a scathing attack on the central government in what was clearly sounding the poll bugle ahead of the elections later this year.

The BJP rally at Ramlila Maidan with its 40,000-odd turnout was a thumping success compared to Congress’s 2,000-odd at Jantar Mantar. The latter had been convened at a 72-hour notice to allay fears of Congressmen that BJP’s rally would steal the credit that was ‘‘rightfully’’ theirs. The BJP brigade came down on the Dikshit government highlighting its failures on all fronts. Huge hoardings dotting the venue said: ‘Mehnga Bijli, Tej Bhagti Meter, Paani Ki Killat. Dilliwasion Ke Saath Shiela Ka Dhokha’ (expensive power, fast running electricity meters, water scarcity. Sheila has only cheated Delhiites). Goel alleged that the Sheila government could not keep any of its promises. ‘‘What happened to the issue of full statehood to Delhi?’’ adding that on all fronts of providing basic facilities to people, the government has failed miserably.

Targeting the Congress government, BJP’s Delhi unit chief Dr Harsvardhan said that people living in unauthorised colonies had the right to ask the government why it failed to construct roads, open schools and lay water pipelines even when it stayed in power for 10 years. ‘‘We don’t want to know what they wish to do in next five years, but what they have done in the past decade,’’ he said.

Moreover, accusing the chief minister and Union urban development minister Ajay Maken of cheating Delhiites, South Delhi MP Malhotra said the city government was resorting to advertisements to cover up its inefficiency.
‘‘By distributing forms, you don’t regularise unauthorised colonies. Plans have to be prepared, public facilities have to be laid and then only regularisation can happen. Congress governments at Delhi and Centre have done nothing like that,’’ Malhotra said. Indicating how BJP will take up the issue of development in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani said the development taking place in Gujarat proves the point that BJP rule can bring the best to people.

The Mahapanchayat too assumed political hues with the focus shifting from the tomtomming of Congress’s regularisation largesse to a discussion of BJP’s shortcomings. Speakers criticised the BJP for levying development charges of Rs 3,200 per square yard and thanked the central government for regularising the colonies. An effigy of BJP was burnt at the rally that resounded with cries of ‘‘Bhajpa ka Nash Ho (down with BJP)’’.

Source : Times Of India

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Cong-loyal businessmen forced to ally with SAD

MUKTSAR(PUNJAB): Fearing political reprisal, a large number of businessmen who are Congress supporters here are distancing themselves from the party’s September 1 political rally at Lambi. So much so that many of their staunch supporters have formally joined the SAD after they were persistently harassed by Punjab Pollution Control Board, PSEB, sales tax and food and supply departments in the past 18 months. Though Congress workers and leaders in Malwa region are euphoric over the rally programme but in Muktsar, Gidderbaha and Malout a large number of rice millers, cotton and ginning factory owners, pesticide dealers and other businessmen are keeping away from the rally preparations, fearing SAD vengeance.

Family of a Congress supporter, who runs rice mills and known for their party loyalty for the past many decades, were forced to allign with the SAD as the pollution control board threatened to close their rice mills while power supply was disconnected on flimsy grounds. Similar is the story of some ginning factory owners.Even in October 2007 some Congress workers and leaders of Gidderbaha, who were into the business of rice mills, had approached Punjab and Haryana High Court, alleging that the food and supply department was prejudiced towards them in the allotment of paddy for milling. The millers alleged that on the direction of Akali leaders in the area, the Congress-backed millers were not being allotted paddy. A pesticide dealer in Gidderbaha who could not face the harassment closed his business.

The millers who accused the food and supply department of bias last year included two sons of senior Congress party leader Raghubir Singh, who contested MLA election on Congress ticket from Gidderbaha against finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal. Other petitioners included Ashok Dhir, senior Congress leader and former chairman Punseed, Subash Jain Lily, a senior party leader and president, Muktsar Rice Millers Association, and Kulwant Singh Maan, president, municipal committee, Gidderbaha.

Source : Times Of India

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