AIADMK front may split over seats

CHENNAI: The deadlock over seat-sharing among allies in the AIADMK camp has apparently assumed crisis proportions with discontented alliance
partners - MDMK and CPM - reportedly thinking of “exploring other options” if party chief J Jayalalithaa does not concede their demands.

As several rounds of discussions failed, the ball is now in Jayalalithaa’s court. The CPM, which was offered three seats, has been insisting on Tirupur, while the MDMK, an AIADMK ally since 2006, wants at least five seats against the three reportedly on offer. The AIADMK has already allocated seven seats to the PMK and three to the CPI. Even while nurturing hopes that the AIADMK chief will resolve the standoff, both parties are said to be looking at other options.

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Mulayam says he is not in the run for the PM's post

GORAKHPUR (UP): Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has said he is not in the race for prime minister's
post, but his aim is to form a
"secular" government at the Centre.

He said for this reason only his party had supported the Congress on nuclear deal issue.

"The post of the prime minister or a union minister is not important for me than forming a secular government
at the Centre. I am not in the race for the Prime Minister's post," Yadav said.

Addressing public meetings in Majhgawan (Bansgaon constituency) and Pipigunj (Gorakhpur constituency) from where Sharda Devi and Bhojpuri actor Manoj Tiwari are contesting the polls respectively on SP tickets, he lashed out against what he called the BSP's "caste-based politics" and BJP's "attempt to divide" the country on communal lines.

Yadav said yesterday that the SP had spared key constituencies for Congress as a "goodwill" gesture.

He asked the people to vote for a non-BSP, non-BJP Government at the Centre

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PM says Pakistan epicentre of world terrorism

LONDON: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Pakistan as the "epicentre of terrorism in the world" and said it had failed to take effective
action against militants, in an interview published Wednesday.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Singh said Islamabad was either "unable" or "unwilling" to control Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which New Delhi accuses of staging the November attacks on Mumbai that killed 165 people.

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating," he said.

Singh said that despite pledges by Pakistan throughout the past decade that it would not be a launch pad for attacks against India, "in practice no effective action has been taken to control terror."

He added: "We all know the epicentre of terrorism in the world today is Pakistan. The world community has to come to grips with this reality."

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'02 riot-hit Muslim ex-cop joins BJP

AHMEDABAD: Retired IPS officer Abdullah Ibrahim Saiyad, who was attacked by a mob during the 2002 Gujarat riots, has sprung a surprise by joining Abdullah Ibrahim
the BJP, in another indication of the image make-over that Chief Minister Narendra Modi is striving for ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

He told TOI on Tuesday that he joined the BJP because of Modi. “Modi belongs to the same district as I, and he is one person who does what he says,” says Saiyad, who is from Ganwada village in Mehsana district. “Modi has a way of doing justice,” adds Saiyad.

Saiyad, who retired in May 2008 as an additional DGP, had found himself mobbed in Vejalpur area of Ahmedabad in March 2002. Seeing his police vehicle with flashing red lights approaching, the mob had stopped him to complain about stone throwing from the other side.

But someone noticed the name on his badge and started screaming for revenge. As the mob stoned his car, the driver sped away to safety in a miraculous escape for this officer who was heading the Police Training Academy at Karai near Ahmedabad in those days. Recalling the incident in a chat with TOI on Tuesday, Saiyad said: “They were just mad people who had nothing to do with the BJP. I am thankful that God gave me presence of mind on that day. Had I opened fire with my service revolver, I would have been lynched.”

He attributed his joining the BJP to a “well-wisher” who wrote a letter to LK Advani saying that the BJP should enrol educated Muslims like him. A few months after he retired, he got a call from state BJP president Purshottam Rupala who told him that his entry into the party would be “timed properly”. Saiyad says he knew Modi from his days as Mehsana superintendent of police and he was always inclined towards the BJP.

Saiyad’s entry into the BJP is being seen in the light of developments in recent weeks where some Muslim leaders have endorsed the leadership of Narendra Modi and called upon the community to move on with their lives, even as the law takes its course in the Gujarat riots cases.

The state government’s recent move to appoint DGP Shabbir Khandwawala as the head of Gujarat police was also seen as an olive branch offered to the community. Among the important assignments that Saiyad held after his promotion
to the IPS in 1978 was as officer on special duty to KPS Gill who was appointed security adviser to the state government after the 2002 riots.

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Action against Varun blot on history, says Jaitley

BHUBANESWAR: BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Monday described the government action against Varun Gandhi as a blot on the country's history. "The
baseless charges like attempt to murder and arrest under the NSA is both disproportionate and vindictive. It augurs badly for the Indian democracy," Jaitley said. He accused Congress, Samajwadi Party and BSP of speaking in tandem on the issue.

Jaitley also predicted that polarization of political forces has created a conducive atmosphere for BJP to come to power in Orissa in the coming elections. Jaitley paced his argument on the basis of performance of the Congress government in the past and the one led by Naveen Patnaik who "concentrated more on scheming against others than development of the state."

"BJD leadership lacked political honesty. It perfected the art of betrayal. Betrayal in politics may work sometimes. But you do it repeatedly the general masses rise up to betray you," the BJP leader said, indicating the likely fate of the BJD in the elections. He alleged that BJD had joined hands with those forces who are inimical to Orissa's economic progress and have links with Maoists. He admitted BJP while performing the "coalition dharma religiously" had actually made a tactical mistake by continuing in the government.

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BJP-BSP faceoff leaves Cong, Mulayam scared

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: The Uttar Pradesh government's decision to slap the dreaded NSA on Varun Gandhi for his hate speech in Pilibhit forced
arch-rival Mulayam Singh Yadav to dub it an "unjustified move", amid growing perception that Mayawati was using the issue to rally Muslims behind her prime ministerial aspiration.

Mulayam called the stringent police action against Varun "completely wrong", even as he covered his flanks against any perception of siding with a BJP man by accusing Mayawati of working in concert with the saffron party for the Pilibhit aspirant.

To buttress his point, Mulayam asked why Varun was not arrested before he could whip up passions by undertaking a surrender drama on March 28.

The SP reaction was strikingly similar to that of the Congress which saw a tacit BJP-BSP pact in Pilibhit, reflecting their fears that Mayawati may steal their ``secular'' thunder.

If "Maulana Mulayam" is risking being seen as lenient on a BJP man in the thick of elections, it is only reflective of how the BSP czarina has turned the Pilibhit controversy into a political gambit, leaving SP and Congress looking for urgent counter moves.

However, Mulayam's attack on the state government coincided with support from prominent Muslim clergy and the influential All India Muslim Personal Law Board for the tough action against Varun.

Source

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Hate speech: Weak BJP to Maya's advantage

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s attack on UP government on Monday coincided with support from prominent Muslim clergy and the
influential All India Muslim Personal Law Board for the action against Varun Gandhi.

Obviously, the question being asked is why Mayawati didn’t pre-empt the Varun roadshow, not a big task if she could stop L K Advani from holding a rally in Azamgarh just a few days ago.

Sources in Lucknow said Mayawati, who was initially wary of clamping down on Varun for fear of an adverse fallout among Brahmins, made up her mind after intelligence reports that the Pilibhit turnout on Saturday was a VHP affair with little local support.

The strategists of both Congress and SP seem convinced that the Mayawati gameplan is simple — let Varun-BJP polarize Hindus while she can clamp down on saffronites to consolidate Muslims behind BSP.

The gambit has a special role in western and central UP where BSP has to contend with strong challenge from SP and Congress. She can change the battle terrain by inserting a weak BJP in the play. A competitive SP and Congress hurt BSP more on Muslim front — a social group Mayawati is eyeing to supplement her Dalit-Brahmin combo.

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Slapping of NSA on Varun 'wrong': Mulayam

LUCKNOW: Terming the invoking of the NSA against Varun Gandhi as "wrong", Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday alleged that the
stringent Act has been used to settle political scores.

"The framing of charges under NSA against Varun Gandhi is completely wrong. In fact, National Security Act has always been used to settle political scores... why did the police fail to arrest Varun and his supporters before the roadshow," Yadav told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

He alleged that the move to frame charges under NSA against Varun, the BJP candidate from Pilibhit, was "a tactic by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party to generate sympathy towards Varun Gandhi".

"If the BJP-BSP are not having any sort of tacit understanding, then why was Varun not arrested before the roadshow," said Yadav.

Lashing out at the state government, Mulayam alleged, "In the Auraiya PWD engineer murder case, a SP worker Kamlesh Pathak was framed under NSA, while the accused roamed free. It is due to these reasons that I oppose the NSA since it was implemented."

Asked if any other candidate will be fielded in case the court disallows actor Sanjay Dutt to contest from Lucknow Lok Sabha seat, Mulayam said, "This is completely a hypothetical question."

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Neera, husband join BJP

LUCKNOW: Two trusted members of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's coterie - former chief secretary Neera Yadav and her husband Mahendra Singh
Yadav -left him for the saffron camp on Sunday. The high-profile couple was inducted into the BJP by party president Rajnath Singh amid fanfare in Ghaziabad.

The development is being interpreted as a shrewd move by the master strategist Rajnath Singh to improve his party's poll prospects. Mahendra Singh, a former minister and MLA from neighbouring Bulandshehar, can help the vote tally with his influence among the about 50,000 Yadav voters in his constituency. Neera, a Tyagi before her marriage to the former IPS officer, can come in handy wooing the sizable Tyagis in the belt. Moreover the defiance by the Yadav couple would also deal a great blow to Mulayam's vanity much to BJP's delight.

Neera Yadav had been Mulayam's most trusted chief secretary during the SP regime in UP who was assigned the top job despite a pending CBI inquiry in the Noida plot allotment case. She was removed only at the Supreme Court's directives in October 2007. Later appointed head of vigilance establishment, Neera took voluntary retirement in March 2008 miffed by the internal politics of the IAS cadre after the association, in a skilfully executed coup, displaced her as the head of the IAS association chairperson.

Mahendra Singh Yadav had joined politics in 1996 after a golden handshake with UP police. Yadav had also been the MLA from Bulandshehar on a BJP ticket. However after his differences with Kalyan Singh he dropped out and joined the SP. Yadav had contested the assembly election under SP banner in 2007 but lost.

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It's 'Prajarajyam' in Chiru party

HYDERABAD: The so-called discipline in Prajarajyam Party ranks is in tatters. Loyal workers protesting denial of tickets to their leaders are
resorting to violence, breaking furniture and setting party offices on fire.

At Kalwakurthy in Mahbubnagar district, PRP activists attacked the party office as their leader Jupalli Prabhakar Rao was not given the assembly ticket. They went on a rampage, damaging furniture and setting the PRP office on fire on Sunday.

Meanwhile, PRP Anantapur assembly candidate, T J Prakash, on Sunday lodged a complaint with district SP M K Singh that he suspected a bomb attack on his car on Saturday as his followers had heard a defeaning sound. "It could be the handiwork of those who did not get the ticket," he said. The car, parked at his residence in Ramnagar, was in flames and his family members alerted the police.

Earlier, a group of Chiranjeevi fans had attacked the party office and set the furniture and computers on fire on Saturday afternoon in protest against denial of Anantapur assembly ticket to Rayalaseema Chiranjeevi Fans Association president A Surendra Babu.

But party sources said Prakash, a lodge owner belonging to Balija community, has been leading the district party ever since PRP was launched. "He has close contacts with Chiranjeevi family and since Balija community votes are prominent in Anantapur the party favoured Prakash," a source said.

The PRP activists also staged a protest at Tadipatri in protest against the candidature of P Narasimhaiah for the assembly ticket. A group of dissidents are planning to field a rebel candidate from Kadiri assembly segment, sources said.

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