ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 12 May 2006

UPA Strengthened

LEFT SWEEPS W. BENGAL & KERALA

By Insaf

At the end of the prolonged election process for five State Assemblies, three things stand out loud and clear: The Left Front has strengthened its position in the national politics, communal forces are beginning to be eliminated and the Congress has failed to change the ruling UPA’s chemistry of dependency. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself claimed: “It is a victory for the secular forces and a victory for the UPA.” The CPM-led Left Front has swamped West Bengal and notched an emphatic victory in Kerala. Notwithstanding Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s record victory in Rae Bareli, the outcome in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry has little to cheer the Congress which went to battle with high expectations.

The Congress support base has decreased in all the five States, even though the party has emerged almost unhurt. It has retained power in Assam and Pondicherry and has become the main prop for the DMK and its Chief Minister in Tamil Nadu. In Assam, which threw up a hung Assembly, with the Congress winning 52 seats in the 126-member Assembly, against 71 in 2001, the party will have the satisfaction of retaining power, a remarkable feat achieved by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for the first time in 30 years. Contrary to predictions that the Congress would lose power, it has returned as the single-largest party. Tarun Gogoi’s strategy paid rich dividends. He worked hard to improve the State’s financial position in the last two years, implemented several development projects and also ensured communal harmony.    

*                       *                       *                                   *                                               *

Impressive Victories

The CPM-led left Front has conclusively defeated its political rivals in West Bengal and Kerala and has for the first time won four seats in Assam. The Front recorded an impressive tally of 220 in the 294-member Assembly. This is a remarkable improvement from the 2001 score of 199 seats, thanks to Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee’s reformist image and practical economic policies during the last five years, which earned him greater support in urban areas than during the last 28 years of Left rule in the State. The CPM under Jyoti Basu had already built up its vote banks in rural areas by its land reforms. Buddhadev greatly improved on it by giving the CPM a dynamic thrust as the country’s new, reformist Left. In Kerala, the Front wrested power by winning 99 seats in the 140-member Assembly. Anti-incumbency factor and in-fighting in the State Congress led to the downfall of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

*                                   *                                               *                                   *                      

Sonia’s Thumping Win

Sonia Gandhi’s thumping victory in the byelection for the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat was a foregone conclusion. But the low voter turn-out of merely 43 per cent of the electorate was a big surprise.  The Congress leadership has attributed this to various factors.  First, even in 2004 Lok Sabha poll, the voting percentage was only 48.42.  But she had defeated the Samajwadi candidate by a huge margin of over 2,50,000 votes. This time the margin of victory is more than 4 lakh, a record.  Second, the voters were confident about her sure win and therefore, preferred to stay at home to beat the scorching sun. In some of the polling booths in rural areas, there were more poll officials than voters.  Another little known reason for the low polling was that about 40 per cent of the voters in the constituency are migratory labourers and were away to adjoining States for harvesting crops.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Expensive Elections

The Assembly polls for 824 seats in four States and a Union Territory turned out to be a very expensive affair, literally. They are estimated to have cost the nation a whopping Rs.2,000 crore.  Political insiders have also estimated that an average of Rs. 2 crore was spent in each constituency.  Calculated on this basis, the amount which the mainstream political parties spent on these elections crossed Rs.2,000 crore.  The poll expenses in West Bengal and Pondicherry were comparatively less than what was spent in Tamil Nadu, Assam and Kerala.  Significantly, 90 per cent of the estimated expenditure has been spent by the candidates of two or three major political parties.  According to the Election Commission norms, maximum poll expenses per candidate for the bigger States is Rs.10 lakh and for UTs like Pondicherry Rs.5 lakh.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Mulayam Another “Vikas Purush”

UP’s Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has fired his first salvo for the State Assembly poll about eight months away.  He has embarked on a publicity blitzkrieg: full-page advertisements in leading newspapers, projecting him as a “Vikas Purush” and his Government as the champion of development.  This is very much like what the Vajpayee Government did for itself prior to the Lok Sabha poll in 2004.  Mulayam Singh has pledged in these advertisements to make Uttar Pradesh an “Uttam Pradesh”, a “model State” to win friends and influence public opinion. Attention is particularly focused on his Government’s approval for 7,000 MW of power projects in the next six years, electrification of about 6,000 villages and improvements in such areas as agriculture, infrastructure, drinking water, health and education.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Crackdown On Naxals

Now that the State elections are over, the Union Government has finalized re-deployment of Central para-military forces tied up with the polling exercise. All the 772 Companies of the Central para-military forces spared for the poll duty are being moved to Chhattisgarh, to enable intensified counter-offensive against the Naxalites who have made the new State their latest target.  The plan is to undertake a joint offensive by the Central forces and the State police, using helicopters to para-drop the personnel into the heavily forested Naxal hideouts.  The Union Home Ministry has also decided to set up a dedicated anti-Naxal cell to coordinate intelligence, development outreaches and implementation of policies to check the rising Naxal menace, which has now enveloped 15 States.

 *                                              *                                   *                                               *

Telangana Remains Elusive

Statehood for Telangana remains elusive as ever.  Clearly, the Congress, which leads the UPA Government at the Centre and rules Andhra Pradesh, is in no hurry to oblige the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).  Nor does it seem to be keen to expedite the Pranab Mukherjee Committee report on the Statehood demand, notwithstanding frequent deadlines set by the TRS and its chief, Chandrasekhar Rao, now the Union Labour Minister. Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy too is evidently opposed to the creation of Telangana.  He maintains that the demand for a separate State was the result of the neglect by the earlier Governments. But now that his Government has launched several development programmes for the backward region, there is no need for a separate Telangana.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Andolan Agaisnt Supreme Court

The Narmada Bachao Andolan, led by Medha Patkar and supported by several NGOs and celebrities, is getting curiouser and curiouser. It has now turned its agitation against the Supreme Court’s order last week, allowing continuation of the construction of the Sardar Sarovar project across the river Narmada in Gujarat. Patkar organized a sit-in outside the Court, describing the order as “injustice” to the people displaced due to the dam – and subsequently by raising of its height.  Patkar has vowed afresh to continue her agitation.  She now accuses the Centre of making a “mockery” of the rehabilitation of the project-affected families.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 4 May 2006

Vadodara Dargah Flareup

SAUDI ARABIA SHOWS THE WAY

By Insaf

Communal frenzy in Vadodara (Baroda) in riot-prone Gujarat and clashes between fundamentalist Muslims and the authorities over the demolition of an old dargah has raised a basic question for all the States: should religious structures, which obstruct widening or decongesting of roads, be demolished in the interest of planned development and modernisation?  Most cities in India, including the Union Capital, face this problem  and find themselves helpless because of religious sensitivity. The Dargah at Vadodara, which caused the communal flareup and resulted in at least seven deaths, was neither a protected monument nor did it have any ownership title. It was thus demolished as an unauthorized structure that obstructed traffic. But Muslims have made the demolition a religious issue, despite the fact that seven or eight temples, too, were demolished.

Mercifully, the Gujarat High Court has given a secular lead in the matter by taking suo moto notice of the demolition of the Dargah.  It has firmly ruled that all illegal structures, including religious and other encroachments, should be removed forthwith.  Significantly, its approach is in keeping with the enlightened stand adopted in such matters by none other than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, home to Hazrat Mohammad and to Mecca and Madina.  During a visit to the modern Saudi capital of Riyadh, Insaf gathered that the Government of the Kingdom had adopted a practical approach for dealing with mosques and graves which came in the way of its modernization.  All such mosques were given notice to shift to other sites, provided by the Government.  Similarly, keepers of graves too were ordered to be shifted.  Bulldozers moved in wherein the deadline was not kept. No one dared to protest.

*                                               *                                               *                                   *

Massacre in Jammu

Militancy seems to be returning to J&K in its full fury.  The terrorists massacred at least 35 Hindus and injured many more in Doda and Rajouri on Monday last.  The carnage by the Pak-based Lashkar-e-Taibba is most worrisome.  More than a decade-old history of militancy in J&K shows that whenever signs of peace become visible in the State, the  militants strike with deadly vengeance. (As many as 17 massacres have taken place in the last ten years, leaving 270 Hindus dead.) This time the group was more livid than ever before,  provoked by a desire to avenge its humiliation at the hands of the J&K voters in the April 25 byelections. More than seventy per cent of the voters cast their votes, defying the militants’ call for boycotting the elections,

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s eagerly-awaited dialogue with the moderate Hurriyat group, led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, in New Delhi on Wednesday turned out to be satisfactory. The PM described the 100-minute second round of interaction as a “meeting of minds” that augured well for the future of Kashmir.  Both sides will now discuss specifics and look at out-of-the-box suggestions with a view to ensuring a lasting solution. In this regard, the Hurriyat moderates have agreed to evolve a mechanism for addressing the issue. The PM and his advisers will examine it in their next meeting. Happily, Hurriyat leaders, on their part, indicated willingness to join the PM’s Second Roundtable, scheduled at Srinagar on May 25.  They had skipped the First Roundtable.

*                                               *                                               *                                   *

Naxal Menace Continues

There is no stopping the Naxalites from their killing spree in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.  Hardly a day passes when incidents are not reported from the States which are being presently targetted by the Left-wing extremists. Over the last week-end, three major incidents of great concern took place.  On Saturday, as many as 17 tribals were massacred at Bastar in Chhattisgarh.  Simultaneously, the CPI (Maoists) looted a bank and attacked a police station in Bihar’s Vaishali district, close to Patna.  Next day, the activity moved to Andhra Pradesh, the Naxalites’ main base.  They hijacked two luxury boats on river Krishna and kidnapped about ten of the 234 holiday-makers and 35 crew members.  The Centre and the affected States keep mouthing their concern and talking about “strong measures”. Yet all the talk has so far proved to be no more than shrill rhetoric.

*                                               *                                               *                                   *

Hokishe’s Solution For Nagalim

Top Naga nationalist, Hokishe Sema has come forward with an interesting proposal to break the deadlock over the creation of Nagalim or greater Nagaland – demanded by the NSCN(IM) group, led by Isaac Swu and T. Muivah. The octogenarian leader has also shared his thoughts with the Centre’s interlocutor, Padmanabhaiah.  Sema has suggested that the Naga-dominated areas could initially be constituted into autonomous regional councils within their respective States.  Twice Chief Minister and former Governor of Himchal Pradesh, Hokishe Sema made two other points to Insaf during his visit to New Delhi. He wants Khaplang faction of the NSCN also to be involved in the talks for a durable solution. He also wants the parleys with the IM group to be held in India and not on foreign soil, a view that Nehru strongly held vis a vis the Naga rebels. He refused to meet Phizo in London since that would compromise India’s honour. Instead, he offered Phizo a safe passage to India.

*                                               *                                               *                                   *

Difficult Task For Rahul In U.P.

The Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, and her election manager, son Rahul Gandhi, are sure to sail through smoothly in the Rae Bareli byelection on Monday, May 8.  But the youthful leader faces a Herculean task in mobilising the UP Congress for next year’s Assembly polls.  All the elections during the last two years in the politically most significant State have shown that the Congress is now reduced to the position of an “also ran”. The trend in U.P. today favours ‘bipolar politics’ with the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh and the BSP of Mayawati as the front runners.  In the Assembly byelections in June last year, the Congress candidates in all the four constituencies forfeited their security deposits. This included Nehru Pariwar’s own Allahabad. The party got barely 660 of the 1,73,280 votes polled in the city’s West constituency. 

*                                               *                                               *                                   *

From free rice to free gold. That is the latest from Tamil Nadu in the bizarre poll rivalry between the two main Dravidian parties, the DMK of Karunanidhi and the ruling Anna-DMK of Jayalalitha. Initially, both played the politics of rice for the one day poll on May 8. Now, Chief Minister Jayalalitha has announced that, if voted to power, she will gift four grams of gold to every newly-married couple.  Whether this gambit will work or not is anybody’s guess. One thing alone is clear. Jayalalitha managed to get 132 of the 234 Assembly seats in 2001. She may not reach the figure this time. Remember also, her party’s humiliating defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha poll. She failed to win even one of the 40 seats.

*                                               *                                   *                                               *

Left Ahead In Kerala

With the last phase of polling ending in Kerala on Wednesday, the Left Democratic front seems to be poised for a win. This is indicated by the peaceful polling for the 15 constituencies in the Left-dominated Kannur and Kasargoda districts which went to the polls in the final phase.  In 2001, the Left had won 10 of the 15 seats in the two districts. This time the Front may score even better as suggested by the polling trend in 1842 booths which the Election Commission had declared as violence-prone and where nearly 13,000 security personnel were deployed.  Most Exit pollsters had given the Left Front the lead at the end of the first two rounds for 125 of the 140 Assembly seats.  However, top leaders of the ruling UDF have rubbished the Exit polls and claimed triumph.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 26 April 2006

Byelections in J&K

VALLEY VOTES FOR PEACE & STABILITY

By Insaf

Jammu and Kashmir has voted for peace and against terror in the crucial four byelections for the State Assembly on Monday last.  Braving the militants’ fire and a poll boycott call by them, the voters in the three constituencies in the Valley – Sangarawa, Pattan and Rafiabad – registered a whopping 61 per cent turnout. It was about 72 per cent in the fourth byelection for Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s home constituency of Bhaderwah, from where he contested an election for the first time.  According to the Chief Electoral Officer B.R. Sharma, “the polling percentage was an all-time high”.  This is seen as a clear mandate for stability and development, as also for the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process.

Chief Minister Azad can happily look forward to a cakewalk to victory at Bhaderwah.  But post-poll he may have to do some tightrope walking to survive to the State’s coalition politics, if the pre-poll developments are any indication. Undoubtedly, the ruling allies, the Congress and the PDP, were committed to campaign jointly against the National Conference. But some of the Congress leaders in the Valley openly worked for the NC candidates.  In fact, contests for the three constituencies in northern Kashmir turned out to be a battle of “turncoats”.  Two legislators sought re-election from Rafiabad and Pattan after they deserted the NC for the PDP and at Sangrama the PDP was challenged by the son of its slain Minister and a few of its legislators.

Meanwhile, trouble is slowly brewing between the Congress and the PDP, even though Mufti Sayeed honoured the agreement between the two and handed over the Chief Ministership to Ghulam Nabi Azad three months ago for the second half of the six-year tenure. The differences were clearly visible in last Monday’s byelections. No PDP leader visited Bhaderwah to campaign for Azad. That, perhaps, was not required. But in several places in the Valley the local Congress leaders did not campaign for the PDP candidates. In one place two Congress leaders brazenly shared the dais with Farooq Abdullah.

 *                                              *                                               *                           *

Left Upbeat In Kerala

At the end of the first three rounds of the five-phase Assembly poll in West Bengal, the CPM-led Left Front seems set to win power for the seventh time in succession.  What is of greater interest to the Front now is that in Kerala too the Front is upbeat and hopeful of   regaining power. At the end of the first round on April 22 for 59 seats in the 140-member Assembly, Exit pollsters predicted a clear majority for the Left Democratic Front (LDF). Election history of Kerala shows that it is these 59 constituencies in the northern and central parts of the State that usually decide who would rule the State for the next five years.  The UDF won 45 of the 59 seats in 2001.  This time the LDF expects to win at least 40 seats.

*                                    *                                               *                                      *

Polling Trend Continues In West Bengal

High turnout in the West Bengal Assembly poll is continuing. So also the Election Commission’s elaborate security arrangements. At the end of the second round of polling on April 22, the voter turnout was 74 per cent for 66 seats in Midnapur, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia. An exit poll has given a “clean sweep” for the ruling Left Front in this segment.  One pollster has given the Front 50 seats, Trinamool Congress 12 and the Congress three.  Contrary to the pollsters’ prediction, the Opposition parties have attributed the big turnout to a “silent revolution” against the ruling Front. Mamata Banerjee, on the other hand, has alleged that the CPM cadres have been rigging the poll, despite the Election Commission’s elaborate arrangements.

*                                    *                                               *                                      *

Politics Of Rice In Tamil Nadu

Politics of rice, a staple food for the Tamils, has come to dominate the campaign for the 294-Assembly poll in Tamil Nadu on May 8. It has pushed into the background any other development agenda.  The DMK of Karunanidhi, which is adopting all possible measures to regain power, was the first to make rice a major issue.   If voted to power, it promised rice through the PDS at Rs.2 per kg. The ruling AIADMK rubbished the offer as “impractical and impossible”. But its ally, DMDK offered 15 kg rice free every month to all ration card holders.  Now AIADMK and its ally MDMK of Vaiko have offered 10 kg rice free of cost in the 20 kg. quota per month.  It means 10 kg at the present rate of Rs.3.5 per kg. and the rest free of cost.  Or, Rs.35 for 20 kg, which would be cheaper than the DMK’s poll offer.

*                                    *                                               *                                      *

M.P. Bypoll Rescheduled

Madhya Pradesh’s new Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who is contesting a byelection for the State Assembly from the Budhni constituency, has been punished by the Election Commission for violating the model code of conduct.  The poll, earlier scheduled for April 24, will now be held on May 3.  The ruling BJP in the State had been charged of violating the code on the basis of a complaint by the State Congress leaders. The Commission’s representatives too had found misuse of Government machinery in the Sehore district under which the Budhni Assembly constituency falls.  The PCC Chief, Subhash Yadav and the two AICC Observers, J.P. Agarwal and Nandi Yellait, want the Commission to debar Chauhan from contesting. The Commission has, however, ordered the removal of Sehore’s Collector and its Police Chief.

*                                    *                                               *                                      *

“Mahatma” In Andhra CM

Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy of the Congress has reason to celebrate. Praise upon praise is being heaped on him by the Centre for his development programmes in the State.  The latest has come from the Union Minister of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, Mani Shankar Aiyar, who equated the Chief Minister with Mahatma Gandhi. The Union Minister gave him the title of “Mahatma” at a public function for following Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of “Gram Swaraj”. Reddy has now given more powers and financial autonomy to the gram panchayats. Meanwhile, the Centre has cleared a proposal to establish five specialized industrial clusters in the State. A corpus of Rs.950 crore for infrastructure development has been created for the clusters in various sectors for consumer goods production.

*                                    *                                               *                                      *

Nitish’s Alert To Centre

Bihar and its capital Patna are equally, if not more, concerned than New Delhi about the developments in Nepal.  Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has written to the Ministry of External Affairs to formally request the Nepal Government to deploy adequate security forces around the Kosi barrage in Nepal in view of the blast threat to it by the Moists of Nepal last week.  The State Government has informed the Centre that at present it is totally unprotected and if it is damaged at least half-a-dozen neighbouring districts in Bihar would be badly affected.  The Centre, on its part, has put the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on high alert along the Nepal border in West Bengal, Bihar, UP and Uttaranchal. Hundreds of Nepali families have already crossed over to the Indian side and many more are on the way.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 19 April 2006

Left Upbeat In West Bengal

APEX COURT AVERTS NARMADA CRISIS

By Insaf

Political developments regarding Sardar Sarovar dam across the Narmada in Gujarat, triggered by Medha  Patkar’s prolonged fast in New Delhi, stole the headlines from  the eagerly-awaited first-phase of the poll in West Bengal on Monday last, and the ongoing process in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry.  With the Centre, Patkar and the concerned States, mainly Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, failing to resolve the prolonged dispute, the Supreme Court stepped in to avert the crisis, at least for the time being.  Its interim order on Monday rejected the Narmada Andolan’s demand against raising the height of the dam from 110 metres to 121.9 metres but, at the same time, directed the Centre and the concerned States to ensure proper rehabilitation of the oustees. 

The States have been asked by the three-Judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, to submit a status report within a week and ensure adequate rehabilitation before the next hearing on May 1.  If that does not happen, the Court will stop work on raising the height of the dam. The “please all” direction of the Supreme Court led both  Patkar and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi too break their fasts, each viewing the Court’s order as “victory” for their respective demands. But the controversy about raising the dam height, has not yet been resolved. The issue, if handled properly, is simple: Proper rehabilitation of thousands of persons displaced by the project which, on completion, would benefit millions of people in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Undoubtedly, the dam with its raised height, already cleared by the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) and okayed by the Supreme Court in 2000, subject to completion of the rehabilitation work, would create a 213-mile reservoir which will submerge 91,000 acres in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Thousands of oustees, mostly tribals, who live in 53 villages in Madhya Pradesh, 33 in Maharashtra and 14 in Gujarat will need to be resettled. So also non-tribal oustees in 140 villages of Madhya Pradesh. All the three States are committed to providing adequate compensations. Yet the three-member Group of Central Ministers (GOM), headed by Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz, found the plans “only on paper”. This has encouraged the Prime Minister, as he told Insaf, to set up a Rehabilitation and Development Commission at the Centre.

*                                       *                                               *                                   *

Peaceful First Phase In W. Bengal

The first round of the five-phase Assembly poll in West Bengal went off peacefully on Monday last in 45 of the 294 constituencies of the State’s three most strife-torn  districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. The region is dominated by the CPI (Maoists) who had declared a poll boycott. But the voters defied the call, recording a whopping turnout of over 70 per cent.  Some booths recorded 95 per cent polling, thanks to the provision of unprecedented security.  Two helicopters conducted aerial surveillance, especially in the insurgency-hit areas bordering Jharkhand and Bihar. In most of the 7,700 booths, about 3,000 digital cameras were installed and 82 general observers and ten “expenses observers” were deployed. K.J. Rao, erstwhile EC observer for West Bengal and now covering the polls for a TV channel, expects the poll to be the “fairest”.

The ruling Left Front has, however, kept up its attack on the Election Commission. The CPM State Secretary Biman Bose has now accused the Commission of having kept the State’s administration “inactive”. Nevertheless, the Left Front is upbeat at the end of the first round. Competent Exit Pollsters give it 35 to 40 of the 45 seats for which the election was held on Monday.  Biman Bose expects the Front to win more than 39 seats, which it bagged in 2001.  Exit poll projections and Left Front expectations do not, however, indicate the same success for the Front in the next four rounds on April 22, 27, May 3 and 5. The three districts that have polled already are known to be Left-dominated .

*                                    *                                               *                                   *

Big Names On Jaya’s Side

In Tamil Nadu where the one-day Assembly poll is scheduled for May 8, Chief Minister Jayalalitha and her AIADMK seem to be inching forward in the race for power. Some of the known firebrand Dravidian leaders have declared their backing for her party. After pulling the MDMK supremo Vaiko into her party, the Chief Minister has now worked out a poll understanding with some leading film stars of the South, including Vijaykanth. She has also reportedly won over the DMK Rajya Sabha member, Sarath Kumar. Despite this set-back, the DMK Chief and former Chief Minister Karunanidhi is confident of regaining power in the State.  In his hectic poll campaign across the State, he has claimed a “wave” in the DMK’s favour.

*                                    *                                               *                                   *

Kerala’s New Hero

In Kerala, where the first of the three-phase Assembly poll is to be held today April 22, (second and third phases are scheduled for April 29 and May 3) it is a close race between the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), led by the Congress and the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).  At one stage, the State CPM stood divided when the Central leadership denied the party veteran V.S. Achuthanandan a ticket. But the situation has changed now that the 82-year-old leader has not only been given a ticket but also virtually projected as the party’s next Chief Minister. Popularly known as “VS”, Achuthanandan has been drawing huge crowds, giving the LDF hope of regaining power, in line with the trend of State politics wherein the UDF and the LDF invariably  get voted to power alternately.

*                                      *                                               *                                   *

Advantage Sonia in Bypoll

The BJP and other Opposition parties are increasingly critical of the Election Commission’s decision to hold the Lok Sabha byelection for Rae Bareli at a record-breaking speed. This, they complain, has loaded the dice in favour of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who resigned from the seat on March 23 in the wake of the office-for-profit controversy.  The byelection is due to be held on May 8 for which Sonia Gandhi has already filed her nomination on Monday. But the terrible rush for holding the byelection has created a problem for the Opposition, which has been given little time to groom suitable candidates and plan its strategy and tactics. Byelections to the Lok Sabha have normally taken months after the seats have fallen vacant. Interestingly, the Election Commission has yet to announce a date for the Rajya Sabha in the seat vacated by Jaya Bachchan earlier.

*                                    *                                               *                                   *

N.D. Tiwari Stays As CM

Uttaranchal is breathing easy once more. Its Chief Minister Narain Dutt Tiwari, “is there to stay” and there is no question of replacing the veteran leader for the time being.  Tiwari’s replacement has been talked about several times before too, but the move was taken seriously this time when the CM himself publicly announced a desire to relinquish office. The ball is now in the High Command’s court, especially since the CM feels exasperated by the New Delhi-encouraged dissidence in the State party. He now awaits a meeting with the Congress President before taking any further step. He will continue only if he has her full confidence and the dissidents are shown their place.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)