Round The States

New Delhi, 10 March 2011

Tamil Nadu Spat

Congress Wins First Round

By Insaf

All is well in Tamil Nadu. After four days of prolonged suspense and tension in Chennai and Delhi, the Congress and DMK have kissed and made up. Thereby, saving their seven-year-old ties. When push came to shove, the DMK agreed to give 63 seats to its ally for the Assembly polls next month. The turn around came after Congress President Sonia made plain her displeasure to the Southern satrap for not adhering to the “coalition dharma.” An angry Sonia asserted that she was willing to let the UPA Government fall to save her Party’s prestige. It is no secret that the alliance had come to breaking point on ‘extra political issues,’ read the CBI quizzing DMK Chief Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhy and her mother in the 2G Spectrum. Thus taking the scandal right to the Chief Minister’s door step and making things difficult for the First Family on the eve of elections. The Congress brusquely asserted that as the Supreme Court was monitoring the case the Government could not intervene or influence the probe. There was nothing it could do, was the stern message.

Post the drama on seat sharing, the focus has now shifted to two other thorny issues. One, identifying constituencies the two Parties will contest for the forthcoming elections. The DMK is prepared to let Congress retain the 48 constituencies it contested in 2006 polls but has made clear that negotiations would decide the other 15 constituencies. Two, Karunanidhi has to take a call on the Congress’ demand for a pre-poll agreement for power-sharing in the event the alliance returns to power.  This is causing the DMK Chief much discomfort. Importantly, it is clear that neither the DMK nor the Congress want to go to polls alone as the biggest beneficiary of that would be rival Jayalalitha’s AIADMK. Amidst the poll headache, Karunanidhi has to settle the internal wrangling between his family members for cornering maximum seats for their respective supporters. Will this alliance sound the victory bugle remains to be seen?

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Congress Headache in West Bengal

The Congress may have posted a victory in Tamil Nadu, but in West Bengal it may not strike gold. The Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee, a hard nut to crack, has bluntly told her ally that she won't offer more than 58 seats as against 98 demanded by the Congress in the 294-seat Assembly. While the Congress is trying to hard-sell the line that if it decides to ekla chalo, in a three-way vote split, the Trinamool has more to lose given that it has become the symbol of all anti-CPM forces. On the other hand, Mamata believes that the Congress ploy is to ensure that her Party does not form the Government alone and should be dependent on it. The Trinamool reckons that the Congress could win around 25 seats only. In the last Assembly polls the Congress had contested alone and won a mere 19 seats. Adding to the Party’s troubles, there is a tussle between its local units with 19 administrative and five organizational districts demanding a maximum quota. What next?

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No Cakewalk In Kerala

In Kerala too, while the Congress, heading the United Democratic Front, has sewed up its alliance with its Indian Union Muslim League on seat-sharing and the Communist Marxist Party, the Kerala Congress-Mani and the Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy is proving to be troublesome for the 140 Assembly constituencies. The Congress-Mani wants 22 seats after its merger with the PJ Joseph faction and the JSS nothing short of five seats. Also, its arch rival the Left Democratic Front is sailing in the same boat. The CPI is demanding at least 30 seats from its lead partner, the CPM. Meanwhile, the CPM has still to decide on the vital question on fielding Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan for the contest. It remains to be seen who will untie these knots?

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EC Diktat For Candidates

In the five poll-bound States candidates not only have to grapple with their rivals but the Election Commission as well. Following the Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi’s decision to set up call centres in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry. To be operated round the clock, these centres will receive complaints about  violations of the model code of conduct by candidates and their supporters. In another unique initiative, the EC plans to put up cameras at polling booths in remote constituencies and broadcast the polling process to the State Chief Election Officer's office to ensure that the process goes on smoothly.  It would also record election meetings of all parties and candidates to be watched by the poll monitoring committees. This is not all. Media exposes will be treated as formal complaints and necessary action taken. Towards that end, district level media watch committees would be set up to monitor the phenomenon of paid news. The poll battle gets tougher!

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Millions March For Telengana

The bugle for the creation of Telengana State just became louder. Whereby Andhra’s Capital Hyderabad was paralysed thanks to the Millions March called by the pro-Telengana groups including the TRS, TDP, BJP, CPI and CPI-ML on Thursday last. They sought introduction of a Bill on the formation of a separate State in the ongoing Parliament session. Notwithstanding, that the pro-Telengana leadership was placed under preventive arrest, Section 144 CRPC imposed in Hyderabad and about 120 police check posts set up, the march threw normal life out of gear. Worse, in nine other districts too trouble arose over the delay in the formation of Telengana. Last week too, Andhra MPs cutting across Party lines had upped the ante in both Houses of Parliament leading to its adjournment. Clearly, the Centre cannot soft peddle the issue for long.

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Delhi Gets Going on “Aadhar”

Kudos to the Delhi Government for commencing work on bringing the entire city under the “Aadhar” project wherein every person will be enrolled and issued a Unique Identification Number (UID). The State intends completing the UID enrolment exercise by October. Already, it has garnered information in regard to the 8.77 lakh BPL (below poverty line) families and other vulnerable categories. Once these data are in place the Government plans to prepare grounds for the linkage of LPG subsidy to these families. Significantly, the foolproof UID will not only provide definite identification for an individual but also enable the person access to various financial benefits. Finally, one can say good riddance to multiple identities and duplication at the time of accessing the benefits of social schemes.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)