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Courageous Voters: NAXAL-HIT STATES SHOW WAY, By Insaf, 18 April, 2014 Print E-mail

Round The States

New Delhi, 18 April 2014

Courageous Voters

NAXAL-HIT STATES SHOW WAY

By Insaf

Winds of change continue to blow in Naxal-affected States of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh this season. In the fifth and their second phase of polling on Thursday last, the voters here once again said a big boo to the Maoists call to boycott the elections. Importantly, the electorate has put to shame Karnataka’s city voters of Bangalore, which recorded a low voter turnout in all three constituencies—Central, South, 55 per cent each and North, 52 per cent. As against this, Jharkhand registered 62 per cent polling with 106 candidates in the fray in six constituencies, which have a significant presence of Maoists. Chhattisgarh too had a record 67 per cent voter turnout for three seats, one of which has Chief Minister Raman Singh’s son making his political debut from Rajnandgaon.

This apart, polling was thankfully by and large peaceful, barring stray incidents of attacks by the guerillas on police personnel, including blowing up a railway track and a school building. Fortunately, there was no casualty reported. However, there was a slight dampner to the voters’ spirit in Odisha’s Maoist-dominated Malkangiri region. The electorate did yield to the boycott call issued and steered clear of the repoll ordered in nine booths after EVMs had been snatched in the first phase. Nevertheless, Bihar gave renewed hope with the Maoists writ finding few takers as the voter turnout in the seven seats recorded a big jump from 39.3 per cent to 56 per cent. Fingers needn’t be crossed for the next phase, as the trend is here to stay. It gains further ground, as far away Jammu and Kashmir too offered a refreshing surprise. Udhampur, as per EC records showed a huge jump in voter turnout –from 45.12 per cent in 2009 to 69.08 per cent. To top it, it was absolutely peaceful. There can be no two opinions that Indian Democracy is indeed shining.

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UP Breather for BJP

The BJP’s election campaign team has got a breather in Uttar Pradesh. The Election Commission opted to give the party in-charge Amit Shah a second chance and allowed him to resume campaigning in the State with the highest stakes. This follows Shah’s admission that he may have used the wrong expressions and gave an undertaking that he would neither use derogatory or abusive language nor will he indulge in any act that would construe a violation of the model code of conduct. The EC, however, is not taking his word for it and warned that every public meeting of his would be under close scrutiny, including videography. On the other hand, the poll panel has not been magnanimous with Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan, who too was barred from campaigning last week. Rather, it continues to be peeved with Shah for not admitting code violation in his reply and worse lashing out at it as being dictatorial, denying him natural justice! Besides, the SP Chief Mulayam Singh too challenged the order saying the EC should have tested political waters. How the party intends to make the EC change its mind, is definitely worth a watch.

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Saffron In Tamil Nadu?

Is Tamil Nadu giving the BJP hope that it can do the impossible—make inroads into the southern State? Both the ruling AIADMK and rival DMK may well have given reason to look forward to it. While the power shortage issue has started haunting Chief Minister Jayalalitha of playing spoilsport, for the DMK dismissal of M K Alagiri may prove to too costly. The estranged son of patriarch M Karunanidhi is indeed spitting anger at the party and asking the voters to ensure that the party comes at the bottom of the list. Further, he claims that his father is the slave of younger brother Stalin and that the candidates were his loyalists. The party, routed in the 2011 Assembly elections can ill-afford such dissidence, more so as Alagiri was its face in south Tamil Nadu. Add to the parties woes, is Narendra Modi’s all-out campaigning in the State. This is borne by the fact that both Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi have trained their guns at Modi and his Gujarat model of development rather than attack each other, which the voter was quite attuned to. With less than a week to go for polling, all eyes are how the southern satraps meet the growing challenge.     

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Delhi Assembly Polls?

Delhi particularly waits with bated breath for Lok Sabha election results. Like the rest of the country, while it too is curious who shall form the Government at the Centre, it has a vested interest. The new incumbent would clearly influence the key political parties, Congress, BJP and AAP, whether to up the ante for fresh Assembly elections or go along with revival of the Assembly. As of now the Supreme Court has stated that Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung was not bound by any time limit to revisit the February presidential proclamation placing the Assembly under suspended animation. While Article 356 of the Constitution provides President's rule in the States for six months, the same under section 50(1) of the Delhi Act can go up to one year and Jung can take a call either ways. The apex court’s clarification on Thursday last follows a petition by AAP challenging the Lt Governor’s decision not to dissolve the Assembly as recommended by its government. With counting to begin on May 16, which way Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats go will provide the parties their reasons for preparing the voters afresh or not.        

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Maharashtrian EVM Hitch!

Maharashtra could well have the Election Commission going pink with embarrassment. Much to their horror, a number of voters in a booth each in Sindhugarg district and Pune found their vote was going in the wrong direction. Whichever button was pressed, they noticed that only the light on the Congress’ hand symbol blinked! Foul play would be an instant thought but election officers present sought to calm tempers saying the EVMs were faulty and scrambled to make arrangements to replace these. But not before the peeved voters boycotted the polling for three hours. With pressure from party agents and voters, the EC compensated the time wasted in acquiring a new EVM. It extended voting deadline by three hours in Singhudurg and an-hour-and-a-half in Pune booths and allowed fresh voting to those who had already cast their votes. With four more phases to go across the country, the EC should adhere to the idiom once bitten, twice shy. ---INFA

 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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