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PM Summons Naxal-Hit CMs:CONGRESS MAY RETAIN POWER IN ASSAM, by Insaf,11 April 2006 Print E-mail

ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 11 April 2006

PM Summons Naxal-Hit CMs

CONGRESS MAY RETAIN POWER IN ASSAM

By Insaf

All eyes are now on Assam and the outcome of the crucial Assembly poll which ended on Monday last, even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has upped the ante on mounting Naxalite violence. On return from his hectic campaign in Assam, the PM promptly reviewed the rebel situation with his advisers in the PMO and the Ministries of Home and Defence and held a top level meeting of the Chief Ministers of the Naxal-affected States on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Congress at the Centre, and its Chief Minister in Assam, Tarun Gogoi, are keeping their fingers crossed about the poll result.  This will be known only on May 11 when counting will be held after the elections in all the four States are over.  Expert Exit pollsters, no doubt, predict a hung Assembly in the State.  Nevertheless, they also feel that the Congress has a fair chance of forming the Government.

These pollsters give the Congress anywhere between 52 and 60 seats in the 126-member Assembly.  The AGP is expected to bag no more than 25 to 30 seats and the BJP 10 to 15. (Both could have done better had they chosen to join hands.)  Importantly, the Assam United Democratic Front, founded by the perfume Baron, Badruddin Ajmal, may end up holding the key to the final outcome.  It fielded 37 candidates in constituencies wherein the Muslims constitute a clear majority or near-majority. Tarun Gogoi has gone on record to assert that he will have no difficulty in forming a Government, if necessary with the help of the “others” whose number could go up to 35.  Credence is being given to the exit pollsters as they proved dead right in predicting the outcome of the Bihar Assembly poll and in naming Nitish Kumar as the winner!

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Impressive Voter Turnout

Meanwhile, the voters in Assam deserve three cheers for their turnout on the second and concluding part of the polling, which was as impressive as on the first day. They refused to be deterred by rain in the first half of the day or by ethnic violence and the call for poll boycott by KLNLF (Karbi Longri North Cachar Liberation Front) in some hilly areas of lower Assam.  The day was also marked by sharp clashes between the Congress workers and those of the AGP, the main Opposition, in the riverine Goalpara and Bilaspara and Bongaigaon and Barpeta districts.  Nevertheless, the voter turnout was more than 70 per cent of the 82.27 per cent voters in the villages.  Happily, the decision of the Karbi Anglong rebels to give up insurgency and instead plump for a separate State helped. It even put up some candidates.

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PM For Tough Measures

The recent spurt in Naxalite violence in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal, where the five-phase Assembly poll starts on April 17, prompted the Prime Minister himself to call the Chief Ministers to New Delhi on Thursday last for top-level consultations.  The concerned Chief Ministers were urged to take tough measures to deal with the increasing Naxal violence.  In fact, the PM suggested that the 12 CMs of the Naxal-infested States should constitute a “dedicated force” to fight the menace.  This force could be on the lines of the “Grey Hound” commandos on Andhra Pradesh for exclusive use against the Naxalites.

In fact, India is under increasing siege from within, as Insaf has been warning time and again. What is more, the Naxalite menace is threatening to get out of control. According to authoritative estimates, there are at present about 10,000 underground Naxals across the country, equipped with sophisticated weapons.  They are supported by about 45,000 overground cadres, drawn mostly from the tribal areas. Their operation is now beginning to target the hilly State of Uttaranchal also. The Left-wing organizations in the State, which has old Left links, are mushrooming in at least three districts of Pithoragarh, Udham Singh Nagar and Champawat, which share a border with Nepal.  An unhindered influx of Nepalese into these districts is seen as a potential time bomb.  

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Enemy Within In Tamil Nadu Congress

The worst enemy of the Congress at election time is the Congress itself.  This is holding good once again prior to the Assembly poll in Tamil Nadu on May 8.  Widespread protests by several State leaders seeking party tickets followed the choice of candidates for 48 seats which the DMK has left for the Congress. With key faction leaders and Union Ministers from the State Congress carting away bulk of the seats for their respective supporters, long-time aspirants and deserving candidates have been deprived of tickets. A delegation of more than a dozen aspirants jostled PCC Chief Krishnaswamy, demanding to know why only the Congress Union Ministers from the State – Chidambaram, Vasan and Elangovan – were allowed to take care of their followers. Threats of rebels putting up candidates face the Congress in a dozen seats.

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Poll Scene In Pondicherry

The ruling Congress in Pondicherry, which is presently comfortably placed in the Union Territory with 16 MLAs in the 30-member Assembly, has accommodated its other alliance partners in the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA).  It has left eleven seats for the DMK, two for the PMK and one to the CPI.  The DMK supremo, Karunanidhi, who has declared himself as the Chief Ministerial candidate for Tamil Nadu, had earlier demanded 12 seats  from the Congress in Pondicherry in exchange for  48 seats in Tamil Nadu.  Karunanidhi has now got his way even though his party has only seven seats in the Assembly.  But the task for the Congress and the other DMK-led allies seems difficult, as Jayalalitha’s AIADMK which had supported the Congress in 2001, is contesting this time with its own allies: MDMK of Vaiko, Dalit Panthers and the PMC.

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PM Praises Hooda’s Policies

Haryana’s Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has reason to feel elated. The performance of his Government at the end of one year in office has been widely appreciated, especially by those who matter most: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior Congress leaders at the Centre and in the State.  Manmohan Singh openly heaped praise on Hooda at a public meeting at Panipat last week and, appreciated his multi-pronged approach in an effort to transform Haryana into the country’s Number One State.  This includes blending agriculture and industrialization. Hooda has reportedly got assurance from the PM for early clearance and assistance for several development projects, including the establishment of an atomic power station in Haryana, setting up of a medical college and construction of dams over the Yamuna.

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Rajasthan Bans Conversions

Vasundhara Raje, BJP’s energetic Chief Minister in Rajasthan, has added another feather to her saffron cap. She has implemented another of the BJP’s basic policies by banning religious conversions through “use of force, allurement and fraudulent means”. She got the State Assembly to pass the Rajasthan Dharam Swatantrya Bill, 2006, last week in the face of stiff opposition from the Congress.  Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has been under mounting pressure for long for such a legislation to stop increasing cases of “forced conversions” by some Christian missionaries. The Bishnoi community of Kota, ‘greatly hurt by the practice’, virtually spearheaded the battle against conversions. The Bill provides for jail upto five years and a fine of Rs.50,000 for the offenders.  No punishment is, however, provided for “reconversion into the religion of one’s ancestors.” ---INFA

  (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)



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