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)
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