Curtains go up on high-stakes, high-voltage assembly elections in 5 states - K Balakrishnan, LensOnNews
With the acrimonious Lokpal issue fading away in the dying days of 2011, the curtains go up in the New Year on what will surely count as among the most closely fought and closely watched set of assembly elections in the nation’s history.
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Akhilesh rejigs the Mulayam baton - Nistula Hebbar, Financial Express
It is by now well-established that the Samajwadi Party has affected its very own generational shift, well in time for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Instead of ‘Netaji’ Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son Akhilesh Yadav is the face of the party’s campaign through his Kranti (revolution) Yatra. That Akhilesh is more than just a face for his party became evident last week when he blocked the entry of Yadav strongman DP Yadav into the Samajwadi Party. Yadav is the father of Vikas Yadav who had been convicted in the Nitish Katara murder case.
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India Inc donates to both Congress & BJP - Naren Karunakaran, Economic Times
The Aditya Birla Group increased its contribution to political parties about fourfold to Rs 30.5 crore in 2009-10 while the Bharti Group cut it from Rs 17 crore to zero. The two main national parties, Congress and BJP, received Rs 84 crore and Rs 82 crore, respectively, as contribution from all sources while a regional party like Sharad Pawar's NCP obtained only Rs 3 crore.
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Voting for the 10th Assembly Bizarre Bazar Character - Sangai Express
In 20 days time Manipur would have sealed her fate, at least for the next five years, and in the process would have paved the way open for the 10th Assembly to take shape and usher in a new Government. Whether the same bunch will come back or not is a different matter, but the important point is whether the people, at least the bonafide voters, are keen to redefine the hitherto understanding of the election and take it beyond the realm of the ‘bazar’ where votes are cast on the basis of money being offered per voter or the feasts that candidates host.
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Will Uttar Pradesh fall back on ties that bind? - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
With a wave missing in favour of any major party ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections, the spectre of a hung Assembly looms large. It indicates that the next political dispensation would be the outcome of post-poll arrangement. Commenting on the scenario, Giri Institute of Development Studies Fellow Namita P Kumar said, “No clear winner is visible at this stage. While Mayawati’s tenure failed to spark the confidence of retaining power, the Opposition is fragmented. The only possibility then seems to be a hung Assembly, leaving ample space for horse-trading in the aftermath of election.”
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Parties gain-loss game begins - Tavishi Srivastava, Pioneer
When high-flying protégés desert political godfathers, both maintain they have had enough of one another. But soon the search begins for finding suitable replacements in the parent parties. Ironically, while some prodigals are compelled to return home, others have to begin their political careers from a scratch. The association of Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh and his confidante Anuradha Choudhary spanned for nearly 16 years. However, it took barely a few minutes for them to snap their ties following RLD-Congress pact which pitchforked Ajit Singh as a Union Minister.
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Sighting elephant statues is harmful to voters’ health! - Pioneer
The Election Commission has decided to issue a notification asking for the numerous elephant statues and also the statues of Chief Minister Mayawati to be covered as part of the election code in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. This is straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Does the EC really think those statues will affect the outcome of the election? Does the EC really believe that the electorate is that stupid and brainless as to be affected by the presence of statues of a few leaders? Are statues the only reason why people vote?
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UP poll surveys: same pollster, different outcomes - Hoot
AC Nielson carried a survey regarding the popularity of political parties which gave a verdict in favor of the BJP, claiming that if Lok Sabha elections were to be held now it would bag 31 percent of the votes, as compared to 21 percent for the Congress. AC Nielson is the company which is known as the master of both TRPs (television rating points) as well as political surveys/polls. Master of TRPs as it controls the ultimate TV rating measurement authority “TAM” and master of political surveys/polls as it is the prime recipient of poll tenders from news channels. Thus, news channels continue to give poll tenders to a company which regulates their fate in form of valuable TRPs.
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The BJP's own goal - Hindu
Within the space of a week the Bharatiya Janata Party admitted into the party and dropped dismissed Bahujan Samaj Party Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha. Mr. Kushwaha, an accused in the alleged multi-crore Uttar Pradesh health scam, made a show of resigning from the BJP's primary membership, an offer party chief Nitin Gadkari only too readily grabbed. But the setback of an own goal at this stage of the game is not so easily overcome. Indeed, the Kushwaha fiasco came at a time when the BJP had just about recovered from l'affaire Yeddyurappa and had gained a measure of credibility with its Lokpal campaign.
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Badal vs Badal, Singh vs Singh - Sukhdeep Kaur, Indian Express
It all started with the ruling Badal family. Manpreet Badal parted ways with uncle and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to launch his own political outfit, the People’s Party of Punjab. While the stated reason was the “over-dominance” of cousin and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, Manpreet’s father Gurdas Badal said the falling-out happened after an astrologer advised Sukhbir to throw Manpreet out if he wanted his dreams to become the chief minister to come true.
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BSP rewinds to 2007, plays social engineering card - M Hasan, Hindustan Times
The UP election is turning out to be a war to grab the support of major castes.
Playing the caste card again, the BSP has been desperately trying to retain its Dalit base, which, along with other castes, had brought it to power in 2007. A move is also afoot to ward off anti-incumbency by utilising caste combinations in next month's election. That caste dynamics is the key to CM and BSP head Mayawati's electoral gameplan has been evidenced in the manner tickets had been distributed. Even before the announcement of the elections, the party had been carrying out its Dalit agenda by repeatedly directing officials to complete projects meant for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
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Numbers don’t lie - Vivek Gumaste, Hindustan Times
With assembly polls around the corner in Uttar Pradesh, the rush to dole out goodies by political parties to Muslims has turned into a free-for-all stampede. First it was Rahul Gandhi dangling the carrot of reservations for the community. Then Mayawati’s proposed their inclusion in an expanded OBC quota. To invest credibility to their assertions, protagonists of reservation flaunt what they claim to be the gospel of truth — the Ranganath Misra Commission report. But has anyone — politicians or the media — really read it? The answer is a resounding ‘no’.
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UP, up and away - Seema Chishti, Indian Express
The importance of Uttar Pradesh, which is still the largest state in terms of parliamentary constituencies — 80 out of 543 — and which has over 400 assembly constituencies, cannot be overstated. Intricate, four-cornered contests and very aware voters make UP a pollster’s nightmare. However, a few things seem to be getting clearer this time, going by the BJP’s drastic reaction to criticism over the induction of ex-BSP minister Babu Singh Khushwaha (implicated in a health scam), and the storm in the SP over the prospect of a ticket for D.P. Yadav. These suggest that political players are keen to shake off incumbency and baggage, especially of an entire political culture that made musclemen or bahubali central to election strategies.
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Big Sister - Sanjay Kumar, Indian Express
There are no prizes for guessing why Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has been blowing hot and cold with its alliance partner, the Congress, ever since the alliance came to the helm in West Bengal. Banerjee is clearly trying to tell her supporters that she is not only opposed to the Left Front, but also to what she calls the anti-poor policies of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
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Uttar Pradesh's wilting lotus of new millennium - Devesh Kumar, Economic Times
BJP, which lorded over Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s, riding on a Hindutva wave generated by the Ayodhya temple movement, has been on a downward spiral since it lost power in the state in 2002. BJP won 51 seats in a 403-member House, in 2007, securing 16.97% votes. Its fortunes were marginally better in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, securing 17.50% votes. Nevertheless, with Congress winning more seats, BJP was pushed to the fourth spot. BJP is not confident enough to believe that it will be able to arrest its slide in this election.
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Samajwadi Party, Congress & BJP try to take a leaf out of Nitish Kumar’s book - Ullekh NP, ET
Only the naive would believe Nitish Kumar secured Bihar by keeping caste away from politics. He successfully wooed politically insignificant lower caste groups to ensure that Lalu Prasad, his friend-turned-rival, was no longer the Backward Class poster boy in the state. It has taken a while for his strategy - tested with precision in 2005, as well as in 2010, - to gain the endorsement of other practitioners of caste politics. Clearly, in the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, it appears, almost all parties want to do a Nitish Kumar.
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SP on a strong wicket - Devesh Kumar, Economic Times
Despite winning less than 100 seats in the 2007 UP assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party managed to secure 25.43% of the voteshare. Its candidates kept the party flag flying in the central districts Etawah, Mainpuri, Unnao and Kanauj, and in Lakhimpuri of Rohillakhand region - areas which have over the years turned into SP strongholds. Within two years, SP made a comeback, emerging the largest player in the 2009 general elections, bagging 22 Lok Sabha seats. Its candidates surged past political rivals in 118 assembly segments, though in terms of voting percentage, BSP remained number 1, polling 27.52% votes.
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Farmers ready to pay market rates for power, demand reliable supply - Madhvi Sally & Sutanuka Ghosal, Economic Times
Agrarian distress and growing awareness among farmers, tired of poll-time rhetoric and freebies, may make it tougher for political parties to woo this large electorate with worn-out promises in the upcoming assembly polls. Ahead of elections in five states, including in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous and politically-critical state, many farmers say they are ready to pay market rates for power and other inputs provided there is reliable supply.
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Manpreet entry adds triangular edge - Prabhjit Singh, Hindustan Times
The People's Party of Punjab (PPP), less than a year old, is eyeing a key role in government formation in case the January 30 elections throw up a hung assembly. The party led by Manpreet Singh Badal, a rebel from the ruling Badal clan, is likely to force triangular contests in at least 10 seats. The party has so far declared candidates for 94 of the 117 seats in Punjab. The 1997, 2002 and 2007 assembly elections had witnessed straight contests between the Akali-BJP combine and the Congress.
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India TV Survey Predicts BSP As Single Largest Party In UP, Win For Congress In Punjab, Uttarakhand - India TV
In its pre-poll survey conducted in three poll-bound states, India TV-Amar Ujala C-Voters Survey has projected UP chief minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party as the single largest party in the Assembly elections, while predicting easy wins for Congress in Punjab and Uttarakhand . The results of the pre-poll survey were telecast tonight by India TV in its primetime programme. The methodology, according to C-Voters, takes a base of 14,241 voters in Uttar Pradesh, 2,280 voters in Punjab, and 3,685 voters in Uttarakhand.
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Race for Punjab: It’s anybody’s game - Raghvendra Rao, Indian Express
Historically, ever since it was reorganised in 1966, Punjab has always voted against an incumbent government. Going by that record, the Congress is smelling blood in the forthcoming Assembly polls in the state. But it is probably for the first time ever in decades that the incumbent government — the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine in this case — is eyeing to achieve something unprecedented: a consecutive second shot at power. With less than three weeks to go for the polls, the 117-seat Punjab Vidhan Sabha could be anybody’s game. Here’s the lowdown on why it is turning out to be a never-before contest in Punjab.
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My last battle, says Captain - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
This could well be the last time that the Maharaja of Patiala will be leading the Congress in an electoral battle in Punjab. State party president and former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, at 70, says the time to quit is not too far though he remains as fit and active as ever. “I will be 74-75 years old by the time I end my tenure,” Singh (very confident of Congress returning to power) told The Pioneer in an interview at his house in Sector 10, overlooking the picturesque Leisure Valley in Chandigarh. “This (politics) is not my bread and butter. I am only there for the people of the state and the party,” he added.
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Obnoxious minorityism - Pioneer
As the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Mr Salman Khurshid cannot be ignorant of the provisions of the Election Code that are currently in force. The code unequivocally bars political parties and politicians from seeking votes by appealing to identity sentiments that revolve around caste and community or pander to communal demands. Yet, Mr Khurshid has done just that and blatantly flouted the guidelines by promising at an election meeting in support of his wife, who is a Congress candidate from the Farrukhabad Assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh, a nine per cent quota for Muslims to be carved from within the 27 per cent reservation that presently exists for the Other Backward Classes in Government jobs and educational institutions.
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Rahul, Modi to be star campaigners - Bhagwan Parab, Asian Age
Assembly polls maybe round the corner in five states in the country, but the BMC general elections still holds special significance for political parties. In fact, star campaigners Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi are expected to campaign for Congress and the BJP respectively in the BMC polls. Despite the fact that the leaders are busy campaigning for the polls in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, they are expected to make time to campaign for the BMC polls to be held on February 16.
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Poll cauldron ready, Backwards to churn winning broth - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
Important ingredients in the caste cauldron - the Backwards and the Most Backward Castes are set to play pivotal role in the Assembly polls. With an eye on maximising eletoral booty, the BJP, BSP and Congress have rummaged through their cupboards pitchforking their backward leaders and showcase them. Caste engineering is being fine-tuned in a way to project MBCs like Kori, Kahar, Kewat, Kumhar, Gaderia, Teli, Nat, Lohar and others – who have failed to reap the harvest of reservation unlike the ‘empowered OBCs’ like Yadavs, Jats and Lodhs.
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Limited by delimitation - Sanjay Singh, Indian Express
Apart from the tight contest at the hustings, top Uttar Pradesh politicians are facing another challenge: the delimitation exercise has left them with constituencies with changed geography and demography. Around 90 of the old Assembly seats no longer exist while about 126 constituencies have been either reconstituted or are now known by new names; many general seats have now been reserved, and vice-versa. UP has a total of 403 Assembly seats.
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RIL-Network18 deal signal consolidation in media - Anita Sharan and Rachit Vats, Hindustan Times
Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL) complex two-way deal with Network18 might well be the first among many such transactions in the Rs 32,000 crore broadcasting industry, where a few large players are jostling with hundreds of regional broadcasters for eyeballs. Analysts tracking the sector feel that bleeding balance sheets could force many small and marginal media firms to cash out to larger conglomerates. Large players are looking for a foothold in media, which has the potential to return rich yields given the promise of digitised content delivery on mobile handsets and other platforms.
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Two UP poll surveys, differing results, both a waste of money - Anant Rangaswami, First Post
Thanks to the lack of homogeneity and the sheer number of voters in India, poll predictions have always been a difficult task. So when two research agencies poll the same state during the same time and arrive at two different predictions, it’s not very surprising. One will be closer to being correct and the other will be further from it and that brings us to the moot question – why conduct these polls at all, when the chances of being embarrassingly off-target are so high as far as the research companies are concerned?
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Poll aftermath in UP Samajwadi-Congress vs BSP-BJP - Amulya Ganguli, Statesman
The UP elections may prove to be full of meaning for people other than the winners and losers. Even those who are not a part of the poll scene, such as Anna Hazare, are likely to be affected. The latter has been making a series of blunders recently, suggesting that a local leader like him, who cannot even be considered a major figure in his home state of Maharashtra, has over-reached himself by playing a role at the national level. As a result, he has now shown himself to be completely out of his depth. It isn’t only that his anti-corruption rally in Mumbai flopped. His cancellation of the decision to campaign in the states going to the polls has further undermined his image.
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It's parivar time for BJP in Azamgarh - Shekhar Iyer, Hindustan Times
MP Ramakant Yadav, whose wife, son and nephew are contesting polls this time, has made the BJP a force to reckon with in Azamgarh. The party was weak in the district until the one-time close associate of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav joined the BJP and won the Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 elections. Since then he has kept the BJP's flag flying in an area that's known for hot political spats over terrorism, use of bahubalis (muscle men) and cut-throat tactics among rivals.
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The Anna effect - Rajdeep Sardesai, Hindustan Times
Irrespective of how one views the Anna Hazare movement, there is little doubt that the one feeling it invoked in the political class was fear: the fear of losing control over a system that they have presided over for decades. It is, therefore, no surprise that with the 74-year-old activist retired hurt for now, many politicians have recovered their poise. It's almost as if a safety valve has relieved politicians from the pressure-cooker atmosphere in which they found themselves through 2011. Elections provide the perfect outlet for politicians to express themselves in familiar terrain, but is it really business as usual?
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Brahmins wary of Mayawati - Prashant Pandey, Indian Express
Brahman shankh bajaayega, haathi aage jaayega (the Brahmin will blow the conch and the elephant will march forward)” was one of the slogans of the BSP, which successfully experimented with “social engineering” by bringing together Dalits and Brahmins — the two opposite poles of the Hindu caste order — in the 2007 Assembly polls. Five years later, the conch blowers are reportedly feeling let down, and are even angry, with the elephant rider.
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In Uttarakhand, both Cong and BJP face revolts - Pradeep Kaushal, Indian Express
Discontent among important leaders is set to undermine the prospects of both the BJP and the Congress in the Uttarakhand Assembly polls. The two rival parties have to contend with open revolts, following the distribution of tickets. The Congress played it safe by first re-nominating all its 21 sitting MLAs. Thereafter, AICC general secretary Birender Singh, who is in charge of the state, called on veteran party leader Narayan Dutt Tewari to buy peace with him.
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Most of the minority - Indian Express
Ever since the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, there has been hype over the Congress’s imminent revival in UP, based largely on expectations of the return of a significant section of the minority community to the party’s fold. Now, the demonstrations against Rahul Gandhi by students of Azamgarh’s Shibli National College would appear to call for an urgent revision of that reading. Stories of both the “return” and the “alienation” of the Muslim may be exaggerated.
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Batla memories trouble voters here - Neelesh Misra, Times of India
Abbu, how come those juniors of mine made it to IPL? cricket-crazy Saif Ahmed asked his father who had travelled to meet his 21-year-old son in the South Delhi room. It wasn't a friendly cricket chat over tea for 51-year-old PCO owner Shadab Ahmed, who had come from his eastern UP village of Sanjarpur to the Lodhi Road premises. Saif, arrested during the September 19, 2008, Batla House raid in Delhi, has been accused along with his elder brother of terrorism in several cities across India. The room belonged to Delhi Police Special Cell, who had arrested him.
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Congress sees a surge in Uttar Pradesh poll prospects - Kay Benedict, India Today
If the "overwhelming" response Rahul Gandhi got while blazing the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh had buoyed the Congress, the results of in-house pre- poll surveys have come as another shot in the arm for the party. Sources revealed that the Congress, which bagged merely 22 seats in the 403-member UP assembly and lost deposits in 334 constituencies in the 2007 assembly elections, had staged a remarkable recovery in the last couple of months. And this resurgence was attributed to the focused and aggressive campaigning of the Gandhi scion.
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The law and order bluff Alibi for militarisation - Sangai Express
Manifesto wise, the BJP has been the first to get off the starting block. Promises galore and while the delivery part remains to be seen the 34 point policy laid down by the saffron party is interesting. An election manifesto is a public document, a well drafted policy and programme of what it intends to do, obviously to woo the people and in doing this, the BJP has demonstrated that it has not been able to break itself free from the jaundiced views which all political parties suffer from and nothing illustrates this better than some of the points it has laid down as its election manifesto.
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A paradise lost - Pachu Menon, Hearld
With the elections to the state Assembly announced, it’s time we got our priorities right and seriously thought of ushering in the necessary changes that every Goan has been yearning for but has never had the will to effectively implement. Fifty years of liberation from colonial imperialism may have given the State government a cause to commemorate the momentous occasion, but the decision of the All-Goa Freedom Fighters association to unanimously boycott the golden jubilee celebrations in protest against the inability of the Goa government to resolve controversial issues that have been plaguing the State, to some extent exhibits the disillusionment that has set in amongst the older generation with the sort of liberty and independence that they wished and fought for and ultimately gained!
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Collapse of ethics goads priest to enter poll fray - Hearld
The decision of a Catholic priest to contest the ensuing elections has ruffled some feathers. This is understandable considering that the Church in Goa, a pioneering Church in Asia and the Far East, has never seen a priest jump into the political bandwagon and seek to contest elections. Though this may come as a surprise for the vast majority, it is no secret that priests have been in the forefront of various public agitations plaguing the State not just during the first known public protest when agricultural and sea life began withering following release of effluent from a factory in South Goa, but even during the Nylon 6,6 agitation, which saw the first environmental martyr Nilesh Naik succumb to bullets, following protests over the setting up of the Du Pont factory at Keri.
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In Lambi, Brothers Stand Polls Apart - Sarbjit Dhaliwal, Tribune
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has won many a battle against formidable foes within his party and outside during his political career spanning 60 years. But he won each of these battles with the support of his brother Gurdas Singh Badal, who is known to be a master strategist. Local people call the brothers by their nick names Pash (Parkash) and Dash (Gurdas). The CM’s current electoral battle, perhaps his last, is the hardest of all the battles he has fought so far. He has had to fight against his brother Gurdas, who has been most dear to him all his life.
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It’s Cong’s Jeeta-Jaggi vs SAD’s Jhutha-Thuggi - Jangveer Singh, Tribune
In run-up to the January 30 assembly poll, the Congress and the SAD leadership are missing no opportunity to attack their political foes. While campaigning for the elections was yet to begin formally, the arch rivals have their “commanders” already slugging it out in the advertisement world. In order to counter the SAD-BJP coalition’s development agenda, the Punjab Congress commissioned two cartoon characters ‘Jeeta’ and ‘Jaggi’. The comic duo have been hitting where it hurts the most: punching holes in the SAD-BJP combine’s development figures, something that the ruling alliance had been banking upon to see itself through for a second consecutive term.
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A movement named BSP - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
Desperately trying to ward off corruption charges and faced with anti-incumbency factor, Chief Minister Mayawati appealed the people to vote for BSP because it was not a party but a movement which worked for the development of all sections of society. “Do not get swayed by the glib talks of Opposition. Do not get influenced by caste and religion. The onus to protect democracy lies on your shoulders. Vote for the BSP so that the next Government be yours which could fulfil dreams of Dalit saints and Bhim Rao Ambedkar,” Mayawati said in an emotional appeal.
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BSP reworks caste formula - Rajesh Kumar Singh, Hindustan Times
While releasing the list of candidates for the assembly election, the BSP has modified the social engineering formula the party tried successfully in 2007. From laying stress on an upper caste-Dalit combination, the BSP has tilted in favour of the Dalit-Muslim-OBC card to regain. Chief minister and BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday released the list of party candidates for all the 403 vidhan sabha seats. “I have given the ticket to candidates with a clean image and those committed to the ideology of the party,” she said.
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Mohammad Ayyub disturbs parties peace of mind - Sruthijith KK, Economic Times
Mohammad Ayyub is the most interesting new face in Uttar Pradesh politics. A reputed liver surgeon, Ayyub launched the Peace Party of India in February 2008. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, his party fielded candidates in 21 seats. None tasted success, but the party polled 4.5% votes, the statistical equivalent of 18 assembly seats and came sixth in vote share.
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Didi goes national, first stop Uttar Pradesh - Alka Pande, First Post
Stepping out of West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has decided to enter the poll fray in five states—Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarkhand and Uttar Pradesh—and making a move in this direction it has declared the list of 49 candidates for the first phase of elections in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The polling for the first phase would be held on 8 February. “Out of 55 seats which would go to poll in the first phase, names for 49 seats have been announced,” said SB Singh, the TMC national coordinator for the five states.
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BSP to poach in Congress bastion - Rajendra S Markuna, Pioneer
The Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar Parliamentary constituency has given us tall leaders like Govind Ballabh Pant, ND Tiwari and KC Pant. Tiwari held sway in the area for nearly three and a half decades but his defeat from the seat in 1991 sealed his fate and he could never fulfill his ambition of becoming the Prime Minister. Later, Pant took refuge in the BJP. Even former Union Minister Bachi Singh Rawat, who contested on a BJP ticket from this constituency in 2009, does not have much influence in the area as he hails from Almora, which he has represented several times in the Parliament. He shifted out of Almora when the constituency became a reserved seat.
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SAD-BJP’s in toon with its Opposition; sends out Jhootha & Thaggi - Monika, Pioneer
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Congress are fighting it out through advertisements. The war of words is hotting up, with SAD responding to its arch-rival by introducing ‘Jhootha’ and ‘Thaggi’ to beat the Congress’ ‘Jeeta’ and ‘Jaggi’. Sensing the Congress was riding on the popularity of its two cartoon characters, the Akali-BJP combine has also hopped on to the toon bandwagon. SAD-BJP’s Jhootha and Thaggi are replicas of the Congress’ characters, referring to as liar and swindler.
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For Congress, it's Muslim-only poll - Swapan Dasgupta, Pioneer
It is impossible to not feel sorry for Union Minister Salman Khurshid for being told by the Congress high command that he spoke out of turn by announcing a proposed nine per cent reserved quota in Government jobs and education for ‘minorities' — the secular legalese for Muslims. Khurshid is too clever a player to unilaterally pluck the nine per cent figure out of a skull cap at a public meeting in his Farrukhabad parliamentary constituency.
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Congress to woo Muslims - Faisal Fareed, Pioneer
Ahead of UP polls, Congress seems to have committed two self goals amidst a mad rush to woo Muslims. The oldest national party of the country, Congress has to bite its words twice-firstly while disowning nine percent Minority reservation quota after elections as announced by union law minister Salman Khurshid followed by a humble submission that Batla House encounter in 2008 was ‘genuine’ again disowing the statement of its general secretary Digvijay Singh. These suicidal attempts of Congress also have not gone well within the community. “Muslims are well aware of such tactics by Congress. They have now seen it once more before the elections. There cannot be a better example of deceiving the community. There will be repurcrussions against the party,” said Imam, Aishbagh Eidgah, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahli.
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In Punjab politics is about ‘family, patronage and money’ - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
Rahul Gandhi may detest it and would like to eliminate it but “family, patronage and money” is the lowest common denominator which counts in Punjab. Nothing matters more in the poll bound state for getting a party nomination more than the three things which the Congress ‘Yuvraj’ would like to end in politics. So be it the Congress or the Akali Dal or even the Punjab People’s Party, there is plenty of everything which Rahul Gandhi would like to end. Most of the candidates of all these parties have a family tradition of politics, going to their fathers and grandfathers, they have plenty of money and none of the “serious” candidates are millionaires but many times multi millionaires and billionaires. Most of them have a fleet of latest high-end cars and SUVs and assets which would shame an IIT, IIM graduate, working in the multinationals and foreign companies.
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Behind the iron gates, a peek into Punjab’s first family - Rohan Dua, Times of India
Forbidding iron gates open to the seat of Punjab's first family - a three-acre sprawl of landscaped gardens, walkways, courtyards, musical fountains, giant meeting rooms and rows of suites. A large part of Punjab's power elite converges here in the evenings. At 6.45pm, frisked, sized-up and identity checked, men and women stand haphazardly under a patio. It's peak time. CM Parkash Singh Badal has just returned from campaigning.
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Games politicians play in the silly season of elections - Chetan Bhagat, Times of India
Like certain flowers that blossom only in the spring, Indian politics comes alive in its true colours only during election time. The strategies adopted by the political parties tell you what matters to people - or, answers the elusive question - how exactly do Indians vote? Certain moves announced by political parties for the upcoming UP election, whether absurd, controversial or unethical, give you immense insight into what works for the average voter. Even the most rational, modern-thinking politicians adopt primitive and regressive measures to pander to the electorate. They do this for one and only one purpose - to win. In fact, victory becomes so important that they forget or ignore the long-term repercussions of their actions on our society and nation as a whole.
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‘Cornered’ Cong pushed to wall over Batla claim - Pioneer
The Batla House encounter ghost, which the Congress attempted to resurrect to play to the minority gallery ahead of the UP Assembly polls, has come to haunt the party itself. Having tied itself in knots over the issue, the Congress now finds itself in the line of fire from the Opposition. The Samajwadi Party, which also eyes the Muslim votes on Saturday, dared the ruling party for a judicial probe into the shootout, a demand already rejected by the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.
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It pays to get your feet dirty - Brijesh Pandey & Virendra Nath Bhatt, Tehelka
In a few minutes of candour, a Congress leader burst out his party’s hopes, fears and aspirations. “In 2007, 323 of our candidates lost their deposits and we won only 22 seats. We don’t have anything to lose. Our graph can only go up.” The question is: how much? India will know on 6 March, when the electronic voting machines are opened. That graph will be more than just a numerical indicator of the Congress’ strength. It may as well be Rahul’s fate line.
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Promises made for ‘free’ during rally! - Faisal Fareed, Pioneer
Inclement weather conditions once again tested the patience of Samajwadi Party workers and supporters on Monday as thousands of them braved the intermittent spell of rain to hear party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav at the RRD Inter College Grounds in Sitapur. Tension was palpable on the faces of local organisers and candidates as uncertainty prevailed over arrival of Yadav due to poor weather. Earlier, his rally at Azamgarh on January 1 had to be cancelled due to rain. However, they heaved a sigh of relief when it was announced at 1 pm that Yadav’s chopper would soon reach Sitapur.
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EC fiats costly diktats - Sidharth Mishra, Pioneer
Some years ago I had the opportunity to hear Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi at a seminar on media at India Habitat Centre. He had moved to the Ministry of Health after an eventful tenure at Mandi House as head of Doordarshan. In course of his address, Quraishi had said, “It depends how you decide to keep a mosquito away. You can use a repellent, an insecticide, a mosquito net or use dynamite.”
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Beni Prasad must win to vindicate Rahul trust - Preetam Srivastava, Pioneer
With notification for the first phase of Assembly polls in place for voting in 55 segments of central and terai districts, Union Minister for Steel Beni Prasad Verma would be facing a stiff litmus test. Most segments are in or around his home turf and he had virtually promised to Congress honcho Rahul Gandhi on winning back the ‘Kurmi’ and OBC voters. Verma was given such leeway that the decision to field his own ‘loyalists’ instead of committed party workers was not questioned by Rahul despite open resentment. The party gave 21 tickets to Beni loyalists out of the total of 53 tickets announced so far. The beneficiaries included his son Rakesh Verma.
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Flock of leaders join SP with eye on Parliament - Faisal Fareed, Pioneer
In the run up to the UP Asssembly polls, several Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders are nursing their Rajya Sabha dreams. Many of them have recently flocked to SP with an eye on entering Parliament after the elections. Aspirations of these leaders are fuelled amidst reports that the SP is likely to improve its tally of legislators in the Vidhan Sabha. The SP had 97 MLAs in the 2007.
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This time, Ram Vilas hits the ‘road’ - Anil Yadav, Pioneer
Finding Mayawati’s influence over Dalits impenetrable, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan in this Assembly election is eyeing on a new segment of voters based in urban areas, the roadside vendors and hawkers. Hoping it might help LJP in getting foothold in towns and mega cities of UP he is gearing up to launch an offensive election campaign across the State. For the first time the LJP is contesting all 403 Assembly seats in UP.
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279 ready to contest in Manipur - Pioneer
Two hundred and seventy nine candidates are in the fray for the January 28 Manipur Assembly polls after scrutiny and withdrawal of papers by contestants, election officials said on Sunday. Altogether 298 candidates had filed nomination papers till the January 11 deadline. The candidature of eight aspirants was rejected during scrutiny the following day, while 11 candidates withdrew their papers, they said.
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Pauri has General battling out of his den - GP Semwal, Pioneer
In Army lingo, the political scene of Assembly segments falling in Garhwal Parliamentary Constituency can be best described in the following words: “To win the war, the General has to win the battle in his den.” This Parliamentary constituency is one of the most sensitive in Uttarakhand. Chief Minister Maj Gen (retd) BC Khanduri has represented this segment four times, though Satpal Maharaj of the Congress won the 2009 election.
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Sukhbir attempts to reinvent Akali agenda - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
Battling anti-incumbency, the fatigue factor and a rotation system in which no party has been repeated on the Punjab post-1966, the Shiromani Akali Dal has shed its panthic agenda, which it followed for decades, and is now pitching for development and administrative reforms for the 2012 Assembly polls. For long, Akali Dal was known for its morcha, dharm yudha, demanding more water and power from the Centre, transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab and greater autonomy for the State. Not any more.
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Referendum on Muslim quota - Shashi Shekhar, Pioneer
The Congress’s communal brinkmanship and the Election Commission’s over-zealous conduct have made the contentious issue of a Muslim sub-quota the centerpiece of public debate in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. The issue has effectively shut out debate on everything else to the point where it becomes necessary to ask if the Uttar Pradesh poll is now a referendum on this single issue. The Congress has put both the Uttar Pradesh election and its own campaign on a dangerous trajectory. Its carefully crafted strategy of OBC micro-targetting is under stress while the upper caste vote is being alienated. The Election Commission’s zeal in shrouding Chief Minister Mayawati’s statues has put the Congress further on the defensive.
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Vote intelligently if you value good governance - Brigadier (Retd) CS Thapa, Pioneer
With the announcement of the poll contenders and their constituencies, electioneering in respective States be it Punjab or Uttarakhand has picked up pace. The atmosphere is charged and conversations in the drawing rooms, golf courses, offices and markets centre on the current electoral line-up. Seeing a lot of candidates shedding crocodile tears on the audio-visual media has become the order of the day. With the Election Commission being rather strict, the daily news if filled with reports of seizures of liquor and money meant to bribe the parties or the electorate.
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Congress places bets on turncoats - Virender Kumar, Indian Express
When it comes to handling turncoats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has been smarter than the BJP. It has kept its distance from notorious characters like Babu Singh Kushwaha, but has quietly given the ticket to many who have crossed over from the SP or the BSP recently. By a rough estimate, political turncoats constitute about 25 per cent of the 320-odd candidates it has announced so far. Congress leaders don’t talk about them, but if you ask they would say the turncoats have been chosen for their ‘winnability’, and in constituencies where the Congress had neither a good organisational network, nor strong potential candidates in its ranks.
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Development our poll plank: Sukhbir - Maneesh Chhibber, Indian Express
Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, whose party is ruling Punjab in alliance with the BJP, has said that his party was fighting the ensuing Assembly elections on the issue of development. “For the first time ever, there is actually a wave in favour of the incumbent government due to development works initiated by it. There is no anti-incumbency. Voters will reward us for our performance,” he told The Indian Express.
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BJP's new slogan is 'Khanduri hai zaroori' - Hindustan Times
The BJP’s complete dependence on Uttarakhand chief minister BC Khanduri’s clean image to retain power in the assembly elections has resulted in a new slogan that will form the running theme of its publicity blitz. “Khanduri hai zaroori” (Khanduri is necessary) for Uttarakhand to prosper and develop goes the BJP’s slogan, highlighting the achievements of the saffron party’s rule of the past five years in different sectors.
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Regime Changers: Emergence of OBCs as a decisive factor in polls - GVL Narasimha Rao, LensOnNews
OTHER BACKWARD CASTES (OBCs) are the largest voter bloc amongst the Indian electorate. They constitute 40% of India’s population according to the 62nd round (2005-06) survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). OBCs outnumber Muslims in the country by nearly 3.5 times and are almost twice as the population of scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) taken together. Some states with a high proportion of OBCs are: Tamil Nadu (72%), followed by Bihar, Kerala (58% each), and Uttar Pradesh (50%), where the OBCs have had a decisive say in politics.
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THE 3 Ds that can roil up poll math - Anil Padmanabhan, Mint
Depending on which groupie you speak to about the coming election to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly, there is every chance of you coming away convinced that either the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be able to form the government on its own or in tandem with the single largest party. Dubious opinion polls have only further complicated things
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Three-way race by Congress, BJP & BSP to woo MBCs - Economic Times
By giving a substantial number of tickets to Most Backward Castes (MBCs) in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, BSP supremo Mayawati has joined other parties to corner a big slice of votes of the less privileged among Backwards. As the polling day approaches, jockeying for the MBC vote has become more intense, with Congress and BJP too launching earnest efforts. To be fair to BSP, it had in the previous elections too given a significant proportion of tickets to the more backward sections among OBCs.MBCs had reciprocated the gesture by reposing their faith in Mayawati.
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Candidates' hobbies range from Arabian horses to luxury watches & choppers - Viney Sharma, Economic Times
By giving a substantial number of tickets to Most Backward Castes (MBCs) in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, BSP supremo Mayawati has joined other parties to corner a big slice of votes of the less privileged among Backwards. As the polling day approaches, jockeying for the MBC vote has become more intense, with Congress and BJP too launching earnest efforts. To be fair to BSP, it had in the previous elections too given a significant proportion of tickets to the more backward sections among OBCs.MBCs had reciprocated the gesture by reposing their faith in Mayawati.
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Mayawati banking on rainbow coalition & support - Man Mohan Rai, Economic Times
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati signalled that she is banking on retaining support from across the social spectrum, when she announced her party's candidates for the upcoming assembly polls amid a low-key celebration for her 56th birthday on Sunday. The distribution reflects the contribution made by each caste and community to the growth of the Bahujan Samaj Party, she said, adding that she has thrown out tainted members and sacked several ministers and leaders in order to clean up the party.
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Cong scouting for new partners in UP: Arun Jaitley - Times of India
BJP leader Arun Jaitley today said that the C o n g re s s was scouting for new friends in U t t a r Pradesh after its "troubled relations" with allies like the Trinamool Congress. "The Congress is weak in Uttar Pradesh and is scouting for new friends there," he told reporters here. "They want new friends (also) given their troubled relations with partner from West Bengal (Trinamool Congress)," he observed.
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Countdown to January 28 Posers on the preparedness - Sangai Express
Election in a State of the largest democracy in the world obviously has to be a huge, mammoth exercise. Three hundred and fifty companies of security force is what has been requisitioned for the election this time round. Of these, two hundred companies have already arrived with the rest expected to follow soon in batches. This is over and above the State forces which include the State police, Indian Reserve Battalion, Manipur Rifles, Village Defence Force and Home Guard. Not a joke by any stretch of the imagination.
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New image done, back to old ideas - Indian Express
Last September, when the Samajwadi Party launched its UP election campaign, Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose government had been voted out in 2007 for letting loose “bullies” and “ruffians” in the state, put his son Akhilesh Yadav in the driver’s seat and withdrew into the background. Over the next four months, Akhilesh Yadav travelled extensively on his “Samajwadi Kranti Rath”, which is actually an improvised LCV fitted with a cabin and some basic facilities, and addressed public meetings in more than 200 constituencies, emerging the new face of the party.
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Religion-based quota unconstitutional - Statesman
A week before India attained independence, the Advisory Committee on Minorities Rights debated the issue of reservation for religious minorities and moved a proposal in the Constituent Assembly on 8 August 1947, to safeguard political interests of minorities with reservation in legislatures on the basis of population. At a meeting on 11 May 1949, HC Mukherjee, a Christian member, supported by Sikhs, moved a resolution that the system of reservation for minorities other than the Scheduled Castes in legislatures should be abolished. In their divide-and-rule policy, the British introduced separate electorates for Muslims in 1909 which eventually resulted in Partition of the country.
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Tactical contests may decide outcome - Nandkumar Kamat, Navhind Times
Why people elect MLAs? The fundamental job of a member elected to legislative assembly (or a Parliament) is to legislate and not reduce the assembly to a glorified gram sabha or a general body meeting of a club. More than half the time of Goa assembly is wasted on discussing issues which should have been discussed and solved at the level of local authorities. The MLAs meddle too much in local politics and by controlling the local authorities - the village panchayats, zilla panchayats and municipal councils make a mockery of decentralisation of powers.
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Challenge Before Parrikar - Navhind Times
"Yes, I did make mistakes during my regime as the chief minister, which took the minority population away from the Bharatiya Janata Party," he told the media. Mr Parrikar has always given the impression that his approach is the right approach, so this bit of admission to committing an error came as quite a surprise, though the timing of it shows it carried a message to a certain section of voters.
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The fight to protect Goa - Roberto Rodrigues, Hearld
Goans, and more specifically the current Congress Government celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Goa’s Liberation from the Portuguese rule, with many functions on 19th December 2011. In these 50 years (1961-2011) different political parties like Congress,. Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) etc, have ruled the State and enjoyed the fruits of power. However, not many of them realise that, but for the farsightedness of a few, Goa might have ended up as a small obscure part of some district in Maharashtra, and Goans would have been a lost tribe, without an identity of their own.
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BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate? - Mayabhushan, Pioneer
The principal Opposition party in the State, the Bharatiya Janata Party has effectively kicked off its poll campaign, but this time without formally announcing a projected Chief Minister candidate. The arrival of senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who flagged off of the ‘Jan Sampark Abhiyan’ a fortnight-long movement through 35 of 40 constituencies in the State, has categorically said that the BJP had not formally announced its chief ministerial candiate for March 3 polls. However, interestingly, there’s no projected candidate for Chief Minister, something the BJP isn’t known to do for more than a decade now.
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Friends turn foe in game of politics - Pioneer
With an eye on consolidating Jat-Muslim base in western UP, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has included former Minister Haji Yaqub Quraishi among its star campaigners. After being expelled from the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party Yaqub joined RLD only a week back and was announced candidate from Meerut Assembly segment. In 2006, while he was a Minister in Samajwadi Party Government, Quraishi had hit headlines by announcing a `51 crore reward on the head of a Danish cartoonist for allegedly making a caricature of the Prophet. He was suspended from BSP in September last year for his alleged derogatory remarks against Sikhs.
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Elephant’s march may trample Cong harvest - Vikram Rautela, Pioneer
Post-delimitation, the Haridwar Parliamentary constituency has emerged with potential to upturn the Congress applecart. With the number of Assembly seats here increasing from nine to 14, the area under the influence of the Bahujan Samaj Party has also expanded. The BSP, in the 2007 election, had managed to get six out of nine seats in the area and seems poised for a natural increase in its tally.
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Politics runs in the blood - Monika, Pioneer
They are not new to the big bad world of politics. Born and brought up in “political families” of Chief Ministers and ex-CMs, they have been nurtured on power. But this is, perhaps, for the first time that so many sons, brothers or relatives of current and former Chief Ministers are vying for the rungs of popularity and power in the Assembly elections. Nothing less than 16 candidates from the families of seven present and former CMs are in fray in the Punjab Assembly elections-2012. In the 2007 polls, around 10 such candidates were contesting.
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BSP sticks to formula - Pioneer
Having reaped a political harvest with her ‘rainbow coalition’ comprising Dalits and Brahmins (besides Muslims) in the Assembly election of 2007 when the Bahujan Samaj Party secured a majority on its own, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is naturally inclined to retain the format for the coming election as well. However, it is far from clear if that combination is going to work at the ground level this time, despite her decision to offer tickets to more than 70 candidates of the Brahmin community.
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Reserved seats on Rahul's radar - Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, Hindustan Times
After shifting the centre of gravity of the Congress party away from the upper castes, Rahul Gandhi has now launched a special focus campaign to get the best results in 85 constituencies reserved for Dalits in Uttar Pradesh. The idea is that such constituencies are spread across the state and lifting them up will have a spin-off effect that would help the party overall. Dalits constitute 21% of the total population in UP and is considered a strong vote-bank of the ruling BSP.
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Maya’s list has some wanted men - Manish Sahu, Indian Express
Announcing the list of BSP candidates on Sunday, Chief Minister and party president Mayawati had said a clean image was one of the criteria, besides dedication to the BSP movement and loyalty to voters. The list, however, contains names of several men who are involved in criminal cases, are history-sheeters and at least two men for whom courts have issued non-bailable warrants in cases of rape and murder.
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BJP shifts gear, fields mechanic as lone Muslim face - Lalmani Verma, Indian Express
Saifi joined the BJP in 2004 after he lost the Lok Sabha polls as a Navbharat Nirman Party candidate. Prior to that he was with the BSP for 17 years. “I joined the BSP in 1986 and worked with Kanshi Ram. I left the party in 2003 when I realised that it was functioning against Kanshi Ram’s ideology,” he says. A few months ago he sent his resume to BJP’s national incharge of minority morcha J K Jain, and requested for the party ticket. He is the only Muslim the BJP has fielded in the current election.
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Arab Spring to Pak, Manpreet’s focus on ‘winds of change’ - Raghvendra Rao, Indian Express
Till three years ago, he was talked about as the heir apparent to his uncle and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. About 15 months back, he made a controversial exit from the Badal government. With just 14 days to go to the Punjab polls, Manpreet Badal, chief of the People’s Party of Punjab — the newest third front in the state — is not just attempting to write a fresh chapter in the state’s politics but is deriving strength from a rather unusual source: Arab Spring.
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All eyes on the Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh - Ashish Tripathi, Times of India
The battle for Muslim votes is getting fiercer by the day in UP. All major parties, barring the BJP, are trying to come out with the best strategy to win over minority voters who have the power to influence results in over 130 seats. But BJP, too, is interested in this multi-corner contest for Muslim votes. If this leads to a polarization on communal lines, it would be the party to benefit the most.
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Baton leapfrogs in front of Priyanka Grandpa MLA bequeaths slot - Tapas Chakraborty, Telegraph
Ram Sevak today made an offer that Priyanka Vadra could not refuse, though it made her think twice. The 90-year-old grandfather walked up to Priyanka this morning with a request: the nine-time MLA from Jagdishpur wanted his name to be dropped from the list of candidates for the coming elections in Uttar Pradesh. In his place, Ram Sevak said, he wanted his grandson Radhe Shyam to contest. All Ram Sevak was asking for was to reach across a generation and hand over the baton to the next — not an unreasonable request in a country where dynasty after dynasty has found fertile soil.
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Assembly elections: UP strategy has BJP brass divided - Mohua Chatterjee, ToI
BJP's poll strategy for UP may or may not work for the party, but it has divided the top leadership on at least two important issues. First, if the induction of the tainted Babu Ram Kushwaha was a good idea and second, whether it's wise to contest for third position in the state to beat Congress. On the Kushwaha episode, party chief Nitin Gadkari had to give in to pressure from party MPs and disallow him from contesting. The RSS too is learnt to be upset with the former BSP minister's induction.
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Support of SP or BSP must for UPA to get its nominee elected for presidential elections - Devesh Kumar, Economic Times
The Congress-led UPA may not be able to get its nominee elected to the post of President of India unless it manages to get one of the two main political players in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh - either the Samajwadi Party or the BSP - on board. This would also mean that the Congress managers will have to put up with the demands of the Trinamool Congress, their largest partner with whom they have come to share a very tempestuous relationship of late.
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BJP prescribes swadeshi model for UP - Economic Times
Trying to woo the politically unattached among Backwards and consolidate its base among the upper castes, including Brahmins, BJP has reinforced its opposition to job reservations for Muslims within the OBC quota and assured a better deal for the poor among forward castes. However, it stopped short of promising reservation for them. Describing it as a new "swadeshi" paradigm of development, BJP's vision document said the goal of social justice cannot be limited to reservations. The document, which castigated the Congress party for giving 4.5% reservation to minorities within the OBC quota, was released by party president Nitin Gadkari in Lucknow on Monday.
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Gandhis at your service for y'our’ benefit - Pioneer
When some mediapersons, who turned up at the spot, asked Priyanka that whether she would also take the Congress campaign beyond Amethi and Rai Bareli, she did not rule out the possibility. “If Rahul Gandhi needed my services and asked me to campaign for Congress in other parts of the State, I will always follow his commands”, replied Priyanka pointing that now her brother was the captain of Congress ship in Uttar Pradesh.
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Crowd-pleaser MSY picks on the rick - Faisal Fareed, Pioneer
If Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party assumes power in the state after the present Assembly elections, one thing that is sure to become a thing of past is the cycle-rickshaw. Yadav finds this mode of transport humilating and had vowed to replace it with motarised rickshaw. In an attempt to wrest power in the state, the Samajwadi Party has promised a slew of sops to different section of society. This time it was the turn of rickshaw-pullers to draw Yadav’s attention. Addressing an election rally in Khalilabad constituency of Sant Kabir Nagar, the SP supremo announced that if his party came to power, he would phase out the man-pulled rickshaws from the State.
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With Uttarakhand formed, the party was over - Paritosh Kimothi, Pioneer
The undivided Uttarakhand Kranti Dal was not only the sole regional party of the State but also the first political party to raise the demand for its creation. Now, the original party is extinct after its division into two factions. Since its creation, the party prided itself in fighting for change and the welfare of Uttarakhand and its people as a grassroots political vehicle. Founded in July 1979 under the chairmanship of the former Vice-Chancellor of Kumaon University, DD Pant, the UKD, in addition to leading the statehood movement, also elicited focus on issues specific to the geographical and socio-cultural aspects of this hill State.
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Almora searches for new stalwarts - Rajendra S Markuna, Pioneer
Abandoned by towering personalities, Almora, the soul of Kumaon, is in search of a new leader. This Parliamentary segment has been represented by stalwarts like Murli Manohar Joshi, Harish Rawat and Bachi Singh Rawat. While Joshi needs no introduction, Union Minister Rawat is a chief ministerial aspirant from the Congress and Bachi Singh is among the front-ranking BJP leaders, having been a Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA regime.
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A movement named BSP - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
Desperately trying to ward off corruption charges and faced with anti-incumbency factor, Chief Minister Mayawati appealed the people to vote for BSP because it was not a party but a movement which worked for the development of all sections of society. “Do not get swayed by the glib talks of Opposition. Do not get influenced by caste and religion. The onus to protect democracy lies on your shoulders. Vote for the BSP so that the next Government be yours which could fulfil dreams of Dalit saints and Bhim Rao Ambedkar,” Mayawati said in an emotional appeal.
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BJP eyeing seats lost narrowly in last poll - Raj Bahadur Singh, Pioneer
Bharatiya Janata Party, which ruled the state for six-and-half years in two phases, faces an uphill task in improving its tally, which has been declining since the last two Assembly elections. The party strategists are eying those 42 constituencies where its candidates lost by less than 5000 votes in the 2007 Assembly polls as they believe that the party can move forward if it succeeds in winning majority of these seats. As was expected, the party has reposed faith on most of the candidates who lost the 2007 election after giving a tough fight to their rivals.
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The Rs 6.09 Crs asset question Beating the system - Sangai Express
The changes are visible. No loud posters and banners. No loud speakers in the night. No obscene public feasting and no vulgar display of wealth and clout at the time of flag hoisting functions. Below the belt blows or punches against the rivals too have been muted to a large extent and for once it is a welcome sight to see political leaders and the wannabes, read candidates, beating a hasty retreat with tails between their legs in the face of the stringent strictures issued by the Election Commission of India.
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Son-rise in UP: Mulayam lets Akhilesh ride the bandwagon - Alka Pande, Firstpost
In 1990, Commander Arjun Singh Bhadauria, a mentor of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, made a prophetic statement. A socialist, Bhadauria said Mulayam was more a family man than a socialist. He predicted that Mulayam would dump his cousin Ram Gopal once brother Shivpal was ready for a plunge into politics and Shivpal himself too would be sidelined when son Akhilesh entered the picture. Bhadauria is no more but his statement lives on. Today, there are no film stars in the SP campaigning for it, but thirty-something Akhilesh Yadav is touring the state, riding his Kranti Rath (Chariot of Revolution) alone. Mulayam is guiding his son from behind the scenes, while Ram Gopal and Shivpal remain bit players.
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Will she, won’t she? Priyanka could steal Rahul’s lustre - Akshaya Mishra, Firstpost
To cut it short, Priyanka Gandhi has a je ne sais quoi while Rahul Gandhi has not. She manages to attract attention, and adulation, without trying too hard, he has to slog hard to be appreciated. She will draw crowds automatically, while he won’t. The purpose is not to run Rahul down. There’s no doubt that he puts tremendous hard work into his job, unlike most leaders across parties in his generation and frankly, few young leaders these days have that winsome personality. But the presence of the little sister makes comparisons inevitable.
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Maya rejigs her social alliance - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
The alliance which catapulted Ms Mayawati to power for the fourth time as Chief Minister looks fragile today. The Brahmins are disenchanted with the BSP and have begun looking towards the BJP and the Congress for a better political harvest. This sense of rejection is not lost on the BSP camp. Its leaders mince no words in accepting that the support of the Brahmins for the party is low, and that the carefully constructed plank of social engineering now stands nearly deconstructed.
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Manipur: AFSPA & 120-day economic blockade becomes a major poll issue - Bikash Singh, ET
The ruling Congress party is playing for a hat-trick in the northeastern state of Manipur, where the ongoing insurgency and memories of hardships during last year's 120-day long blockade threaten to upset its game. Chief minister Ibobi Singh is projecting improvement in the state's financial health and timely payment of salaries to public officials as his government's achievements ahead of the upcoming polls. The opposition parties are, however, attacking the government for its failure to ensure supply of essential commodities during the blockade, fake encounters, failure to repeal the controversial Armed Forces Special Protection Act ( AFSPA) and corruption in government departments.
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Poorvanchal: High on mantris, low on progress - Rajiv Srivastava, Times of India
The de facto capital of the proposed Poorvanchal state has produced an enviable number of ministers - far more than any other UP region. Yet, Gorakhpur and Basti divisions remain backward and caught in a time warp. If Mayawati had six ministers from the two divisions, there were seven in the Kalyan Singh government . In 2003, when Mulayam Singh was CM, he had 13. Maya dropped four of the six Gorakhpur ministers. Some among them had progressed from being mafia to MLA and then ministers.
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Congress inducts a 'Kushwaha' in Goa - Economic Times
Congress in Goa gave BJP a potent electoral weapon by inducting tainted MLA Jitendra Deshprabhu into the party. Deshprabhu, an accused in an illegal mining case and arrested earlier by the state crime branch, has been fielded from Porvorim. The thriving illegal mining mafia in Goa has made the Congress-led Digambar Kamat government the target of a sustained attack from Opposition. BJP and many civil society groups have been crying hoarse about the alleged involvement of several state Cabinet ministers in the massive illegal mining scam going on in the state.
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Congress to promise MBC sub-quota too - Bharti Jain, Economic Times
Congress is readying to redress discontent over its plans to promise a sub-quota for minorities by pledging itself to yet more reservation, this time for the Most Backward Castes (MBCs) in Uttar Pradesh. It is set to declare in its election manifesto a sub-quota for MBCs within the 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes.
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Eclipsed by the son - Brijesh Pandey, Tehelka
Ever Since 39-year-old Akhilesh Yadav, the son of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, 72, took over the leadership mantle of the state unit from his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, 56, the old guard has been feeling uncomfortable. The fissures came out in the open in December last, when Shivpal inducted Haseen Uddin Siddiqui into the SP. He is the brother of Naseem Uddin Siddiqui, who is the PWD minister and a close confidant of BSP supremo Mayawati.
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The ‘enemy’ that is known - Vivek Srivastava, Pioneer
In the imminent Assembly poll, every political party is a worried lot. But for most, their worry seems more from the rebels within than their rivals outside. After being denied tickets by their parent parties, these candidates are now in the fray as Independents with the objective of defeating former party colleagues in the contest. Sample this — Rakesh Dhar Tripathi was the Higher Education Minister in BSP Government. But after being denied a ticket from Handiya in Allahabad, he is now contesting as an Independent. Anees Ahmed Khan, alias Phool Babu, is another BSP MLA from Bisalpur in Pilibhit who was denied ticket and is also contesting as an Independent.
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Dynasty politics for ever and ever... - Tavishi Srivastava, Pioneer
Sons of political leaders do not necessarily have to toil hard for a career. The political legacy they inherit is carried over from father to son and onwards as they are readily lapped up as the scion of their family and party. These sons are lured into joining politics as they see their parents reaping the benefits of the alliances and tie-ups. Though politics readily falls in the lap of some of the sons and daughters, who are fielded in place of their parents, other fathers blood their progenies with an eye on passing over the mantle of power in the family.
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BJP won’t reshuffle it’s deck - Raj Bahadur Singh, Pioneer
Bharatiya Janata Party, which ruled the State for six-and-half years in two phases, faces an uphill task in improving its tally, which has been declining since the last two Assembly elections. The party strategists are eying those 42 constituencies where its candidates lost by less than 5,000 votes in the 2007 Assembly polls as they believe that the party can move forward if it succeeds in winning majority of these seats. As was expected, the party has reposed faith on most of the candidates who lost the 2007 election after giving a tough fight to their rivals.
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The choice, and why it may hurt - Virender Kumar, Indian Express
By allowing Uma Bharti to contest the election from Charkhari in UP’s Bundelkhand, the BJP has made its second audacious experiment in less than a month. The first was Babu Singh Kushwaha’s induction, inspired by a great hope that he would engineer an OBC mobilisation strong enough to propel the BJP to victory. That experiment had to be abandoned in less than a week in the face of protests within the ranks, although the party is still coping with the fallout.
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Parties Net no catches on www - Sayantanee Choudhury, Pioneer
Uttarakhand has not taken gladly to the presence of leaders of the BJP, Congress, UKD and other parties on social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut and micro-blogging site Twitter, in the run-up to the 2012 Assembly elections. Though the Congress and BJP State units have their pages on Facebook, the intended aim is not being met. Considering factors like a tough geographical terrain and scattered population, social networking sites could have played an effective role, but most politicians still rely on door-to-door campaigning and other media.
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Straight from the heart land - Pioneer
Chief Minister Mayawati would campaign in Punjab for two days from January 21 and address rallies in Chandigarh and Muktsar. A BSP spokesman said she would address her first rally in Mohali on January 21 while the same day, she would also visit the Radha Satsang Grounds in Chandigarh to deliver a speech. The next day, she will address rallies in Muktsar and Ahmednagar. On January 23 and 24, Mayawati will speak at Uttarakhand, the spokesman added.
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Let the carnival of politics begin - Rajesh Singh, Pioneer
Conventional wisdom says: Too many cooks spoil the broth. But clinging to conventional wisdom will become an obstacle for those who wish to understand the politics of Goa and enjoy its roller-coaster ride. So, tie your seat-belts, leave logic aside and have fun as the voters of the State prepare to elect their 40 representatives from a large and colourful bunch of candidates to the Assembly on March 3. Because, in Goa, ‘the more the merrier’ rules the ballot box more than anything else.
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Turning the tide in the Himalayas - Pioneer
Away from the entire chaos of the elections, in the foothills of the Himalayas, silent efforts are being made to fight the problem and that too by implementing the schemes launched by the Government itself. Since independence, efforts of the Government to curb poverty and provide employment guarantee have grown. Some succeeded; others taught us lessons with their failures. Thus, new plans inspired from the successes and failures of previous projects were launched. Out of the lot, the projects which endured the fruition of efforts did not just carve an identity of their own; they also became an example for other development projects. ‘Livelihoods Impro-vement Project for the Himalayas’ is one such project which has brought several changes on the ground by empowering the locals.
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Strange it may sound , but whats in a name ? - Vivek Srivastava, Pioneer
A cursory look at the candidates across the state, reveal some interesting candidates in the fray. While we have character from films like Gabbar contesting from Bikapur seat, Kalia too is trying his luck from Gunnaur. Simiarly, we have a slice of administrative posts in Daroga, who is in the fray from Nighasan seat of Lakhimpur and Collector, who is fighting it out from Meja. Religious characters too have a fair share of candidature in the cowbelt. If Narad is fighting from Ballia then Hanuman too is leaving nothing to chance from the Sisamau seat in Kanpur.
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Congress versus Congress rebels in Pathankot - Nishu Mahajan, Pioneer
With only 12 days left for the polls, the Congress is already facing the chill of the rebel candidates contesting as Independent from the three constituencies in Pathankot district. All the three constituencies namely Pathankot, Bhoa and Sujanpur has heavyweight Congress rebels contesting as Independents, after being denied ticket by the Congress. Former MLA from Pathankot Ashok Sharma is leading the pack of the rebel candidates here. Other heavyweights include former MLA Rumal Chand contesting as Independent from Bhoa and Naresh Puri, son of the former Union Minister late Raghunath Sahai Puri, contesting as an Independent candidate from Sujanpur Assembly segment.
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Female voters dominate in Bholath - Samaan Lateef, Pioneer
The figures, disclosed by the Election Commission of Punjab, reveal that of the total 117 Assembly segments, the Bholath constituency has 59,321 female voters in comparison to 59,020 male voters. While the constituency has 301 female voters more than male electorate, only two female candidates are contesting the elections from the constituency for Punjab Assembly. Former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate, Bibi Jagir Kaur and another Independent candidate are trying their luck in the only female voters-dominated constituency. The figures were confirmed by the special Chief Electoral Officer, Usha A Sharma.
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GenX and their poll ways - Pankaj Jaiswal, Hindustan Times
Battlefield Uttar Pradesh is simmering with intense political activity ahead of the seven-phase polls. And, battle-ready are three youth icons who have embarked on their turbulent political journeys here to resurrect their parties, and, in turn, determine their own political fortunes. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, 41, Samajwadi Party (SP) state president Akhilesh Yadav, 38, and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) national general secretary Jayant Chaudhary, 33, have one elephantine enemy Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party.
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Badal bahus on mission victory - arjinder Sidhu and Kamaldeep Singh Brar, Hindustan Times
The estranged Badal bahus (derani-jethani - Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Vennu Badal) have been holding the “fort” at home constituencies of Gidderbaha and Malout in the absence of husbands to woo the voters. Reaching the people to ask for the votes is not new job for both Badal Bahus, but the only difference is that this time their mission is different.
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Abduction shadow in Karong AC: Reading the fine print - Sangai Express
The abduction of two election workers of Congress candidate DD Thaisii, who is contesting from Karong Assembly Constituency needs to be read more deeply than the question of two supporters of a candidate being held captive by some unidentified persons. How seriously has the State Election office taken this case is a matter of conjecture but the fine print should not be missed. The abduction could not have been the handiwork of any rag tag army of desperadoes or some gangs cobbled up at the last moment and common sense tells us that it cannot be equated with cases of abduction which are for plain ransom, though the question of money cannot be entirely ruled out in this case too.
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BJP eyeing polarisation gains in 2012 poll - Times of India
As election dates draw closer, the battle for Muslim votes is getting fiercer by the day. All the major political parties - barring of course, the BJP - are trying their best to come out with the best strategy to win over the minority voters who have the power to influence the results in over 130 seats. But saffron party, too, is very much interested in this multi-corner contest for Muslim votes. After all, if this leads to a polarization of votes on communal lines, the party to be benefited the most would be the BJP.
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CM’s colleague, rival & nephew’s opponent - Esha Roy, Indian Express
It’s a head-on collision between two of Manipur’s biggest political stalwarts. Chief Minister Ibobi Singh and his rival within the Congress, Y Erabot Singh, will battle it out, one by proxy and the other in person, in Wangkhei, the latter’s home seat in the heart of Imphal. A dissident from the start, Erabot is commonly known as the only obstacle between Ibobi and chief ministership. It is Ibobi’s nephew Okram Henry who is taking on Erabot on a ticket from the Manipur State Congress Party, but it is common knowledge who is actually challenging the rival in this multi-ethnic constituency.
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The statue of limitations - Sharat Pradhan, Outlook
Five years ago, when Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati went on her statue installation and memorial building spree—allocating thousands of crores to those dream projects—little would she have imagined that a day would come when each of these would be put under a veil. The statues and memorials that came up in defiance of restrictions imposed by the high court, only to be repeatedly overruled by the apex court, could not withstand the directive of the Election Commission. The EC was acting on complaints filed by opposition parties.
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Seeds Rahul sowed promise to bear fruit, not all of it sweet - Sanjay Singh, Indian Express
On the night of December 22, 2009, Jamuna Ahirwar hosted Rahul Gandhi to dinner at his house at Ghisauli village, part of Jhansi’s Babina Assembly seat in Bundelkhand. The Congress leader had turned up at his doorstep, unannounced, and spent the night at his house, which was barely standing. In the last rainy season, the room in which Rahul had spent the night collapsed. And Jamuna has shown no interest in Rahul, who is back two years later, campaigning for the UP elections. Jamuna skipped Rahul’s speech at Chirgaon yesterday. “Rahul had seen the dilapidated condition of my house. All his promises remain unfulfilled,” says Briga Ahirwar, 70, Jamuna’s father..
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It’s husband vs wife in this UP seat - Surbhi Khyati, Indian Express
A separated couple have taken their fight to the electoral arena in Shohratgarh constituency of Siddharthanagar. While Chaudhary Ravindra Pratap alias Pappu Chaudhary is the sitting Congress MLA, his estranged wife Sadhna Chaudhary is challenging him as the BJP candidate. “She is not my wife. No wife fights against her own husband. We separated in 1995,” Pappu Chaudhary, said about his rival. Sadhna said in a political battle, there is no husband and wife. “Husband and wife don’t fight elections, parties fight elections. BJP is my party and it has fielded me, hence I am fighting the elections,” she told The Indian Express.This is the third time that the couple, whose divorce case is pending in court, are pitted against each other.
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Mothers are taken for granted - Sukhdeep Kaur, Indian Express
The son, contesting from Samana, calls up with news about a BSP candidate willing to “sit down” in Patiala, the father’s seat. Wonderful, says the mother. The daughter, Jai Inder Kaur, is holding fort in Patiala City while the father tours the state. She proves harder to connect to, but the mother eventually passes on the news. It’s all in a day’s work for Preneet Kaur as the royal family campaigns in the two seats, 20 kilometres apart. And, though she is the one by Raninder Singh’s side during his campaign, she is comfortable with his image as the “father’s son” - he keeps mentioning Capt Amarinder Singh as the future chief minister when he seeks votes.
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BJP acquires a liability in UP poll - Praful Bidwai, Navhind Times
Corruption is bad enough; but this is literally deadly. Yet, the BJP president, Mr Nitin Gadkari inducted Mr Kushwaha into the party just when his associates were being raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The decision was strongly supported by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) full-timer-cum-organisational secretary, Mr Sanjay Joshi, who was brought to Uttar Pradesh by Mr Gadkari from political exile following his clash with the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, who allegedly tried to discredit him by releasing a sleazy CD in 2005.
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MGP’s bleak destiny - Navhind Times
What a fall for a party indeed which was the first party to rule Goa after the Portuguese left and continued to rule for eighteen years, first under the leadership of Dayanand Bandodkar and then of his daughter Ms Shashikala Kakodkar. But are not the leaders who are trying all sorts of permutations and combinations responsible for the party’s shrinking electoral base? Even in 2007 Assembly elections, in which the MGP contested 26 constituencies and forfeited deposits in 19, it won two seats and secured 8.65 per cent votes of the total votes polled (appx 61,000 of 7,11,000 votes polled).
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Manipur: Cloud on CPI-Cong ties - Telegraph
The CPI, a partner in the Okram Ibobi Singh-led Secular Progressive Front (SPF) ministry for two consecutive terms, today hinted that the party might part ways with the Congress and join hands with “democratic and progressive” parties after the January 28 Assembly elections. “The CPI joined hands with the Congress 20 years ago because there was need for political stability. We could maintain stability but we are not satisfied with the achievements of the SPF government. No single party could form the government this time. The CPI will join hands with like-minded, democratic and progressive parties to form the government,” M. Nara Singh, CPI state secretary, said.
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Badal Inc: Punjab CM’s family wealth in higher Orbit - Raman Kirpal, First Post
It is a do-or-die election for Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. The past shows that electorates in Punjab usually throw out incumbents. But Sukhbir Singh Badal of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) desperately requires to change this trend. Reason: Like the Karunanidhi’s family in Tamil Nadu and YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s family in Andhra Pradesh, the Badals are under cloud for amassing wealth disproportionate to their income.
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Dera support to count in Punjab - Hindu
Punjab has nearly 300 major deras across the State, as well as in neighbouring Haryana and Rajasthan. Political observers say that most of the deras command a substantial following and any political party or candidate who manages to get the support of a dera stands an excellent chance of securing a good number of votes. Some deras are open about their political leanings, while others prefer not to come out directly in support of any particular party or candidate. The deras of Dalit communities also have a large following in Punjab.
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Three sons rise, take big bets on UP - Nistula Hebbar, Financial Express
At a crowded rally in Agra’s Khairagarh constituency, it is difficult to spot Jayant Chaudhary, Rashtriya Lok Dal MP and son of Union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh. Swamped by supporters, he reaches for the microphone and rather than chide the crowd, in an example of good old Jat humour, says, “Lok Dal main thodi bahut kohni bhi chal jati hai.” (In the Lok Dal, a little bit of pushing and shoving is allowed). The audience laughs, backs off and allows Chaudhary to finish his speech.
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In Focus - Rebels throw Congress into a tailspin - Iboyaima Laithangbam, Hindu
Till January 4, the ruling Congress party was sure of scoring a hat-trick in Manipur with 16 Opposition members applying for a Congress ticket. But that evening, the applecart was upset when CorCom (Co-ordination Committee), of seven armed rebel groups — the UNLF, the RPF, the KCP, the PREPAK, the PREPAK(Pro), the KYKL and the UPPK — banned the Congress from contesting the elections, warning candidates and activists against any election-related activity. The CorCom said it had banned the Congress indefinitely for its “anti-people and anti-revolutionary policy.” Subsequently, the police foiled an attempt to blow up the Congress office with RDX explosive on January 8.
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Uma Makes it 4-Cornered in Bundelkhand - Devesh Kumar, Economic Times
With Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi renewing his campaign in Bundelkhand,BJP on Wednesday night announced Uma Bharatis candidature from Charkhari.This has set the stage for an intense quadrangular contest in the region for the UP assembly polls.It was in Bundelkhand that Gandhi had kicked off his oust-Mayawati political project,accusing the state government of doing precious little to uplift the living conditions of the people of the region.
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UP polls: Uma reminds Rahul of Italy link to his 'outsider' charge - Indian Express
A day after BJP made her a candidate in the UP Assembly polls, Uma Bharti traded barbs with Rahul Gandhi after being dubbed an outsider and vowed to defeat the Congress like she made his "guru" Digvijay Singh once "bite the dust" in Madhya Pradesh. Hitting back at the Congress General Secretary for his remarks that Bharti was contesting from UP though she was from MP, Bharti said the young leader should remember that his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi was from Italy and has been accepted in India.
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Forget Bua, worry about Ma - Preetam Srivastava, Pioneer
Seen as BJP’s trump card in the Uttar Pradesh polls, Uma Bharti on Thursday hit back at Rahul Gandhi where it will hurt most. The fiery sanyasini reminded the Gandhi scion of his mother Sonia’s foreign origins after he questioned her domicile and asked where she was when the people of the most backward region of the State were crying for development. “Sonia Gandhi belongs to Italy. If people have accepted her, what’s wrong with me? I am from Madhya Pradesh, the neighbour State of Uttar Pradesh. Rahul better gather information about his mother before questioning about his bua (aunt),” she said.
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Delimitation plays the numbers game with political players - Sunil Kumar, Pioneer
The alteration in location and number of seats reserved for Schedule Castes (SC) and Schedule Tribes (ST) could have a noticeable effect on the Assembly elections 2012, which will be the first Assembly polls in Uttarakhand after delimitation. The delimitation exercise has further complicated political calculations. Data obtained from the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Uttarakhand indicates that delimitation has drastically changed the political landscape. Of the total 70 Assembly constituencies, 15 seats are new.
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RLD utilises youth power - Anil Yadav, Pioneer
After Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav the future of another GeNext leader, Mathura MP Jayant Chaudhary hinges on outcome of the Assembly polls. Fielding him from Mat Assembly segment in Mathura, the party has planned his roadshow across the Jat belt in western UP and in post-poll scenario the RLD leaders are seeing a great political inning for him. The roadshow of Jayant from Iglas in Aligarh would reach Mat, under his parliamentary constituency, on January 21. During next one month he will be addressing public meetings in favour of RLD candidates in Muzaffar Nagar, Bijnore, Agra, JP Nagar, Meerut and other districts of western region.
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Voting debutants to have a ball - Sayantanee Choudhury, Pioneer
A majority of the 87,000 youngsters in Uttarakhand who will be exercising their franchise for the first time seem to be elated about joining the voters’ club, but confused about which candidate to support for in the 2012 Legislative Assembly elections. Though the main parties in Uttarakhand have promised either unemployment allowance or employment to the youth, none of them have made any specific efforts to attract first-time voters and youngsters.
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‘D Ltd’ sets up prestige battle in Ph-I - AR Usmani, Pioneer
More than 21 lakh electorates will seal the fate of candidates across the seven Assembly constituencies in the district during the first phase of poll scheduled to take place on February 8. While after delimitation, the equations of seats have undergone considerable changes, the prestige of bigwigs are involved overtly or covertly. The Gonda district has seven seats and the delimitation witnessed the dismantling of Sadullanagar seat and the creation of Gaura seat besides changing the name of Mujehna to Mehnaun and taking the Diksir seat out of the reserved cateogry and putting it in general category with new name of Tarabganj.
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Malwa waits for command of the Dera - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
Political parties in the Malwa region of Punjab are waiting with bated breath. Cutting across all divides, they are awaiting the instructions of a non-political organisation to its followers to swing the fortunes in their favour. Dera Sacha Sauda, headed by Baba Gurmit Ram Rahim, has such a political clout and influence in the Malwa belt that political parties have been forced to run to its headquarters in Haryana’s Sirsa district to get a favourable response and instructions issued in their favour.
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No comments on ‘Tatkal’ question - Preetam Srivastava, Pioneer
The move to placate Congress loyalists, who were denied tickets, has backfired in Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh’s face. Hurt partymen have asked Singh to arrange for ‘Tatkal’ workers (turncoats) for the Assembly polls as tickets were given to Tatkal candidates. Singh had convened a meeting of the heads of all frontal organisations of Congress in a desperate effort to convince them and urge them to work for party welfare ahead of the polls. What riled partymen, especially Muslims, is the fact a large number of erswthile BJP men too were fielded as Congress candidates on Singh’s advice. The Congress had earlier given more than 50 per cent tickets to turncoats citing ‘winnability’.
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Punjab's own tale of Ayarams & Gayarams - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
Neighbouring Haryana, which is considered the younger sibling of Punjab, may have heralded the ‘Aya Ram Gaya Ram’ phenomenon in politics — changing parties at the drop of a hat — but poll-bound Punjab is not far behind. Unlike Haryana, where several parties have mushroomed and flourished over the years, Punjab practically has a two-party system — Akali Dal and Congress for decades. This has prompted some Punjabis to proudly proclaim that the State is similar to the US and UK, where two parties are the norm. As a result, ‘party-hopping’ in Punjab is limited to these two and the seasonal birds have not much of an option beyond.
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Evenly poised battle for power - Kalyani Shankar, Pioneer
The Congress is in a position to win both the States, depending on the anti incumbency factor. However, there is some complacency. Talk to any Congressman and you will get the feeling that the party has already won there. While it has no Chief Ministerial candidate in Uttarakhand, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is in charge in Punjab. The BJP is a minor partner in Punjab and it has chances of improving its position, while it can retain Uttarakhand if the anti incumbency factor does not work.
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There is more to elections than winning votes - Pioneer
A democratic political system can only be sustained, nurtured and nourished by political parties which have a strong grassroots organisation and which contest elections to seek a popular mandate that is based on specific ideologies and clearly defined social issues. Further, a society which is experiencing rapid social changes, cannot be effectively represented by leaders who simply make tall electoral promises that they do not intend to fulfill after the elections.
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Will Priyanka score 10/10? - Sunita Aron, Hindustan Times
Every election, when Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi campaign across UP, the onus of holding the Rae Bareli and Amethi forts is on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. It has been a tradition, but for political reasons. Priyanka works tirelessly in the Lok Sabha constituencies of her mother (Rae Bareli) and brother (Amethi), as they focus on the big picture. In the general elections, Priyanka's task is easier as Sonia and Rahul are in the fray. In assembly elections, she is the sounding board for people's anger against the sitting MLAs.
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Punjab bets: Cong most likely, but just ahead on seats - Harpreet Bajwa, IE
The race for Punjab may have been predicted as close, but the satta market’s indicators at this point show the Congress as far more likely to win than the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance. It is in the number of seats that the race will be close, with the market predicting a difference of seven. The satta market has not always been a good predictor, though. In the last election, it had given the SAD 70 to 75 seats, way over the 48 it won before it formed the government with the BJP’s 19. And for the Congress, which ended up with 44, the market had predicted only 30 to 35.
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Team Anna's pamphlet attacks Congress - Gargi Parsai, Hindu
Even while claiming that it will not target any single party in its campaign in poll-bound States, Team Anna released a pamphlet on Friday in which it accused the Congress of betraying the country on the Lokpal issue. The four-page pamphlet titled ‘Your Vote can Change the History of India — Betrayal by Central Government on the Country' also questions Rahul Gandhi, Mulayam Singh, Mayawati and the BJP on Lokpal, Lokayukta, autonomy of the CBI, land acquisition and participatory democracy.
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Race for Muslim votes in UP - Rasheeda Bhagat, Business Line
Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad, one of the most important Shia leaders in the country and Member, All Indian Muslim Personal Law Board, is not cagey, but genuinely circumspect, when he tells me, seated in his house on a windy and freezing night in Lucknow: “The UP Muslims are totally undecided on who to support in this election. They are not confused, but hesitant, about backing this party or that, because, honestly, no party has done anything for their welfare.”
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Government's quota card: 27% petrol pumps for OBCs - Rajeev Jayaswal, ET
The government plans to reserve a quarter of new petrol pumps, a coveted money-spinning business, for Other Backward Classes (OBC) as it seeks to woo a key voting segment that has a strong bearing on election results. State-run firms Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, which have a near-monopoly in fuel retail, will have to allot 27% of new pumps to OBCs. Currently 25% of the pumps are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and another quarter is reserved for defence personnel, freedom fighters, sportspersons and handicapped people.
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BJP cadre is united and intact, corruption is Congress birthright - Navhind Times
The former BJP MLA, Late Babu Naik’s kin Mr Bhai Naik, while addressing the media, stated that the BJP is a much disciplined party unlike the Congress and goes ahead with campaigning and door-to-door visits only after the party high command declares the candidate. “The Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and his Congress supporters have been going for so-called house-to-house meetings to campaign. These meetings are not house-to-house as Mr Kamat only spends time in a single flat gathering everybody from each colony,” asserted Mr Naik.
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State Polls to Impact UPA - Sunil Gatade, Navhind Times
For the last decade, Uttar Pradesh is being run by regional parties like the Samajwadi Party earlier and now the Bahujan Samaj Party and the national parties, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party have taken a backseat. In elections, Punjab and Uttarakhand have often changed sides between Congress and anti-Congress forces with one side giving way to the other every five years. In Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal along with the Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power for the past five years while in the hilly state of Uttarakhand, the battle so far has remained between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.
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And the winner Is...Chaos - Saba Naqvi, Outlook
Chief minister Mayawati is believed to be on a weak wicket, yet she begins her campaign as late as January 27. One can only assume that she has a strategy. What one cannot ignore is that if the election is a 100-metre run, then she always starts with a 20-metre advantage, given her Dalit votebank, which constitutes about 21 per cent of the population. And when she does start campaigning, it will be a whirlwind of rallies across the state. That apart, she has a cadre, has dropped 100 candidates and in the last two weeks changed 10 ministers. It’s her way of combating anti-incumbency. Yet the game has opened up as she has lost considerable support in other communities.
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Who’s for the toss? - Chander Suta Dogra, Outlook
ublic meeting of the day in his home constituency of Lambi. “If you elect me, you will once again have me as the chief minister of the state...and no one else.” He needs to say this now, more than ever before, because the old warhorse has realised that though son and deputy CM Sukhbir Badal had all but anointed himself as the next chief ministerial candidate of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), it hasn’t gone down well with the ranks. In fact, Junior ended up ruffling so many feathers, it became crucial for the chief minister to take the lead once again and assure everyone that the son won’t be calling the shots.
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My enemy, maya enemy? - Ajoy Bose, Outlook
Political and media pundits appear to have declared Mayawati the loser long before the electoral battle can begin in earnest. Two pre-poll surveys of the electoral mood in Uttar Pradesh doing the rounds in the capital forecast a drastic fall in the BSP tally—half or less than what it won last election. There is an assumption that with all three of her opponents, the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the BJP, predicted to improve upon their previous performances, the only big loser can be the BSP.
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Chhattisgarh govt panel heads do overtime, for BJP - Ashutosh Bhardwaj, IE
In this recent Facebook post, Chairperson of Chhattisgarh Bal Sanrakshan Ayog Yashwant Jain wrote how despite difficult terrain and biting cold he is campaigning for the BJP in Uttarakhand. He is not alone. Several officers holding top constitutional and statutory offices in Chhattisgarh are campaigning for the party in Uttarakhand with support of state administrative machinery. All of them held party posts earlier. Asked if it amounted to violation of his service rules and election code of conduct, Jain told The Indian Express over the phone: “I am the chairperson only in Chhattisgarh, so restrictions are only there. I can campaign elsewhere. Polls are on January 30, I will return after that.”
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22 yrs after Rajiv visited Kaushambi, son Rahul lands, fills the air with nostalgia - Prashant Pandey, Indian Express
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi may not have mentioned it, or even remembered it, but his public address at Dr A H Rizvi Degree College here on Friday had its own share of nostalgia. It was around 22 years ago that a member of "such a big family" had visited the region. The member was none other than his father and the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He had addressed a public gathering at Bharwari a few km from here.
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No star campaigners please - Ramaninder K Bhatia, Times of India
These are unlike any elections that Punjab has witnessed so far. It may sound unbelievable, but no candidate wants any star campaigner to dance to their poll tunes this time, not even the ever popular Bollywood stars, or their star-like political leaders. Poll buzz in the parties reveal that the major reason for this discontent is the EC's strict eye on the expenditure which has candidates looking over their shoulders all the time. At Moga rally on Thursday, the expenditure observer's staff was busy counting the number of chairs in the enclosure.
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In Manipur, a tough battle looms - Sushanta Talukdar, Hindu
Manipur is poised for a tough and close poll battle. The ruling Congress party is hoping to make it to a third consecutive term. However, the opposition parties, not in a position to take on the Congress single-handedly, have teamed up in a bid to prevent a Congress win. Also, the Congress is facing a tough challenge posed by insurgent groups, which have clamped a “ban” on it and launched a series of grenade and bomb attack on its candidates, leaders and supporters.
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Beni might turn out to be Congress' bane in U.P. - Ashish Sinha, Mail Today
Fanfare often, has limited utility because sound theoretical assumptions tend to go haywire during elections, particularly when the turf is as complex as UP. This appears to be a not-so-remote possibility for the Congress which has placed heavy bets on Union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma's capacity to transform the party's fortunes in the elections. The former lieutenant of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was heartily welcomed into the Congress before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls because the party saw in him a leader who could put the Kurmi votes into the party's basket.
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30% voters oppose politics of caste - Swati Mathur, Times of India
Results of the baseline survey of knowledge, attitude, behaviour and practices of voters in Uttar Pradesh suggest nearly 60% voters believe that tickets should not be given to corrupt candidates. In what may come as a rude shock to most political parties in the state, nearly 30% voters also said that politics of caste should be discouraged. The findings are based on the survey commissioned in UP by Election Commission of India in June 2011. The results of the five-month long exercise were completed and handed over to the office of Chief Electoral Commissioner Umesh Sinha in the last week of December 2011.
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Uttarakhand: After the blizzard - Prarthna Gahilote, Outlook
Every hundred metres or so on the highway from Roorkee to Dehradun, the Uttarakhand capital, life-size hoardings of incumbent chief minister Maj General (retd) B.C. Khanduri loom up with this message: ‘Khanduri hai Zaroori’. The slogan, coined by the BJP last week, is splashed liberally all across the state, on posters, hoardings, even newspaper advertisements. Six months back, when Khanduri was picked by the party again to replace tainted CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, he knew his job was cut out. An internal survey by the BJP had already set off alarm bells. It said the party under Nishank would not win more than seven out of the 70 assembly seats. Khanduri was brought in to reverse the tide. Six months later, it’s still an uphill task.
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Smile for the party - Debarshi Dasgupta, Outlook
About two years ago, while releasing the manifesto for the 2009 parliamentary elections, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) had promised to banish “unemployment-generating” computers, whenever and wherever he could. Today, as his party prepares to challenge Mayawati’s hold over Uttar Pradesh, he flips through visuals of his party’s slick ad campaign on an iPad. There’s little he can do, it seems, but embrace technology and professionalism as the SP—like other political parties in the fray—take to private publicists to effectively carry their message to more voters.
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Pollsutra 2012 - Outlook
1,35,149 In litres, countrymade and foreign liquor seized so far by special EC teams in collaboration with state excise departments in UP. The tipple was on its way, presumably, for distribution to ‘influence’ voters.
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Bundelkhand: Dalit and the dominoes - Revati Laul, Tehelka
“The elephant is shit.” The voice of a single disgruntled voter in election season does not count for anything by itself. But when it comes from the heart of Mayawati’s vote base, in Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region, is the voice of a Dalit farmer, and is part of a growing crescendo of discontent, it’s an alarm bell. This time, as she readies for the state Assembly election in February-March, the challenge before the Dalit leader is formidable.
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Congress’ weaver benefit package tied up in red tape - Samarth Saran, Tehelka
All India Congress Committee General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s much-touted financial assistance package for weavers has hit a roadblock. According to officials of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), which is the implementing agency for distribution of the Rs 6,234-crore package, money will only be released after results of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
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Father of ‘killer’ son gets Congress ticket - Avalok Langer, Tehelka
Unable to control his temper, the son of the Congress leader pulled out a gun and fired. The bullet passed through the neck of the 18-year-old, who bled to death. Evidence was tampered with, witnesses were threatened and the victim’s family was forced to take their fight for justice to the streets. No, this is not a recap of the Jessica Lall murder in Delhi, but the story of Rozer Irom, who was shot in broad daylight in Manipur’s capital Imphal by Ajay Meitei, the son of Congress minister Nongthambam Biren Singh. TEHELKA carried the story of Rozer's murder in May 2011.
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Race for Muslim votes: Mulayam promises separate quota - Virendra Nath Bhatt, Tehelka
Amidst the intense battle for capturing Muslim votes in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has promised separate reservation to the community as per its share in the state population to consolidate its traditional vote base. Releasing its 24-page election manifesto here on Friday, the SP promised reservation for Muslims on the same pattern as granted to scheduled castes (SCs). In a bid to shed its anti-computer image, the SP promised free laptops to students who clear the 12th standard exams and tablets to high school pass-outs. The SP also claimed that it was never against English language.
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Congress has six CM aspirants - Navhind Times
The Congress, which is already dealing with the problem of plenty while deciding on its nominees for the upcoming March 3 assembly elections, would have to undertake a mammoth task in selection of its chief ministerial candidate if the party is voted back to power. Though the incumbent Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat should be an automatic choice for the post of the Chief Minister if the Congress wins the elections, sources in the Congress said that history has revealed that the Congress high command had effected change after the party was voted back to the power and that this could happen after the results of March 3 elections were out.
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96 and counting... Punjab candidates line up at Dera for ‘blessings’ ahead of vote - Maneesh Chhibber, Indian Express
his is one place where politicians, big and small, line up. And they register themselves, either in person or on phone, for appointments to meet the one person they all want in their corner. Welcome to Dera Sacha Sauda, the controversial but highly influential religious sect based in Sirsa, Haryana. Its support is being sought by candidates of every party for the Punjab Assembly elections. The reason why politicians are eager to curry favour with the Dera is the huge votebank — Dera officials claim the number is 30 lakh-plus in Punjab alone — that the sect controls.
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I’m Kalyan’s heiress: Uma - Indian Express
Three days after announcement of her candidature from Charkhari constituency of Bundelkhand, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharti on Saturday said she is the heiress of Kalyan Singh — former UP chief minister and BJP’s erstwhile “Hindutva face”. Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, she said, “I am not the replacement or substitute of Kalyan Singhji. I am the heiress of Kalyan Singhji.”
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Battleground Badal - Raghvendra Rao, Indian Express
A journey of around 300 km from Punjab’s capital Chandigarh into the heart of its Malwa region, is what it takes to get a flavour of the kind of political churning Punjab is witnessing in the run-up to elect its next government. The state, which for decades has never allowed an incumbent government a consecutive term, is witnessing a keenly contested fight. And while some unprecedented strict monitoring on poll expenses by the Election Commission of India appears to have taken much sheen off the poll campaign, politicians are putting in all their energy into their campaigns.
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The poll watcher - Navjeevan Gopal, Indian Express
It is 8 a.m. and Harbhajan Singh has just reached Hamza, a village in Amritsar district that’s part of Majitha constituency, which goes to the polls on January 30. Singh, a Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) in the Amritsar Municipal Corporation, is here as head of a video surveillance team deployed by the Election Commission. On Thursday, he had set off early in the morning from Amritsar, accompanied by his driver Prem Singh and cameraman Harjeet Singh. He didn’t heed to warnings about the fog he would encounter—he simply had to be there before Bikram Majithia, SAD candidate from Makitha and Youth Akali Dal president, reaches Hamza for his first election rally of the day.
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BJP was biggest spender in North Goa seats - Michael Fisher, Navhind Times
The list of party expenditures for 2007 assembly elections shows that the Bharatiya Janata Party spent `59.72 lakh, almost double the amount spent by the Indian National Congress and the 28 Independent candidates put together for North Goa constituencies. The Congress, on the other hand, spent `33.82 lakh and the Independents’ poll expenses stood at `30.89 lakh. The opposition leader, Mr Manohar Parrikar spent `1,98,250, while Mr Dayanand Ragunath Sopte, the BJP candidate who won the elections from the Pernem constituency, spent `3,44,968. Another BJP candidate, Mr Sadanand Mhalu Shet Tanawade spent `65,775, the least among the 17 BJP candidates for the North Goa constituencies.
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Lesser OBCs critical to UP's poll outcome - Chandan Mitra, Pioneer
In the wake of the implementation of the Mandal Commission Report by VP Singh and its fierce fallout, Syed Shahabuddin, then infamous for making incendiary remarks (a Digvijay Singh of his times?) suggested that India ought to have a fully caste-based quota policy wherein each caste and community should get reservation in Government jobs in proportion to its numbers. Naturally this drew frenzied protest from analysts and politicians alike. It was pointed out that, for instance, Kayasths who number less than two per cent of Hindus but occupy a very high share of Government jobs on account of their traditional skills, would be reduced to insignificance to the detriment of the administration.
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Uma Bharti: Congress deviating from core poll issues - Times of India
BJP leader Uma Bharti on Saturday accused the Congress of maligning her and urged Rahul Gandhi to "stop trivialization and consequent digression from serious poll issues in UP". Taking a dig at Rahul's oft-repeated slogan, "Maya's haathi paisa khata hai' (Maya's elephant eats money)," Uma said "it was the Congress which was hell bent on feeding the elephant". "They have been feeding Mayawati's elephant, so that they can keep their pet elephants in Delhi well-fed. Corrupt brigade sitting in Delhi, including Suresh Kalmadi, A Raja, P Chidambaram, Sheila Dixit, are being sheltered by the same strategy," she said.
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New seat, new state, otherwise familiar ground for Uma - Sanjay Singh, IE
Murlidhar Lodhi of Uttar Pradesh works anxiously at preparing a welcome for his close relatives from across the Madhya Pradesh border. He lives in Supa village of Mahoba district, part of Uma Bharti’s Charkhari Assembly seat, and each of his four grandsons has married a girl from MP’s Chhatarpur district, part of the Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat that the leader has won several times. Supa’s Lodhi voters have never missed an opportunity to visit Chhatarpur whenever Uma Bharti has contested from Kahjuraho, Murlidhar Lodhi says, and now it’s Supa’s turn to play host. “Uma Bharti will contest an election from our Charkhari,” he says, as he goes about his preparations. “This is question of the Lodhis’ pride.”
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Cynicism stumps hope in Manipur - Laishram Nandalal Singh, Pioneer
The Assembly election in Manipur is not so much about choosing among the candidates of different political parties. It is an occasion for a large number of the voters to access free meals, engage in merry-making and push for the realisation of many of their demands that the politicians have so far ignored. Coming as the election does after long weeks of economic blockades by various groups agitating over a plethora of demands, that disrupted normal life and raised the costs of living, the election is indeed a reason for the Manipuris to be cheerful about.
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Minority hogs majority agenda in UP election - Tavishi Srivastava, Pioneer
The minority vote bank continues to be the decisive factor in determining the victory margin of the major political parties. No wonder there is a virtual race among all the outfits to catch their votes. Come elections and the “luring game” begins with a package of poll promises. Minority welfare and reservation politics have assumed top priority in the manifesto of the parties. Taking advantage of the situation, Muslim outfits mushroom during elections and they field their own candidates against parties, only to later bargain for a better deal. Some of the parties in the fray include the Ittehad Front, Ulema Council and Mili Council. A close examination of the voting pattern of the Muslims shows that they seldom cast their votes en bloc.
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Christians are the focus of BJP's Goa gameplan - Shekhar Iyer, Hindustan Times
The BJP is going all out to woo Goa's Christians, who account for 25% of voters and have traditionally backed the Congress. The party has taken this step after losing electoral battles in Goa, particularly in the southern parts of the state. Leading this campaign is IIT-educated former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, 56, who is leader of the opposition in the 2007-12 Goa assembly, in which the party has only 12 seats. The state, which has 40 seats, goes to polls on March 3.
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RSS, BJP differ over UP poll estimates - Yojna Gusai, Asian Age
The RSS assessment of the coming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab differs from that of the BJP. While the BJP is hopeful of taking its tally in politically important state of UP from current figure of 48 (it had won 51 Assembly seats in 2007 but lost three seats in bypolls) to anywhere between 100 to 110, the RSS calculations shows the saffron party will definitely gain in this state but the figure will not exceed 70-75.
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Rajnath’s son rise sparks BJP heartburn over allegations of favouritism - Piyush Srivastava, Mail Today
The BJP is collapsing under the weight of its own heavyweights in UP. Minutes after the appointment of Pankaj Singh - son of party's former president Rajnath Singh - as general secretary of the UP unit on Sunday, three senior state-level functionaries tendered their resignation in protest. Daya Shanker Singh, Santosh Singh and Ashwini Tyagi - who have forwarded their resignations to party president Nitin Gadkari are UP BJP secretaries.
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Modi's new Amity show is all part of his PM mission - DP Bhattacharya, Mail Today
Curves can be treacherous. Past one's prime, one needs to rely more on skill than force to negotiate the passages, even in politics. Chief minister Narendra Modi knows it. The once fire-breathing Hindu Hriday Samrat is a man of amity now, busy reaching out to the people, whose victimisation had once cemented his position in Gujarat politics. But that was ten years ago. As Modi preached unity, amity and development to the country, the crowd cheered on at the ground zero in Godhra.
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Congress suspects Maya has an ace up her sleeve - Kay Benedict, Mail Today
After the initial euphoria - triggered by the good response to Rahul Gandhi's election campaign in Uttar Pradesh (UP) - the Congress now fears that BSP supremo and state CM Mayawati might just turn the tables on it. On Friday, the party's core committee, comprising PM Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi, and senior leaders Pranab Mukherjee, A. K. Antony, P. Chidambaram and Ahmed Patel, discussed the feedback from the pollbound states and came to the conclusion that the Congress had to work harder, particularly in UP. In the wake of apprehensions that Behenji might have some aces up her sleeve, the party managers are gearing up for a reality check. Sources said Rahul and senior leaders are expected to review the poll strategy next week.
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Assembly elections a litmus test for UPA - Liz Mathew, Mint
Starting later this week, five states, including Uttar Pradesh, will go to the polls. The results could not only define the contours of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) but also influence the future of a new generation of leaders. A big win for the Congress, a key contestant in all the five states, could create pressure from within the party on general secretary Rahul Gandhi to play a larger role.
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How a weak BJP has fired up UP’s Muslims - Seema Mustafa, DNA
Uttar Pradesh’s Muslims have decided to vote for development and progress above issues like Babri Masjid. The young and the old spoke of the need for a better life, with more jobs and opportunities, insisting that issues like Babri Masjid were ‘history’, at least for now. Most Muslims insisted that reservation was certainly not the determining factor. Development and jobs are the emerging consensus with the younger Muslims, who point out that they were tired of waiting now. “There seems to be no hope in sight, no one cares,” said Feroze Siddiqui a young lawyer in Domariaganj, maintaining that Muslims, like others, will now vote for the candidate and the political party best placed to fulfill its promises.
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The Congress shall overcome - Hindu
Rishang Keishing (93), four-time Chief Minister of Manipur and now the oldest member in the Rajya Sabha, is not fighting the elections, but son Victor is contesting from Phungyar in the hill district of Ukhrul. Like other Congress candidates he had to file his nomination papers in Imphal because of the threat from CorCom. But Keishing confidently told Iboyaima Laithangbam that the Congress would secure a majority in the January 28 polls. What have you to say about the threats to the Congress candidates and their supporters from CorCom, the strike force of seven extremist organisations?
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Uttarakhand: 'Mr. Clean' fights anti-incumbency - Sandeep Joshi, Hindu
Riding on the economic growth achieved in the first term of the United Progressive Alliance government, the Congress swept all five Lok Sabha seats in the General Elections in Uttarakhand in 2009, a result which no political pundit predicted. Two years on, as the State goes to the Assembly polls for the third time since its creation in 2002, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is back in the game, hoping to gain from the return of B.C. Khanduri as Chief Minister and the enactment of the Lokayukta Bill — certified as a model anti-corruption Act by no less than Team Anna.
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BJP tars Mayawati and brother in graft paint - Times of India
The BJP on Tuesday alleged that Mayawati and her brothers had amassed wealth worth thousands of crores of rupees in the past five years and demanded a CBI inquiry. A PTI report quoting BSP said it had already rubbished the charges. The party said the allegations had been levelled by BJP out of frustration due to the party's "rejection" by the poor, dalits, backwards and minorities.
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Poll in Manipur, anxiety for Congress in Nagaland - Rahul Karmakar, HT
Mandate 2012 in Manipur isn't just a fight between the ruling Congress and the rest. It's a clash of ideology between Manipur CM Okram Ibobi Singh and his Nagaland counterpart Neiphiu Rio. It is also a battle for survival for the Congress in Nagaland, on the slide since the 2008 assembly election there. Bordering Nagaland, Mao is a Naga-dominated hill town on the blockade-prone National Highway 39 (now NH2), 110 km north of Manipur capital Imphal. The town's emotional attachment with Nagaland has often accentuated the divide between the Imphal Valley, Manipur's administrative epicentre, and the surrounding hills.
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UP Poll: Congress communalising politics, says BJP - Hindu
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday charged the Congress with communalising politics in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, saying the Salman Rushdie episode was the latest in a series of such moves by that party. BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said the decision of the government to provide for 4.5 per cent sub-quota for Other Backward Classes minorities from within 27 per cent reservation, declaration of intent by the Union Law Minister Salman Khursheed to raise the reservation quota for minorities to 9 per cent and description of the Batla encounter as fake by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh were some of the examples of the Congress communalising politics.
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STAR News Opinion Poll: Cong wins Punjab, BJP in Uttarakhand - Star News
It looks like a mixed bag for the Congress in the upcoming assembly polls in Punjab and Uttarakhand. In the latest STAR News-Nielsen Opinion Poll, while Congress is getting majority in Punjab with 63 seats in the house of 117, Akali Dal-BJP alliance is getting only 53 seats. In Uttarakhand, the ruling BJP is retaining power with 39 seats while Congress is getting 29 seats in the house of 70.
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Setback for Akali-BJP as Cong wins Punjab - News Bullet
In the latest STAR News-Nielsen Opinion Poll, while Congress is getting majority in Punjab with 63 seats in the house of 117, Akali Dal-BJP alliance is getting only 53 seats. In Punjab, from January 4 to January 16 in 59 Lok Sabha seats 10,612 voters' opinions were taken. According to the voters, Congress can win 63 seats and to form government required seats is 59. In last assembly election, Akali-BJP coalition had won 68 seats, but this time they have to satisfy themseleves with only 53 seats. In this assembly election the Congress is not only gaining seats but also they are gaining voting share.
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BJP magic to continue in Uttarakhand - News Bullet
In the latest STAR News-Nielsen Opinion Poll, in Uttarakhand, the ruling BJP is retaining power with 39 seats while Congress is getting 29 seats in the house of 70. The survey, conducted by STAR News-Nielsen, was done from 4 Jan to 18 Jan 2012 across 36 constituencies with the help of 5,887 voters.In 2007 assembly election Congress had recieved 29.83 per cent votes. The party is expected that the party will get 39 per cent votes, Which is a 9 per cent jump.
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From cycles to laptops: The make-over of the Samajwadi Party - First Post
A new dress code, younger candidates, a tech-savvy image–The Samajwadi Party is trying hard to change its image. The cycle which once rode with history-sheeters like Atik Ahmed and DP Yadav has now become the launch pad for Cambridge-educated Abhishek Misra. The 34-year-old has quit his job at IIM Ahmedabad to contest the Assembly Elections from Lucknow, reported CNN-IBN. The Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Lucknow said, “Times are changing. The party is making itself relevant to changing times.”
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Miffed Muslim board may hurt UPA in UP - Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, Times of India
Annoyed over the uncertainty looming over their demands for amendments in RTE Act, Waqf Property and Direct Taxes Code bills, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board has started public meetings to mobilise public opinion against UPA government's 'dilly-dallying tactics'. Speaking to TOI, AIMPLB spokesperson Abdul Rahim Qureshi claims that the board had appraised the ministry of finance and the parliamentary standing sommittee chaired by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha about the concerns, but to no avail.
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Malwa remains key among Punjab’s three regions, never mind last time - Chitleen K Sethi, Indian Express
The Malwa region, with 65 of Punjab’s 117 seats, remains key as ever to the elections, even though the trend here last time was for once not a reflection of the overall result. In 2007, Malwa voted overwhelmingly for the Congress, giving it 37 seats. However, the Congress fared so badly in the other two belts, Majha and Doaba, that it failed to form the government — the first time it has happened to the leader in Malwa since 1966.
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Post-poll deals hold the key - Sudhir Panwar, Mint
The Uttarakhand election campaign was marred by the uncertainty regarding the programmes of the star campaigners due to hostile weather conditions. This uncertainty may extend to government formation in this small state. Taking a cue from the voting behaviour of the state in past elections and the inability of the two major parties—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress—to thrash out election issues, it seems that anti-incumbency will be the single dominant issue when the state votes on 30 January.
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Uttarakhand heads for hung assembly - Appu Esthose Suresh, Mint
Uttarakhand may be heading for a hung assembly with no political party likely to win a majority on its own in the 30 January assembly elections. The Congress had been initially favoured to unseat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from power in the northern state of 10 million people, but now it appears to be an election too close to call.
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Punjab voters have little to choose between parties - Viney Sharma, ET
Barely a week before Punjab goes to the polls, Kippal Singh from Sahnewal near Ludhiana is yet to firm up his choice. Like many other debt-ridden farmers in the agrarian state, he is fed up with empty words and too-good-to-be-true promises being hurled at voters from every poll podium. Little has changed over the past three decades, the 55-year-old laments, despite both the Akali Dal and Congress getting ample opportunities to turn the tide in the state where the debt is likely to cross Rs 77,000 crore by the end of this fiscal.
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Mission BSP: Punjab & Uttarakhand 2012 - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
The Bahujan Samaj Party may be a force to reckon with in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and to some extent in Uttarakhand, but in Punjab — the State where it was founded and showed initial promise — the party has been pushed to the fringe as a marginal political player. Party chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati launched the campaign in a whirlwind tour of the State for two days and reminded her core vote bank that Kanshi Ram, the ‘Manyavar’ in BSP lexicon, hailed from the State and they had to ensure that the dreams of the party’s founder of forming Government in Punjab was fulfilled in the 2012 polls.
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Sister sense & sensibility - Preetam Srivastava, Pioneer
The much publicised speculation that the charisma of star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will now also be used by the party in other parts of the State is likely to be put to rest. The growing resentment within loyalists in Rahul’s own bastion Amethi and Rae Bareli is said to be noticed by Priyanka, though she is the non-political scion of the Gandhi dynasty. She is said to have passed on the message to her camp in the twin city that she will now camp in her mother as well as her brother’s constituencies from February 2, till the voting takes place.
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Uma’s entry adds colour - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
With BJP announcing Uma Bharti’s candidature from Charkhari it not only changed the political equation in Bundelkhand but also added colour to otherwise insipid election campaign in this rugged region besotted with poverty and inequality. The war of words between the Congress and the BJP leaders has intensified. The words like ‘Putna’ and ‘outsiders’ for Uma Bharti flew thick and fast, and the reply came in the inimitable Uma Bharti style asking Rahul not to meddle with his Bua (aunty). She also threw a gauntlet at guru (Digvijay Singh) and chela (Rahul Gandhi) saying she had defeated the Congress in MP and repeat this in UP.
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A doddering Tiwari eyes CM chair at 87 - Poornima Joshi & Raju Gusain, Mail Today
The Congress has been bitten by the BJP bug in Uttarakhand. The party already had a problem of plenty in terms of chief ministerial aspirants - just like the BJP with its many prime ministerial aspirants - without the 87-year-old N.D. Tiwari doing an L.K. Advani on his beleaguered party.
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‘Heights’ of campaigning - Pioneer
Campaigning in the 20 hill constituencies for the forthcoming elections to the 60-member Assembly in Manipur has been at its peak, but it has not picked up a similar fervour in other parts of the north eastern State. In stark contrast to the low-key campaigning in the 40 constituencies in the valley, there is hectic electioneering in the 20 hill constituencies.
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Congress makes Goa polls a family matter - IBNLive
Four political families in Goa are seeking as many as 10 assembly tickets from the Congress for the March 3 polls, prompting rivals to hurl accusations of nepotism inspired by the party's national leadership. The party's Goa unit president Subhash Shirodkar refused to take a call on the 'one family one ticket' philosophy, which was the bedrock of its ticket-giving policy in the 2007 assembly elections. Shirodkar said the four families, each of them led by powerful patriarchs, had laid claim to 10 tickets in constituencies throughout Goa. "The Alemaos have applied for four tickets, Naik has applied in two - Ritesh and himself, Monserrate two and Rane two," Shirodkar said.
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Manipur: crorepatis gear up to win polls - Sumon K Chakrabarti, IBNLive
Manipur, a state often forgotten in mainland India does not lag far behind when it comes to money power to win elections. With 291 politicians from 8 parties vying for 60 seats in the state assembly, the January 28 Manipur elections has crorepatis gearing up to win the polls. But surprisingly Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh is not even a crorepati, his declared assets are being questioned by many. He owns just a 1988-make Ambassador and 240 gm of gold. From just Rs 6 lakhs in 2007, his asset value has now gone up to Rs 71 lakhs. But for a man rumoured to have properties across the country - from Gurgaon to Bangalore to Goa, the valuation seems to be small change.
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Punjab: The other Badal's spring dream - Sachin Parashar, Economic Times
It's odd to hear a well-groomed salwarkameez clad Sardar explain Arab Spring to a motley group of Sikhs in a nondescript village, Maiserkhana, in Bathinda district. But that is Manpreet Badal, former finance minister and the 'other' Badal, who likes to look different with a white streak in his beard. The difference is not all superficial. While not many give him a considerable number of seats, the man is credited with changing the state's political discourse ahead of Assembly elections, focusing on development and need for a debt-ridden state to cut subsidies and power freebies.
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Uttarakhand candidates’ profile - Economic Times
The demand for probity in public life, following the Anna Hazare movement, has not deterred political parties from fielding tainted candidates in the forthcoming assembly polls. The following is the general profile of candidates in Uttarakhand:
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My people trust me, says Uttarakhand CM BC Khanduri - Ullekh NP, ET
Among several cynics in Uttarakhand government circles, there is a talk that the state may go the Kerala way - voting out the incumbent. By that logic, Congress should come to power. But such cynicism expressed in urban centres is missing elsewhere. BJP and Congress are both worried - BJP about anti-incumbency and Congress about the allegation that the Centre is not doing enough for the state.
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Uttarakhand polls: Survey a shot in Khanduri’s arm - Akshaya Mukul, Times of India
Tuesday morning Uttarakhand woke up to a pre-poll survey giving BJP an edge and another term. If excitement was missing from the campaign, here was the one BJP was waiting for and Congress could have done without. In just over an hour, the survey became part of CM BC Khanduri's discourse. Across meetings in Gairsen, Karn Prayag and Ghansali, Khanduri was exhorting people to give the party more than 40 seats.
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NSCN ‘interferes’ in Manipur polls - Esha Roy , Samudra Gupta Kashyap, IE
The NSCN(IM), which sees parts of Manipur in its vision of a “Greater Nagalim”, is interfering in the elections there and even fielding some proxy candidates in some constituencies, a Home Ministry official said in Guwahati on Tuesday. Parties and voters in Manipur, too, have complained about this to poll authorities. “The NSCN(IM) is openly interfering,” said the official, who sought not to be named. “Their leaders are proactively campaigning for some candidates, while a few proxy candidates have been also put up.”
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Jagan Mohan gathers support, Cong fears wipeout in polls - Sreenivas Janyala, Indian Express
As the Special CBI Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing till Thursday on a bail petition filed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, there was growing discomfiture within the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh over the move backfiring on the party.
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Uttarakhand Chief Minister B. C. Khanduri ready to give Congress tough fight - Poornima Joshi, India Today
The hills here are alive with what sounds like the march of a gritty general pulling an entire army along. Commissioning Major General Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri seems to have certainly revived the fledgling prospects of the BJP in poll-bound Uttarakhand. From what appeared to be a cakewalk for the Congress, the complexion of this election has changed in just about four months since the BJP decided to sack the totally discredited former chief minister CM), Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, and appoint Khanduri in his stead. The turnaround is so dramatic that some pollsters have predicted a simple majority for the BJP in the 70-member assembly.
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Let’s reshuffle to keep the ace! - Biswajeet Banerjee & Vivek Srivastava, Pioneer
To counter the anti-incumbency factor, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) carried out a massive reshuffle in the Devipatan Commissionary — the region from where Mayawati had reaped a very good political harvest in 2007 Assembly election. The commissionary comprising four districts of Bahraich, Gonda, Srawasti and Balrampur - had 19 Assembly constituencies in 2007. After delimitation this has gone up to 20. In the last election BSP took the larger share of the cake and won nine out of 19 seats — six more than 2002 polls.
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Heroes & villains change, graft remains - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
On February 28, 2007, Mayawati while addressing a strong crowd in Barabanki had vowed to send the then UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to jail if she came to power eliciting thunderous applause from the audience. The fire-brand BSP leader was then in the Opposition and the State had been rocked by a series of murders and Nithari was the latest addition to the list.
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Beni’s hour of reckoning - Maulshree Seth, Indian Express
The Congress’s rising OBC star Beni Prasad Verma will be on test in the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections, polling for which takes place on February 8. More than 60 per cent of the tickets for the 55 seats going to polls in the first phase were allotted on the recommendation of Verma, the Union Steel Minister, in the hope that he would swing the votes of his Kurmi community, plus other OBCs, their way.
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Daughters and wives carry family legacy in Punjab - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
They are the daughters and wives of prominent and not so prominent Punjab leaders. For them keeping alive the family tradition of politics is more important than anything else in life and contesting election a mission to keep the flag of family surname flying high. They want that the surnames of their fathers, husbands and family to remain in public domain, now and forever.
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Uttarakhand BJP banks on Khanduri image - Yojna Gusai, Asian Age
In Uttarakhand, “Khanduri is zaroori (chief minister B.C. Khanduri is needed)” for the ruling BJP. Banking on Mr Khanduri’s clean image and hoping that recent announcements made by the BJP government in the hill state, which also includes a “strong” Lokayukta and better healthcare, primary school, transport facilities, other than jobs for youth, will help the party regain its credibility, which had been dented during Mr Khanduri’s predecessor Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s tenure.
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Punjab polls: Dalit self-pride holds key in fertile Doaba - Sachin Parashar, ToI
Hummer wich aounde putt chamaran de (chamar kids arrive in Hummer), panga na le chamara de nal (don't get into a fight with chamars), Ravidassan di chandi (Ravidasis are doing great) and fighter chamar are some of the songs which the fertile Doaba region in Punjab is grooving to as it goes to polls next week. Until not so long ago, it was yaari jattan di, tu jatt di pasand and jatt di daang, songs which became popular even outside the state.
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New high command? - Pankaj Vohra, Hindustan Times
By declaring Captain Amarinder Singh as his party's chief ministerial candidate five days ahead of the Punjab assembly elections on Wednesday, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi not only reversed party tradition, but also gave credence to the growing impression that he is the new power centre in the party. The Congress is hoping that by naming a leader, Gandhi has ensured that party workers go into the final phase of electioneering with clear minds.
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UP elections: BJP banking on upper caste and most backward castes - ET
Most Backward Castes and upper castes dominate BJP's list for the UP assembly elections. The ticket distribution indicates the party's strategy of banking on a coalition of the two groups to help it revive in the politically crucial state. The party has awarded a large number of tickets to non-Yadav OBCs, particularly MBCs, Brahmins and Thakurs. While OBCs have cornered around 120 of the 403 tickets, MBCs and Mahadalits together are contesting nearly 100 seats. As many as 76 Brahmin candidates have walked away with party nominations, while Thakurs have been given 68 tickets. There are as many as around 50 women candidates in the fray.
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Daughter of Charkhari, not an outsider - Pioneer
Charkhari in Mahoba district is known as a mini-Vrindavan, for the 108 temples of Krishna that dot the town. It felt the strong presence of saffron as BJP candidate from this constituency, Uma Bharti, and party vice-president Kalraj Mishra interacted with the locals and swept the region with a wave in favour of the party. Bharti is expected to file her nomination papers from Charkhari on Saturday. On the other hand, giving a shot in the arm of the party, former MLA Bhairon Prasad Mishra, who had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha election from Banda on a BSP ticket, returned to the BJP fold on Wednesday, in the presence of Bharti and Mishra.
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ECI has no power to disqualify - Prabhakar Timble, Navhind Times
Under no statute of the country, the Election Commission of India has
the power to disqualify a person contesting elections or a person chosen
or to be chosen as a Member of Parliament or a state legislature.
Qualifications and disqualifications for members of Parliament are
stated under Article 84 and 102 of the Constitution of India. Similar
provisions are inserted under Article 73 and 191 for members chosen or
to be chosen for the state legislatures. Corrupt practices which may
involve disqualification, if convicted by competent courts are enlisted
under Section 8, 9A, 10-A and 11A of the Representation of People Act,
1951.
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Picture perfect, star caste - Sunita Aron, Hindustan Times
The successive fractured verdicts in UP elections until 2007 were often regretfully interpreted in terms of the state’s fractured society. But now it is an acknowledged fact that UP has only caste leaders in various parties. In the eighties, when Kanshi Ram had started building his Bahujan Samaj Party, he had started Dalit rallies. Then all the political parties condemned it. Today they are bitten by the same bug. Even the Congress has recovered some lost ground only after it jumped on the caste bandwagon.
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Fortress crumbling for congress - Raj Bahadur Singh, Pioneer
One of the relatively smaller and newly created division named after the historical temple of Devipatan has witnessed declining trend for the BJP during last two Assembly elections. Though all the three Lok Sabha seats within Devipatan division is currently held by the Congress but the saffron party is expecting reversal of fortunes this time.
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Six times lucky BJP OBC face to do it again? - Ramesh K Singh, Pioneer
After the waning of the Temple issue, the BJP turned its focus to backwards votes and zeroed in on the Lodhis in the west-central and Kurmis in the east of UP as bankable electorate. In this context, while Kalyan Singh was the undisputed backward face of the party due to the large number of Lodhi votes, Om Prakash Singh came to be known as the additional face of the backwards due to his clout among the Kurmis in the eastern part of the State.
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Separatist politics has no takers - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
Militant philosophy, extremist ideology and separatist tendencies, which marked the Punjab of the 1980s and early 1990s, have no takers in the 2012 Assembly polls. Parties professing separatist ideology have been thrown on to the backburner; they are no longer even fringe players in Punjab politics. Those professing extremist ideology or a separate State of Khalistan have not only been consistently losing their support base in successive elections but also their relevance in the socio-religious and cultural milieu of the State.
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Over 9,000 deras in Punjab, some as old as Sikh religion itself - Amrita Chaudhry, IE
Deras or sects are not new either to Punjab or the Sikh religion. With eyes on the January 30 polls, leaders are making a beeline for the deras where a blessing from the “Guru” could mean a large number of committed votes. So, while Sikh religion does not approve of these deras and especially worshiping a Guru in physical form — for the tenth Sikh Guru Guru Gobind Singh had during his lifetime declared the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Holy scripture, as the only living Guru — yet deras and sects in Punjab are a reality with some as old as the Sikh religion itself. While there is no statistical figure on how many deras do exactly exist in Punjab, Sikh scholars and rough estimates put the count at a whooping 9,000.
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Battling the enemies from within - Kalyani Shankar, Pioneer
Internal sabotage threatens both the Congress’s and the Shiromani Akali Dal’s chances in the Assembly poll in Punjab. Both have to deal with dissidents in the form of family and friends. Will Punjab repeat the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP rule or will the Congress form the Government? If one goes by past experience the State has not repeated the same Government twice in a row. Now it should be the turn of the Congress to rule. The people of Punjab may wish to vote for the Congress but the Congress itself seems to be complacent. Two months ago the Akalis were at the receiving end but now they are offering a stiff fight in many constituencies.
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Punjab’s poll menu — booze, dope and moolah - First Post
The forthcoming assembly elections in Punjab have come as a boon for those who love their pegs and sniffs, as political parties are freely distributing liquor and drugs to woo addicted voters. This deadly dose is accompanied by a huge amount of unaccounted cash. Recently, Rs 30,000 crore of unaccounted cash was seized in the state. Moreover, 11,000 litres of alcohol and 143,000 bottles were also hauled.
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Goa Elections: BJP-MGP tie-up on cards - Economic Times
BJP is likely to join hands with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party to unseat the Congress-led alliance in Goa, a move that is being seen as an attempt by the saffron party to prevent a split in the anti-Congress votes. Talks between the two parties on forging an alliance for the upcoming assembly elections in the coastal state have reached an advanced stage. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party is asking the state BJP leadership to concede eight seats.
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Lots of buzz at palace and rulers’ fort, little on way between - Vipin Pubby, IE
The sprawling Moti Bagh Palace, residence of the former Maharaja of Patiala, is for once not closed to the public. Its massive gates now open up for anyone who gives his identity and mobile number. Inside, the huge lawns are filled with people waiting for the scion of the royal family, Raninder Singh, contesting his first Assembly election from Samana. His mother, Union MoS Preneet Kaur, who is managing his campaign, is talking to groups of people as many more mill around her and try to touch her feet.
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Poorvanchal a Maya for BDP boss - Devesh Kumar, Economic Times
Eastern Uttar Pradesh, popularly known as Poorvanchal, is one of the most backward regions of the state like Bundelkhand. However, unlike Bundelkhand, it is densely populated. The level of urbanisation is low, and the region is home to few industries. It is ravaged by floods almost every year and pockets of affluence are juxtaposed with areas of abject poverty. There is fierce contest between the Samajwadi Party and BSP in the 25 districts of Poorvanchal, with BJP and Congress vying to consolidate their presence in the region.
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In Uttarakhand, BJP banks on a one-liner and RSS - Pradeep Kaushal, IE
A sole election slogan, created by a Mumbai-based advertising agency, defines the BJP campaign in Uttarakhand and the party’s very fate could hinge around it. “Khanduri hai jaroori,” goes the slogan, showing literally how key the Chief Minister is to the party. “We told the agency that Bhuvan Chand Khanduri, with his clean image and credibility, is our only ray of hope, our sole USP,” a senior party functionary said. “And, it got back to us with an ideal slogan.”
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Rahul and his youth brigade missing in Uttarakhand - Sandeep Joshi, Hindu
In his bid to bring back the Congress to power in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi and his youth brigade seem to have left poll-bound Uttarakhand to State party leaders. As a result, from ticket distribution to campaigning, the Congress general secretary and his lieutenants have taken the back seat in this hill State that goes to the polls on January 30.
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In Manipur elections, a test for ‘Nagalim' - Vasundhara Sirnate & Rahul Verma, Hindu
“Last year, Ibobi and his cabinet decided that they will not allow the Naga Chief Minister to enter the State, but now that the elections have been announced, he no longer has the power to prevent me from coming here and meeting you … But if you let him win again I will not be able to come to Manipur to meet all of you.” That was Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, speaking at an election rally in Manipur's Tamenglong district on January 19.
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Crorepati Punjab candidates never filed I-T returns - J Balaji, Hindu
With the Punjab Assembly elections just a few days away (January 30), affidavits filed by contestants show that the top three candidates, who are crorepatis, have never filed Income-Tax returns. Congress candidate from Muktsar, Karan Kaur, owns movable and immovable assets worth Rs.128 crore, Ramanjit Singh Sikki (Congress), contesting from Khadoor Sahib, and Gurpartap Singh Wadala (Shiromani Akali Dal-SAD), Nakodar candidate, have total assets worth Rs 20.12 crore and Rs 13.71 crore respectively.
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BJP slams Cong’s ‘division’ politics - ToI
One day after it vowed to abolish the recently-promulgated Muslim quota within the OBC reservation pie, BJP attacked Congress for promising the minority community a share proportional to their population within the larger "backward" reservation scheme and slammed its rival for indulging in "competitive communalism".
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Quota, Hindutva, feature in BJP’s UP manifesto - First Post
Days ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly election the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today released its election manifesto for the state in Lucknow today. The manifesto was released by party’s campaign manager in the state, Uma Bharti in the presence of party vice president Kalraj Mishra,state president Surya Pratap Shahi and ideologue Sudheendra Kulkarni. Speaking at the release, Kulkarni said, “This is not just a manifesto but a vow of promise.”
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Arab Spring in the offing in Punjab: Manpreet Badal - First Post
Manpreet Badal, who till last year was with the ruling Akali Dal as its Finance Minister in the coalition government, feels an Arab Spring is in the offing in Punjab to unseat the government headed by his uncle Parkash Singh Badal. Citing the anti-government protests across the Arab world, Manpreet feels people in Punjab are also in mood for a change.
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Manipur Poll: Domination by Political Issues and Threats - Sangai Express
Election and election process may be a periodic ritual. But that is one of the fundamental essences of democracy as new rulers or representatives will be elected or re-elected. One beauty of democracy and election is the seeking of power or people’s mandate even by the most powerful or richest person with folded hands at least once in five years. In non-democratic systems like monarchy or dictatorship even such periodic ritual does not take place and people are deprived of such rituals.
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This seat is ruled by the yadavs - Raj Bahadur Singh, Pioneer
One of the seven Assembly constituencies of Badaun district in the politically volatile Rohilkhand region, Gunnaur shot into the fame when Mulayam Singh Yadav, in his third stint as Chief Minister, decided to enter Vidhan Sabha from this seat in 2003. The plan was well executed and Gunnaur got the distinction of being represented by the Chief Minister.
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Sad-BJP battles to retain border - Nishu Mahajan, Pioneer
The ruling SAD-BJP and key Opposition Congress are battling it out to wrest the maximum number of seats in Majha region of Punjab, which has 25 Assembly constituencies. The area borders Pakistan and had faced the brunt of terrorism in the 1980s plays a key role in deciding the prospects of a party in the Assembly polls. It has major towns including Amritsar, Pathankot, Gurdasur, Taran Taran, Majitha and Qadian.
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Caste for three-way fight - Samaan Lateef, Pioneer
Apart from development, the caste factor in the politically capricious Doaba region will play a key role in deciding the fate of the Congress and Akali Dal-BJP combine. The agriculturally prosperous Doaba comprises Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts, with 23 constituencies, including eight reserved for Schedule Castes.
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Vision for Uttar Pradesh - Pioneer
The BJP has done well to focus on a development-oriented agenda in its Uttar Pradesh Assembly election manifesto, outlining its vision of the State as a contributor to the nation’s prosperity. Uttar Pradesh has never been short on talent or skills; it has produced some of the best teachers, writers, scientists and innovators.
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The Muslim matrix: Rushdie to the rescue - Sanjay Kaul, Pioneer
In the tacit approval of the Indian Government to quarantine award-winning writer Salman Rushdie using all instruments at its command its State Government in Rajasthan, the police, the IB, the security apparatus and some high quality disinformation about a plot to assassinate him, then finally stalling his book reading and booking the writers who were actually merely readers and disallowing even a Skype chat, it is perhaps deserving that the ultimate insult to India’s secular credentials should come at the behest of the Congress.
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BSP lost its connection with Dalits : Sharad Yadav - Pioneer
Alleging that the ruling BSP had lost connect with its committed support base of Dalits, Janta Dal (United) chief, Sharad Yadav said on Friday that the industrial groups owned by JP and Ponty Chaddha were running the government in UP. The JD (U) leader reached here to lead the poll campaign of his party spoke to party workers in state capital and said that Chief Minister Mayawati had handed over nine percent of agricultural land in the state to various industrial houses at cheaper rates which was likely to cause food crisis in the country.
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BJP fears Ramesh Nishank may pose trouble for party - Amita Shah, ET
The BJP, which senses political mischief and sabotage from within its Uttarakhand unit, has asked the chief trouble maker Ramesh Pokhiryal Nishank to step back or face action. Over the past fortnight, the party is understood to have sent around several warnings to the former chief minister, who is apparently fanning dissidence in the BJP. Nishank holds a grouse against his party and BC Khanduri, who replaced him as the chief minister in September, for not just loss of power, but also denying tickets to several sitting MLAs who were his supporters, including Govind Singh Bisht.
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UP elections: Congress-RLD alliance banking on Jats and Muslims - Devesh Kumar, Economic Times
The Congress-RLD alliance, forged on the eve of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, is banking on the prospect of the powerful Jat community voting in tandem with the numerically-significant Muslims to lend it an edge over its rivals in western Uttar Pradesh. Even though the Jats, who form RLD's core constituency, comprise just 2.6% of the electorate in UP, they are present in significant numbers in the 15 districts that go on to constitute western UP. Being the dominant caste of the region, they have over the decades played a crucial role in shaping its polity.
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India's divided-identity voters - CP Bhambhri, Economic Times
It continues to be a great puzzle to identify the factors or events that motivate a voter to exercise his right to vote in highly-competitive elections that are regularly held in every democratic political system on the basis of universal adult franchise and secret ballot. Every democratic political system has created powerful organisations like the Election Commission of India for the conduct of free, fair and fearless elections.
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EC-Law Ministry cold war heats up, this time over poll institute - Maneesh Chhibber, Indian Express
Tension between the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the government — over the former’s autonomy — has resurfaced, this time over the law ministry’s objection to the ECI proposal to launch, under its aegis, the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM), an “advanced resource centre” of research and training in election management.
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BJP banking on Khanduri’s clean image to return to power in Uttarakhand - Purnima S Tripathi, Business Line
'Khanduri Zaroori Hai' (Khanduri is necessary) is the feverish pitch on which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is running its campaign in Uttarakhand seeking people's support for a second term for its government headed by Maj. Gen. (Retd) B.C. Khanduri. Banking on his squeaky clean image, the party is at pains to convince voters that its previous Chief Minister Mr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank may have been removed by them on suspected charges of corruption in September last, but the party is serious about providing a clean government now, under the leadership of Mr Khanduri.
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BJP promises abolition of Muslim sub-quota - Financial Express
After the Samajwadi Party, the BJP has also promised to give tablets and laptops free of cost to poor students if the party is voted to power in next month’s Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The party has also promised an annual unemployment allowance of Rs 24,000, which is double of what the SP had promised. In its manifesto released on Friday, the BJP gave top priority to the abolition of the 4.5 per cent reservation for Muslim OBCs within the 27 per cent quota for OBCs and promised to set up a commission, along the lines set up in Bihar, to recommend measures for the development of the financially weaker sections among higher castes.
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In Uttarakhand, Cong, BJP battle internal demons - Akshaya Mukul, ToI
For political observers, the excitement around Uttarakhand assembly election might seem disproportionate to its size and political influence but it is the only state out of five going to polls where BJP and Congress are in a direct duel. Voting on Monday will also be a referendum of sorts for Team Anna that went across the state attacking former BJP chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank for alleged corruption and praising B C Khanduri for passing their version of Lokayukta Act. Pokhriyal has since threatened to sue Team Anna.
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Rahul's campaign ‘ground zero' lukewarm to Congress - Smriti Kak Ramachandran, Hindu
In May 2011, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi sounded the bugle for the Uttar Pradesh election from Bhatta and Parsaul — two adjoining villages in Gautam Budh Nagar that had exploded in a frenzy of protests over alleged forced land acquisition by the Mayawati government.
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Mulayam gets Shahi Imam's backing - Atiq Khan, Hindu
Twenty years after he admonished the then Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Abdullah Bukhari, for dabbling in Uttar Pradesh politics — the Maulana had campaigned for the Janata Dal in the 1991 Assembly elections — Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh has joined forces with the late cleric's son and the present Shahi Imam, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, to win over Muslims in the poll-bound State.
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In high voting, a wish ‘to move on’ - Esha Roy, Indian Express
Till 4 pm Saturday, the Manipur state elections had already clocked a high 78 per cent turnout. Nowhere was this enthusiastic participation more visible than in Thoubal, the constituency of Chief Minister Ibobi Singh. Unlike most of Manipur outside state capital Imphal, Thoubal boasts of smooth metalled roads, a new hospital building and infrastructure that any district would be envious of.
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Dissent in BJP, Khanduri faces tough test - Pradeep Kaushal, Indian Express
Chief Minister B C Khanduri may be the BJP poll-mascot and saviour in Uttarakhand, but ironically, he faces an uphill task trying to win his own Kotdwar constituency. The reasons, according to reports reaching here, are both internal and external. While his Congress adversary, Surendra Singh Negi, has been able to stand his ground, Khanduri has to contend with sabotage from within.
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Cong makes desperate dash to garner UP Brahmin votes - ToI
Few in Uttar Pradesh would have heard Mange Ram Sharma's name. But the Congress leader from Haryana has been asked to campaign in the state. So are many others who may be faceless for an average UP voter, but have a surname that suggests they are Brahmins. Congress is mobilizing Brahmin leaders of consequence or otherwise from across the country to boost its campaign in Uttar Pradesh amid concern that the party's strong pitch for Muslims and OBCs may have left the Brahmins peeved.
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If I could say no to Rajiv, Raninder could have to Rahul - Ramaninder K Bhatia, ToI
If I could say no to a ticket offered by none other than the Prime Minister of India and then Congress president, Rajiv Gandhi, why couldn't you do the same to Rahul, who is a Congress general secretary." That is what Malvinder Singh, the estranged brother of PPCC president Amarinder Singh, is believed to have told his nephew Raninder Singh, a few days after he quit the Congress to join SAD.
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Punjab satta market bets on Congress - Harpreet Bajwa, Indian Express
With Punjab going to vote on Monday, the satta market has already predicted that the Congress will form the next government by crossing the magic figure. While the ruling SAD-BJP alliance will seat in the Opposition benches this time, the People’s Party of Punjab will get three seats. The satta market, which had earlier stated that the polls will be closely fought, was now giving Congress 61 seats and the SAD-BJP alliance 48 (SAD-40, BJP-8).
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Rahul Gandhi's Shah Bano moment in UP - Minhaz Merchant, ToI
Uttar Pradesh will determine Rahul Gandhi's political future. Anything less than 80 assembly seats in a state where Rahul has invested so much personal political capital could disrupt the carefully choreographed dynastic succession in the Congress ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll. The party's cynical vacillation over Salman Rushdie's aborted visit to Jaipur and Priyanka Gandhi's decision to campaign for Rahul show how seriously the Congress takes the UP elections.
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Battle for coronation? - Varghese K. George, Hindustan Times
There were 92 missed calls on Akhilesh Yadav's Blackberry as he finished a campaign meeting in Biswan, 100 km north of Lucknow. This election is the first — and arguably the last — chance for Akhilesh, state president of the Samajwadi Party since 2010, to prove worthy of his father Mulayam Yadav's legacy in Uttar Pradesh.
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Maya goes positive on covered statutes - Tavishi srivastava, Pioneer
There is ceasefire between the Election Commission (EC) and the ruling BSP for now. Both had been locked in a virtual battle of wits as letters were exchanged over the EC’s directive of draping of elephants and Mayawati’s statues in the State. The BSP raised a hue and cry on the issue and vowed to drag it to the electoral arena. The EC threatened to freeze BSP’s elephant poll symbol if there was any more argument on the issue.
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EC come and EC go - Hindustan Times
We admit it, we are duplicitous hypocrites. We have argued long and loud that our politics lacks substance, that it is more a matter of show. But now, thanks to a vigilant Election Commission, we are missing the usual over-the-top hype and hoopla that goes with elections. At the first sign of any festivities, the EC is upon the venue like Torque-mada, quelling all joyous instincts. And nowhere do we see this more than in Punjab.
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As you sow so shall you reap - Deep Joshi, Hindustan Times
Chunav to bandh mutthi ki tarah hote hain, Janaab; jab khulegi tab pata chalega, iske bheetar kya hai (You can't say who will win in election until results are out). That's how octogenarian Iqbal Hussain, a hawker, reacts when quizzed about the possible winner from Haldwani assembly seat, where the Muslim voters hold the key.
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UP witnessing unprecedented war over Muslim vote - Pioneer
With stakes high in the Assembly elections, the Muslim vote is being wooed like never before in Uttar Pradesh where Rahul Gandhi has also joined the race for quota politics. A virtually no-holds-barred battle has erupted between the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the BSP to garner maximum vote of the minority community, which constitutes some 18 per cent of the 20 crore population.
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Akali-BJP attempts to beat 44-year-old tradition - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
No party has been ever repeated in Punjab, post 1966 when the State was reorganised. But ask Congress supporters and they will say that “historical coincidence” and ground level battle are two different things and they cannot take victory for granted. The SAD-BJP combine too is hardly bothered about the 44-year old tradition, riding on a development bandwagon and promising the moon to the people of the State to woo them again.
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Basant is here Good tidings are on the way - Sidharth Mishra, Pioneer
This weekend was wonderful. The Met office maintained its track record and predicted a rainy Republic Day and we all enjoyed a sunny afternoon on January 26 this year. Thereafter the weather has been good. Though the sun is rising only around 7 am, the air smells of Indian spring Basant Ritu. The coming of the Indian spring is announced by the celebration of Basant Panchami — the fifth day of the Magh month of Vikrami Samvat. A nation which has been ostensibly under turmoil during the past year on varied issue is certainly looking for some good news. The first good news was the woman officer leading the Indian Air Force contingent down the Rajpath on the Republic Day.
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Margin matters: Small means big task in UP - Amita Verma, Asian Age
As the mercury jumps up and down in Uttar Pradesh causing turmoil of sorts in the weather conditions, their morale follows a similar course and clouds of uncertainty shadow their future. They are the ones who won their seats by a very small margin in 2007 and now have the big task of improving their margins to retain their seats. There are about a dozen legislators who won their seat by a margin of very few votes. For instance, former BSP minister Daddan Misra won his Bhinga seat in Shravasti by a margin of 91 votes. After being denied a ticket by the BSP, Mr Misra promptly jumped on to the BJP bandwagon and is now working doubly hard to retain his seat.
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BJP keeps fingers crossed - Kumar Uttam, Pioneer
The battle for Uttar Pradesh is BJP’s fight for glory. Out of power in UP for almost a decade now and after losing its third position to the Congress during the 2009 general election, the saffron party is striving for the ‘bronze’ in the 2012 State election. The BJP has ventured into the electoral waters with the ‘caste’ plank, trying to bring non-Yadav OBCs and upper caste closer like they were in ‘temple days’. Without a major poll issue and new faces, the BJP hopes this social engineering could take it beyond the figure of 100 seats in State Assembly.
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BSP just built statues - Pioneer
Samajwadi Party’s State president Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday that if his party came to power in Uttar Pradesh, it would provide cheap medicines to poor and bring to book all officials who misappropriated the money meant for providing quality health care facilities to poor under the National Rural Health Mission. Addressing an election meeting at Kauriram and Chavaria in Gorakhpur district on Sunday, Yadav said the Centre had sent Rs8,000 crore under the NRHM to Uttar Pradesh but the politicians in power usurped Rs5,000 crore in connivance with Government officials.
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BSP poised to surprise analysts - Pioneer
The campaigning for Assembly elections 2012 in Uttarakhand ended on Saturday, with candidates having done their best to woo voters. The watchful eye of the Election Commission resulted in scores of candidates being served notices for violating the model code of conduct or showing less than the actual campaigning expenditure. More than 8,000 litres of liquor was seized.
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Lambi: It’s Badal versus Badal versus Badal - Pioneer
It’s Badal versus Badal versus Badal. With CM Badal facing his brothers Gurdas from PPP and Mahesh Inder Singh from Congress the ballot struggle has become more of a battle for honour than a political game. As senior Badal managed to win by 9,000 votes from his cousin, the margin was not considered ‘big enough’ for a chief ministerial candidate and that too for an Akali stalwart.
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The final frontier - Monika, Pioneer
For either the Congress or Akali Dal, ‘Destination Power’ can seldom be reached until it traverses successfully through this part of the region, comprising the cotton and agricultural belt. Located between the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers, Malwa, with 10 districts, makes up the majority of Punjab region; and often catapults to power the party which emerges victorious from this part of the State.
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Punjabi tadka to political curry - Saurabh Malik, Tribune
Politicians coming to Punjab are spicing up the poll campaigning by adding wee bit of local flavour to it. That’s right! The national level political figureheads, finding their way into Punjab just before the elections, have come out with a perfect recipe for successful poll campaigning. They are topping up the poll preparations with some ‘karak’ Punjabi ‘tadka’.
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Punjab Poll: Dera, PPP main factors - SP Sharma, Tribune
With Malwa accounting for 68 of the total 117 assembly seats, this region is the main electoral battleground where the fate of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, PCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh, CLP Leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and People’s Party of Punjab president Manpreet Singh Badal will be decided.
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Punjab Poll: Dalit votes hold the key - Varinder Singh, Tribune
Doaba, with 23 seats, has been a Congress stronghold. But in the 2007 elections, this region threw its weight behind the SAD-BJP alliance. It remains to be seen whether the ruling alliance will do as well this time too. Key contest: Among the heavyweights in the fray in Doaba are Chaudhary Jagjit Singh of (Cong-Kartarpur), Amarjit Samra (Cong-Nakodar), Manoranjan Kalia (BJP-Jalandhar Central), Tikshan Sud (BJP-Hoshiarpur City), Bibi Jagir Kaur (SAD-Bholath), Sukhpal Khaira (Cong- Bholath), Avtar Henry (Cong-Jalandhar North), Pargat Singh (Jalandhar-Cantt) and Jagbir Brar.
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Over to the voters Punjab’s future at stake - Tribune
After almost a month-long fierce, largely peaceful campaigning, Punjab goes to the polls on Monday and the results will be known after an agonising 35-day wait on March 6. The Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress have ruled the state by turns. This time the delimitation of constituencies and the emergence of a third front have made the outcome a little uncertain. Understandably, opinion polls conducted by some media houses are divided. Since politicians like to project their near and dear ones and there is no tradition of holding regular organisational elections, the three major parties — the Congress, the BJP and the Akali Dal — have seen the rise of dissidents, who may also influence the verdict at places.
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Congress loses advantage in Punjab, Uttarakhand; BJP unveils aggressive drive - Economic Times
Punjab and Uttarakhand will vote on Monday, in what will determine whether Congress, despite being rattled by allegations of corruption, has retained its winning habits and has the ability to turn the tables on its chief rival BJP. Both states have a history of voting out incumbents. While Congress would be hoping that the anti-incumbency disadvantage for SAD-BJP in Punjab, and BJP in Uttarakhand, would work to its benefit, BJP and its partner are working overtime to buck the trend.
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D-Day in Punjab, Uttarakhand - Asian Age
Punjab and Uttarakhand go to the polls on Monday, with voters choosing their representatives for a 117-member Assembly in Chandigarh and a 70-member House in Dehra Dun. In Uttarakhand, the ruling BJP is banking heavily on the “clean image” of chief minister B.C. Khanduri, while the Congress is leaving no stone unturned to expose the BJP’s “corrupt deeds”, particularly under Mr Khanduri’s predecessor Ramesh Pokriyal Nishank, who was replaced over corruption charges.
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2nd generation will fill Atal void - Yijna Gusai, Asian Age
Punjab and Uttarakhand will vote on Monday, in what will determine whether Congress, despite being rattled by allegations of corruption, has retained its winning habits and has the ability to turn the tables on its chief rival BJP. Both states have a history of voting out incumbents. While Congress would be hoping that the anti-incumbency disadvantage for SAD-BJP in Punjab, and BJP in Uttarakhand, would work to its benefit, BJP and its partner are working overtime to buck the trend.
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RLD & ‘the strategy’ - Kumar Shakti Shekhar, Pioneer
After almost all the non-BJP parties, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) of Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has also jumped on the bandwagon to compete with each other in wooing the Muslim voters in the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. On Tuesday, Badruddin Ajmal, president, Assam unit of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, pledged support to RLD and announced that he would campaign for all its 47 candidates, 44 of whom are contesting from eastern UP. RLD has fielded nine Muslim candidates, which is 19 per cent of its total number of candidates.
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Kalyan set to dent chances of BJP, SP - Manish Anand, Asian Age
Though politically written off, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh appears to have pushed behind both the BJP and Samajwadi Party in the seven Assembly constituencies of Bulandshahr, with his party Jan Kranti Party being seen in direct contest against the Congress-RLD combine.
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Punjab shuns a usual plank - Archis Mohan, Telegraph
For the first time in decades, elections in Punjab will not be fought on the plank of a sectarian agenda. In a sign that the state has moved on from its troubled past, the son of a “martyr” had to withdraw from tomorrow’s Assembly elections as he didn’t find enough donors to fund his campaign. The change, though, hasn’t happened overnight.
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General takes BJP into lead - Sidharth Mishra/Sunil Kumar, Pioneer
The BJP strategy to deploy a retired and much admired General to rescue its sinking ship in Uttarakhand will yield results but the harvest may not be enough. From a position of all but sunk in September, the BJP under the stewardship of Major General (retired) Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri in January is back in the reckoning.
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Spending limits take the buzz out of poll campaigns - Utpal Bhaskar & Appu Esthose Suresh, Mint
Canvassing for assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and three other states have turned out to be a lacklustre affair because of the strict enforcement of spending limits for candidates by the Election Commission of India (EC). BJP workers put up a campaign banner on a house in Ramnagar in Uttrakhand (Ramesh Pathania/Mint) BJP workers put up a campaign banner on a house in Ramnagar in Uttrakhand (Ramesh Pathania/Mint).
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How will Assembly Polls affect Congress? - Economic Times
They may be battles for control of five states. But the overall outcome will mean a lot to the Congress and to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government it leads. Analysts feel a good performance will be a morale booster to the UPA government that is battling an image crisis, while a poor showing will add to its woes ahead of the country's presidential polls.
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Working for change in UP: A lot can be done - ET
This isn't a work of fiction, nor is it constructed to bash politicians or start a revolution, especially at a time when this sprawling state is going to the polls. It's an account of ordinary people, generations of them. Their demand? That something be done for them to have a better quality of life, eventually. Holding on to that hope, Uttar Pradesh resident Birju turns a leaf, he has just turned 78. He's still awaiting the fulfilment of promises made to him when he was a newly wed. Today his grandchildren are married.
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Punjab leaders had voters on a drug high - Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times
Punjab politicians had voters on a drug high during the election campaign that lasted a fortnight. The Election Commission’s seizure of drugs worth Rs 40 crore during the Punjab election season has drawn attention to the widespread use of drugs — ranging from intoxicating tablets and syrups to heroin and poppy seeds — to woo voters in the state. “We believe that the drugs were for electoral purposes,” deputy election commissioner Alok Shukla has said.
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Not a chak de phatte scenario - Hindustan Times
There were certainly no balle balle moments in Punjab this election. The fight between the Family Badal and Congress chief ministerial nominee Amarinder Singh is personal and unsavoury. Both accuse the other of corruption with Sukhbir Singh Badal, deputy chief minister and son of the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, alluding to Amarinder Singh’s drinking and laidback attitude. And, of course, both have thrown promises of freebies galore at the electorate. But neither the Congress nor the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) seems to have a roadmap for the state which is struggling to stay on its feet.
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When winners could be losers - Anmol Saxena, Hindustan Times
Apologies to the non-Hindi readers, but one needs to understand this to decipher the sense of what rural Uttar Pradesh is talking about at the moment: ‘Sau din chale adhaai kos’ (Walked a 100 days, traversed two-and-a-half miles). That’s the take of many in describing the efforts of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi in UP. They feel that his efforts won’t pay off as they should when the results are declared in the state. This election might result in an interesting turn of events for future political discourse. And the results will impact the national political scene for some time to come, as UP has been turned into a laboratory by the political class.
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In Uttarakhand, corruption moves voters, not Team Anna - Vinod Sharma, HT
Is Uttarakhand that went to polls on Monday headed for a hung Assembly? The race seemed narrow in the hills and plains of the newly-carved state — the Congress reviving its thrust in the campaign’s dying moments, the BJP desperately fixing internal dissensions and sabotage. Corruption did dominate the noisy discourse. But it wasn’t as much about 2G, CWG, Anna Hazare’s Lokpal or CM BC Khanduri’s Lokyaukta praised by anti-graft activists.
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Economics of Elections in India - Prabhakar Timble, Navhind Times
General elections in a multi-religious, multi-caste, multi-party democracy like India with deep rooted social and economic inequity is akin to a war. The atmosphere is like that of a battle ground wherein political parties flex muscles; bombard cash, goodies and alcoholic beverages; and personalities clash swaying tongues like bullets and swords. Just as military spending necessitated by war is considered as wasteful and non-productive, so is election spending. The difference is that the election ‘auctions’ do not result in destruction and loss of life and property.
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Flip-flop on elephant ownership puts BSP on notice - Ravish Tiwari, Indian Express
Over two years ago, a petition to the Election Commission, eventually dismissed, had sought a freeze on the BSP’s election symbol because of the number of elephant statues being erected in UP. Now, the EC has warned the BSP that it may take a fresh look at that decision. A new petition has cited another ground in seeking a similar freeze. And what has put the BSP on the back foot is the way it has contradicted itself after it responded to that first petition and to the events that have taken place since.
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Callous in UP - Indian Express
It is open season on committing to sops in Uttar Pradesh. But even the current spiral of competitive bidding cannot excuse Mulayam Singh Yadav’s insensitivity in saying that he promised government jobs to “educated” victims of rape, should his Samajwadi Party be successfully elected to lead the state administration.
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In Rahul’s UP plan, ‘Mission 85’ is key - Maulshree Seth, Indian Express
Inside the Congress “war room” for elections at the UP Congress Committee office in Lucknow, which has been directly connected to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi's office, “Mission 85” is the key word. A team of about 140 trusted party workers and leaders has been formed under the direct control of Rahul Gandhi's office for the mission which is focussing on the 85 reserved constituencies. In 2007, the party had won five reserved seats out of 89 constituencies then. In all, the Congress had 22 of the 403 Assembly seats. However, after a detailed survey conducted by special teams, it came out that the party has a better chance on reserved seats this time “in view of the anti-incumbency against BSP” and “no other stronger options'' for voters.
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In this ‘Rushdie’ winning tale is the story of a shifting UP Muslim vote - Seema Chishti, Indian Express
Say ‘Rushdie’ in Muslim-dominated Rudauli, which is going to polls on February 8, and nobody bats an eyelid. They just calmly direct you to their twice-elected sitting MLA, Syed Abbas Ali Zaidi, also known as Rushdie. The Samajwadi Party candidate, he hopes to win a record third time from this Faizabad seat. While the party also won the last two elections from here, the strong position Zaidi finds himself in is reflective of the sense that the SP is back on the radar of Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh — a strong recovery given the erosion it had suffered in its support base in 2007 and 2009.
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Voters hardly use Right to Reject candidates - Raakhi Jagga, Indian Express
Although Anna Hazare’s team tried hard to make the voters aware regarding choosing the right candidate or even to reject all the candidates if they want, the rejection form was hardly used by the voters, due to which all efforts of team Anna fell flat. So much so, even most of the polling staff inside the polling booths were also not even aware. Information revealed that in Ludhiana district hardly anyone asked to use rule 49-0 which is to reject all the candidates.
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‘Backward’ Technocrat - Annapurna Jha, Pioneer
The Congress, which is trying hard to woo OBCs, will use technocrat Sam Pitroda for releasing its election manifesto in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, highlighting the pride of the backward community. However, eyebrows have been raised over the apparent clash of interests - using the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Public Information, Infrastructure & Innovation as an OBC poster boy by the Congress for electoral gains.
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Matching labels, mismatched look - Virender Kumar, Indian Express
The road is narrow, but paved smooth. Set amid mustard and sugarcane fields, the village looks picture perfect as you approach it. Inside, the lanes are cemented, the drains channel away waste water from houses, and there are public toilets, hand-pumps for water, streetlights and a primary school. A safai karamchari, say villagers, cleans up the lanes, usually every day.
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Muslim parties may prevent en bloc voting - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
The race to win over the votes of the Muslims in the Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh has reached a frenzied level. This is understandable because Muslims are a deciding factor in 120 to 130 out of 403 Assembly constituencies. They comprise 18 per cent to 20 per cent of the State’s electorate. Muslims number about 20 per cent in 70 Assembly constituencies. They are between 30 per cent and 45 per cent in 20 seats in western Uttar Pradesh, 10 seats of eastern Uttar Pradesh, five seats in central Uttar Pradesh and one seat in Bundelkhand.
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BSP on sticky wicket in Uttar Pradesh, with state assembly elections coming up - Manoj Dixit, Mail Today
The coming state assembly elections have brought to the forefront many issues which were in the background for quite some time in Uttar Pradesh. These are going to decide and define the future of the state. There is one phenomenon that I observe explicitly - there are actually no major issues at stake in this election. But despite that, the current is strong and the voting percentage is likely to increase significantly.
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Public demonstration of political ire - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
When Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma started addressing a rally in Gonda, his parliamentary constituency, he was booed by a section of crowd asking him to go back. ‘Beni babu ko hatao’, shouted workers. Stunned Verma looked towards Congress national president Sonia Gandhi, who was sharing the dais with him. He started speaking again but was forced to cut short his speech.
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Poll politics: In 2012, stuck in the 1980s template - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
Manifestos are not worth the paper they are written on. No, we are not going into a cynical spiel on how parties routinely renege on the promises they make to the electorate in written words. This is about the existential dilemma in parties and consequently, electoral politics, which needs to be resolved at some point. There would be no way forward for the democracy or the parties, individually or collectively, with many fundamental questions remaining unsettled.
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Will it be repeat for Akalis in Punjab? - First Post
With a record 77 percent of 1.76 crore electorates casting their votes for the 117 Assembly seats of Punjab, fingers are crossed for both the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance and Congress over formation of next government in the state. However, a look at the data of the Election Commission on polling percentages after Independence from 1951 to 2007, it has been revealed that Akalis have formed the government if the polling in Assembly elections exceeds 70 per cent which has happened thrice earlier.
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Voting trends tell a complex tale - Sunil Kumar, Pioneer
The revised figures of January 30 polling issued by Election Commission on Tuesday has put it at 66.8 per cent. The details released by the poll panel shows diverse voting trends in the State with areas dominated by minorities and Dalits, the BSP strongholds, witnessing as high a turnout as 83 per cent whereas the urban constituencies falling in Dehradun, where Team Anna campaigned intensively, recording a ‘low’ turnout between 60 and 62 per cent.
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Faizabad a BSP dominion - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
Even as BJP’s political existence is linked with Faizabad, it was the Bahujan Samaj Party that reaped the political harvest from this region in 2007 Assembly election. The party won whooping 16 of 25 seats giving clear indication of BSP’s domination in the Faizabad division that comprises Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Barabanki and Sultanpur districts.
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UP polls: Congress puts reforms over freebies - Times of India
Desperate to gain the lost ground in UP after 21 years of exile, the Congress on Tuesday offered "a strong, clean, accountable, transparent, responsive and effective government" in its manifesto. The 27-page document released on Tuesday by Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal and law minister Salman Khurshid appeared to be quite practical and restrained.
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Rahul resurrects ‘Rajiv man’ Pitroda for UP polls - Times of India
Two months after Rahul Gandhi made him the mascot of the most backwards, Sam Pitroda released the Congress manifesto in Lucknow to identify himself with the party heir-apparent's determined, if desperate, dash in Uttar Pradesh. Pitroda, who has little to do with Congress but is virtually immortalized as Rajiv Gandhi's pointsman who ushered in the telecom revolution, was present by the side of Kapil Sibal, Union minister for HRD and telecom, at a function to unveil the manifesto.
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Where’s the 9% sub-quota, Khurshid? - Pioneer
The much publicised campaign to give a sub-quota of 9 per cent to most backward minorities after cutting the 27 quota for other backward castes (OBC) is missing from the Congress election manifesto. It is obvious that Salman Khurshid, in-charge of the drafting committee, had just played the card merely to polarise the vote bank in the Congress’ favour.
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Muslims open the door - Sunita Aron, Hindustan Times
A woman welcomed in a madarsa at nine in the night in conservative, Muslim-dominated Bahraich city sounds implausible. But the warmth with which Maulana Arif, principal of Madarsa Darul-Uloom Masoodia Misbahiya Khasihari Masjid, opened the door of his institute for a woman journalist speaks volumes for the changes that have come in. (Barely a few years ago, women were not allowed to enter madarsas.)
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Desperate measures, tactical shift - Raveen Thukral, Tribune
Constant strategy modifications, midway course correction and change of tactics by mainline political parties were the peculiar characteristics of the recently concluded intense and high-stakes elections in Punjab. While one would have to wait till March 6 to know which strategy actually worked, the battle lines in the polls this time were clearly drawn, at least for the traditional rivals, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress, and they knew exactly what to do.
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Anti-incumbency will see us back in power - Jangveer Singh, Tribune
Punjab Pradesh Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh slept well last night. He got up late this morning and washed his hair bath. “I didn’t get a get a chance to do so for a long time”, he says, relaxing at his Sector 10 residence here. Sipping coffee with his confidant Arvind Khanna and former PPP leader Kushaldeep Dhillon, he gave the feeling of a battle well won.
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SAD headed for clean sweep: EC was partial - Naveen S Garewal, Tribune
It is 3 pm and Sukhbir Singh Badal is asleep, recuperating after a hectic month-long campaigning that culminated in the polling last evening. Away from his children for a long time, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president flew back to Delhi to be with his family after polling came to an end. There are strict instructions he not be disturbed for next two days, but repeated phone calls force him out of the slumber and he answers the call.
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Give us five yrs, we will undo the damage of 22 yrs: Rahul - Pallavi Polanki, FP
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, wearing a black sweater, and looking only slightly tired from what must have been a hectic day of campaigning, arrived to a rockstar’s reception as he rode on his minibus into an election rally – his fourth for the day – in Barabanki district.
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2014, as seen from UP acid test - Arun Nehru, Asian Age
Election campaigns and forecasts are not new to me. I remember going as an eight-year-old on my first election campaign to Sitapur, from where my grandmother, Uma Nehru, was an MP in 1952. But I recollect little except the “cold water” breaks in a gruelling schedule on dusty roads and was fascinated by the Electrolux refrigerators, which worked on kerosene burners. Things today are very different.
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UP: Caste matrix in Awadh - Economic Times
For Congress to improve its tally significantly in the next round of electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh, it is imperative that the party retains the gains it made in the Awadh region in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. Riding on the support extended to it by Muslims, Kurmis and large sections of upper castes, and the pull of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Congress did exceptionally well in the region in 2009 elections. As many as eight of the 20 constituencies that it won from the state came from Avadh.
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Can one buy an election? - Barun S Mitra, Financial Express
There can be no two opinions that Indian elections have become prohibitively expensive. Also, there is widespread apprehension that money is used to unduly influence voters. Despite reams lamenting these threats to democracy, and a constant flow of anecdotal reports in the media, it is really surprising that there is little hard evidence to support such fears.
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Polls driving up demand for bulletproof cars - Amrit Raj & Utpal Bhaskar, Mint
The assembly elections have kicked up demand from poll candidates for a not entirely unexpected commodity: bulletproof vehicles. Several executives at auto makers and after-market customization firms said they have seen an increase in demand for high-security vehicles in the run-up to the elections. While about 700 battalions of security forces have been deployed across the five states—Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa—to ensure the elections are free and fair, caution reigns among those in the fray, especially in the strife-torn state of Manipur.
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Encephalitis on party manifestoes, not in their campaigns - Surbhi Khyati, IE
After 4,000 deaths and 19,000 victims over seven years, encephalitis has made it to the election manifestoes of most parties in Uttar Pradesh in 2012. On ground zero in eastern Uttar Pradesh, however, it is still to figure in the candidates’ campaign. Voters are angry and frustrated but say they are not surprised. Some are determined not to vote at all on February 8 and 11, when the seats in these areas go to polls.
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Buzz Around The Queen Bees - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
Mayawati spared Election Commission but targeted Congress as she began her party’s election campaign for 2012 Assembly elections on Wednesday with a resolve to return to power with a bigger majority this time. “Do not get swayed by false promises of Opposition parties, particularly Congress leaders.
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Rahul vs Mayawati: What their contrasting campaigns reveal - Pallavi Polanki, FP
Not far from where BSP chief Mayawati kicked off her hugely successful UP 2012 election campaign on Wednesday, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi held an election meeting a day earlier. “That ground was smaller. And there weren’t nearly as many people. There is simply no comparison,” said a policeman as he kept a close watch on the seemingly endless stream of people arriving for the Chief Minister’s rally at what is reportedly Sitapur’s largest ground.
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Uttar Pradesh campaign heats up - BBC
Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and the state's Chief Minister Mayawati have both been addressing rallies. Uttar Pradesh is dominated by the low-caste vote, with Ms Mayawati, a Dalit icon, battling another strong regional force, the Samajwadi Party. The vote is being held in seven phases, with the first round on 8 February.
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Experiment that can end party booth era - Sukhdeep Kaur , Raghvendra Rao, IE
An established election tradition could be on its way out, with a successful experiment in Punjab paving the way for its replication, and possible extension, in Uttar Pradesh. Over the years, every political party has set up up a counter near each polling station to guide voters. This has sometimes caused psychological intimidation and even led to law and order situations. Now, the Election Commission is considering banning such counters, after they were pushed to the margins by the Punjab experiment — home delivery of voter slips.
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From father’s lawn to son’s control room - Sanjay Singh, Indian Express
Mulayam Singh Yadav may have remained a typical socialist, but his Samajwadi Party has shed many of its old ways with the rise of his son Akhilesh. Although Mulayam remains the main vote-catcher, it is state president Akhilesh who has brought about a transition in the way strategies are being made for the current elections. Akhilesh, MP from Kannauj, has replaced his father in that key role.
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Behind every successful man, there is... - Ramendra Singh, Indian Express
10 Crorepati whose wives are even richer than they are, as declared to poll authorities.
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Son bats straight, Sonia restrained - Sanjay K Jha, News Bullet
The contrast in the styles of communication of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul has been vividly manifested in the election campaign this time, compelling even Congress leaders to debate how the son has emerged as an aggressive fighter so different from his mother. While Rahul prefers direct attack on political rivals, Sonia opts for implicit, metaphorical references. Rahul is not shy of getting personal, Sonia avoids personal criticism and raises issues with restraint.
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You think crime doesn't pay? - Dan Morrison, New York Times
On Monday, campaign workers of the Quami Ekta Dal party in Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh received some thrilling news: Their beloved party leader, Mukhtar Ansari, had been offered temporary parole from jail. He would soon be coming home. Ansari, a legislator who in the past has represented UP’s biggest political party, is facing a slew of charges, including murder for the 2005 assassination of a rival gangster (and fellow member of the state assembly).
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Negative voting is a negative idea - G V L Narasimha Rao, Economic Times
Negative voting refers to rejecting all the candidates in an election instead of choosing any of the contesting candidates. If the number of negative votes is higher than that secured by any contesting candidate or is beyond a prescribed level, a fresh election shall be conducted and that too with the earlier candidates not being allowed to contest again. Those in favour of this proposal argue that it has the potential to encourage political parties to field better candidates in elections.
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New tactics to flout Election Commission rules on “paid news” - J. Balaji, Hindu
Even as it is tightening the noose around the media-candidates' nexus to thwart “paid news” instances through its district media committees and expenditure observers, the Election Commission has come to know about new strategies worked out by them to break the rules. “We have received reports that such ‘paid news' transactions had taken place in some instances in the current Assembly elections in five States well before the filing of the nomination by prospective candidates,” said Commission's Director-General Akshay Raut.
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Veteran politicos flay money power in elections - Neshwin Almeida, Navhind Times
The excise department has seized alcohol on a daily basis and complains of money and gifts being distributed to woo voters is common in elections over the last decade. NESHWIN ALMEIDA spoke to veteran politicians and looks at the scenario in the 70s and 90s. Former union minister and currently Commissioner for NRI affairs, Mr Eduardo Faleiro, said that he spent just Rs 3,000 to win an election in 1972. Mr Faleiro, who retired from active politics in 2006 recollects how in 1972, when Mr Erasmo Sequeira invited him to contest the Legislative Assembly elections from the Curtorim Constituency on the United Goans ticket, he used a jeep given by a friend to tour the constituency for the election campaign.
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Union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma booing bad omen for Congress - Man Mohan Rai, Economic Times
The constant heckling of Union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma at Congress rallies holds ominous portends for Congress, which seeks revival in the state. The anti-Beni mood is visible in the central Uttar Pradesh belt, which would vote on February 8, and where Congress expects to do well. At the Sonia Gandhi rally in Gonda on Wednesday, Verma was booed by the crowds when he rose to speak. The crowds did not let him speak even for a minute and he had to leave in a huff. Later Sonia Gandhi went on to deliver her speech.
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Apex court verdict blunts congress' UP weapon - Economic Times
The Supreme Court has cancelled 122 licences awarded by former telecom minister A Raja, a ruling hailed by anti-corruption campaigners but one that left investors, banks and vendors fretting about the prospect of billions of dollars going down the drain. As shell-shocked mobile operators affected by the judgement scrambled to pick up the pieces and lawyers pored over the ramifications of the order; the government hailed the verdict, hoping to draw a line under an is sue that has scarred it badly and come to define its second term in office.
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Modi and UP Polls - Yash Gandhi, Centre Right India
‘Will he, wont he (campaign in UP)?’ That seems to have become the single most important issue over the past
few days. Needless to say, the ‘he’ in question is Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi, who has not yet been seen in the election arena
in the 5 poll bound states. Intriguingly, more than Narendra Modi or the
BJP it is the media and sections of parties hostile to the BJP that are
more worried about whether or not Modi will jump the poll bandwagon in
poll bound Uttar Pradesh.
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UP’s month-long vote paralyses Punjab, Uttarakhand Govts - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
The Election Commission has forced Punjab and Uttarakhand into an administrative paralysis where no decision can be taken nor implemented as Model Code of Conduct is still in force and would continue to be so for over a month. “This is the first time that I have seen such a huge gap between polling and the result. We are whiling away time by watching TV in our offices,” said a senior Punjab bureaucrat.
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Myth of the Muslim bloc - Seema Chishti, Indian Express
From being wrapped around shoulders in the Arab world, the kaffiyeh (Arab scarf) has gone on to make appearances on European fashion ramps and sent out fashion and political statements all over the world. It also keeps the looms of Tanda, a small town in Uttar Pradesh, spinning. Says 40-year old businessman Shakeel Akhtar alias ‘Tiger’, “Tanda is the only one to stand up to the invasion of cheap Chinese fabric. We are still holding on to our share of world supplies of kaffiyehs.”
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Few-turistic’ Gandhi scion - Pioneer
After Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi another Gandhi scion Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took on the Opposition on issues of corruption, under-development, caste & religion politics and made a strong appeal to the voters that their future is in their own ‘hand’ so they must realise and vote for a ‘change’ which her brother was now determined to give irrespective of winning or losing the elections. “When will you realise this? When will you wake up? You suffered for the past 22 years. They betrayed you in the name of caste and religion. Where is the development here? You go to Maharashtra or Andhra Pradesh and experience the progress there. You can understand what the meaning of development is.
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Ups and downs in UP - Chanakya, Hindustan Times
One can be forgiven for thinking that the Congress is the main opposition party in Uttar Pradesh. Going by the ‘Rahul Gandhi versus Mayawati’ bouts made all too visible by the media, the figure of 22 seats that the Congress gathered in the last assembly elections — down from 25 in the 2002 assembly polls may seem like a typographical error by wicked conspirators. It is not. The real battle over which not much ink is being spilled is the jostle for the second spot. The Samajwadi Party (SP), without the trappings or weapons of incumbency, is reaching out to recover its traditional Muslim support base.
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Migration weighs on Basti mind, not polls - Pankaj Jaiswal, Hindustan Times
Inflow of money through flight of men; concrete houses, but no electricity; and an abundance of sugarcane, but no government sugar mills are the threads binding most areas of Basti in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The problems have become the defining features of villages and even towns of this district whose five constituencies go to polls in the first phase on February 8. But many do not care because they have more pressing issues to contend with. "Neither am I interested in telling my name nor my story," says an elderly woman of Bhattpurwa village. The brusque tone cannot mask her pain.
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Distortions of Democracy: Money power unleashed to win polls - GVL Narasimha Rao, LensOnNews
The inducement of ‘money for votes’ is an age old phenomenon but it was earlier confined to some economically weaker sections. Today, it is an all pervasive phenomenon as parties and candidates are vying with each other and upping stakes to win elections through unfair means of bribing voters. The pernicious trend has spread to all castes, communities and income strata.
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History in Shimla is more about the comrades than about the party - Ashwani Sharma, Indian Express
A CPM mayor and deputy mayor may mark history in the Shimla Municipal Corporation but, for the town itself, Sanjay Chauhan and Tikender Singh Panwar are familiar faces residents identify with issues that matter to them.
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In UP, all major parties’ votebanks witness split - Venkatesh Kesari, Asian Age
There is talk that the vote banks of all major political parties are witnessing a split in the poll bound Uttar Pradesh where rival parties are playing various cards to emerge as a winner. A Samajwadi Party leader camping in UP said the election this time is different from the past as Muslims, brahmins, Thakurs and OBCs are unlikely to vote en block in this battle.
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Samajwadi Party's soft spot - Aditi Phadnis, Business Standard
Although the first phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh is due next week, reports from the field suggest the Assembly election is all but wrapped up. Subject to the usual disclaimers – “multi-cornered contests are notoriously unreliable to predict”; “it is too early in the game to decide on the outcome” and so on – it appears that the Congress is on the path of remarkable recovery from the 22 seats it currently has in a house of 403 and should it cross 60, will find itself in the position of being a kingmaker.
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Vote to create Ram rajya - Ramatma Srivastava, Pioneer
Accusing Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party of having tacit understanding with the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said that his party would have no direct or indirect post-poll alliance with these two parties in UP whatever be the verdict of the electorate. The BJP president appealed to the electorate to vote in favour of his party to establish Ram rajya in UP.
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Opinion poll: SP is likely to emerge as single-largest party in UP - Times of India
An opinion poll conducted for a TV channel points to the Samajwadi Party (SP) emerging as the single largest with a projected 135 seats in Uttar Pradesh, while Congress makes impressive gains winning 99 seats along with partner Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is likely to lose power, being reduced to 101 seats, while BJP finishes a poor fourth with 61 seats.
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Block by block in ‘family seats’, Priyanka sings Rahul’s praise - Indian Express
Eight public meetings and over 15 roadside interactions with people in just one Assembly constituency, reminding people of Rahul Gandhi’s hardwork in contrast with “opportunism” and “corruption” of others in the state. This is how Priyanka Gandhi Vadra began her election campaign in assembly constituencies falling in the Lok Sabha constituency of her brother on Friday.
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2G issue to the fore in UP - Smita Gupta, Hindu
Caste still remains the determining factor in the Uttar Pradesh elections otherwise bereft of issues, but running subliminally is the question of corruption and lawlessness. Less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court ordered the cancellation of 122 telecom licences, it has become a talking point not just in the corridors of the Allahabad High Court but also in the surrounding rural areas as well as among pilgrims who have come to attend the annual Magh Mela at the Sangam from nearby districts.
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Despite various attempts, opposition fails to punch holes in Mayawati's vote bank - Devesh Kumar, ET
The heavy turnout at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's inaugural election rally at Sitapur on Wednesday reinforced the BSP supremo's credentials as a powerful crowd-puller, while dampening the assessment of her political adversaries that BSP's core vote bank, Dalits, were withering. The crowds gathered at Mayawati's rally in Sitapur, located some 85 km from Lucknow, could be construed as an indicator of her continued sway over the entire Dalit constituency, and not just Jatavs, who constitute the party's core base.
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UP: Unpredictable outcome - Economic Times
Considering what is at stake, top leaders of all political parties have descended in Uttar Pradesh's poll arena to select its 16th assembly. However, unlike in the past, when issues used to be clearly visible and so was the inclination of the voter, thereby making poll speculation easier, the 2012 state assembly election appears to be most unpredictable. Besides the four key political players - the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - there has been the emergence of the Peace Party, that is seen, more than anything else, as a spoilsport.
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UP phase II at a glance - Economic Times
Debate on clean politics notwithstanding, candidates with criminal records seem to have increased in UP, if the data for the second phase is any indication.
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Outsider’s tag yet to go - Arunav Sinha, Times of India
After tasting political success in different states of India and subsequently forming a government in which they have a say, political parties from other states have been trying rather hard to play the role of kingmaker, if not the king in UP's ever-changing and continuously evolving political set-up. However, the decline in their vote share in the past two assembly elections and the previous Lok Sabha election, indicate that they are still far from capturing the reins of power in the politically crucial state.
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Image conscious parties shun criminals - Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, Times of India
Criminalization of politics seems to be nearing a full circle this election. Since its inception in mid 80s, it's perhaps for the first time that most of the underworld's top names will launch their political innings as independent or candidates of small regional parties, after being denied tickets by the top political outfits. Be it Munna Bajrangi, his fellow don Mukhtar Ansari or their bete-noire Birjesh Singh, not one could manage a ticket from any of the leading political parties this time. The situation is no different fro mafia-turned politician from Rae Bareilly Akhilesh Singh, jailed don-turned politico Atiq Ahmed who is in fray from Phoolpur assembly constituency and sitting BSP MLA Jitendra Singh Babloo.
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India election transfer 'not linked' to Gandhi incident - BBC
The Election Commission has denied the transfer of a poll official is linked to his role in halting a Gandhi family convoy in Uttar Pradesh state. The convoy of motorcycles was led by the son-in-law of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi during the current state election campaign. Robert Vadra was stopped on Monday for "using more vehicles than the permitted number of 10".
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Blow to BJP poll plan - Telegraph
The special court’s verdict clearing P. Chidambaram of involvement in the 2G scam has left the BJP without a crucial campaign weapon in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. In private, BJP leaders acknowledged that the green light to Chidambaram has been a blow to the party, particularly with respect to its Uttar Pradesh plans. The BJP had been waiting with bated breath to exploit the verdict in the Assembly elections. The party had an aggressive campaign plan ready had Chidambaram got embroiled in the 2G case.
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Presidential poll: UP vote holds key - Samarth Saran, Tehelka
The results of the Assembly elections in five states will decide the fortunes not only of various political parties and the power play within the UPA coalition but also who will become the next President of India. Current President Pratibha Patil’s term ends in July. The UPA at this point does not have the numbers to get its nominee elected to the post of President. In accordance with the provisions of Articles 54 and 55 of the Constitution, the electoral college that elects the President consists of the elected members of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and all the Legislative Assemblies (excluding nominated members). Its total strength is 4,896.
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UP: Rahul's Politics Not Aimed at Becoming PM: Priyanka - Outlook
Becoming Prime Minister is not the "central focus" of Rahul Gandhi's politics, according to his sister Priyanka, who said today that Manmohan Singh is "extremely good" and a question of change does not arise at the moment. On a campaign trail in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka also backed Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, saying she feels "sad" about the attacks on him in the 2G spectrum case when he has an "onerous and huge" responsibility towards the people of this country.
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Non-Playing Captain? - Neelabh Mishra, Outlook
It has been quite interesting to watch the footwork of Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi—supposed next-generation rivals on the national political arena from the Congress and the BJP—in the current assembly elections. For all his untested mettle, for all the pampering lavished on him by a party beholden to a dynasty, Rahul, it must be conceded, hasn’t flinched from leaping into the campaign ring. He is staking his career on this performance, as it were. In contrast, Modi, for all his bluster, has kept away from the campaigns—maybe his party has kept him tethered, maybe he is sulking. Whatever be Modi’s reasons, this first sizing-up and circling of each other by the projected rivals of the future lends itself to some ringside musing.
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SP frontrunner in UP poll battle, BSP in struggle for 2nd place - GVL Narasimha Rao, LensOnNews
As the battle for Uttar Pradesh enters the final stages with the first phase of election beginning on February 8, there is much confusion as to who will win or lead the race. There are (opinion) polls and polls but there is little clarity as to the nature of the outcome and what factors are contributing to this outcome.
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UP elections: A look at the jailed mafia dons contesting the elections - ET
The electoral battleground of Uttar Pradesh is awash with musclemen, strongmen, history-sheeters and jailed mafia dons who continue to find favour with political parties looking for "safe" candidates who can appeal to or browbeat voters into submission because of their caste identities or terrifying criminal records. Some among them even enjoy a Robin Hood kind of image in their areas of influence, encouraging them to contest as independent candidates.
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Believe me, Muslims are not a herd - Shahid Siddiqui, Hindu
The myth of the Muslim vote bank, though denied by sociologists and debunked by psephologists, refuses to die. It reasserts itself with new vigour at every election. Even those well aware of the diversity within the community cannot resist building their arguments on this spurious claim. The vote bank theory has been convenient for labelling Muslims and shoving them into handy brackets.
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At its ‘social lab’, trial by fire for BSP formula - Sanjay Singh, Indian Express
The turnaround in the BSP’s fortunes from the last assembly elections, which it won with an outright majority, is nowhere as apparent perhaps as in Ambedkar Nagar district, which is going to polls on February 8. Then known as Akbarpur, it was party founder Kanshi Ram’s “social laboratory”, where he fashioned his political might bringing Dalits and Most Backward Castes (Nishads, Rajbhars) together. For the first time in the past 10 years, the Katehari assembly seat here is showing a break in this political combination.
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Big test for the BSP’s big tent - Rahul Verma, Indian Express
With every passing day in the run-up to assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the stakes are rising for the Bahujan Samaj Party and its leader, Mayawati. In 2007, her government became the first single-party-majority government since 1985. In a state that has seen 19 chief ministers and 31 governments in the 60-plus years of its existence, Mayawati is also going to be the first CM of UP to have held office for the full five years of her term. However, looking past all these records, there are four compelling reasons to believe that the BSP’s performance in this election will be closer to its 2002 tally (98 seats) rather than 2007, when it secured 206 seats.
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‘Inspired’ by sprightly Beni, Maharaja takes him on again - Sanjay Singh, IE
It has been 40 years since Maharaja Anand Singh of the erstwhile Mankapur estate last won an Assembly election, and 20 since he was last an MP. Today, he concedes that his inspiration for re-entering electoral politics — he is the Samajwadi Party candidate from Gaura — is the Congress’s Beni Prasad Verma, the current Gonda MP and an arch rival whom he refers to as “Beni babu” and who, he has observed, seems unhindered by age.
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Heart rules Congress - Pioneer
Congress' scion, Rahul Gandhi tried to clear the doubts from the minds of the voters that Congress is not going to make alliance or any other kind of adjustment with any other Party to form a Government in the State even it took more time for him to reinstate his party Government. "Whether the Congress got two seats or 100 seats — the party will not ally with anyone. I will stand by you always. I have come to change Uttar Pradesh and whether it takes five years or 20 years, I will not budge till it is done.
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Congress shuts SP out for Muslim strategy - Kay Benedict, Mail Today
Rahul Gandhi's 'no alliance with thugs' statement on Saturday amplifies the Congress's latest strategy to go for a course correction in Uttar Pradesh. He said in Sant Kabirnagar and Varanasi the Congress wouldn't ally with 'thugs and criminals', thereby attempting to quash all speculations of a post-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the state. 'We are winning the elections and I will continue to work for you till my last drop of blood and sweat.
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We are for Muslim quota, but proportionate to population - Manish Anand, Deccan Chronicle
He is the face Samajwadi Party is banking on. Akhilesh Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, has virtually taken over the reins of the party. He is the one who worked to give the SP manifesto the so-called ‘progressive and modern look’. English and use of computers, traditionally, ignored by the SP, are high on Akhilesh’s list and the party manifesto. Manish Anand speaks to the SP’s GenNext * You are the one who is leading the party. You are in the process of replacing your father Mulayam Sin-gh Yadav as the Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo.
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UP is heading for hung assembly - News 24
The biggest opinion poll so far in Uttar Pradesh election 2012 predicts a hung assembly this time around. The survey conducted by News 24 and OBI / SCL (UK) has thrown up surprising trends in the most populous state of the country. According to the opinion poll carried out in each assembly segment of UP, no party or alliance will get anywhere close to the majority mark of 202. The Samajwadi party is predicted to emerge as the single largest party with 127 seats which is 30 seats more than they managed in the last election in 2007.
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Hold that sarcasm, Rahul is no more the political apprentice - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
Rahul Gandhi is not known to have an easy equation with the media. The general impressions that follow from it is he evades reporters to avoid questions on serious issues. Of course, there’s the allegation that he neither has clarity of thought nor the confidence to articulate his position on critical questions. So on Monday when he addressed a press conferences and fielded questions from the media, the BJP was typically sarcastic.
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Only allied with people - Pioneer
Asserting his party was unlike other Opposition parties who could compromise even with the interest and welfare of the ‘common man’ to form the Government with anybody and everybody, the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi once again reiterated that his party would not join hands with any party. “The Samajwadi Party (SP) has joined hands with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) while the BSP had allied with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form its Government thrice,’’ he said while campaigning in Gazipur, Azamgarh and Mau districts on Monday.
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UP: With new structure and purpose, Cong finally gets it act together - Maulshree Seth, Indian Express
It isn't just in the sustained campaigning by Rahul Gandhi that this Uttar Pradesh election marks a departure for the Congress. For the first time, the party known to decide candidates on the eve of filing of nomination papers has a proper organisational and management system to plan and fight the elections, support its candidates, monitor all activity and take corrective measures promptly.
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Maya’s Dalit-Brahmin castle crumbles - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
When Mayawati stitched the rainbow coalition of Brahmin-Dalit castes in 2007, the poll pundits were struck with awe. The crucible of this experiment was Sitapur — a non-descript district famous for ‘Nimsaar’ — the religious place for Hindus where it is believed that Rishi Ved Vyas had read the ‘Satya Narain Katha’ for the first time. The Brahmins, who form 14 per cent of the population in district, voted en bloc in favour of BSP, and the result was for everyone to see.
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Battle hots up for backward class votes in UP - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
The fight for the votes of the backward classes besides the powerful Yadav community that is clearly aligned with the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh has become intense, with voting in the first phase of the poll being round the corner. Incidentally, the terms ‘backward class’ and ‘backward caste’ are used inter-changeably in the context of the State.
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Need for a paper trail - A Surya Prakash, Pioneer
It’s not fair to impose electronic voting machines as a substitute for paper ballots because there’s no way voters can verify which way their vote went. The Election Commission may have won the legal battle vis-à-vis the efficacy of electronic voting machines in view of the recent judgement of the Delhi High Court, but it has a lot of work to do if it wishes to remove the prevailing scepticism about these machines.
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UP Elections: Congress good performance may boost markets, states a study - Rohit Chandavarkar, ET
Any political formation after the polls in UP where the Congress party forges an alliance to form a new government will improve the Congress party's ability to push for policy decisions and reforms at the Centre and in turn will create a positive market sentiment, an independent study of the impact of Uttar Pradesh election results on the economic situation suggests.
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UP assembly poll results can have national impact - Economic Times
UP assembly poll results are exactly a month away. But the verdict could lead to end of policy paralysis at the Centre. We take a look at two most-likely scenarios:
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India's reluctant young emperor, Rahul Gandhi - Economic Times
They call him the Yuva Samrat, or young emperor. Yet Rahul Gandhi has so far shown no inclination to claim the throne of the world's largest democracy. The scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty could be prime minister if he asked for it, according to many members of his ruling Congress party. But instead he is focused on grassroots politics in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most politically vital state, which votes in local elections this month and where Congress struggles for support at the ballot box.
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In anger at Maya’s govt, voters recall the way Mulayam’s was - Seema Chishti, IE
Medical store owner Jayprakash Srivastava is proud of the nine months he spent in jail during the Emergency. Over the past five years, he has seen local BSP workers who would gather and chat on a bench outside his store in Pharenda in Maharajganj district, just off the Nepal border, gradually trickle away. That’s not really a ringside view of politics but Srivastava hits the nail on the head on why the Samajwadi Party is back in contention in eastern UP: “Mulayam Singh’s rule meant that several people were in the pipeline and it was a looser way of functioning. Now, it’s a strongly centralised system with an inaccessible person at the top.”
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If this is ‘Rahul kaalam’, is ‘Vadra-gandam’ up next? - Venky Vembu, First Post
Robert Vadra is a passionate biker, and there are countless anecdotal accounts of his fondness for vrooming around Delhi’s leafy avenues on a zippy motorbike. But yesterday, in a brief interaction with the media, Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law and Priyanka Gandhi’s husband revealed himself to nurse a secret ambition to be a ‘parachute politician’: someone who descends from on high and air-drops into the political arena merely on the strength of his place in the First Family of Indian politics.
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Promises to keep but miles to go - Shruti Srivastava , Ritu Kant Ojha, IE
Each of the four mainstream parties contesting in Uttar Pradesh has made populist promises ranging from constant power supply to loan waivers to free laptops. None of these promises seems, however, to have factored in the precarious situation the state’s finances are in. The SP and BJP manifestos include freebies such as laptops, tablets, power, irrigation and even cows. The Congress, though comparatively restrained, has emphasised infrastructural reforms and development, including an ambitious highway quadrilateral connecting four cities.
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Dalit or not, the common cry is for khaad, beej and houses across villages voting today - D K Singh, Indian Express
The disenchantment with Mayawati’s government is visible not only in her core constituency of Dalits, who give her an 18 per cent edge over rivals at the very start of any election, but also in its non-Dalit votebank, which had propelled it to power in 2007. A strong undercurrent of resentment over governance issues threatens to scuttle her 2007 social engineering formula. Farmers, whether Dalit or non-Dalit, are resentful about a scarcity of fertilisers and their black marketing, especially during the wheat-sowing months, besides that of seeds. Many are also resentful about not having got a house under any government scheme.
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From page three parties to front page politics - Smita Gupta, Hindu
In October 2010, the country's best known son-in-law, Robert Vadra, triggered off speculation when he told The Times of India that he could win an election from anywhere: “I can definitely win (an election) from anywhere but I am a businessman. Why politics? I should be known for what I am,” he had said, continuing, “There is a time and place for everything. If I feel that I know enough about this line (politics), if I can dedicate enough time and effort to it, when my children are grown up and if I can make a difference, then why not?”
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One flip-flop too many - Pioneer
By first ordering the transfer of an election observer in Uttar Pradesh who had the ‘temerity’ to stop Mr Robert Vadra’s motorcycle rally in Amethi, then postponing his move to Goa till after the election, and finally rescinding the order, all in a matter of 24 hours, the Election Commission of India is now faced with a serious crisis of credibility. Just as nobody is now convinced by the Election Commission’s tortuous justification for its latest flip-flop, few had bought its earlier explanation that IAS officer Pawan Kumar Sain’s transfer was a ‘routine decision’ in the first place.
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UP elections: Swing voters' day out - Economic Times
Bahujan Samaj Party will fervently hope for a repeat of 2007, as polling begins in the seven-phase assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, while Congress, SP and BJP expect to benefit from the perceived anti-incumbency sentiment in the state. Voters in the 55 constituencies across 10 districts going to the polls in the inaugural phase have shifted their loyalties over the past three elections, reposing their faith by rotation in the Samajwadi Party, BSP and Congress.
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BSP has a poor track record on reserved seats - Ashish Tripathi, Times of India
The Bahujan Samaj Party is a dalit-based party but its track record in reserved constituencies has been poor in comparison to other parties in all previous elections barring the 2007 assembly poll. Sample this: In 1993, out of total 88 assembly seats reserved for dalits, BJP grabbed 33, BSP and SP 23 each, Congress and others four each In 1996 again, BJP was top runner with 35 seats followed by BSP (20), SP (18), Congress (2), and others (12). The scene changed in 2002, with SP grabbing 36 seats, followed by BSP (24), BJP (17), Con gress (2) and others (10) However, in 2007, the sit uation changed dramati cally with BSP winning 61 out of total 89 reserved constituencies, SP 13, BJP 7, Congress 5, RLD 1 Rashtriya Swabhiman Party (RPS) 1 and an in
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Maya of inclusion - Sagarika Ghose, Hindustan Times
Between the circling helicopter and the massive crowds, there is almost a telepathic connection. Seconds before the chopper appears, a sparse crowd blooms into a sudden multitude. Silence and murmurings mutate into chants and shouts. Scores of blue elephant-shaped balloons dance into the air. Mayawati's helicopter hovers. On the ground, buntings, flags, streamers and waving hands reach upward. The helicopter descends into a mammoth flash fiesta where only seconds before there were just a few thin lines of dozing cadres.
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Glamorous bahu breaks into poll dance - Rajiv Srivastava, Times of India
Move over mafias and musclemen. It's Gorakhpur's Gujarat link that is turning heads in the district that is going to vote on Saturday. And here one is not talking about BJP and Narendra Modi. Adding a glamour quotient is Congress candidate actress Kajal from Kutch. She has acted in a number of Bhojpuri films and TV serials and married to Bhojpuri film producer Sanjay Nishad, who is from the Bhauapaar village of the district. So, campaigning against her rival BSP's Ram Bhual Nishad, she proudly flaunts her caste title.
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Brahmins stay away from BSP, Satish Mishra no help - Prashant Pandey, IE
The BSP’s Brahmin face, Satish Chandra Mishra, has been holding meetings to help the party win the community’s vote. But he doesn’t appear to have cut much ice, at least in Allahabad and Varanasi which go to polls on February 15, in the third phase of UP elections. Mishra addressed three meetings in Allahabad on February 3, moving on to Varanasi and Chandauli. He is scheduled to also hold rallies at Mirzapur and later Bundelkhand, entering through Chitrakoot. However, at his Allahabad meetings, the participation was low.
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Will 'Dalit queen' Mayawati win again in Uttar Pradesh? - BBC
With crucial assembly elections getting under way in India's Uttar Pradesh state on Wednesday, the BBC's Geeta Pandey in Sitapur assesses the chances of Mayawati, its enigmatic chief minister. At the State Inter College Ground in Sitapur, about 100km (62 miles) from the state capital, Lucknow, a crowd of about 10,000 people have gathered for Chief Minister Mayawati's first election rally in the state.
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Caste lines crisscross UP - Seema Chishti, Indian Express
Boasting a quality dahi market and a tradition of supporting a culture of dissent and ‘Samajwad’, Deoria district, with seven Assembly constituencies, is at the heart of the Poorvanchal experience. Student of politics remember it also as the place where then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav planned to stop L K Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra in 1990, only to be pipped at it by chief minister Lalu Prasad in neighbouring Bihar. Electorally, there is another reason why Deoria holds a significant position on UP’s map. It is an established centre for Brahmins, where they have held positions of influence and are present in good numbers.
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Where Kabir rests, it’s Hindu vs Muslim again - Surbhi Khyati, Indian Express
This is where mediaeval poet Sant Kabir is believed to have breathed his last. As Hindus and Muslims fought over how his last rites should be performed, the legend goes, the body miraculously vanished with flowers taking their place. The Muslims took the sheet that had covered the body, the Hindus took the flowers. Today, the shrine at Kabir Nirvana Sthal, where people of both religions pay tribute, includes a mausoleum built by Hindus and a tomb by Muslims. But “like then, Hindus and Muslims are fighting again”, says a saint at Kabir Nirvan Sthal. “This time, it’s the elections”.
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BSP votes may go south in East - Usha Shrivastav, Pioneer
In eastern Uttar Pradesh, from Gorakhpur to Gautam Buddha’s native place Kushinagar, right up till the Bihar border town of Padrona, the election fever is running high. The big four — Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress — are showing their presence. While some are fighting for a large number of seats, others are contesting at one or two, but all are wooing voters with equal fervour.
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Why are Kanshi Ram’s statues covered? - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
The Election Commission’s order to drape the statues of Mayawati and elephants built with public money has taken a new dimension. BSP founder Kanshi Ram’s brother, Dalbara Singh, has questioned why his brother’s statues have also been covered. He has petitioned the commission, saying Kanshi Ram’s statues have been covered illegally on directives of the CM. This petition assumes importance because Kanshi Ram’s family have always said that Mayawati was using the BSP founder’s name to further her political career. Singh had earlier moved Delhi High Court, seeking Kanshi Ram’s custody when he was terminally ill in a Delhi hospital. And now, he has again taken up cudgels against Mayawati.
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In U.P. polls, local dalit histories vie with BSP's grand storyline - Badri Narayan, Hindu
All social communities have a history that is experienced, or perceived, or both. Communities survive and sustain themselves on these histories. When political forces try to mobilise these communities, they usually do so by exploring their history and then giving it a political meaning that suits their agenda. In the beginning, when the political party is new, it gives space and respect to the small histories of each community that it wants to mobilise. Through this process, the party seeks to create unity among all these communities for its political purpose.
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Picture of neglect and backwardness - Liz Mathew, Mint
A youthful electorate and rising aspirations threaten the bid by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to return to power in Uttar Pradesh in elections that began on Wednesday. The key test for the BSP is its performance on governance and whether it has improved upon the previous government’s record.
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2G taint not to impact UP polls, believes Congress - Kavita Chowdhury, Business Standard
Congress scion Rahul Gandhi’s insistence on making “corruption” a core issue to attack the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh might appear self-defeatist, given that his party-led regime at the Centre has been indicted by the apex court on the 2G issue. Even so, the Congress general secretary’s election strategy enjoys staunch support from his party’s leaders in the state. For, they believe the telecom corruption taint on the UPA dispensation government would have little impact on the ground. To them, contrary to the BJP-led Opposition claims, it is no poll issue in Uttar Pradesh.
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Spoilers can play a key role in the Punjab - Pramod Kumar, Mail Today
The election in Punjab was no different from any other election in that it represented a kaleidoscope of political theatrics. As in any other state, the main Opposition party was supposed to be the main beneficiary of anti-incumbency. But this time there is also a third front, locally labelled as Sanjha Morcha, which is opposed to both, claiming to be the real democratic voice.
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When aspirations count - Zoya Hasan, Times of India
The 35 million Muslims in Uttar Pradesh rarely attract much attention. When they do, the context is invariably that of elections, victimisation at the hands of communal forces or threat posed to internal stability or security. The lack of attention has resulted in perpetuating stereotypes and hindering policies aimed at the incorporation of Muslims into the mainstream of public discourse.
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Hold the ‘core' and chase the ‘plus' votes - Vidya Subrahmaniam, Hindu
If election waves could be conjured up in party backrooms, the Congress should have already won Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections-2012 by a mile and more. The loudest noise in this poll season has been around the Congress, with party and pundits alike predicting an ‘almost-there' power burst from the slowest runner on the field.
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For Mayawati, a do-or-die battle - Smita Gupta, Hindu
As the serried ranks of dalits, men and women, stoic determination on their faces, silently marched into Sitapur, 85 km north of Lucknow on February 1, from where Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati launched her election campaign, the scrunch of dry leaves beneath their feet was only occasionally interrupted by the cry of: “Koi nahi takkar mein, kahan pade ho chakkar mein” (There's no one in the contest, why are you getting confused).
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Candidates don’t need no education - Nitin Yeshwantrao, Times of India
Nearly 80% candidates across the political spectrum contesting polls to the 130-seat Thane Municipal Corporation have not gone beyond SSC or Class XII, according to data culled by TOI from affidavits filed by aspiring city fathers. The poor academic record of so many contestants and the political parties' decision to overlook their qualifications has shocked locals as the fastexpanding city needs leadership steeped in managerial and administrative skills.
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Who should be next PM, asks Congress in MP, Chhattisgarh - D K Singh, IE
Almost two years ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections, the Congress has started seeking public opinion on who should be the next prime minister. In a survey commissioned by the party in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — both BJP-ruled states — the first question in the two-page questionnaire is: “Who do you think should be the next Prime Minister of India?”
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U.P. may head for instability if Congress and BJP sit in the Opposition - Smita Gupta, Hindu
On Tuesday, when the voluble Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, told journalists in Allahabad, “If we are not able to form the government, there will be President's Rule in the State,” it was dismissed as an instance of his usual hyperbole. But with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) separately stating publicly and repeatedly that neither had any intention of backing any other party to form a government in the State, there may be more to his statement.
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EC casts web on polling booths - Pankaj Jaiswal, Hindustan Times
Additional chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan sipped coffee while watching election coverage on the LED TV in his comfortable office on Saturday. On the huge table, the 21-inch computer monitor beamed live webcast from various polling stations. Thanks to measures like webcasting (telecast through internet) from polling booths, booth capturing may see its last soon. And for electoral officers like Narayan, it may spell less stress.
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Rahul Gandhi banks on UP for his future - Kalyani Shankar, Pioneer
The Congress general secretary does not want to lead a UPA Government that is discredited and crippled by allies. It suits him to be projected as a reluctant power-seeker and to wield power without responsibility. In 2009, when the UPA2 Government was sworn-in, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi was present at the swearing-in ceremony. When a journalist asked him why he was shying away from joining the Ministry, pat came the reply, “I can’t do 10 things at a time and I believe in doing one thing at a time. Right now I am focussing on building up the party.”
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In UP, wives drive poll rath of jailed candidates - Pawan Dixit, Hindustan Times
Here is a development that will gladden the hearts of women’s issue activists. Despite having an army of loyalists, the criminal candidates of eastern Uttar Pradesh are banking on their wives to pull them through the elections. Be it Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi, Brijesh Singh or jailed BSP parliamentarian Dhananjay Singh—all have put their wives in charge of their campaign. Seema Singh is leading the campaign of Munna Bajrangi—jailed Apna Dal candidate from Mariahu assembly seat of Jaunpur.
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Why Priyanka’s charisma may not work for Congress in UP - Rajdeep Sardesai, FP
In 1999, we experienced a ‘television moment’. We were covering Sonia Gandhi’s Amethi campaign when we happened to meet her daughter Priyanka. For the next several hours, Priyanka took us on a whirlwind tour across the constituency. There were fewer camera crews then, so there wasn’t a mad scramble for soundbites. Priyanka was made for television: attractive, charming and spontaneous. She even had lunch with us under a banyan tree, spoke at length on her family legacy, and clearly reveled in the public glare. It was probably her first ever tv interaction, but she didn’t miss a beat. We were, well, bowled over.
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Election Committee throws down the gauntlet at politicians - Ashish Sinha, MT
Chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi cracked the whip on law minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday. A full bench of the Election Commission, headed by him, severely indicted Khurshid and censured him for violating the model code of conduct enforced in Uttar Pradesh. Khurshid was warned not to repeat the offence.
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UP 2012: In Jaunpur muscle power reigns supreme - Danish Raza, Firstpost
In 1359, Feroze Shah Tughlaq founded the city of Janunpur. Tughlaq appointed Malik Sarwar, a eunuch, as the governor of the region. Three decades later, Sarwar declared independence. Mubarak Shah, Sarwar’s adopted son founded the dynasty of the East or Sharqi dynasty. Jaunpur Sultanate became a strong power in the Sharqi dynasty. So much so, that it even threatened the Delhi Sultanate. More than seven centuries later, Jaunpur remains unstable.
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Congress' double talk in UP polls - Kavita Chowdhury, Business Standard
Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, party president Sonia Gandhi and coal minister and U P election campaign committee in-charge Sriprakash Jaiswal have lately asserted the party would ‘go it alone’ in Uttar Pradesh. “The party is in coalition only with the poor,” Rahul Gandhi had recently said, adding it was not interested in allying with any other party. Quick to realise that the likely scenario of a Samajwadi Party(SP)-Congress tie-up after the polls was leaving voters confused, and dampening its prospects, he swung into a damage-control mode.
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Is Uttar Pradesh experiencing a democratic upsurge? - Soutik Biswas, BBC
Election officials believe so. They say that a record 62% turnout in the first phase of the seven-phase vote on Wednesday is the highest since 1947, up from a dismal average of 46% in the 2007 polls. "It rains votes in Uttar Pradesh," said a clever headline in The Hindu newspaper. Many political scientists are not so sure. India's top psephologist, Yogendra Yadav, believes that the high turnout could possibly be linked to something as prosaic as the correction of a "highly defective" voter list - the deletion of people who have died or migrated outside the state, and the inclusion of new voters.
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Behenji versus everyone in UP poll race - Radhika Ramaseshan, Star News
Pyarelal Prajapati, the chief of the BSP in this ancient town,replete with mythological and historical resonance, sounded sagely and detached towards his party. He quoted a Biblical aphorism: “As you sow, so (shall) you reap.” Asked for whom the saying was meant, Prajapati, in a BSP blue tracksuit, paused and said: “Behenji.” “She has not used her mandate fully. She did for the Dalits what the Gandhi-Nehrus never did in so many decades.
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Quiet hope for Congress in Uttar Pradesh - Sanjay K Jha, Star News
Congress leaders had a sinking feeling when reports of polling as low as 40 per cent reached them yesterday and they wondered if the unseasonal rain had come as a divine intervention to save Mayawati. Gloom had enveloped the party headquarters by evening, when the revised estimates put the polling at 62 per cent and the smiles back on glum Congress faces. The argument that a high voter turnout signalled a yearning for change was bandied about and leaders enthusiastically took out their phones to seek “reports” from the ground. Then promptly grinned that the news was “not bad”.
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UP elections: Minnows matter in round II - Man Mohan Rai, Economic Times
Significant smaller players such as Peace Party, Apna Dal and Qaumi Ekta Dal, which threaten to upset the calculations of their established rivals, will get to test their might in the second round of polling on Saturday. After the high turnout in the inaugural phase, this round will be keenly watched as voters pick 59 candidates across 10 districts. The incumbent Bahujan Samaj Party had bagged 29 of these seats in 2007, while the Samajwadi Party trailed with 20 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress won six and two seats respectively.
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Uma Bharti sees split in Gandhi family - Hindu
Taking on the Gandhi family once again, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti on Friday said she suspected “a split’’ in the Gandhi family going by the way Priyanka was using her children to seek votes for the party and her husband Robert Vadra expressing keenness to join politics. Ms. Priyanka had subsequently denied that Mr. Vadra was interested in politics. Talking to The Hindu here after addressing an election rally, Ms. Bharti said Ms. Priyanka’s move to bring her two young children to an election rally “begging for votes’’ when just a few years ago she had moved the court after some newspapers had carried their pictures citing violation of privacy as the reason was surprising.
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Dynasty, not democracy - Pioneer
That the Nehru-Gandhi family rules the Congress is a widely acknowledged fact, though there are a few of those who wish to believe against all available evidence that the Congress is the most democratic organisation that exists in the country. Two recent instances will serve to rid such optimists of their delusion and demonstrate the hold of the dynasty over the party.
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Royal challenge on fief turfs - Hindustan Times
It is battle royale, literally. More than 12 rajas, ranis, raj kumars and raj kumaris of the erstwhile royal families are contesting the assembly election. “It is the love of the people, not the titles, that counts,” says Maharaja Ranjit Singh Judeo of Samthar, who is contesting the Samthar seat of Bundelkhand on a Congress ticket. A six-term MLA and former minister, Judeo says royal antecedents can help score an initial victory but, after that, the work done for the people matters more. “I won my first election in 1974 by a big margin. It decreased the next time.”
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Con(g)tradictions: Party leaders give conflicting statements in battlefield Uttar Pradesh - Piyush Srivastava, Mail Today
Did Sonia Gandhi cry over the Batla House encounter or not? Will Rahul Gandhi remote control the chief minister in Uttar Pradesh if the Congress emerges victorious? And an official spokesperson blabbering at daily briefings. All these issues are what the Congress could least afford in the face of crucial make-or-break elections in Uttar Pradesh.
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Possibility of tampering with EVMs cannot be ruled out: Lagoo - Chandan Haygunde, Indian Express
After some electronic voting machines (EVMs) were found defective in Sangli, Kolhapur and Beed districts during the zilla parishad elections, activists are now raising serious doubts about the accuracy of the machines. Pune-based civil engineer and social activist Mukund Lagoo, who is also an accused in the EVM theft case registered with Mumbai Police, said EVMs can be tampered with in a span of two-and-a-half minutes or it could have technical errors and in such a condition if you press any button the vote could be directed to a particular candidate.
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Are Thackeray and Pawar still relevant? 16 Feb polls will tell - Abhay Vaidya, FP
Will the Shiv Sena suffer a fractured mandate in the forthcoming civic polls which will lead to the “political irrerlevance” of the party chief, Balasaheb Thackeray, as Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan put it recently? Will the uncle-nephew team of NCP president Sharad Pawar and Deputy Chief Minister Ajitdada realise their dream of wresting full control of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) after the 16 February civic polls in Maharashtra?
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Who will voters favour this time? - Times of India
The strategically planned election campaigns by the political parties and candidates for the third phase of assembly polls will surely end by Monday afternoon, but the voters have left everyone guessing about their mood. For the past fortnight, the city saw the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party trying their best to regain their past glory while parties like Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party held limited shows.
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Batla House village votes for change - Rajesh Kumar Singh, Hindustan Times
arly in the morning, some people stood chatting outside the polling booth in the primary school building of Sanjarpur in Nizamabad assembly segment. As the clock struck seven, a large number of voters, including youth, women and senior citizens, initially jostled, but soon fell in line to cast
their votes. Sanjarpur bears the blot of being the native village of the youths killed in the Batla House encounter in 2008, in New Delhi.
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Democracy seems EC - Chanakya, Hindustan Times
When did you last hear that quaint phrase booth-capturing? If you haven’t come across it even as elections are on in places like Uttar Pradesh, have you wondered why? The answer is quite simple. It is because of the Election Commission (EC). It is an oasis of excellence in an otherwise muddied atmosphere simply because it is executing its constitutional mandate without fear or favour.
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Eastern UP determined to ‘caste’ their franchise - Usha Shrivastav, Pioneer
Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur. If democracy is a Yajna, then public representatives are like Sadhus offering Ahuti of promises, announcements and of course slogans into it. In that case, the issue of caste should not have value, but in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh Jatak or the voters are very concerned about the caste of candidates fighting this election. From Gorakhpur to Azamgarh and Mau (we crossed the river Sarayu from Dohrighat), the charm of national parties like the BJP and the Congress, who are promising to bring development in this region, is fading.
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Commanding the commanders - Tavishi srivastava, Pioneer
These days, the one and only question doing the rounds in socio-political circles is ‘Who do you think will win in the ongoing Vidhan Sabha elections’? This is sufficient reason to trigger a debate. All pros and cons are discussed in detail. Now that the first of the seven-phase polling is over, the observers are trying to make an assessment based on the queues of voters outside the polling booths. One remarked, “Even the rains and inclement weather conditions could not deter the voters from using their franchise”. Obviously a good sign you would say.
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Khurshid: From suave liberal to Muslim mascot - Subodh Ghildiyal, Times of India
The 1991 election in Uttar Pradesh turned Mulayam Singh Yadav into 'Maulana Mulayam'. The 1999 Lok Sabha contest shrank Hindutva icon Kalyan Singh into a caste leader of Lodhs. After March 6, Salman Khurshid may find it tough to live down the image of a 'Muslim' leader. The suave minister's unexpected belligerence over last fortnight on 'Muslim issues' woke partymen and observers to a new Khurshid, one eager to be seen as community leader.
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Will big crowds at Rahul rally translate into big votes? - Sachin Parashar & Rajeev Dikshit, Times of India
It's not always that a Congress rally in Poorvanchal, one of India's most backward areas, sees a healthier turnout than that of Samajwadi Party. Not, at least, in an area with a strong Muslim presence. But Rahul Gandhi seemed to have achieved this feat at his rally in Varanasi's Beniabagh Ground on Saturday - crowds exceeding Mulayam Singh Yadav's public meeting at the same ground five days ago. Beniabagh is among the SP chief 's favourite rally venues because of the Muslim neighbourhood overlooking the dusty the ground.
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The Cost Of Democracy - Chander Suta Dogra, Outlook
It’s getting bigger by the day. If the sheer number of notices sent by the Election Commission to candidates and media houses is any indication, paid news is big news in the assembly elections in Punjab. By the time polling came to a close on January 30, the commission’s media monitoring committees (MMCs) in the districts had issued some 300 notices. More than 200 of those served notices have even admitted to paying or accepting payment, the candidates among them agreeing to show this spending in the Rs 16 lakh they are permitted to spend on canvassing.
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Soup Show, Flop Show... - B. Raman, Outlook
In about a month from now, India will know who wins the elections to the new Assembly of Uttar Pradesh, the largest State, for which the election campaign is in full swing. The elections will have a twofold significance from the point of view of the next elections to the Lok Sabha due in 2014. Firstly, they will show what impact the cascading allegations, disclosures and court judgements relating to large-scale corruption in the government of India under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have had in strengthening negative voter perceptions regarding the Congress Party headed by Mrs Sonia Gandi?
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Wind Under Wings - Anuradha Raman, Outlook
The Eye Hospital Road is fondly referred to as the Connaught Place of Sitapur. On February 8, when the first phase of polls were held in Uttar Pradesh, the town was in election brio. But a few days before voting day, no one was willing to lay any bets. In the 2007 assembly election, this area had emerged as a BSP bastion in the wave that saw Mayawati’s party go shining past the simple majority. But this time in Sitapur—where Mayawati and Rahul Gandhi addressed rallies within 24 hours of each other—ordinary people in the heart of town seem quite bored. Party workers, on the other hand, were exuberant.
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Slammer Dunk To A Poll Safari - Debarshi Dasgupta, Outlook
Consider the bizarre sequence of events: an electoral candidate goes missing along with his entire police escort while out on a court summons, and remains untraceable for over a day. And then, somewhat miraculously, shows up at his assigned jail, taking over 30 hours to cover a distance that should have taken no more than 12. What does he do all this while? The candidate allegedly supervises his election campaign in violation of government orders that prevent any form of campaigning by those behind bars.
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It is the Congress versus the BJP in Goa, with the once-strong regional parties playing either “spoilers” or “kingmakers”. - Pamela D'mello, Frontline
BY February 16, the last date for withdrawal of nominations, contenders for the Assembly elections scheduled for March 3 in Goa will have less than two weeks for active campaigning. Though there promises to be multi-corner contests and several candidates in each of the 40 constituencies, the battle for Goa is essentially between the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is making a bid to regain Panaji since its 2000-2005 tenure.
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The 'Untouchable' - Sadanand Dhume, Foreign Policy
Millions of voters will head to the polls this week for the first phase of what are often called India's second-most important elections -- for a new government in Uttar Pradesh, the country's largest state and home to about one in six of its 1.2 billion citizens. If it were an independent country, UP, as it is commonly known, would be the world's fifth-most populous, roughly the size of Brazil.
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How Salman Khurshid lost himself in the Muslim ghetto - Venky Vembu, Firstpost
Look closely in the bylanes of small towns in Uttar Pradesh that are going to the polls, and you might just find the lost soul of Salman Khurshid wandering about. Notionally, the man is the country’s Law Minister, who even up until last year wasn’t afraid to speak out against the “ghetto-isation” of Muslims, and had the intellectual honesty and the courage of his convictions (so rare among Congress politicians) to argue that Muslims should look beyond their narrow interests and become “mainstreamed”.
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EC writes to President against Salman Khurshid - LensOnElections
Respected Rashtrapati Ji,
The Commission is approaching you with serious dismay and a deep sense
of urgency that requires your kind intervention in the midst of the poll
process in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The Union Minister for Law and Justice and Minority Affairs, Salman
Khurshid, who is also a leader of the Indian National Congress Party,
had made certain statements and announcements during the course of his
campaign in the state. One of them was to the effect that the Congress
would provide a quota of 9 per cent reservation to the minorities within
the existing quota of 27 per cent for OBCs. He also indicated that
Muslims having a sizeable population will be benefited from this move.
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Top makers dwindle, tired of poll spin - Sankarshan Thakur, Telegraph
A sorry tale hangs by those charming wooden baubles you might often have haggled off the platform at train halts in Varanasi or Mughalsarai — a spinning top, a miniature kitchen set, a rocking horse, the triptych of birds on a string that commenced their tuk-tuk of pecking at the slightest swing of your hands, that little vermillion chest still somewhere amid the bric-a-brac on the dresser.
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Shiv Sainiks in poll mode, forget V-day rampage this year - Manoj More , Sushant Kulkarni, Indian Express
This year, the Shiv Sena city unit has not said a word about disrupting Valentine’s Day celebrations on college campuses unlike in the past when the Sainiks go on a rampage during celebrations, vandalising gift shops, greeting card galleries and storming college campuses. With just three days left for the civic polls, Sena leaders refuse to utter the V-word and are instead waiting for directives, if any, from party youth chief Aditya Thackeray.
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At the drop of a tear - MJ Akbar, Sunday Guardian
Tears are a fragile weapon in public life. Their success rate is so low that it is rarely wise to display them. People check what kind of tears they are. Sentiment can be a powerful virtue in mass mobilization, but sentimentality never works. Tears of helplessness or regret invite scorn: the first is evidence of impotence, the second is proof of uselessness.
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The young will decide the fate of Uttar Pradesh - Appu Esthose Suresh & Liz Mathew, Mint
The record turnout in the first two phases of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, normally symptomatic of anti-incumbency, could spell trouble for the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), especially if the trend, driven by an impressive participation of youth, endures in the remaining five phases and the BSP is unable to come up with a counter-offensive. The nine districts in India’s most populous state that went to polls on 11 February saw a 60% voter participation and the first phase in 10 districts on 8 February recorded a 62-64% turnout.
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Delhi BJP banks on Narendra Modi chariot to retain hold over MCD - Kumar Vikram, Mail Today
The Delhi BJP is banking on the chariot used by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2007 assembly elections campaign as the party gets ready to fight the Congress in the upcoming municipal elections. The BJP leaders think that the chariot which proved lucky for the Gujarat CM will help them retain their hold on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
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Maya’s fate keeps floating in floating votes - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
The popular verdict is clear: Mayawati has squandered her mandate. The first political leader in a long, long time to get a clear majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly has not lived up to the expectations of the voters who believed that a stable government would end the climate of political uncertainty in the state. However, the adverse popular mood does not necessarily translate into she will be rejected this time.
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Migrants' money meets mafia power - Rajeev Dikshit, Times of India
Finding a sex ratio like Jaunpur (1018 female per 1000 male) in other parts of the state as well as country is almost rare. But, this outstanding female:male ratio is not the result of any anti-female foeticide campaign. It is the result of large-scale migration of male members to Gulf countries and Metros like Mumbai to earn a livelihood. Move just five kilometres from Guraini Bazar on Shahganj Road and one can witness how the living standard of the families whose male members are staying abroad has improved.
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UP Elections: Delimitation squeezes incumbents - Appu Esthose Suresh, Mint
Shyam Deo Roy Chaudhary has won the Varanasi South seat on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket in the last five Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections. Chaudhary’s modest middle-class lifestyle and popularity as an approachable politician has worked well for him so far. That may be about to change in this assembly election—the first since the delimitation of constituencies carried out in 2008.
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Nothing to do with caste, say Catholics of North Goa - Shoma Patnaik, Navhind Times
The caste card is being played out among the electorate, in Goa, by politicians hoping to catch more votes, but among the Catholic populace of Panaji, Santa Cruz, Taleigao and Porvorim, it appears to be less of an issue, with voters unlikely to be swayed by it. The size of these constituencies is 93,984 voters, with 32 per cent being Christians. The caste composition is mixed with Bhatcars co-existing with members of backward class such as Gawda, Kharvi, Kumbhar etc. Yet, will the community members be influenced by caste while voting?
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Poll campaigning gets in top gear as candidates hit town - Pupul Chaterjee , Samarpita Banerjee , Atikh Rashid, Indian Express
On the last Sunday before the city goes to polls, campaigning in various parts of the city reached a fever pitch. Party candidates and Independents rushed through their panels hoping to meet the ‘decision makers’. In old city areas, while the campaign vehicles were parading loudspeakers at full volume, candidates and their workers could be seen hurriedly coming out of one lane only to disappear in another; smiling and cajoling everyone with folded hands.
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Mayawati’s legacy in stone: Symbolism that does not wash - Akshaya Mishra, Firstpost
Mayawati has carved her legacy in stone. Two centuries from now, any tourist to Lucknow would stand mesmerised at the beauty and grandeur of the Ambedkar Memorial and Manyawar Kashiram Ji Smarak Sthal, saluting in silence the aesthetic vision of the ruler who made such works possible. He would not hesitate to equate these with other medieval architectural marvels in the state, which include Shah Jahan’s elegy in stone, Taj Mahal.
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Priyanka backs Khurshid on EC row, says he is free to air views - Ashish Tripathi,, Times of India
Expressing hope that the row between union law minister Salman Khurshid and the Election Commission (EC) on the sub-quota for Muslims would be sorted out soon, Congress party's star campaigner in UP assembly elections Priyanka Gandhi on Monday said that everyone is free to voice his or her opinion during elections and so is the EC.
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US primaries provoke demand for inner party democracy in India - Sanjay Sharma, ToI
Simultaneity of US presidential primaries and assembly elections in Punjab have fueled aspirations, amongst Punjabi NRIs, of bringing democratization to the level of the US. While Punjabi political parties have announced their chief ministerial candidates ahead of the January 30 assembly elections, results for which are awaited on March 6, a group of NRIs led by North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) chairman Satnam Singh Chahal has opposed the practice of announcing chief ministerial candidates in advance saying, "Going to polls projecting somebody as a leader deprives MLAs and their electors their right to elect a leader."
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City's rural belt faces capital sentence - Neha Shukla, Times of India
Tharu hutments in Banthra bazaar of Sarojininagar here are a sharp contrast to the double-storyed brick and mortar houses in the locality. A cluster of 20-odd thatched huts, with dingy surroundings, speak volumes about the political neglect in Banthra. The pradhan never visits the community and the latter are now discouraged to discuss their problems with her. “Thanks to the fact that we are living on the gram sabha land, else we have been driven out from here as well,” says Rambaks.
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Nostalgia but no winning votes for Cong in Nehru’s hometown - Nitin Sethi, ToI
Nostalgia is good, till I go to vote, says a villager in Pandeypur village in Meja constituency of Allahabad. He doesn't want to be named but he is assertive, "Congress's fortunes are on the up, but not because of the Nehru family's legacy in Uttar Pradesh." A Pandit himself, now retired from government service, he fondly remembers the days when Congress ruled the state.
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Where flyovers choke rather than ease traffic - Maulshree Seth, Indian Express
In the eight months since it was opened to the public, the Manduadih flyover in Varanasi has added fresh bottlenecks to those it was supposed to ease. It takes off from one market, arches over the Manduadih railway crossing and ends at another market, one of Varanasi’s most congested. And half a kilometre farther down the road is a busy road crossing.
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Nation in a State: In Maximum City, a high stake election that leaves voters cold - Meena Menon, Hindu
Mumbai's roads came up for dishonourable mention in the Bombay High Court last Friday when a Division Bench said their condition was “unbearable.” The last year saw the worst of the potholes; even deaths were attributed to them. Parts of Mumbai resemble decaying space stations as the metro construction drags on interminably.
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Now Vadra joins dynastic politics: Thackeray - Hindu
In his last campaign rally for the February 16 Mumbai Corporation elections, Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray targeted Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, Robert Vadra, for his alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam. “Look at the way dynastic rule is manifesting itself in the Gandhi family. Sonia's son, daughter, daughter's husband, their children are all donning the mantle of dynastic rule. Mr. Vadra has opened a new can of worms in the Congress. He himself is involved in 2G scam, but he is now given entry in politics,” Mr. Thackeray said at the rally of the Shiv Sena-BJP-Republican Party of India combine here on Monday.
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Samajwadi Party moves in for the kill - Bishwanath Ghosh, Hindu
In Prayagpur, a village of Thakurs in Auraiya district in Uttar Pradesh, they love neither Mayawati nor Mulayam Singh Yadav. They would ideally like to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party, but since the chances of the party coming to power are bleak, they will settle for Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party this time. “There might be lawlessness during Mulayam Singh's rule, but he helps the farmers.
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Salman bows to EC and PM over code row - Piyush Srivasatava, Mail Today
A word with the Prime Minister appears to have had a moderating effect on Salman Khurshid. The law minister shed his combative approach on Monday and said he was ready to apologise to the Election Commission (EC) for allegedly violating the poll code. ‘If I am asked to tender an apology, I'll do that,’ he told newspersons in Lucknow.
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In UP, it’s dignity vs development - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
Empowerment is the issue in the politics of Uttar Pradesh. As parties busy themselves digging up hidden histories of castes at the bottom of the heap to carve out pockets of loyalty, the exercise does not look without sense. It is the acknowledgement of the existential reality in the state: people value dignity more than development. This is linked to the collective memories of oppression in the castes at the bottom of the social pyramid.
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In Bundelkhand, the talk is about misrule & two men, not statehood - Virender Kumar, Indian Express
Bundelkhand is the region for which the demand for statehood has been the strongest in recent years. And, of all politicians in UP, Chief Minister Mayawati has been the most vocal about it. Yet, her exertions — a letter to the Prime Minister for division of UP into four states, backed up with a resolution in the legislature — have impressed few on the ground. “The issue in Bundelkhand now is governance, not statehood. Her rule has been a story of missed opportunities and pervasive corruption by her chosen men,” says Gopal Goyal, teacher in a local college.
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BMC polls: Where each vote counts - Seema Kamdar, DNA
Elections are never easy to predict. The civic poll is so much more difficult to foretell this time, thanks to new political alignments and the spate of reservations. The Congress-NCP alliance, for instance, could upset the ongoing reign of the Shiv Sena-BJP combine. More than the political dynamic, there is a psephology dimension to the election.
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Congress in a caste - Nalin Mehta, Mumbai Mirror
Back in 1990, when the Mandal Commission’s acceptance by the V P Singh government was redrawing the political constellation of Uttar Pradesh and much of North India, Rajiv Gandhi gave an important speech in the Lok Sabha. Constantly interrupted and marked by some of the most barbed exchanges between a Prime Minister and a Leader of Opposition, it was one of the two most important speeches of his career – the other being the one in 1985 at the Congress Centenary celebration in Mumbai where he talked of vested interests and power brokers having taken over the party.
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If you don’t want to vote, show up, activists tell citizens - Virat A Singh, Mumbai Mirror
A citizens group is spreading awareness among Mumbaikars that ‘no candidate is good enough’ is a poor excuse for not turning up to cast their vote during elections. With civic elections on Wednesday, members of Active Alert Citizens Forum (AACF) from Andheri (east) are busy spreading awareness through social networks, pamphlets and newsletters that if an individual doesn’t want to vote for any of the candidates contesting from their ward, they can still turn up to the designated polling booth and use their right to what is called a ‘protest vote’.
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No Raj Babbar effect in play this time - Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, Hindu
When film star-turned-politician Raj Babbar contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Fatehpur Sikri on a Congress ticket, he had little to lose. In the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, the Congress had altogether managed only about 5,000 votes in four of the five Assembly segments under this parliamentary constituency.
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Varanasi’s weavers don’t just want sops, they need nutrition - Danish Raza, FP
Out of an estimated 13 lakh weavers in the country, 2.5 lakh are scattered in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and it is only predictable, that political parties are out to woo the community. The Congress has taken a lead by announcing a Rs 6,230 crore package for weavers, under which, a weaver can get Rs 2 lakh loan for three years. Unlike previous schemes for the community, this one aims at transferring money directly to the weaver.
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Stupid Cupid: Or why I support the Shiv Sena today - Rajyasree Sen, First Post
It’s that time of the year again, when I suddenly morph into a strong supporter of the Shiv Sena for just the one day. Valentine’s Day has come a-knocking and things are even more surreal than they usual are. Now, I’m all for romance complete with long conversations, romantic dinners and impossible-to-keep promises, but the thought of an entire day dedicated to such behaviour has always put me off. Much like overt displays of religion, I have a problem with overt displays of romance.
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Yes, but politicians should self-regulate - Sudha Pai, Economic Times
The recent stand-off between law minister Salman Khurshid and the Election Commission (EC) over the former's promise to provide sub-quotas to Muslims has raised the issue of the balance between the right of political leaders to make election promises and the responsibility assigned to the EC to ensure fair play. It is accepted practice in democratic systems that political parties during elections place their ideology and agenda before the electorate to enable them to make democratic choices.
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Rahul's 'Shah Bano' bend - IBNLive
To Rahul, should go the credit of helping the Congress finally shed its façade of secularism. Rajiv Gandhi, India's youngest PM, had lots going for him until the Shah Bano case happened in 1986. The Congress party which had an absolute majority in Parliament at the time, passed an act called The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act 1986 that nullified the Supreme Court's ruling that Shah Bano, a poor widow be given maintenance money similar to alimony.
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Batla House encounter, just an election recipe? - Aditya Raj Kaul, DNA
Union law minister Salman Khurshid made a major blooper with his unnecessary comment that the pictures of the Batla House encounter brought tears to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s eyes. After getting flak from his party, he retracted, saying he had only meant she became ‘emotional.’ For political commentators, a swift Congress strategy to lure the minority in the Uttar Pradesh elections was visible. While the comment may have been emotive for a significant part of the minority community, it raises the larger question of political discourse in India, where secularism merely has been glued to the paper of the Constitution.
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Dalit trap: The undoing of Maya? - Varghese K. George, Hindustan Times
A gathering of elders at a hamlet of Kushwahas — a most backward caste — in the Saidpur assembly constituency in Ghazipur district, takes a while before opening up. “Mayawati’s government has been as good or as bad as all governments have been,” Keval Singh says. After some initial evasion, someone finally declares: “We had voted for BSP in 2007, but not this time.”
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UP: Rahul not enough, Cong has no legs to run - Akshaya Mishra, Firstpost
From 8.6 percent of votes in 2007 assembly polls to 18.25 percent in the parliamentary polls in 2009. That’s a quantum jump. Going by this trajectory, the Congress should be performing much better in 2012. But not many poll analysts are enthusiastic about the prospects of the party in Uttar Pradesh. They would rather take the 2007 polls – Congress won 22 seats – as the reference base to evaluate the party’s performance.
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He was with them in suffering, now they’re behind him - Manish Sahu, IE
What is common between Kamla Devi, Tarannum, Achchey Lal and Badlu Ram? The husband of one was killed, allegedly by the brother of a BSP MLA; the daughter of another was allegedly raped and murdered by policemen; the daughter of a third was allegedly raped by a BSP MLA and the daughter of a fourth suffered life-threatening injuries while resisting a rape attempt. The other common link of these victims of crime is Rahul Gandhi, who stood by them in their crises. Now, they all have turned Congress campaigners in the elections.
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Next door to Rahul & Sonia domains, a Raja stays aloof - Maulshree Seth, IE
Days ahead of polling in the region, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held a joint road-show in Sultanpur along with Sanjay Singh, the local Congress MP. And locals say it was sight rarely seen, for the party here is not as united as the public appearance would suggest. “We saw all three together for the first time, including Raja Saheb (Sanjay Singh). Apparently, he is being ignored in the party,” Pradeep Singh, a farmer, says after the roadshow has passed through his village.
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There’s no money to keep promises made to UP voters - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
In an attempt to lure voters, political parties in Uttar Pradesh have showered election sops on them: Promising homes to weaker sections of the society, waiver of farm loans, free education for Muslim girls, free electricity and water to irrigate fields, and even a cow to each family living below the poverty line.
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UP Poll: Mayawati's divide & rule strategy turns out a dud - Man Mohan Rai, ET
Chief Minister Mayawati's demand to split Uttar Pradesh into four smaller states has figured just perfunctorily in her poll campaign so far, highlighting her inability to turn it into an election issue. The proposal, rushed through the state assembly and sent to the Centre just before campaigning began for the ongoing polls, now finds mention only towards the end of her speeches. In Unnao on Sunday, for example, the chief minister only reminded the audience that the Congress-led central government had 'failed' to act on the resolution.
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BMC Poll: Why we must vote tomorrow - Ajit Ranade, Mumbai Mirror
When you step out do you see India's most vibrant, talent magnet, cosmopolitan city? Or do you see only filth, fumes, traffic and potholes? The correct answer is both. And you can do something to make it better. This is a pioneer city whose folk fought, and won the right to silence zones, and open spaces. It is a city of ordinary folk who are vigilant warriors to keep Mithi river clean. It is possibly the only place in India which does not know what is a power cut.
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Samajwadi gains in Round III - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
The 57 seats that will vote in parts of Avadh and eastern Uttar Pradesh tomorrow are expected to reinforce the main trends manifest in the first two phases of electioneering. The “Basapa (BSP) hatao, Sapa (Samajwadi Party) abhiyaan” — throw out the BSP and bring in the Samajwadi campaign — is apparently regrouping the votes of the upper castes (Brahmins, Thakurs and the Banias or Vaishes), the more backward castes and even sections of the Dalits behind Mulayam Singh Yadav.
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Akhilesh Yadav emerges as challenger in Uttar Pradesh - BBC
With the regional Samajwadi Party emerging as the main challenger to the government of Dalit icon Mayawati in the ongoing assembly elections in India's Uttar Pradesh state, the spotlight is on Akhilesh Yadav, the party's young president who is being credited with its turnaround. The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Lucknow profiles the new star on the politically crucial state's horizon.
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To which song will UP play musical chairs? - Arun Nehru, Asian Age
After the peaceful second phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh, and as we near the climax of the election campaign, I see the Samajwadi Party (SP) sprinting ahead and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) losing ground. However, the BSP is still way ahead of the Congress, with the BJP trailing as a distant fourth.
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Debutants shy away; 60% didn’t vote in Punjab polls - Aloke Singh, Pioneer
Polling in Punjab may be a record 78.67 per cent but even then 60 per cent of the young and first time voters did not come out to cast their votes in the January 30 Assembly polls, figures from the Election Commission suggests. According to the data collected from across the State, only around four lakh voters in the age group 18 to 19 years exercised their franchise on the polling day. The total figure in this age group is around 10 lakh. Though the EC was looking for a big turnout from the first time voters, it was disappointed at the figures of their turnout.
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Congress poaching OBC leaders from SP to win votes - Danish Raza, FirstPost
Uttar Pradesh is many states in one. What holds true for one region, does not work in the adjoining one. That is why the politics of the most populous state has always been dictated by caste combinations rather than issues. Congress party, trying to regain its hold in the state, is banking on Muslims and other backward castes (OBCs) to at least double the number of seats it won in the last assembly elections — 22.
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Maya’s progress: From bahujan to sarvajan - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
From bahujan to sarvajan – the BSP under Mayawati has undergone several strategic transitions in the last two decades. Her politics may be rooted deep in Dalit identity but it is far more inclusive in character than it is perceived to be. A look at the changing slogans of the party explains the transition.
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Polling time is result day for students’ bid to increase turnout - Samarpita Banerjee, IE
Educational institutes in the city are going all out to spread awareness about the importance of voting. Many college students are spreading the word through street plays and songs which talk about the importance of voting. Others are taking out rallies and helping students get their voter I-cards to ensure that more and more youth cast their vote. The department of National Service Scheme (NSS) organised a rally which saw the participation of close to 2,000 students. “Since the campaigning is over now, we thought today was the best day to go out for our rally.
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Too many polling centres put candidates in a fix - Manoj More, Indian Express
There are as many as 1,330 polling booths for 128 wards (64 panels) in Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation while for 152 wards in PMC election, 2,996 polling booths have been set up. A panel has a minimum of 1 or 4 polling centres and a maximum of 12-20 polling centres. And this has put candidates in a fix, especially women contestants, as they are “finding it difficult to get so many polling agents and workers for duty on the polling day.” Every candidate has got 100-150 political workers “on duty” on the polling day.
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Congress struggles at Gandhi homestead - Raj Bahadur Singh, Pioneer
The district headquarters, some 90 km from the State capital, is known more for its long political association with the Nehru-Gandhi family than for any other reason. Not surprisingly the entire family - Congress president and local MP Sonia Gandhi, her son and general secretary Rahul, sister Priyanka, her husband Robert Vadra and their children — have campaigned here to maintain the splendid performance of the 2007 Assembly election, when the party won five out of seven seats.
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Surprises in store for Maharashtra civic polls - TN Raghunatha, Pioneer
Unlike the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the municipal corporations of Thane, Nashik, Nagpur and Akola polls where the Congress and NCP are contesting as allies, Thursday’s polls in five other municipal corporations are going to be either triangular or quadrangular affairs — a situation that promises to throw up surprises.
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Will BJP bastion remain loyal? - Faisal Fareed, Pioneer
Nearly 30.26 lakh voters of Lucknow will exercise their franchise on February 19. A bastion of the saffron brigade, Lucknow has been loyal to BJP in the previous three elections. In 2007, BJP won four, Bahujan Samaj Party won two while Samajwadi Party and independents shared one seat each. In the 2012 Assembly elections, Lucknow has nine seats.
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The decline of captive voters - Varghese K. George, Hindustan Times
Tune into a conversation between a Brahmin, a Yadav, a Muslim and a Nai (barber) in a village in Handia constituency near Allahabad. The Brahmin is not voting for the Brahmin candidates of either the BSP or the Congress; the Yadav is not voting for the Yadav candidate of the BSP. Both are voting for the Rajput candidate of Samajwadi Party (SP) and so is the Muslim. “I too,” says Ranjit Kumar — the Dalit Nai — but there is a high chance that he is not speaking his mind in the presence of higher caste men.
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Tribals of Maoist-affected Chakia await a twist in fate - Rajeev Dikshit, ET
When Dudhiya, an elderly tribal woman, castes her vote, her wish every time is that perhaps this time their fate might change. Her hope reflects the pain of over 20 families of Hinaut Ghat area in Maoist-affected Chakia assembly constituency in Chandauli district. Hinaut Ghat is the same place where the Maoists had executed their biggest destructive plan in UP on November 20, 2004 when they blew a PAC truck in a landmine blast claiming the lives of 15 PAC personnel and policemen. After that incident, the state machinery had taken the Maoist problem seriously.
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Young voters driving force in third phase of voting in UP assembly polls - Naveen Singh, ET
They cared not for their breakfast, they did not wait for their parents to accompany them, they did not listen to anyone but their conscious while pressing the button that would ensure them of a new dawn in UP. Yes, the young voters, including first-timers, were clearly the driving force in the third phase of voting in UP assembly elections in different assembly constituencies in the district on Wednesday. While long queues of young voters was witnessed at most polling booths, the excitement and buzz of participating in the election process was also evident among first-time voters.
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At last the cub roars - Pankaj Upadhyaya, Mumbai Mirror
A scathing article on Uddhav Thackeray in a news-weekly in 2007 had called him 'a teddy riding a tiger'. The reference was to his lack of charisma and child-like dependence on his father Bal Thackeray for political guidance. It is the winter of 2012 now and the teddy just got off the tiger's back and became his own man. On Friday evening, as it emerged that his Shiv Sena and its long-term partner the Bharatiya Janata Party had retained their hold over the BMC, he stood beaming at the party's Dadar headquarters, his hands on his waist, surveying the mad frenzy of journalists and photographers around him.
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Shiv Sena fights for survival in BMC polls - Economic Times
The country's richest municipal corporation, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and 9 other civic bodies in Maharashtra go to polls on Thursday. The results of these elections are crucial for the survival of principal opposition parties Shiv Sena and BJP. Shiv Sena will fight these elections to save its last bastion in Mumbai and Thane, while chief minister Prithviraj Chavan will also face his first big political challenge since he took charge of Maharashtra.
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Jury is out on UP, but the likely loser is clearer: Mayawati - Jai Mrug, First Post
The core team of IAC (India Against Corruption) that was campaigning in Barabanki in January had attracted a crowd of almost 7,000 people. To put the numbers in perspective, this was perhaps far better than the crowd that the movement attracted at Anna Hazare‘s sit-in fast in Mumbai in December. The substantially high turnout in the Uttar Pradesh polls so far should, therefore, surprise none.
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It’s not over: The real damage of the Khurshid episode - Kartikeya Tanna, FP
Less than 48 hours ago, Salman Khurshid, the Union Minister for Law and Minority Affairs, was in the thick of things because of his election promises to a particular section in UP where his wife is a candidate. The matter seems to have died down with the Opposition crying foul and Priyanka Gandhi bizarrely condoning Khurshid’s speech and the EC deciding “not to take any further action in this matter.” Khurshid told NDTV “consider this episode as over.”
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Mayawati: Queen in her cocoon… - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
The presence of the part of Gomti Nagar which houses the sprawling 123-acre Ambedkar Memorial and the old city in a single visual frame explaining Lucknow makes it look like a badly done cut and paste job. One is, a medieval dream come alive in modern times and the other, a picture of civic chaos and decay; one a shining symbol of political hubris and extravagance and the other a tell-tale story of neglect.
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When dons become netas: the changing face of U.P.'s politics - Smita Gupta, Hindu
Akhilesh Singh's office in Rae Bareli is minimal — a table, some dusty chairs and a luminous Subhash Chandra Bose in his Congress avatar looming down from one wall. Ask Akhilesh about the portrait and out gushes his version of the freedom struggle -- in which Bose is the hero, Jinnah, Ambedkar, Lohia the supporting cast, and Gandhi and Nehru the villains. The Rae Bareli MLA sees himself in the grand tradition of the “real” Netaji (it's also Mulayam Singh Yadav's sobriquet) taking on the Nehru-Gandhis well into the 21st century.
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Pune polls live: System crash hampers recording of voter turn out - Kiran Dahitule & Anurag Bende, DNA
The system developed by the election office for the Pune Municipal Corporation Election crashed on the voting day on Thursday. The ward offices in PMC were supposed to send information about the voters' turn out in their respective wards through SMS service, but due to the system crash the election office could not get the details Dhanakawadi and Bibvewadi were the worst affected areas with large wards and the election office had to send additional staff for counting.
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A splendid victory - Pioneer
The Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI alliance has won a splendid victory in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election, retaining control over the country’s richest civic body which presides over the destiny of the nation’s financial capital and possibly the most vibrant city. The Congress-NCP alliance, despite the bluff and bluster of those who had written off the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI combine, has performed miserably. Instead of improving their tally, they have lost seats: The Congress alone is down from 76 to 50 seats.
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EC can't curtail right to speech - C Aryama Sundaram, Economic Times
Freedom of speech and expression is vital to a democracy and is given the status of a fundamental right protected by our Constitution. Any inroads through restrictions can only be on limited grounds: safety and integrity of India, security of the state, foreign relations, public order, causing incitement to an offence, etc. And that too only through a law enacted by Parliament -not by executive fiat!
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Raja to many but not Bhaiya to all - Prashant Pandey, Indian Express
Raja Bhaiya, or Raghuraj Pratap Singh, remains revered — and feared — as ever in Kunda town. It is as one moves away to other parts of Kunda constituency, from where is seeking a fifth re-election, that signs show of voters thinking “independently”, a fact conceded by even his staunchest supporters. Some want development; others seem inclined on voting on community lines. For the Independent candidate, the “benevolent king” image in the town has been built largely on account of help he has provided various people, coupled with the fear people feel about going against a man who has been charged with crime (45 cases pending) as well as terror (revoked).
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In Rae Bareli, family still charms but MLAs offend - Maulshree Seth, Indian Express
In Rae Bareli, Sonia Gandhi’s home turf, the support her family has enjoyed so far will now need to overcome resentment against her party’s sitting MLAs, disappointment with its dream projects, and the mass following of a rival candidate whom voters identify with merit rather than party. The family’s grip gave the Congress four of the region’s five Assembly seats in 2007. But in two of those seats, Bachhrawan and Harchandpur, Congress leaders cannot fall back on a line they have been using elsewhere — that “your leaders do not come to you”. Here, voters say, it is the MLAs and members of the Gandhi family members who are “occasional visitors”.
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Why Mumbai’s elections are irrelevant to this city-state - R Jagannathan, FirstPost
There are several reasons why. And the most important one is that it is a waste of time in a city that is not going to be governed like a city. Till the governance structure is changed, no amount of voter awareness will make a difference. The problem with Mumbai is that it is a city-state, a coastal business entrepot and a potential global dynamo like Singapore or Hongkong. But it is unfortunately governed by a mass vote mentality that is entirely rural in character.
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Will 18% of UP’s population decide UP’s next government? - Danish Raza, FirstPost
‘Among equals, vote for the winning candidate,’ has been the psyche of the Muslim voter in Uttar Pradesh — which makes up 18 percent of the state. Out of 403 assembly constituencies, Muslims have the ability to influence voting in 130 constituencies. If feedback from the field are any indication, Mulla Mulayam (the title Mulayam Singh Yadav earned due to his bonhomie with Muslims) will remerge as the messiah of the community which feels ‘fooled’ by the Congress and ‘ignored’ by Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
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UP Muslims and the ‘P’ factor - Akshaya Mishra, FirstPost
First Salman Khurshid and now Beni Prasad Verma. The Congress’ desperation shows. It seems to have either lost the plot when it comes to Muslim votes or is grappling with new realities in the Muslim space — which no more conform to the accepted stereotype when it comes to voting. Earlier, it only had to compete with the Samajwadi Party, now there are others who are equally strong. Besides the BSP, there’s the Peace Party, which is gaining in popularity in a section of the community.
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Been There, Done That - Pioneer
Going to polls in fourth phase, Lucknow has several distinctions to its credit. Candidates who are contesting from the State capital are among the top 10 educated candidates besides being in the list of highest earning candidates. One of them even leads the table with maximum number of criminal cases pending against him in fourth phase!
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To err is human for our Netas! - Tavishi Srivastava, Pioneer
There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip. This is true in these elections. The hustle bustle of poll campaigning and perhaps the pressure to outwit their political opponents has on several occasions created many embarrassing moments for the stalwarts, who often swear by their oratorical skills. Interestingly enough while some of the party leaders simply pooh poohed their statements saying it was made in the lighter vein and dismiss it, the more serious speeches evoke serious repercussions so much so that the leaders have had to tender and apologise for their faux pas.
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Divisive Congress - Anuradha Dutt, Pioneer
The Congress has been systematically trying to subvert the edifice of democracy. If the setting up of the Ms Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council as an extra -constitutional decision-making body, parallel to the Government, was not enough, a Gandhi sycophant’s assertion that heir apparent Rahul Gandhi would remote-control the Government in Uttar Pradesh in the event of the Congress doing well in the State indicates the party’s dictatorial intent.
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Maya losing grip on backyard - Pratul Sharma, Mail Today
The region where UP's ruling BSP seems to be clearly losing its grip is the impoverished Bundelkhand that contributed to CM Mayawati's rise to power in 2007, giving her 15 of the total 21 seats. But Behenji appears to be on the wrong side of this caste calculus this time. The caste factor, that mainly prompts the electorate's voting pattern, and voters' disenchantment with the lack of progress in their region are the main reasons touted for Mayawati's apparent decline in her pocketborough.
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In Robert Vadra’s Wake - Kunal Majumder, Tehelka
On the last two days of the Rae Bareli campaign, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s arrival is a much awaited event in Unchahar, a rural Assembly seat in Sonia Gandhi’s constituency. A patient bunch waits by a tea stall at Sahebganj, where the roadshow will begin. They are discussing the grand rallies addressed by Sonia Gandhi, Rajnath Singh, and Akhilesh Yadav. All the VIPs were here to woo the most high-profile constituency in the country.
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Thackerays outshine Pawars in Maharashtra civic polls - Abhay Vaidya, Firstpost
Contrary to popular projections, Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray and his son Uddhav have done far better than Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajitdada in the fiercely contested 2012 elections to the 10 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. While the Thackerays won a critical battle for political survival by retaining control over the Mumbai and Thane municipal corporations, their estranged relative and MNS-founder Raj Thackeray improved his party’s performance substantially in the Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik municipal corporations — as expected.
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Major upsets, few surprises mark day - Indian Express
Friday was a day of major upsets and few surprises as changes in ward reservation had brought strong contenders against each other and the results consequently coming as a setback to one camp or the other. Among the most keenly contested wards was ward 169 (Parel-Bhoiwada) that saw a neck-and-neck standoff between Mumbai Mayor Shraddha Jadhav and five-time Congress corporator from Sion Ravi Raja. Jadhav who lost her lead in three out of seven rounds of results, managed a victory with 5,742 votes against Raja’s 5,437 votes.
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Chavan: Resting hope on NCP tie-up didn’t pay off - Kavitha Iyer, Indian Express
Results in, senior Congress leaders in Mumbai, including Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, admitted Friday evening that their central strategy of fighting the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections in an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party had backfired. That, combined with the absence of any active mobilisation of traditional Congress voters in the days before polling, cost the party dear.
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Another election, same story in Mumbai - Girish Kuber, Indian Express
The Congress and Shiv Sena have exhausted their stale methods — MNS will now be the party to watch. The Mumbai municipal election outcome has a resounding message for two parties — the Congress and the Shiv Sena. For the former, the message is clear — the people will continue to oppose its way of parachuting leaders. The latter, meanwhile, is left battered and bruised at the hands of its own sibling, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The election results also epitomise India’s current predicament — a modern façade on a ramshackle structure.
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Mayawati not cooperating on development: Manmohan - Atiq Khan, Hindu
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh kicked off his election campaign in the ongoing Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls by launching a frontal attack on the Bahujan Samaj Party Government for not cooperating with the Congress-led UPA government in its efforts to bring the State back on the path of development and progress. Dr. Singh said: “The allocation of Central funds to the State was five and six times more than that given earlier and despite the State government's non-cooperation [asahyog] there has been no lacking in the Centre's efforts to make Uttar Pradesh progress.”
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How Chavan was left to fight alone - Yogesh Naik, Mumbai Mirror
As the municipal corporation in Mumbai was preparing to go for polls, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had said that the Shiv Sena and its supremo Bal Thackeray would vanish after the civic elections. As it turns out, his own party’s abysmal performance has left Chavan facing the blame as the Sena has stormed back into power in the BMC. Chavan, who stepped in as the state’s CM in November 2011 after his predecessor Ashok Chavan was dismissed following allegations of corruption in the Adarsh scam, was largely left isolated by his own senior party members in the run up to the polls. This loneliness is set to become more pronounced now that the Congress’s inability to make a dent in the polls is being spoken of as his failure.
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Bundelkhand Diary - Anuradha Raman, Outlook
Vaguely remembering the day, April 20, 2009, 70 year old Birgha says, "suddenly Rahulji walked in and asked about my problems. I told him I needed a roof over my head and a BPL card. I get only kerosene from my card. He heard me out and officials too came calling." That pretty much was the beginning of Birgha's problems. While the ruling BSP party directed him to seek help from Rahul baba whenever he approached the civic authorities with his request, the local congressmen all but forgot about that brief summer encounter. It remained the briefest of encounters in Birgha's life and he is puzzled about who should get his vote this time.
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Amethi Diary - Prarthna Gahilote, Outlook
Just outside the Government Inter College grounds in Rae Bareilly, barely twenty minutes after Sonia Gandhi’s first rally in her own bastion winds up, 70-year-old Jwala Singh, an old timer with the Congress is dismissive of the Congress president’s first guest appearance in her own constituency. Settling down for a cup of tea by the roadside, Singh asks for extra sugar as he takes the first sip, almost as if the sugar overdose is necessary to easily swallow the bitter truth that he is about to offer to his audience. "I should say the Congress is winning here but that would be a lie.
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BMC elections: Much needed victory for Uddhav Thackeray - Economic Times
Having been at the receiving end of the electorate's whiplash since the 2009 general election, the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI combine finally have something to cheer about. The verdict in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, and other civic bodies, polls is certain to come as a shot in the arm to the saffron alliance. The fact that the Shiv Sena-BJP duo could buck 16 years of anti-incumbency in Mumbai, overcoming, in the process, a formidable challenge from Congress-NCP alliance, cobbled together for the first time, and Raj Thackeray's MNS, which was expected to eat into the Marathi Manoos support-base of the Sena, is certain to go a long way in boosting the morale of the saffron cadre.
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New grid of governance - Minhaz Merchant, Times of India
As campaigning in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election peaks, the electorate of India's most powerful civic body - the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) - fired a warning shot across the bow of all political parties yesterday. The Congress-NCP alliance received a sharp rebuff while the Shiv Sena-BJP was denied an absolute majority. The message: govern or go.
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Why voters reject clean candidates: No Meera Sanyals, no Arun Bhatias - Abhay Vaidya, FP
During the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Meera Sanyal, the then country head of ABN Amro Bank, famously went on leave to contest the elections as an Independent candidate from the South Mumbai constituency. Bad governance in Mumbai was what bothered Sanyal and this common sentiment had resulted in intense public resentment against politicians after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.Sanyal had everything going for her: she was an achiever, well-educated, clean, and admirably wanted to enter public life and not just engage in endless drawing room debates.
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The curious case of beeping EVMs: Ludhiana’s turn now - Amrita Chaudhary, IE
Three days after a similar incident in Jalandhar, the Ludhiana district administration had to remain on its feet throughout the day after an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at a strong room in Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) began beeping early on Friday morning. The machine kept at PAU’s gymnasium began beeping at about four in the morning alarming the guards. “People here guarding the machines reported the matter to me at about four in the morning.
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The battle lines for Behenji - Aditi Phadnis, Business Standard
Time is running out for Mayawati,” say reporters returning to Delhi after touring Uttar Pradesh. Their prediction is based on the premise that five years after its historic victory in Uttar Pradesh, riding on a rainbow coalition of the low and high castes, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mayawati allowed itself to be caught in a dilemma — whether to continue its inclusive agenda or revert to her core Dalit base. In 2007, Mayawati adopted the new social engineering formula of “sarvajan” that included upper castes in her support base.
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Saving Mumbai - T N Ninan, Business Standard
Mumbai has had its civic elections, but 46 per cent voting suggests that the city’s residents don’t believe the elections will solve their problems. They may be right. The city has stopped growing (its population in 2011, at 12.4 million, was fractionally smaller than in 2001), it has water rationing, and little space for more public or private transport. Half its population lives in slums (the national urban average is less than 20 per cent), so daily life is an aggravation — and expensive. Office rents are 50 per cent higher than in Delhi, and four times Bangalore’s, while apartment prices are even more out of line; commuting times in trains that pack passengers like sardines are twice as long as anywhere else.
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Poll surveys don't get the drift - S Nigam, Business Line
There are lessons to be learnt from the last few election results for opinion pollsters. The traditional methods employed to forecast electoral outcome have repeatedly failed. Drawing sweeping conclusions using caste calculators may not always be accurate. Taking minority votes for granted — that they will swing in ‘X' or ‘Y' direction because of a promise of a sop — could well be inaccurate. In fact, there could be several subterranean templates colliding that defy conventional logic.
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The great black beard of Uttar Pradesh - Sushil Ku T, DNA
Here’s my beard/Ain’t it weird?/Don’t be sceered/Just a beard. That’s a poem by George Carlin. Google popped Carlin out along with the poem when told ‘beard’. Yes, you can talk to Google (if you’re of the mind) in your mind, that is. Can’t do the same with the great beard or shall we say the greatest beard there is where a maha (Maya?) battle is on for the finals to be played in 2014. Not everybody can sport a beard. Some can get that growth flaring every which way while others grow them in patches, like cabbages, and yet others can rue the hormones and run fingers on a desert of cheek-chin-scape.
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Maharashtra civic polls: Party-position before and after - Indian Express
Following is the party-position at 10 municipal corporations in Maharashtra after yesterday's election results, alongwith the position before the polls. 1. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (Mumbai) - Total 227 – BJP 32, Congress 50, NCP 14, Shiv Sena 75, MNS 28, Independents 28. 2007: Shiv Sena 84, BJP 25, Congress 75, NCP 14, MNS 7, SP 7, Independents 15.
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UP: anti-incumbency may produce hung Assembly - Amulya Ganguli, IBN
Even at this early stage of the UP elections, a few predictions can still be made with reasonable certainty. One is the results will produce a hung Assembly with neither of the two major parties - the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) that happen to be regional and not national ones - getting a majority of its own. The second safe forecast is that the SP will align with the Congress. The two were allies in the state when the SP was in office before Mayawati swept into power in 2007. The Congress and the SP came even closer together when the latter left the company of the Communists and decided to support the Congress in parliament on the nuclear deal in 2008.
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Voter, Interrogate Vote-Seekers - Navhind Times
It is often the case that we elect someone as the representative of our constituency and then start flinging accusations at him. In Goa we are having general elections since 1963, but fifty years on and we still do not seem to have found a formula by which we can safeguard ourselves against betrayal by those we choose to run government. Ten lakh voters look helpless while just 40 persons earn their trust and dump it by the wayside and make merry.
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A dynasty in danger - Sudheendra Kulkarni, Indian Express
The Dynasty is angry. The Dynasty is frustrated. The Dynasty is rolling up its sleeves. The Dynasty is, literally, tearing up the Opposition parties’ right to make promises in their manifestos, claiming that right exclusively to itself. The Dynasty has ordered its minions to defy the Election Commission. The Dynasty is also parading its seventh generation. In a side-show, its son-in-law is saying, “My time will also come.” The dynastically enslaved Congress party is doing all this and more in the ongoing elections to the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha.
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Sena-BJP gained 41 seats with just 2% more votes - Sharad Vyas, Times of India
A difference of just 2% of the total 46 lakh votes cast by Mumbaikars on Thursday - or 92,000 votes - resulted in the Shiv Sena-BJP combine getting 41 more seats than the Congress-NCP alliance in the BMC elections, according to calculations based on figures released by the state election commission. The saffron combine secured 30% of the city's vote share, or nearly 13.7 lakh votes. In the process it won 106 seats (the RPI-A won the 107th one).
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UP assembly elections: Where feudalism still holds sway - Ashish Tripathi, ToI
The fourth phase of assembly elections on Sunday covers constituencies known for loyalty to individuals, not parties. Caste, faith, money and mafia are as usual a part of the politics but all the factors revolve around "feudalism" . As many as 967 candidates, including four ministers, 32 sitting MLAs and 12 former ministers are in the fray. The prestige of several stalwarts working behind the scenes is also at stake. The phase covers 56 constituencies in 11 districts.
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Cautious Cong gets ‘ realistic’ - Kay Benedict, Mail Today
The hype is being replaced by cautious optimism. After the first three phases of polls in UP, covering 170 of the 403 constituencies, Congress mandarins are guarded in their assessment of the outcome. In off- record conversations, party leaders peg the win tally between 60 and 65 seats, given the many imponderables in the election. In the absence of a well- oiled party machinery in UP and leaders of the calibre of CM Mayawati and SP chief Mulayam Singh, the Congress hopes to gain from the carpet bombing of the Gandhis ( Rahul, Sonia, Priyanka).
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Bracing for failure, Rahul redefines ‘success’ in UP - Venky Vembu, Firstpost
What do you do when you throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into an election, and yet find voters evidently reluctant to offer their support and remain immune to your charms? Why, of course, you go into “expectation management” mode, which is management jargon for shifting the goalpost so as to make a defeat seem like a victory. Rahul Gandhi, who is spearheading the Congress campaign in Uttar Pradesh, has lately had a spring in his step. From as early as two years ago, he has been campaigning like a man possessed, making repeated trips to the State, and addressing countless meetings.
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Rahul Gandhi’s fatal flaw: The Santa Claus who never delivers - Lakshmi Chaudhry, FP
For the Gandhi family, UP elections have always been a big picnic. Brother, sister, mother and now even brother-in-law come for outings, sometimes with foreign friends,” Mayawati told the Al Jazeera TV channel. Samajwadi Party scion Akhilesh Yadav, is just as eager to reinforce the bade log image: “He [Rahul] is a bada neta from a bada party with bada resources. We are small people with no resources. I wish him the best.
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Making a mockery of EC - Hari Shankar Vyas, Pioneer
In the past year, there have been many confrontations between constitutional agencies, the UPA Government and the Congress. The Election Commission (EC) has been facing testing times. In fact, many say that it has been proved weak and inefficient in the wake of the statement made by Salman Khurshid. The Union Law Minister has shown his mettle to Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi. The EC used the Code of Conduct as a warning to political parties in case they stepped out of line.
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BSP vs ex-BSP in Bundelkhand - Rajesh Kumar Singh, Hindustan Times
or three decades they worked on the same mission – to strengthen their supreme leader Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. This election, however, they stand on different sides — for mission Bundelkhand. UP chief minister Mayawati’s trusted minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui and her former key aide, who joined the BJP, Babu Singh Kushwaha are battling for the 21 seats in the region, of which six — Manikpur, Karwai, Naraini, Banda, Baberu and Tindwari — go to polls on Sunday. The BSP won the first three seats (total 15) in 2007.
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Congress bags Jamiat Ulama's support in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls - Piyush Srivastava, Mail Today
The Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur is shying away from making any public announcement of support to any political party in the ongoing assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. But the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, considered a political offshoot of the famous Islamic seminary, has been openly campaigning for the Congress. Mahmood Madani, Jamiat general secretary and the Rashtriya Lok Dal's (RLD) Rajya Sabha MP, has been canvassing for Anil Tanwar, Congress's candidate for the Deoband seat.
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Big cities and the selfish gene - Sidharth Bhatia, Asian Age
The low percentage of voting (less than 46 per cent) in the municipal elections in Mumbai predictably got the media all excited and outraged. Immediate comparisons were made with the high turnout in Uttar Pradesh and instant conclusions were drawn — the poor were more aware of their democratic duties than the comfortable urban middle and upper-middle classes. That Mumbai has always shown scant interest in voting and that the tonier and richer areas often vote the least is now almost a self-perpetuating axiom that’s trotted out in every election to show the apathy of the self-serving rich.
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Suave Salman testy on poll-eve - J P Yadav, Telegraph
Around 7 pm on Friday, two hours since campaigning ended for Sunday’s fourth-phase polling in Uttar Pradesh, Salman Khurshid drives in. The Union minister is dropping in at the home of former district president of the Congress, Rajendranath Katiyar, on the outskirts of Farrukhabad town in central Uttar Pradesh. Close on his heels, Khurshid’s wife Louise, the Congress candidate for the Farrukhabad Assembly seat which falls in the eponymous Lok Sabha constituency represented by her husband, joins him.
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Is Rahul worthy of Nation's mantle? - Saba Naqvi , Anuradha Raman , Prarthna Gahilote , Sharat Pradhan, Outlook
Birgha has experienced the thrill of becoming a photo opportunity in the Uttar Pradesh trail of Rahul Gandhi. Three years ago, the young Congress scion had come to the Harijan basti of Ghisauli in Bundelkhand, stopped at the hutment of the 70-year-old, and asked him, as leaders often do, what his problems were. “The roof of my hut has fallen and I don’t have a BPL card,” Birgha told him. Pictures were clicked, live TV captured the moment. Three years down the line, the roof of Birgha’s house is still unrepaired and there is no BPL card in sight. The Congress party structure is so poor that there has been no one to follow up on Rahul’s promises. Birgha is not voting for the Congress.
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The More They (Don’t) Remain The Same - Yogendra Yadav, Outlook
In Uttar Pradesh, the real question is not who is losing and why. Within a few hours of a casual travel through the state, you begin to see a clear pattern in the electoral ‘hawa’. The real question in UP concerns what and how: what’s working for whom, in which way and to what effect? Our obsession with ‘kaun banega CM’ distracts our attention from the issues that are shaping this election. The media focus on political games in Delhi and Lucknow and its old habits of reducing elections to caste vote-banks prevent us from noticing how this election, more than any recent one, is about governance and development.
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Voters Shrug, Return Sena to Power in Mumbai - Saumya Roy, WSJ
One of Rahul Gandhi’s favorite one liners while campaigning in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections is that the lack of development in U.P. has meant that people from there are forced to migrate in search of jobs to Maharashtra, a state Congress has ruled for 13 years. Congress also hoped to come to power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on this plank of good governance. But Mumbai voters seemed to reject the Congress’s claim of better governance, returning the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance to the BMC for the fourth time on Friday.
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Peace Party to Further Split U.P.’s Muslims - Vibhuti Agarwal and Margherita Stancati, WSJ
Days before he is due to vote in local elections, Mohammad Jehangir Siddiqui is unsure about where his political loyalties lie. Voters in Mahanagar, a run-down Muslim-dominated neighborhood where Mr. Jehangir Siddiqui lives, go to the polls on Sunday for the fourth phase of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most-populous state as well as one of its most politically volatile. Standing outside his doorway on a sunny afternoon in Mahanagar, Mr. Jehangir Siddiqui, the head of his local community, explains that Muslims are not confused but “reluctant” to support any particular party because “honestly, no party has done anything for our welfare.”
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In Firozabad, Congress lull after Babbar storm - Virender Kumar, Indian Express
In November 2009, Firozabad delivered a snub to Akhilesh Yadav, the rising star of the Samajwadi Party. It rejected his wife Dimple Yadav in a prestigious by-election, which took place after he had resigned from Firozabad, and instead sent the Congress’s actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar to Parliament. This time, it looks set to snub the Congress. It had then reacted to what was perceived as Akhilesh’s arrogance. It is now unhappy with Babbar’s track record as MP.
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Mayawati confident of winning more seats - Atiq Khan, Hindu
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday said her Bahujan Samaj Party would win more seats now than in 2007, pointing to the response to her rallies. In 2007, the party bagged 206 seats. Ms. Mayawati was speaking to journalists after voting at the Lucknow Montessori Intermediate College in the fourth phase of the Assembly elections.
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Watch out for the non-Congress G-5 - Shashi Shekhar, Pioneer
The election to the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly has now reached the half-way mark. It is a reflection on how much of a lame duck the UPA Government in Delhi has become that almost all analysis and speculation is now centered on the outcome in Uttar Pradesh. It would be an understatement to say the post-Uttar Pradesh poll political scenario is pregnant with possibilities. Three dynamics are clearly visible. The first has to do with what the outcome in Uttar Pradesh means to Rahul Gandhi’s future and by extension how that will shape what remains of Manmohan Singh’s second term in office.
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Crocodile tears for weavers? - J Gopikrishnan, Pioneer
Despite Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi shedding tears over the plight of weavers in Uttar Pradesh, the UPA Government has not spent a single penny from the Budget allocation of Rs 3,000 crore for debt waiver for the handloom workers. After Rahul raised the pitch during his UP foray, the Government added Rs 884 crore more for the debt waiver.
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Flavour of season is SP ‘ not Rahul - Ajay Kumar, Mail Today
Etawah, the fortress of Mulayam Singh Yadav, hardly betrays the salad days it enjoyed when Netaji's Samajwadi Party (SP) was in power in Uttar Pradesh. Roads have not been repaired since 2006, the luxury of near-uninterrupted power supply has snapped, the defunct yarn mill has rusted beyond repairs, and master weavers have morphed into migrant labourers or goons.
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Kalyan’s camp works the rich Lodh in western UP - Parvez Sultan, Pioneer
Three-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh is fighting a battle for family honour in the Lodh belt of Bulandshahr and Aligarh. The Lodh Rajput population will be the decisive factor in the region, which has been voting en mass for Kalyan and his family since his BJP days. Even after his expulsion from that party and association with the Samajwadi Party, he kept enjoying their support. However, the scenario has changed now. It will not be as easy as it used to be in this election, as the family is getting some stiff competition.
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For Assembly polls, MNS gears up as ‘real contender’ - TN Raghunatha, Pioneer
He may not have emerged as a “kingmaker” in the Mumbai civic poll, but MNS chief Raj Thackeray has definitely served a notice on two major political formations in the State that his party would be a real contender than a spoiler in the 2014 Assembly poll. Belying the Congress-NCP alliance’s expectations that it would cut into the vote banks of the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI(A) alliance’s votes, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS quadrupled its own seat share the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation from the seven seats it had won in the 2007 poll.
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As MNS gains, we could see a Raj-Modi axis the next time - R Jagannathan, FP
Guess who the real winner of the recently-held Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election (BMC) is.vThe answer is not the Shiv Sena-BJP combine, which will surely get to form the council with help from independents.bThe answer is Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). And, to a lesser extent, the BJP. Two reasons why.
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Rahul, not party, sells in UP - JP Yadav, Telegraph
In Rama Bai Nagar, on the Kanpur-Etawah road, Rahul Gandhi introduced technocrat Sam Pitroda as a “badhaiee” (carpenter) at a packed rally, marking the Congress scion’s open intention of dabbling in caste politics. “Do you know who Sam Pitroda is?” Rahul had asked at a rally in December. When the crowd failed to identify him, Rahul said Pitroda, with his father Rajiv Gandhi, had ushered the cellphone revolution in India and how that had benefited the poor.
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Missing in poll action: the punchline - Sanjay K Jha, Telegraph
Back in 1978, long before Twitter taught the world how to converse in less than 140 characters, a mischievous but mirthful message had rippled across India by word of mouth. “Ek sherni, sau langur Chikmagalur, Chikmagalur,” so went the slogan that captured the plight of the hordes of anti-Congress leaders who had descended on the southern bypoll seat from where Indira Gandhi was about to stage her comeback after the Emergency debacle.
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How Wharton educated Kanishka Singh is strategising Rahul Gandhi's UP campaign - Abheek Barman, ET
To everyone in India's bustling metros, it was clear that the Lok Sabha elections of 2004 could end with only one winner: the BJP, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, would sweep to power on the wings of its 'India Shining' campaign. So, eyebrows were raised when, just eight days before polls actually began, Outlook magazine published a column called 'Why Sonia Is Like John Kerry.'
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In city of glass, politics of image - Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, Hindu
In this “city of glass and bangles,” it is said that people breathe not air, but glass. And in this election, the two main contenders in Firozabad are big-time businessman, who made their millions from this very trade. One of them is sitting Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Nasiruddin's son Khalid Siddiqui; the other is the Congress candidate Azad Akram. The other two significant contenders are social worker and former MLA Azim Bhai of the Samajwadi Party and Chairman of Municipal Committee Manish Ashija of the BJP.
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The contrasting styles of Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati - Bodhisatva Ganguli, ET
Rahul Gandhi, the 42-year-old scion of the political lineage started by his great grandfather, independent India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, is on a mission to revive the fortunes of India's grand old party. But he is facing a tough challenge from the leaders of rival clans of a rather more subaltern origin, Akhilesh Yadav, the 38-year-old son of three-time UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav; and Mayawati, arguably India's most powerful Dalit politician since BR Ambedkar, the father of India's Constitution.
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The changing scenario - Economic Times
Speculation: Dalit voters, BSP's core supporters, will split during these elections, with non-Jatavs walking out of the party fold. Ground reality: A highly unlikely scenario. Explanation: Non-Jatav Dalit voters see little premium in switching sides. Implication: While this augurs well for Mayawati, it will dash hopes of Rahul Gandhi, who has been persistently frequenting, and dining at, Dalit homes.
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People's mandate phase V - Pioneer
Jaswant Nagar: This constituency in Etawah district has been a stronghold of the SP and is presently held by Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Shivpal Singh Yadav. After winning this seat in 1996, 2002 and 2007, he is again contesting from here for the fourth time. The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Manish Yadav from this constituency while the Congress has given its ticket to Ayay Yadav, who is son of the party’s late leader Balram Singh Yadav. BJP has fielded Rakesh Pal and the Peace Party Sanjay Tomar from this seat.
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States stand up to Congress’ bullying - Rajesh Singh, Pioneer
The Government thought it could bulldoze its way through on the NCTC, but it has met stiff resistance It seems that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet just cannot do anything right. As a consequence it keeps getting into a confrontation with not just the Opposition but also its allies on key decisions that are best taken after securing broad support across the political spectrum. The result is that the Congress, which heads the Government, has had to backtrack on important matters, leaving them untackled.
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For the Congress, what matters most is symbolism - Sandeep B, Pioneer
By deftly using state power to promote the party’s first family, the Congress has created a unique political ecosystem. The media has collaborated. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly election has seen the media beaming footage of the Nehru-Gandhi family’s adventures in deception. Those who still harbour illusions about the media’s neutrality need to look at the Assembly election coverage. So why does the media stand so steadfastly by the Congress?
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Minority tilt to Mulayam - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
The BJP “bhooth” (demon) that spooked the Muslim psyche in Uttar Pradesh ever since the Babri demolition seems to have been finally laid to rest in these elections. Muslims no longer propose to vote strategically to defeat the BJP, as they have done in every election since 1992. Joining the swelling anti-Mayawati constituency, they are rooting for candidates best placed to defeat the BSP — even if that means voting for the BJP in some seats.
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Maya statues stoke anger - J P Yadav, Telegraph
If Mayawati is accused of using public funds to build her statues, members of her Jatav caste have collected money to put up one of Ambedkar in this village. Bhagwanpur, located in Auraiya district in central Uttar Pradesh, mirrors in many ways the situation that Mayawati finds herself in as election fever peaks — the hamlet is encircled by villages dominated by the Thakurs and the Yadavs.
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UP in the air - MK Venu, Financial Express
The ongoing assembly election in the country’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, is being watched and analysed intensely because of its profound impact on the politics at the Centre. The elections in UP could produce diverse outcomes in terms of its impact on national politics. It could lend stability to the UPA for the next two and a half years, until the 2014 general elections. Indeed, this has been the dominant narrative over the past few weeks that a mini anti-incumbency wave against Mayawati’s misrule will help install a government led by Samajwadi Party (SP) and supported by the Congress, which too is expected to improve its tally substantially in the 403-seat UP assembly.
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Code of misconduct - Pioneer
Nobody should be fooled by the Congress’s contention that the party’s reported move to confer statutory status to the Model Code of Conduct is driven by its desire to “reform” the electoral laws. Of all the areas in our electoral system that are crying to be reformed, if the Congress has decided to identify the code of conduct as deserving immediate attention, it has done so with the sparsely disguised intention of clipping the wings of the Election Commission of India which has recently ‘dared’ to pull up the party’s senior leaders for violating the code.
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EVMs tampered with, say 125 who lost in PMC - Atikh Rashid, Indian Express
Blaming their defeat on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being tampered with, over 125 candidates who lost in PMC polls have lodged complaints with the civic election office. The election office received 110 such complaints on Tuesday alone. The candidates have demanded that the election officer should immediately look into the matter and undertake an ‘unbiased and objective’ inquiry. Some of the complainants have threatened to move court if the officials fail to take action.
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Non-Dalit voters hold the key in Bundelkhand - Aarti Dhar, Hindu
Often referred to as the backyard of Uttar Pradesh, Bundelkhand is only occasionally in the news. But on occasions such as Rahul Gandhi's visit, and the subsequent announcement of a Rs 7,000-crore package, this drought-prone, poverty-ridden region, bordering Madhya Pradesh, makes it to the headlines.Even when fields go dry for lack of irrigation or when farmers commit suicide after a failed crop makes them unable to repay loans, which has become an annual feature, the region doesn't seem to attract attention. For, no matter how much money is allocated, nothing ever reaches the region.
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As Rahul goes all out to woo Ajit, Raj Babbar’s Man Friday rebels - Ravish Tiwari, IE
Rahul Gandhi went out of his way to accommodate Ajit Singh’s RLD in seat shares, and this has led to a rebellion in Fatehpur Sikri where the alliance candidate now finds himself struggling. The Congress initially fielded Rajkumar Chahar, then gave the seat to the RLD on Ajit’s insistence. The RLD has now fielded Chaudhary Babu Lal, while an indignant Chahar has jumped into the fray as an Independent, which is where Babu Lal’s problems begin.
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UP's showdown between BSP, SP and the Congress could have no clear winner - Abheek Barman, ET
Akhilesh Yadav is relaxed in the spacious drawing room of father Mulayam Singh Yadav's home in Lucknow. Pollsters say their outfit, the Samajwadi Party, will win between 160 and 170 seats in Uttar Pradesh's assembly elections, still underway. That could make Samajwadi, or Sapa, as locals call it, the largest party in the state and give it a shot at forming the next government.
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Bundlekhand's Kashmir waits for Uma's magic - Manjari Mishra, Times of India
Hailed as the Kashmir of Bundelkhand, Charkhari, which is located almost 23 kilometres from the district headquarters of Mahoba, Charkhari has a poor road network and only one community health centre to serve a population of 3.75 lakh. Apart from this, there is only one degree college and two intermediate colleges. Charkhari's association with the saffron sadhvi is quite old, and Uma had been visiting the place, when she was even five-year-old.
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Bundelkhand in dilemma over split proposal - Pankaj Shah, Times of India
"Bundelkhand nahin, vikas chahiye". The slogan scribbled on a pillar near Dhasan river on UP-Madhya Pradesh border in Jhansi conveys the aspiration of people of this region where development is yet to be seen. On November 15 last, chief minister Mayawati gave the proposal to split UP into four parts (Bundelkhand, Paschim Pradesh, Avadh Pradesh and Purvanchal) on the pretext that smaller states can be managed better as compared to bigger ones.
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‘ M’ factor can cut both ways - Aditya Menon, Mail Today
The pitched battle between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress and the tug of war over the minority quota between the law minister and the chief election commissioner — both Muslims — has only worked to underline one fact: the ‘ M factor’ is more important than ever in Uttar Pradesh. The reason: pure arithmetic. Since a mere five per cent difference in votes got the Bahujan Samaj Party 206 seats as opposed to the SP’s 97 in the 2007 polls, a community that accounts for 18 per cent of the state’s population is bound to be a game- changer. The figure doing the rounds is that Muslims can shape the outcome in as many as 130 constituencies.
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Poor timing cramps model code review - Samanwaya Rautray, Telegraph
Denial of attempts to give statutory backing to the model code of election conduct could not have come at a worse time for the UPA government, at least two of whose ministers have had run-ins with the Election Commission during the ongoing Assembly elections. After top ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Salman Khurshid, who has clashed with the poll panel, denied such an attempt and the government issued a separate denial through an official release, leaked papers that landed in journalists’ inboxes today suggested the issue was on the agenda of a meeting of the Group of Ministers on Corruption tomorrow.
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Stamp of misuse in Mulayam’s Saifai - JP Yadav, Telegraph
The airstrip that enabled Rahul Gandhi to fly from Etawah to New Delhi last Saturday could be an example of how Mulayam Singh Yadav brought development to his backyard, sometimes at the cost of the rest of Uttar Pradesh. Had there been no airstrip in Saifai, Mulayam’s ancestral village in central Uttar Pradesh, Rahul would have had to spend that night in Etawah. But after his last meeting of the day, the Congress MP drove to the airstrip, boarded a private jet and was in Delhi in no time for a good night’s rest.
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UP poll will decide which party is irrelevant: Congress or BJP - R Jagannathan, FP
If there is one prediction that can be made with some degree of certainty about Uttar Pradesh, it is this: no party will win a clear majority on its own. This leads to a corollary: if no one gets a majority, we will either have to see former rivals jumping into bed together (BSP with BJP, or SP with Congress?, or the party which is closest to power will be using money power to break MLAs from more vulnerable rivals.
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Charge of the OBC Brigade - Brijesh Pandey, Tehelka
Charkari, chosen as Uma Bharti’s constituency, is an oasis in drought-ravaged Bundelkhand. This region, called the “Kashmir of Bundelkhand”, was included in Uttar Pradesh at the special request of Govind Ballabh Pant, a leading light of the post- Independence regime. In election time, it is said that whoever holds the key to Charkari holds the key to Bundelkhand. This time, the BJP’s social engineering faces its litmus test as it fields the party’s Other Backward Caste (OBC) face.
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It’s official: Busy Modi won’t do UP - Kumar Uttam, Pioneer
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has finally conveyed to BJP’s top brass that he has been “too busy” to campaign for party candidates in Uttar Pradesh, where the fifth phase of election was held on Thursday. Campaigning for the last phase of UP Assembly election will end on March 1. Upset with BJP chief Nitin Gadkari for ending arch-rival Sanjay Joshi’s political exile by giving him a special assignment in UP, Modi had also kept away from party campaign in Manipur, Uttarakhand and Punjab.
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Cong vs EC: How many enemies can one party create? - Akshaya Mishra, FP
The Congress loves to shoot itself in the foot. In an age where perception management is so crucial to the building of public image, it just refuses to learn any lessons from experience. Blame it on good old arrogance or plain inability to comprehend the world around it or the rotting think-tank of the party. Why else would it be so intent on stepping on the Election Commission’s toes in the midst of an assembly elections?
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Killing it softly? The Congress vs the Election Commission - Kartikeya Tanna, FP
Without a doubt, 2014 will be the most sensational political battle in decades. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s most probable choice for the Prime Minister’s post in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections although the BJP president Nitin Gadkari has clarified that his party’s campaign will not have a prime ministerial candidate.
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A tale of distress - Elizabeth Roche, Mint
Sixty-year-old Nand Kumar is from Mahoba district of southern Uttar Pradesh (UP), but he works at a factory in Gurgaon in Haryana, 400km from home. “We have had persistent drought for many years here. I have to support my family and it is just not possible being a farmer,” he says. Kumar hails from Bundelkhand—an economically backward region where the rains are scarce and the land is parched. “Depending on farm income is impossible. There are at least 500 people who have migrated from here just in the past six months,” he says.
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From any branch banking to any booth voting - Prithwis Mukerjee, FP
The Election Commission has a process in place to issue Voter ID Cards and while there could be loopholes in the validation of the applicants right to vote, these cards have been, by and large, accepted as proof of identity beyond reasonable doubt. Now if someone has such an Voter ID Card there should be no need for him or her to visit the specific booth where he is registered to cast his vote.
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UP Lokayukta recommends CBI, ED probe against Mayawati's right-hand man - Ashish Tripathi, Times of India
In a major setback to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government, Uttar Pradesh (UP) Lokayukta (ombudsman) Justice (retd) NK Mehrotra on Wednesday wrote to chief minister Mayawati recommending that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into complaints against PWD minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui and his legislator wife Husna Siddiqui for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets against their known source of income and for indulging in large scale corruption.
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Party ignored warnings on Kripashankar - Prafulla Marapakwar, Times of India
Wednesday's developments involving Congress leader Kripashankar Singh came as a major embarrassment to both party president Sonia Gandhi and chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. Insiders, however, said the Congress leadership could have avoided such a situation had it acted upon the complaints that had piled up against him.
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Muslims take stock of congress with Mulayam - Prashant Pandey, Indian Express
Six kilometres from Akbarpur, the district headquarters of Rama Bai Nagar, is a Muslim-majority village that is thinking afresh about its traditional support to the Samajwadi Party. Barah, part of the newly constituted Akbarpur Rania constituency, has around 11,000 voters, 8,000 of those Muslim. They have been voting almost en bloc for the Samajwadi Party, with the BSP bagging most of the remaining votes. But now it is the Congress, so far a bit player, that seems to have caught the public fancy in a village that has seen little development.
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Big Two’s caste politics on test - Ravish Tiwari, Indian Express
Few regions will test Mayawati’s Dalit politics and governance record as sternly as Agra, the province the British had unified with Oudh to form United Provinces, now Uttar Pradesh. This is one region where Mayawati has not replaced her incumbent MLAs as she has done elsewhere. To meet the challenge from a resurgent Congress-RLD alliance and the Samajwadi Party, each striving to register its presence in Agra district, she will bank on the way her government has developed Agra city, though such measures have upset some voters as deeply as they have pleased others.
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Yadavs vs his Yadavs, Mulayam shaky at home - Sanjay Singh, Indian Express
aswant Nagar, in which lies Mulayam Singh Yadav’s native village of Saifai, saw him addressing an election meeting on February 18, his first in more than a decade. All these years, Samajwadi Party sources say, Mulayam had felt a leader of his stature need not go seeking votes at home. He has represented Jaswant Nagar for six of his 10 terms as MLA so far, starting with his 1967 debut when he was with the Sanyukta Socialist Party.
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Eyes on SP as battle shifts west - Faisal Ahmed, Indian Express
With the Assembly elections shifting towards the western region of the state, the question doing the rounds in the Samajwadi Party camp is: Will the two As click for the party? The western region, bordering Uttarakhand, Haryana and Delhi, has remained the weakest link for the SP. Though the blue brigade of the BSP made inroads in the region in 2007, the SP has so far failed to gain a commanding position in the region.
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Don’t break the code - T S Krishnamurthy, Indian Express
The Election Commission (EC) and the Supreme Court of India can be considered as the crown jewels of Indian democracy. Both these institutions, although non-elected, have been rendering a great service in preserving and protecting the civil rights of citizens in no small measure. It is indeed disturbing, if not shocking, to know that there is a move to convert the Model Code of Conduct into a law.
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A forgettable election - Sanjay Kaul, Pioneer
History will remember the Uttar Pradesh election of 2012 as one which saw Indian democracy sink to new lows. A dispassionate lookback at the Election Commission’s role in exacerbating the mess will leave future generations appalled. The exuberance of the Congress in going for the Muslims in UP, followed by belligerence in going after the EC when it purred its disapproval at the transgressions of the party members should have signaled stress. But before you could catch your breath, a Congress minister in the incumbent Government has muddied the waters further by hinting at President’s rule in UP even before the last vote is cast.
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Muslim vote: Barelvi head keeps all guessing - Swaraj Thapa, Indian Express
In the narrow, serpentine lanes that lead to the Dargahe Aala Hazrat close to the Ghantaghar in Bareilly, there is a flurry of activity around 6.30 pm just as the evening namaaz is drawing to a close. A VIP visitor, in a convoy of SUVs that almost fill the tight lane leading up to the dargah, has come to call on its ‘Sajjada Nasheen’, Maulana Subhan Raza Khan Subhani Mian — the highest temporal authority of the Barelvi school of Muslims. The visitor is the younger son of BSP minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui, a confidant of Chief Minister Mayawati and the Muslim face of the party.
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Goa set for an electoral slugfest - Prakash Kamat, Hindu
With the final line up for the March 3 Assembly polls to the 40-member Assembly in Goa having crystallized, it is clear that the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine will have to slug it out with the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP) alliance in this coastal State. Seventeen political parties, big and small, have put up candidates in the election; but the main fight is between the Congress-NCP alliance, which is contesting all 40 seats (33 and 7, respectively) and the BJP-MGP alliance which is contesting 35 (28 and 7, respectively, with support for an Independent woman candidate in north Goa).
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The model code ain't broke - Hindu
If elections in India have become freer and fairer over the past two decades, the credit largely should go to the Election Commission. Much to the discomfiture of political parties and governments, the EC has carried out its watchdog role without succumbing to the pulls and pressures of those in power. True, there have been complaints of over-zealousness and ineffectiveness, but within their limited mandate, successive Commissions have done a lot to detoxify the electoral system of the blatant influence of money and muscle power.
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Sangh Parivar banks on religion to turn the tide of Phase V - Piyush Srivastava, MT
If the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) are pulling out all stops to woo the Muslim electorate in Saharanpur ahead of the fifth phase of voting in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the BJP, too, is going the whole hog to reclaim its Hindu support base. The sudden spurt in religious activities in the district is testimony to the Sangh Parivar's single-minded pursuit of the majority community. More than two dozen religious events have been organised in the district by various lesser known outfits during the last week.
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Congress poses a threat to the Electoral Commission - Manoj Joshi, MT
So now the Congress party wants to take the Election Commission (EC) apart. Deny it with all their might, as they have been doing, but the import of the agenda item in a Group of Ministers meeting, ostensibly to discuss corruption, is clear enough. So is the reason spelt out for seeking to take away the powers of the EC to enforce the model code of conduct during elections and give them to the courts of the land, where they would be enforced, but well after the need for the enforcement passed.
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UP polls: Make-or-break fifth phase for political parties - Times of India
Forty-nine assembly seats across 13 districts could make or mar hopes in the UP contest, being the OBC-MBC-Dalit stretch where political parties have gambled everything to come up trumps. Bundelkhand would test the wisdom of BJP's decision to stake its probity plank by inducting BSP renegade Babu Singh Kushwaha in search of OBC votes as also to field "outsider" Uma Bharati as its star campaigner with chief ministerial projection.
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SP candidates hope to cash in on politics of marriage - Anand Mishra, PTI
Garotha (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 23 - Call it politics of matrimony but
'Dadda' (elder brother) Deepanarayan Singh, sitting MLA of Samajwadi
Party, is banking on this to help see him through the caste cauldron
against his Congress and BJP rivals in the assembly polls here. Deepnarayan Singh, alias Dipak Yadav, has built for himself a
constituency many in politics would not have thought of--group marriage. He faces Raja Ranjit Singh Yadav of Congress and BJP's Tikaram Patel.
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Rahul now ready for the big fight - Swapan Dasgupta, Asian Age
Elections are one occasion Indian politicians work hard, very hard. This month’s Uttar Pradesh Assembly election has witnessed the Gandhi-Vadra family doing their utmost to come to the aid of the party. Sonia Gandhi, the matriarch, has played a largely symbolic role in this election, perhaps owing to her indifferent health and her known aversion to dust. But her absence has been duly compensated by the punishing schedule kept by Rahul Gandhi.
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Jaiswal betrays Congress Dilemma - Economic Times
Union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Thursday came up with an extravagant "either a Congress government in Uttar Pradesh or President rule" formulation and provided yet another opportunity for the Opposition to put the Congress on the defensive. Congress' rivals said the statement of the Union minister showed the "desperation of a party pushed to the margins in Uttar Pradesh" and its central leadership's refusal to follow democratic practices. "Congress is already planning to subvert democracy in Uttar Pradesh," said SP leader Akhilesh Yadav.
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Road divides haves from have-Nots in Dadri - Amita Shah, Economic Times
Against the silhouettes of half-finished high rises, Pandit Harishchandra sits on a charpoy sipping his evening tea and dreading yet another sleepless night. "The sounds of machines disturb us the whole night," he says pointing towards the construction. It is not just his sleep that the private builders have taken away. A farmer once, he is jobless today. His land is now embedded somewhere in the spate of construction for one of the largest townships along the Noida expressway.
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UP Poll: Five ways the result can directly matter to people like us - Saubhik Chakrabarti, ET
Of course, the Uttar Pradesh elections are crucial - for all sorts of big reasons. And most, if not all, UP-inspired commentaries, including on these pages, are based on some or all of those big reasons. But how is the Uttar Pradesh verdict relevant for people like us (PLUs), when we define relevance narrowly, as in impacting things that immediately matter to this class or group?
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UP assembly election: Likely scenarios after polls - Times of India
Depending on how many seats four main parties - SP, BSP, Congress & BJP - get, there are four likely scenarios in UP after assembly elections. Scene 1: If SP gets 170+ seats. It will be difficult to prevent it from forming a govt. If it gets 180+ seats, it can even form govt with support of independents & minor parties. If it gets 170 seats but less than 175, it will need Cong support. Cong might be forced to give it support for fear of inviting backlash
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UP polls: Voters in Mahoba and Hamirpur express their resentment - Pankaj Shah, ToI
Voters' resentment with the candidates in fray was witnessed in some parts of Mahoba and Hamirpur which went to polls on Thursday. Voters either boycotted the elections or used the right to reject option to air their anguish with the candidates. According to Election officials, six booths of Hamirpur recorded zero turnout. Pramod Chaurasia who had come to cast his franchise at polytechnic in Bajaria locality of Mahoba constituency, said: ``There was no good choice of candidates.'' He used the 'right to abstain' option.
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UP polls: Bundelkhand votes for development - Pankaj Shah, Nidhi Purohit & Arindam Sen Gupta, ToI
Hoping that development will not be relegated to the background at the cost of politics, voters in the three districts of Bundelkhand -- Jhansi, Jalaun and Lalitpur -- turned up in large numbers at polling booths on Thursday. Lalitpur in fact topped the fifth phase with nearly 71% polling. Both Jhansi and Jalaun posted approximately 60%.
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RJ to college owner: Team Akhilesh as new SP - Indian Express
If the Samajwadi Party seems a different party this election, a ltarge part of the credit goes to its state president, Akhilesh Yadav. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son is delivering a similar message of hope, change and development to the Uttar Pradesh electorate as Rahul Gandhi, and is 38 compared to the Congress’s 41-year-old “youth yuvraj”. It’s not just the message that’s new, though, so is the medium. Helping Akhilesh is a team of young leaders, handpicked by him.
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Rahul draws crowds, but votes unsure - Parul Kohli, Pioneer
Despite bringing Bhatta-Parsaul to the centrestage of politics, Rahul Gandhi still has a lot of ground to cover to swing people’s mood in favour of the Congress in Jewar and Dadri Assembly constituencies, which were worst-affected by the Mayawati Government’s land acquisition policy. Although the Gandhi scion went hammer and tongs against his political rivals on Thursday, the crowd at a Jewar rally seemed undecided on how much to back the Congress.
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Just promises are not enough - Arindam Chaudhuri, Pioneer
In spite of the large population involved in agriculture, the value addition per farmer in India has always been an issue of concern. Our agriculture sector suffers from a huge wastage of manpower and lack of modern farming techniques. These have resulted in low productivity. With State elections gaining heat, the farming community of India suddenly finds itself in the thick of attention. This pocket of population that is usually sidelined, would again find itself at the top of all political manifestos.
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A ‘no man’s land’, this? - Parwinder Sandhu, Pioneer
From being a candidate contesting on reserved seats to leading the pack of corporators, women have come a long way in the city. It seems that the city residents have realised that the women can not only be good homemakers but also make the city a better place. Exemplifying woman power all the way, for the first time ever, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has women filling in 51 per cent of seats in the new body of elected representatives. The overall tally of female corporators is 78, while that of male corporators is 74.
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Thakurs dominate poll fray in Phoolan land - Indian Express
For an outsider, it could just be another non-descript village with tell-tale signs of deprivation and desperation in the badlands of Uttar Pradesh riven by caste divides. The nearest hospital and high school are 10 kilometres away and there is anger in the village, which falls in Kalpi Assembly constituency, against SP and BSP as identity politics has let the area wallow in poverty.
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Rahul back in Jewar, to reap last year’s Bhatta-Parsaul seeds - Deepu Sebastian Edmond, Indian Express
Rahul Gandhi on Thursday returned to the site of his most daring political escapade and found that the ride into Bhatta and Parsaul villages in the early hours of May 11 last year had converted many. Rahul campaigned for Congress candidate Dhirendra Singh in Jewar, the constituency that includes Bhatta and Parsaul, where two farmers and policemen each were killed as a result of police firing. He did not visit Bhatta or Parsaul, which he had entered last year riding pillion behind Dhirendra’s brother Karanveer and violating prohibitory orders.
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Democracy without the human touch - Tavishi Srivastava, Pioneer
As Uttar Pradesh and India await the result of one of the most milestone elections of contemporary times, the familiar banalities have taken over the national political discourse. While the possibilities of government formation are being discussed, the main parties, namely BSP, Samajwadi Party, BJP and Congress are interpreting the high voter attendance to suit their own convenience.
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Betrayal of Muslims - Zafaryab Jilani, Pioneer
It has been seen that the system of proportional representation being followed in European countries is working well. India would do well to emulate that example. But the irony of the situation is that despite being a better option the same cannot be practiced in India as the people are not ready for it. The basic reason of not being ready for it is that people lack in educational qualification and moreover the system has too many loop holes. The other reason being is that the concerned authorities lack in the required attitude.
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Coaching colonels in Bundelkhand to Einstein Public School in Lalganj - Shekhar Gupta, Indian Express
The logic of calling this random series of writings from different and diverse parts of India, often during the elections, ‘Writings on the Wall’ needs repetition. So many years of training as a reporter-writer have taught me that one of the best ways of figuring what is going on in our country, what is changing, for better or worse, or not changing at all, is written, literally, on our walls.
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Jaiswal, Beni in UP CM fray? - Asian Age
It is still a fortnight before results start pouring out of EVMs in Uttar Pradesh but two Union ministers have already started promoting themselves as chief ministerial candidates. Union ministers Beni Prasad Verma and Sriprakash Jaiswal are now discreetly projecting themselves as chief ministerial candidates in case the Congress gets to form the next government in UP. This self-projection by these two leaders has started causing considerable heartburn among the state leaders.
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Dump Shiv Sena, dump it not: BJP mulls options - Mahesh Vijapurkar, First Post
The Bharatiya Janata Party, miffed with the way its partner Shiv Sena has been treating it of late, has three options before it. It is obviously working on all three of them. One, teach the partner a lesson for its indiscretions. This is its first and immediate priority and is being unravelled already. Two, prepare for elections to the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra Assembly in 2014.
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Despite BMC loss, Maharashtra CM is doing the right things - Anil Dharker, First Post
There have been strange murmurs, promoted by a section of the media, that Prithviraj Chavan has offered to resign as chief minister because of the Congress party’s dismal showing in the recent municipal elections. This is really quite absurd: should the chief minister of a state resign every time his party loses some municipal election? The people who need to take responsibility are local leaders, the politicians who head the party apparatus in Mumbai. Clearly they didn’t do the job expected of them.
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In BSP’s campaign for Noida’s ‘two electorates’, vikas is common refrain - Vandita Mishra, Indian Express
Far away from the UP heartland, in Noida the traffic ignores all red lights as it unseeingly races past parks and malls, half-built highrises loom like skeletons in states of undress — and the political campaign is divided in two. In the run-up to polling day on February 28, two campaigns unfold simultaneously: one for the village, the other for the “sector” or urban area that came up on the land ringing the village and is now spreading greedily.
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Lucknow Diary - Sreenivasan Jain, Outlook
A high percentage of Dalits has given Pipri, in Sitapur, two hours from Lucknow, the status of an Ambedkar village. This means the village gets priority ‘saturation’ by all ongoing central and state social welfare schemes. And so, 75 homes have been built in the past two years under the Indira Aawas Yojana, some of them have attached toilets under the Total Sanitation scheme, the entire village has CC (cement-concrete) roads under the Gramin Sadak Yojana, and there is an Ambedkar Health Centre.
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Farmers left disappointed as Rahul skips land acquisition row in protest hub - Akash Vashishtha, Mail Today
They had come to hear the leader who had sneaked into their village at the break of the dawn, defying prohibitory orders to hear their grievances and share their pain. But all they got on Sunday was an astute politician's tirade against his political opponents. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi made his bones in UP's farmer politics at the height of the protests against the faulty land acquisition policy of the Mayawati government.
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Goa: Family Football - Pushpa Iyengar, Outlook
The people of Goa, which goes to the hustings on March 3, seem trapped between some bad political options and the deep sea: the choice is between the clan-ridden Congress and the BJP, with which the sizable Christian population is uncomfortable. The Congress, in the public mind, is associated with six powerful clans. Now, people even have an acronym for it—the MMAARR alliance, after the Monserrate, Madkaikar, (Churchill) Alemao, (Joachim) Alemao, Rane and Ravi Naik families—coined, not surprisingly, by Manohar Parrikar, a former CM, and the face of the BJP campaign in the state.
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Felled by his own folks - Smruti Koppikar, Outlook
Prithviraj Chavan is a good man, sincere in intent, technocratic and rational in approach, determined to make a difference, resolute in the face of opposition and untainted by the blot of corruption. He should have been an election strategist’s dream-come-true politician. Yet he cut a sorry and lonely figure last week as results to Maharashtra’s local bodies—ten municipal corporations, 27 zilla parishads and 305 panchayat samitis—trickled in; the Congress, led by its chief minister, had fared worse than its nearest rival, the Shiv Sena, and part-ally-part-rival, the Nationalist Congress Party.
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Goa Diary - Vivek Menezes, Outlook
India’s smallest state—and by many measures, its richest—has undergone five years of mega-development, shadowed seemingly inevitably by tawdry mega-scandals that have demonstrated to include almost all of the state’s political and economic elites. Illegal mining has flourished uninterrupted as Chinese demand for iron ore sent prices soaring over the past decade, spreading devastation far beyond the 20% of Goa’s green cover already earmarked for the mineral lobby. This has created a cadre of oligarchs whose writ increasingly holds sway a la Bellary.
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Goa’s missing poll carnival - E P Unny, Indian Express
Goa joined Indian democracy late when the Portuguese finally left in 1961. The state’s politicians have made up for lost time. More than the last 50 years of freedom and the 450 years of Portuguese legacy, they seem to be celebrating that formidable 15th Century Florencian, Niccolo Machiavelli. Every trick in the political trade has been tried out here—to grab, retain and wrest power and new tricks invented to bypass regulations. For a small state, barely one per cent of the Indian landmass, Goa has thrown up a record number of court verdicts on the Anti-Defection Act.
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Voteswagon: Voter turnout in assembly elections is on a rise - Shobhan Saxena, ToI
Every election in India busts some cliches . As Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand , Punjab and Manipur record high voter turnouts in Election 2012, poll pundits - used to set patterns like ''anti-incumbency factor'' and ''caste calculations'' - are struggling to make sense of this surge. They are busy guessing the outcome of the elections, though the real story lies in the polling booths and their long queues.
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Are the netas getting any cleaner? - Archana Khare Ghose, ToI
A few days ago, Anil Bairwal of the Association for Democratic Reforms-National Election Watch (ADR-NEW ) received a threat from a councillor - whose details he doesn't divulge - that he would come to beat him up. Bairwal laughs while sharing this information. As national coordinator of the NGO working for electoral reforms, he is used to getting threats, some even graver.
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Advantage Mulayam - Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Frontline
ARE the diverse perceptions on post-election instability as well as the multiple layers of anti-incumbency at work across the State impelling a large majority of Uttar Pradesh voters to make an expedient choice that may ensure some sort of political stability, at least in the medium term? As some regions of the country's most populous State witness polling and some other parts go through intense campaigning as part of the seven-phased, month-long election process, this question is acquiring an increasing relevance. The final outcome of the elections would depend largely on how far and to what degree this trend gains strength in the course of the polling process, which is to be completed on March 3.
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Democracy in action - Bhaskar Ghose, Frontline
Elections to some State Assemblies are under way, and the results will be known on March 6. One is not, however, concerned with the results so much as the whole process itself. From the publication of the list of candidates to the campaigning and then to the setting up of thousands of polling stations, and the voting itself, involving millions coming to polling stations and casting their votes, all these have a significance that transcends the process itself. Simply put, it is the comprehensive consent of the people in the process and, even more importantly, the manifest trust they have in it.
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Rahul conquers, but not all - Deepu Sebastian Edmond, Indian Express
At Parsaul, part of the Bhatta-Parsaul episode that rocked Uttar Pradesh last May, Rahul Gandhi has won the hearts of many by just turning up. The village’s Jatavs, however, remain behind the BSP. “We have voted for the BSP, we have voted for the BJP. At one time this village voted for the Janata Dal. This time, we will vote for Dhirender Singh,” said Harendra Singh, a former village pradhan. Their primary preference is not the Congress, but its candidate, who helped sneak Rahul into the two villages in 2011.
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J-factor holds key in west win - Vinod Sharma and Sunita Aron, Hindustan Times
Asked to comment on electoral reforms, Union minister Ajit Singh chuckled, “Reforms? We believe in capturing booths.” That was late last year and Singh was referring to his clan’s one-time image of preventing Dalits from casting their votes. Politics in western Uttar Pradesh has revolved around the Jat-Jatav caste dynamics that got altered after the arrival of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati on the state’s political landscape.
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2½ years on, two communities root for their own - Ravish Tiwari, Indian Express
Sripal was not at home when The Indian Express visited Kripalpur, one of six villages near Tappal that had seen clashes between the police and the villagers over land acquisition in August 2010. Sripal’s 13-year-old son had died, allegedly in police firing. The incident’s political potential led to visits by Ajit Singh, Shivpal Yadav and Rajnath Singh.
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The bittersweet truths about UP’s sugar belt - Vinod Sharma and Sunita Aron, HT
A new political crop has emerged in the verdant sugarcane belt of western Uttar Pradesh. They’re leaders with a lineage but have a persona of their own. Regardless of what the electorate will, they’ve come to stay and shape the politics of the region where identity survives but is peppered strongly by aspiration. For the Jats, Jayant Chaudhary is a replica of his grandfather Charan Singh whose writ ran from Haryana to Bihar.
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Rahul Gandhi may just spoil Dalal Street's dream alliance - Bodistava Ganguli & Satish John, ET
Rahul Gandhi, who has been camping in Uttar Pradesh for months leading an attempt to revive the fortunes of India's Grand Old Party, may play spoilsport with what has become the market's dream scenario - an alliance between the ruling Congress and Samajwadi Party. Instead, a close finish may result in a hung assembly and President's rule, possibly increasing instability and turning the dream into a nightmare.
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UP Assembly Election 2012: Muslim Quota - Will Congress bite SP bait? - ET
In a move aimed clearly as a message to the Muslims ahead of the last two round of polling in Uttar Pradesh and also as a bait to Congress, the Samajwadi Party on Sunday reiterated its readiness to do business with the principal ruling party at the Centre for ensuring 18% reservation to the community. "We will back them if their endeavour is honest," SP's UP unit chief Akhilesh Yadav said, adding, "After we communicated this to Congress, they developed cold feet and have not responded till date.
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Rural-urban schism divides Ghaziabad votes - Parvez Sultan, Pioneer
With rapid urbanisation and a large number of voters working in the National Capital, certain parts of Ghaziabad parliamentary constituency are witnessing a different kind of battle — one between rural and urban areas. On seats like Sahibabad, which borders Delhi, a large chunk of the population works in Delhi or in MNCs in the National Capital Region (NCR). Issues raised by Anna Hazare may propel the BJP's prospects here. Team Anna works out of Sahibabad and their prominent members are voters here.
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BSP can’t please all with Sarvjan calculations - Rajesh Kumar, Pioneer
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s sarvjan hitay, sarvjan sukhay social engineering formula, with the Jatav as leader caste, has been put to test in Agra — epicentre of Dalit politics and prosperity. Agra’s Dalits are in a dilemma over Mayawati, who has been the face of their empowerment. This is the one region where Mayawati has not replaced her incumbent MLAs. However, the social engineering that had paid rich dividends in the 2007 Assembly polls taking Mayawati’s tally to an unprecedented 206 seats is likely to collapse in 2012 at Agra’s five Assembly segments.
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Let’s celebrate memory of a true hero - Sidharth Mishra, Pioneer
On Tuesday, February 28, when all the newspapers and news channels would be busy covering the next phase of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, there would be some attending the function at Imphal to commemorate the centenary of a true national hero — Maj Bob Ranenglao Khathing, who won NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) back for us. I too would have remained ignorant about Bob Khathing, whose compelling story I desire to narrate today, but for school senior Wing Commander (retired) UG ‘Unni’ Kartha, whose painstaking research helped him find about a faceless nation builder.
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High voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh baffles parties - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
It is simplistic to argue that the BSP will be the loser with more people casting their votes. At the same time, many may have voted to register disapproval. The dance of democracy in Uttar Pradesh is in full swing as people, shedding their inhibitions, have swarmed the polling booths to exercise their right of franchise. In this almost month-long Assembly election, spread over in seven phases, the voting percentage has so far almost touched the 60 per cent mark — the best in the last two decades. This is despite the fact that there is no obvious wave for or against any party. In what way will this high turnout affect the prospects of the parties in the fray, remains to be seen.
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Fight to bag muslim votes escalates - Manjari Mishra, Times of India
Presiding over Muslim Sadbhavana Sammelan in western UP, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi tries hard to give the party a complete image makeover. In Mathura's Chhata constituency last Thursday, Naqvi could be heard repeating the same lines he had successfully tried out in seven such gatherings earlier. "Over last 10 years Muslims representation in government jobs has come down by 42% in UP. In saffron belt of MP, Bihar, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, the figures have gone up by 24% to 38% during the corresponding period. It is the will to empower a community which bears fruit rather than a bogus reservation policy," he summed up.
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Political parties vie for election crown, but ignore Taj city - Neha Shukla, ToI
Voters in the Taj City have a long pending wish-list for politicians. Most of the demands are raised in every election but remain unfulfilled. Some reasonable ones include an international airport and better roads. Such facilities would give a major boost to the city that sees tourists influx round the year. "Tourists don't prefer staying in Agra. They come, see the Taj and leave. If we get good hotels and roads, tourists might stay back," says Shakir Ali, a local travel agency owner.
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UP2012: Will SP-Congress win? - FirstPost
It might be an SP–Congress government in Uttar Pradesh, says research firm CLSA in a report titled On the Road. The report is exhaustive, based on visits to Uttar Pradesh, conversations with informed and uninformed public and research from CLSA. The following are highlights from the CLSA report, reproduced verbatim, but edited for length in some instances. Where edited for length, there is a clear mention. All italicisation and emphasis is by Firstpost.
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Bicycle Chief - Priya Sahgal, India Today
After six months of hard work, it looks like Delhi has suddenly discovered me. Akhilesh Yadav laughs at the compliment that he has suddenly become the new darling of the media-the other crown prince of Avadh. Midway through the Uttar Pradesh polls, with the signs of a Samajwadi Party (SP) resurgence, there is a feverish interest in the brand new young netaji. As late as November 2011, opinion polls had begun to suggest that anti-incumbency would take a toll on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) but no one was certain who would occupy the space vacated.
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Heading for Mid-Term Polls in 2014? - Nandkumar Kamat, Navhind Times
Goa is unlikely to follow the model of UDF-LDF like in Kerala. There is neither any palpable anti-incumbency factor nor anger among the voters. No wave is visible. Majority of voters are still undecided. They are literally caught between the devil and the deep sea. When a state of such uncertainty prevails voters create more uncertainty by choosing candidates instead of displaying any loyalty for a party or alliance. This confusion has prevailed after conversion, re-organisation and delimitation of original 28 constituencies under Union Territory into 40 assembly segments under statehood.
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BJP keeps Modi out of UP as part of larger vote strategy - Sunday Guardian
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been deliberately kept out of the UP campaign by the BJP high command in order to prevent a polarisation of Muslim votes towards the Congress, as happened in the 2009 general elections. This enabled the Congress to lead in 96 Assembly segments in 2009, as compared to 22 in 2007.
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Congress finds its Mayawati - Mohammed Anas, Sunday Guardian
Few people remember that Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshiran mentored two Mayawatis. One of them is now Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. The other Mayawati, who rose to be the Women Welfare Minister in the previous Mayawati government, is fighting for political survival. She is the Congress' candidate from Sri Nagar Assembly constituency in Lakhimpur Kheri district.
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Why UP results will make no difference to UPA and economy - R Jagannathan, FP
The stock market has begun fretting about the post-poll Uttar Pradesh scenario – especially on how it will impact the central budget and the economy. The bitter truth is that no matter what happens in Uttar Pradesh (or, for that matter in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur, and Goa), the broader political realities won’t change much. In any case, the budget that Pranab Mukherjee has planned cannot be completely reformulated between 6 March and 16 March. At best he can add a few more promises.
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Cracks in her statues - Varghese K George, Hindustan Times
The BSP's formidable organisational structure and the unmistakable assertiveness of its core Dalit base make Mayawati a serious contender for another term as Uttar Pradesh chief minister. The huge rallies that she addresses should restrain those who may be tempted to predict her downfall.It is not uncommon for chief ministers to win consecutive terms in office. Narendra Modi in Gujarat, Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh, Sheila Dikshit in Delhi, Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh and the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh are examples that come to mind. Certain common attributes suggest that there is a formula for beating anti-incumbency. One way of understanding Mayawati's prospects in UP is by comparing her with persistent winners.
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UP sixth phase polls: Make or break for BSP - Ashish Tripathi, Times of India
The sixth phase of UP elections covering 68 assembly constituencies of Jat-land and Muslim dominated areas of the state will be decisive for SP and BSP besides testing the new found Congress-RLD camaraderie and BJP's ability to polarise vote in this highly castist and communally sensitive belt. In fact, the round upto some extent would decide who -- SP or BSP -- will emerge as single largest party or will be close to majority in 403-member assembly.
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‘Reformed’ party vs the one & only - Vandita Mishra, Indian Express
As the Uttar Pradesh election enters its last phase, Akhilesh Yadav claims a leher in the Samajwadi Party’s favour and asks for bahumat or majority, not just votes. He promises free laptops, scholarships and debt waivers among a range of direct transfers. And he acknowledges his party may have made mistakes in the tenure of the last Mulayam Singh Yadav government on the law and order front.
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What did we get from Behenji’s govt? Shanti - Deepu Sebastian Edmond, IE
They are the last two villages on the Yamuna Expressway from where land was acquired for the project. Both Nagla Gola and Garhi Rami claim to have not got all that they expected from the Mayawati government’s showpiece venture, but the Jatavs are clear their vote will go to the BSP. As Shyam Singh, just 19, explains, holding out his two hands, palms up, and slowly bringing them level to each other: “Maybe we will finally be equal to the others.”
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Turning Lohiaji on his head - Shekhar Gupta, Indian Express
India has probably produced more variants of socialism than all of Europe. And as you’d expect, these varying ideological strains often end up arguing with each other. So, today, our pure-bred Kolkata Marxists would sit under giant portraits of Mao in their offices and dismiss Naxalite-Maoists as “leftist degenerates”. The Congress has lately perfected another socialist variant, much preferred by its establishment jholawala chic. It is povertarianism — poverty is my birthright and I shall make sure you have it.
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Waiting for Rahul to deliver - Vinod Sharma and Sunita Aron, Hindustan Times
The Bahujan Samaj Party’s reactionary pitch of yore that helped it appropriate the Dalit vote in UP is being turned upside down. In the belt running parallel to the under-construction Taj expressway, which triggered a massive land row, it’s hard to miss the upper-caste assertion for the primacy they lost to scheduled castes under Mayawati — “Tilak, taraju aur talwar, nahin sahenge atyachar”. The graffiti is an improvisation of the original BSP catch-phrase, which charged up its “bahujan samaj” base against pernicious upper-caste dominance: “Tilak taraju aur talwar, inko maro jutey chaar.”
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Cong headache: Corruption, illegal mining, rebels... - Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, HT
The picture is not all rosy for the Congress in Goa. The ruling party is on the back-foot following allegations of illegal mining and corruption charges. The BJP has directly accused chief minister Digambar Kamat of involvement in the Rs 25,000-crore illegal mining scam, which is being probed by a judicial commission headed by Justice MB Shah. The panel is also investigating illegal mining in other parts of the country.
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The sarvajan experiment - Smita Gupta, Hindu
The constituency office of the local Bahujan Samaj Party candidate from Chaprauli, Devpal Singh Shastri, is buzzing with activity. Milling around or sitting on dusty standard issue plastic chairs are two distinct groups: the candidate's posh personal campaigners, including family members, and the BSP's traditional workers. It's not one happy family, but both know the rules: the candidate brings his community's votes and the financial clout to contest an election; the BSP activist works for the party, regardless of who the candidate is.
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Congress-RLD stuck in unnatural alliance - Sidharth Mishra, Pioneer
Three decades ago, Chowdhary Charan Singh scripted his epitaph by allying with the Congress. The current polls to Uttar Pradesh legislative Assembly could prove to be a setback for his son, Union Minister Chowdhary Ajit Singh. The Kisans (read Jats, the caste of Chowdhary Charan Singh) of Western UP have always found themselves uncomfortable in the company of the Congress.
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Town Hall to Civic Centre, MCD grows tall - Neelam Pandey and Hamari Jamatia, Hindustan Times
The figures speak for themselves. From a two-storeyed building Town Hall that served a population of 16.7 lakh in 1958 to the 28-floor Civic Centre that provides civic services to 15 million people today, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has grown vertically and horizontally in the last 54 years. Literally. When it came into existence in 1958, the MCD started functioning from Town Hall — a landmark heritage building in Chandni Chowk built by the British in 1866. It continued there till 2011 when it shifted to the swanky Civic Centre, the tallest building in Delhi.
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In Maya village, undercurrent of discontent - Geeta Gupta, Indian Express
As eight constituencies in Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts went to polls Tuesday, the first visible sign of change and an open expression of the anti-Mayawati sentiment, as pointed by the villagers, was the presence of party agents at the polling booth in the Chief Minister’s ancestral Badalpur village in Dadri. “Her popularity has definitely decreased in her own village for her own mistakes. The other parties are gearing up now, it is surprising that all parties have stationed their agents at the polling booth today to ensure there are no discrepancies, something that hasn’t happened in this village before,” said Bharat Singh, a contractual worker.
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Congress creates own rainbow to counter caste blocks - IE
The Congress has attempted a different kind of social engineering in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh in a bid to beat Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav in their own game. In a bid to widen its base in the caste-ridden politics of the state, where it has been out of power for last two decades, the party has reached out to marginalised sections among the same castes and communities, which these leaders broadly represent. The party has attempted to dent the watertight caste compartments of UP politics by reaching out to sub castes within Yadavs and Rajputs as well.
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Rather than one good man visiting, it’s good men standing who’ll count - Vandita Mishra, IE
Close your eyes at a Rahul Gandhi rally in Shahbad, Rampur, and the resemblance is striking. When Rahul Gandhi speaks, you can hear strains of Anna Hazare, who is otherwise absent in the campaign for the state. The core appeal is similar: of the system’s outsider, who seeks to vault over the people’s representatives in party and government, to make a direct connect with the people. “They say Rahul Gandhi has gone crazy,” he says. “They laugh at me. Because I go to the houses of the poor, drink water from their wells… Have they ever come and visited you, asked you what you want?”
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Smirks that speak and a doctor with no prescription - Shekhar Gupta, IE
You know you are walking on treacherous ground when not merely all journalists but even fund managers on blue (stock market) channels start calling an election the same way — hung house, the SP in front, BSP distant second, Congress and BJP fighting for the wooden spoon. So don’t count on me calling this election any which way. All I can do is admit that it is one of the most confusing ever.
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Broken caste votes: bigger BJP pie - Deepak Kumar Jha, Pioneer
First, there is a division in Jat votes due to the persistent reservation issue. Second, the consolidated BJP Hindu votes — on which RLD had cashed in during the last Lok Sabha polls — have also gone awry. Even the last efforts made by RLD supremo and UPA Cabinet Minister Ajit Singh to rope in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seem to be futile. Given the sparse crowd at the PM’s meeting at Amroha, it seems that the Singh duo might not even win traditional Jat votes, as wife of sitting RLD MP from Amroha Parliamentary constituency is contesting from Nowgawan Sadat Assembly segment.
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Numbers in search of a narrative - Suresh Nambath, Hindu
Elections are now regularly held in several phases, and the time gap between the first phase of polling and the counting date can stretch to more than a month. In the suspenseful interim, voter turnout is seen as the key to unlock the secrets of the Electronic Voting Machines. The added interest, this time round, is the spike in voter turnout in the Assembly elections, particularly Uttar Pradesh.
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UP is on the cusp of change - Manoj Joshi, Mail Today
My atomic theory is seriously outdated, but from what I remember, one electron and one proton gave you hydrogen, two and two add up to helium, three and three lithium and so on. In other words, a quantitative increase in protons and electrons leads to a qualitatively different element. The same, of course, happens in the case of molecules where a simple combination of carbon and hydrogen gives you butter, but another, more complex will yield dalda.
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Phase 6: Muslim turnout augurs well for SP - ToI
After the sixth phase, which saw 60.08% polling, SP had some reasons to smile. The high turnout could augur well for Mulayam who could only have done better than his party's 2007 dismal score of only 3 in the 13 districts against BSP's 37. After this, only 60 constituencies in Rohilkhand and a small part of west UP will vote in the final phase on March 3. Though the SP has been a favourite of Muslims for long, it was weak in this area because it did not have any influence over the Jats, who constitute 17% of the total population.
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I don’t vote. That’s my protest - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
I don’t vote. And I am not apologetic about it. The saviours of the country are free to call me irresponsible. I don’t trust them and they don’t trust me. That’s a fair arrangement. I won’t dignify them with a response.And yes, I understand politics — more than many of the people who claim to have done a favour to mankind by punching keys in the voting machine. I am educated, reasonably intelligent and discuss the country a lot with friends, parents and whoever is interested. I understand Indian economy too. But I refuse to vote.
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Will psephologists crack the UP mystery this time? - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
Uttar Pradesh will remain the psephologist’s ultimate challenge forever. Why? The answer is rather cliched: the voter mood in the state is too complex. His choice is a product of too many influences around him, which makes him unpredictable. Moreover, he is more unlikely to open up than voters in other places because it entails too much risk. That makes catching a trend in the state so difficult.
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Netas smile from wall, MCD can’t pull them down - Maria Akram, Times of India
With municipal elections round the corner, posters of smiling netas have mushroomed across the city as councillors eyeing a nomination are trying to outdo each other to grab attention. MCD officials say the lawmakers (corporators) themselves are the most common defaulters. "The list of sites in Delhi earmarked for outdoor advertising is available on the MCD website. If there is any illegal hoarding, MCD has to remove it," said YS Mann, director, press and information, MCD.
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Sankarankovil: Nominations close, campaign picks up - News Today
Filing of nominations for the 18 March by-election for Sankarankovil Assembly constituency came to a close today. From tomorrow, campaigning activity is expected to hit a high, with top political leaders of the State planning to visit the southern town to woo the voters. The ruling AIADMK started its preparations early by naming its candidate, S Muthuselvi, chairperson of the Sankarankovil municipality, for the Sankarankovil reserved seat, which fell vacant following the death of Minister C Karuppasamy, on 22 October.
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From Bareilly to Pilibhit, BJP finds Gangwars vs its Gangwars - Swaraj Thapa, IE
When former BJP minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar lost the 2009 Lok Sabha election to Pravin Singh Aron of the Congress in this saffron bastion, the shock was promptly attributed to Varun Gandhi’s pre-poll hate speech in neighbouring Pilibhit and the way it polarised the Muslim vote.
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UP elections: Final phase to test Rahul Gandhi's popularity with voters - Devesh Kumar, ET
The final phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh is expected to test whether Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's aggressive campaign to connect with the electorate is finding any traction. In the general election held in 2009, the party had led in 15 of the 60 assembly segments going to polls in this round on Saturday, and also won four of the 22 seats from the state. They included Moradabad, Bareilly, Kheri and Dhaurahra.
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Crime graph in city dips as election fever peaks - Rajiv Srivastava, Times of India
It seems elections and crime have an inversely proportional relationship.
While the election season has reached its peak with the last phase
drawing near, the crime graph during this time has come down drastically
as compared to the past two years. This is evident from the crime graph
which has shown a 30% fall between January 1 and February 15 this year.
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Leaders pin hope on voters and shrines - Swati Mathur, Times of India
With just three days to go, campaigning is reaching fever pitch across the region. But the scent of elections is strongest in the narrow streets of old Bareilly, at the Dargah of Ala Hazrat, the seat of the Sunni Barelvi Muslims. Here, religion and politics appear to have coalesced, with the act of political leaders offering the "chadar" connoting more than simple deference. It is here that leadership from across parties has flocked to, for support.
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Higher voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh - Smita Gupta, Hindu
Dominating the visual electoral landscape of Uttar Pradesh are the Election Commission's enormous billboards exhorting citizens to cast their votes, not the flags, banners and posters of political parties. Even the stone elephants and statues in Chief Minister Mayawati's Dalit parks are shrouded in pink polythene, now burnt white by the sun.
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Maya faces irony of empowerment - Manini Chatterjee, Telegraph
Holi, heralding the onset of summer, is barely a week away but there is still a chill in the air. The late afternoon sunshine casts a mellow glow over the waters in the canal that runs neatly through the fields that spread out to the far horizon. The narrow road that snakes through green fields of swaying wheat shot with the bright yellow of mustard in full bloom is equally neat and well laid.
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Seats or no, Congress draws UP poll lessons - Sanjay K Jha, Telegraph
The Congress leadership sees the Uttar Pradesh election as a unique experience with vital organisational and political lessons for the future. “Seat miley ya nahin, sabak bahut miley (Whether we get seats or not, we got vital lessons),” a senior leader told The Telegraph.
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Let us vote for Goa’s future - Navhind Times
Goa will go to polls on March 3 and so the build-up to the elections is massive. Along with the regular parties like Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, United Goans Democratic Party, several others players like Goa Vikas Party and Pilerne Forum have jumped in the fray.
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Rahul Gandhi in UP: The elephant gives birth to a mouse - Venky Vembu, Indian Express
Success, it has been well said, has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. The curious dynamics of Congress politics, however, inverts that formula and stands it on its head. In Congress’ parallel universe, where reality can be bent to fit in with any argument, if the party fares well in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, that success would have had only one father – Rahul Gandhi; but in the event of a poor showing by the Congress, there’s an entire battalion of foot soldiers waiting to claim
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Father's son Akhilesh a man in a hurry - Sunita Aron, Hindustan Times
"The exams are over. Let's wait for the results," was Akhilesh Yadav's parting shot to the pilots who had been ferrying him across the state since January 19. After the ubiquitous group photo, he headed home. The evening's itinerary was simple - watching television and reading magazines. The Samajwadi Party icon had earned his rest. Since September, he has covered 9,000 km in his kranti rath, 250 km on cycle, addressed 300 rallies and an equal number of road shows. A cycle yatra at Bareilly was Thursday's last programme.
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Bated breath, fingers crossed, investors wait for poll results - Brajendra K Parashar, HT
A sense of uncertainty fuelled by high voter turnout is giving the jitters to companies that have invested or are preparing to invest in Uttar Pradesh. Fears of the next government overturning policies or scrapping deals signed by the present government loom large. "Many companies are coming to us with their apprehensions. We are telling them not to worry as long as their deals are fair," said a senior official in the UP Power Corporation Ltd.
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Count on Goa to redefine money multiplication - Krishna Kumar, Mail Today
The Indian growth story has been on a downslide and is further decelerating. But never mind, the political economy in Goa has recorded such a robust growth that it will put to shame even the best positive trends in the world. The assets of Dinar Tarcar, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP)-BJP combine candidate from Santa Cruz in the scenic state, have recorded a staggering growth of 824 per cent over five years. Tarcar, who had declared assets of Rs 5 crore in the 2007 polls, is now worth Rs 211 crore.
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SP heir apparent Akhilesh Yadav reads riot act to party - Subodh Ghildiyal, ToI
The SP heir apparent Akhilesh Yadav brought down curtains on his UP poll campaign with a stern warning to party workers that they would face strict police action for criminal conduct. The reminder, minutes ahead of the end of the final campaign at 5 pm on Thursday, came amid concerns that poll results two days ahead of Holi could be an explosive cocktail in a society where change of government brings reprisals, mostly on caste lines. Holi is prone to violence of caste and communal nature.
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7th phase to play crucial role - Sahil Makkar, Mint
When Uttar Pradesh went to the polls in 2007, just 557 votes separated
the winner and the runner-up in the Bijnor assembly constituency. Both
Shahnawaz Rana, who won the last election on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
ticket, and Kunwar Bhartendra Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
are testing their fortunes again from Bijnor in the seventh and final
phase of state elections on Saturday.
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It’s BSP vs bijli, sadak, paani - Vandita Mishra, Indian Express
At the Samajwadi Party rally in Binawar on the penultimate day of the campaign, Mulayam Singh Yadav looks visibly drained and sounds chief ministerial. “In the first cabinet meeting after the swearing in,” he tells the crowd milling on the dusty maidan, “my government will announce a waiver of all loans of Rs 50,000 and above for farmers.” His attack on the political opponent is perfunctory. “Is there anyone here who can say that the BSP government has taken even one step for his welfare?”
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UP Polls: Multiple undercurrents - A.K. Verma, Mint
As the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh come to a close, excitement levels are rising. Multiple undercurrents crisscrossing this election have upset all calculations. The high turnout and a tactical shift in voting by Muslims during the campaign has further complicated matters. Most districts of west Uttar Pradesh that went to polls on 28 February and all districts of Rohilkhand that will do so on 3 March are minority concentration districts, hence the Muslim voting pattern can greatly impact the outcome there.
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Goa: Local issues, national labels - Frederick Noronha, Mint
Goa’s mind can indeed be hard to decipher. This has been the case for long, at least since the very first assembly elections here in 1963, shortly after Portuguese colonial rule ended belatedly in the state. On the surface, the 3 March assembly elections appear to be a battle between the big two—the Congress party, which surprisingly survived its full five-year term in instability-prone Goa, and an aggressive Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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Split MCD’s first vote on April 15 - Risha Chitlangia, Times of India
Delhi Election Commission has set the ball rolling for the municipal polls. Elections for the three new corporations will be held on April 15 and the Model Code of Conduct would come into effect from March 5. In a first, the poll panel has planned a special door-to-door campaign to ensure a good voter turnout. Apart from advertising in newspapers and television, the commission will organize a massive exercise in which close to 7,500 booth-level officers will individually deliver invites to all voters in their respective areas.
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There is an elephant in the room - Vidya Subrahmaniam, Hindu
A government official in Lucknow says this of the 2012 Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh: “This is an election where every party thinks it is forming the government.” This election fairly bristles with paradoxes, starting with the fact that two strongly opposing currents can be detected on the ground. Travelling through the State, it is impossible to miss the contempt for Mayawati who is denounced as a Chief Minister wedded to the welfare of stone idols (a reference to the Maya statues dotting the landscape), ignoring the living, teeming millions, and who cares, if at all she does, only for her own biradari (community).
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With polls over, hectic times lie ahead - Pioneer
The essence of the seven-phase Assembly election being held in Uttar Pradesh from January through March can be really understood by focussing attention on the ongoing intensive struggle for political power involving not only the major regional parties but also the all-India parties. The latter cannot form any Union Government without forming alliances with the former. The present state of Indian politics has brought national and regional parties on a common political platform because both have come to depend on the other for political support.
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Congress floats a punctured balloon - Kalyani Shankar, Pioneer
The Congress wanted to test the waters before taking the plunge. But the sharp response to the party’s hint of President’s Rule in UP if nobody gets majority shows it has erred horribly. It was surprising to hear Congress insiders even at the beginning of the campaign saying that the Congress was looking at a scenario where there was a possibility of imposing President’s Rule in Uttar Pradesh if there was a hung Assembly. This, when the party has been talking getting 100 or more seats.
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Small stories in U.P.'s big poll picture - Vidya Subrahmaniam, Hindu
“Muslims, especially young Muslims, like Rahul Gandhi but when it comes to voting, they will go with Mulayam Singh” Mohammad Shahnawaz, Lucknow shopkeeper. “Yes, there is a lehar (wave) for the Samajwadi Party (SP). The Mayawati Government is the worst we have had. But locally we are voting for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate, Yusuf Ali, because he is from our village.” — Nabi Hasan, a butcher from Chamraua in Rampur, who claims a steep loss in business because of raids by overzealous BSP inspectors.
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Revenge of the little people - Ashok Malik, Pioneer
Elections are about big parties winning large majorities — or so is conventional wisdom. However, the set of State elections voting for which concludes today — and the results of which will be known on Tuesday, March 6 — is in a sense the revenge of the little people. Small breakaway groups and individual politicians could win just a few votes but make a massive difference between victory and defeat and dramatically alter the contours of a legislative Assembly in which they themselves may have only a minor presence.
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Surprise is in UP margin, not frontrunner - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
The only imponderable in the Uttar Pradesh election marathon ending tomorrow is whether the perceived frontrunner can get a majority on its own. The Samajwadi Party, seen surging towards the first place, is banking on a “bumper” showing in Rohilkhand. That could make the difference between forming a government on its own, like Mayawati had in 2007, or falling short by 15 or 20 seats, or “worse” having to turn to the Congress for support.
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After Atal, there’s Gidki - Manini Chatterjee, Telegraph
Beyond the din of a bitterly contested electoral battle between Mulayam Singh and Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi, two leaders still evoke great respect and affection among the people of Uttar Pradesh — their names cropping up, unbidden, in many a conversation throughout our journey across large swathes of the state.
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Invoking divine grace for a spectacular finish in poll results - Yudhvir Rana & Neel Kamal, ToI
On Shivratri day last month, Congress candidates from Barnala and Dhuri -- Kewal Singh Dhillon and Arvind Khanna respectively -- ensured that they bow their heads before Lord Shiva at the ancient Shiva temple at Ranike near Dhuri before their fates will be revealed with the switching on of the EVMs to read the final tally, on March 6. Kewal Dhillon, accompanied by supporters and son Karan Dhillon, landed at Ranike last week and paid respects to Lord Shiva.
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What does record voting percentage indicate? - Navhind Times
It suggests heightened awareness among voters to exercise their franchise. It shows that voters have come to realize that if they want a... 1 It suggests heightened awareness among voters to exercise their franchise. It shows that voters have come to realize that if they want a government of their choice they must go to the polling booth and vote.
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Top Priority of New Government - Navhind Times
Goa’s electorate is going to choose 40 members of the state Assembly today. Franchise is an individual freedom every voter must exercise of his own free will and according to his own evaluation, so we are not going to tell them who to vote at the booth during the day. There are two major alliances, one of the Congress and the NCP and the other of the BJP and the MGP, that are vying for a majority, and one of them is going to win and take control of government on behalf of the electorate.
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MCD: North by Northwest: A changing landscape - Ravi Bajpai, Indian Express
The split of the monolithic Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) into three municipalities is expected to boost area-specific local governance. But the contest for the North Delhi Municipal Corporation could prove as much a mix of issues and voters as it was earlier. The variety that constitutes this municipality includes rural areas like Narela and Mundka on the city’s northern fringes, the guesthouse hub of Karol Bagh, the Walled City and the middle-class colonies of Model Town, Rohini and Pitampura.
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Rahul’s campaign fails to deliver a lift for Congress - Elizabeth Roche, Mint
He was billed as the Congress party’s star campaigner in the Uttar Pradesh elections, the one who would revive the fortunes of the party, out of power in the politically key state for more than two decades. But despite the gruelling hours on the road in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 lawmakers to the national parliament in Delhi, and scores of public rallies addressed by Rahul Gandhi, the 41-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, the Congress came in a poor fourth—way behind the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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In South Delhi melting pot, challenges are many, complex - Pragya Kaushika, Indian Express
Counting of votes in the Assembly elections in the five states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, considered “mini general elections”, will be taken up tomorrow. The counting will begin at 0800 hours and first results are expected in an hour or two and all the results by evening. The results will decide the fate of candidates in a total of 690 assembly seats — 403 in UP, 117 seats in Punjab, 70 in Uttarakhand, 60 in Manipur and 40 in Goa.
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North Corporation can cash in on Civic Centre, town hall - Maria AkramMaria Akram, Times of India
The North corporation will be able to break even after the MCD trifurcation if it fully utilizes resources like the major wholesale markets and municipal assets under its jurisdiction. Unlike the South corporation, it cannot bank on property tax for revenue, as the collection from the areas under it makes up for less than 30% of MCD's total collection. But with MCD Civic Centre and Town Hall falling under the North corporation, there is scope for generating good revenue.
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Today’s outcome could change the course of politics in India - Venky Vembu, FP
Every election symbolises the triumph of hope over experience. People vote in the belief that their vote makes a difference, even if history tells another, rather more cynical narrative. And this time, going by the high turnouts in the five States that went to the polls – a record high in four of the States – voters have signalled that their faith in the democratic process stands undiminished.
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UP Election Results: Meet Louise Khurshid, the big loser - Sandip Roy, FP
Her declared assets include 97 lakhs in mutual funds, a Maruti Jeep, a Scorpio, jewellery like a neclas breslet (sic) worth 93,000 rupees and 3 chen gold (sic) worth 57,000 rupees. But Farrukhabad’s high profile INC candidate Louise Khurshid’s biggest asset is husband Salman Khurshid, Law Minister and Minister for Minority Affairs. It does not look like it’s going to be enough to save Madam Khurshid from being drubbed in the UP polls. She is trailing in third place in Farrukhabad.
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Win-win situation for East - Risha Chitlangia, Times of India
On the face of it, the East corporation cannot boast good revenue generating areas vis-a-vis its sister corporations, North and South. It also doesn't have assets like the two other civic bodies. In fact, when the plan to split the Municipal Corporation of Delhi took shape, there were speculations that the East corporation would be the weakest of the three. But as the dynamics of the split became palpable, it appeared that this corporation would profit the most from the trifurcation.
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Large swathes unauthorised, development is key issue in East - Priyanka Sharma, Indian Express
The smallest of the three municipal corporations — East Delhi civic agency — is being seen as a game changer in the next month’s elections. Home to a number of migrants from UP and Bihar, known as Poorvanchalis, both the Congress and BJP plan to campaign aggressively in the area. The parties are expected to woo the voters with promises of provisional certificates for unauthorised colonies, a public holiday on Chhat puja and tickets to Poorvanchali party workers.
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UP elections: Market’s worst nightmare has come true now - Shishir Asthana, FP
After opening lower, the markets pulled back strongly as election results started pouring in. Though five states went in for elections, all-eyes were on Uttar Pradesh as far as the markets were concerned. The indices have been volatile, reflecting the changing fortunes of the Congress Party in UP. Though the Congress was a distant fourth, the possibility of a tie-up with the leading Samajwadi Party (SP) was keeping some hopes alive. But even this now appears unlikely, given the Samajwadi Party’s strong closing flourish.
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Problem is we have too many leaders: Sonia on UP debacle - Indian Express
Ruling out any “damage” to the UPA government at the Centre because of the Congress’s dismal performance in the recent Assembly polls, Sonia Gandhi today echoed Rahul in blaming “organisational weakness” for the election loss. Conceding that inflation could have also been one of the reasons, the Congress president ruled out any possibility of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepping down. Asked about the party’s prime ministerial candidate in 2014, she said: “This is 2012.”
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The return of the IITian: Manohar Parrikar, Goa’s next CM - First Post
A metallurgical engineer from IIT-Bombay who lost his seat as Chief Minister the last time due to party deserters, Manohar Parrikar looks set to romp home with enough seats to push his policies through in Goa. The 47-year-old chief ministerial candidate of the BJP, known for his clean image and blunt comments, was first elected to the Goa legislative assembly in 1994 from Panjim and has since not stood from any other constituency.
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UP Election post-mortem: Why they won, why they lost - R Jagannathan, FP
With the benefit of hindsight, the full story of 2012’s mini general elections can be told. First, Uttar Pradesh. The clean sweep by the Samajwadi Party (SP) appears to have resulted from two causes: an anti-Mayawati consolidation where voters who may have been marginally favourable to Congress and BJP shifted their votes to the SP to enable a change in the government; and the SP’s ability to project a new look through the campaigning of Akhilesh Yadav. The second factor cannot be underrated.
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A setback for Rahul Gandhi and the Grand Old Party - Soutik Biswas, BBC
The party has fared abysmally in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, leading in only 27 of the 403 seats at the time of writing. This after the party heir-apparent and prime minister-in-waiting toured the length and breadth of the state over three months, speaking at over 200 campaign meetings. Remember, during the last state elections in 2007, Congress picked up a miserable 22 seats.
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SP storms back to power in UP, Mayawati's BSP routed - Ashish Tripathi, ToI
The Samajwadi Party is all set to form the next government in the state on its own. The SP has crossed the half-way mark in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and looks all set to form the next government in the state. While the party has already won 215 seats, it is leading in 10 other seats, taking the total number to 225 as per the tally at around 7 pm.
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Mulayam delivers hard blow to Maya, upends Rahul - Smita Gupta, Hindu
Even though the gap in seats between the SP and the BSP was over 140, the vote share difference was only about 2.5 per cent, indicating that the outgoing Chief Minister, Mayawati, had retained her core vote. In the other four States whose results were also declared on Tuesday, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-led government in Punjab defied the pollsters and made history, becoming the first since the State was created in 1966 to win two consecutive elections.
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Political language has to change - Badri Narayan, Mint
When the process of accelerated liberalization of the Indian economy was implemented in 1991, society underwent a tremendous upheaval as the process unleashed multiple rounds of changes, both negative and positive. While a certain section of society comprising the educated middle classes benefited, a large section, which includes small farmers, labourers, tribals and other poor and illiterate communities, were unable to do so and have remained marginalized and deprived. Thus, the global forces caused marginalization of sections of society, triggering a new set of problems and challenges.
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Congress banked on history but let the Badals rewrite it - Harpreet Bajwa, IE
The Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine today became the first incumbent government in Punjab to get a consecutive second shot at government since the state was reorganised in 1966. What was being viewed as a close fight between the Akalis and Congress on counting day eventually became heavily loaded in favour of the SAD-BJP combine as the day progressed.
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Anti-Cong mood engulfs India - Raj Bahadur Singh, Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
Cashing in on the massive anti-incumbency wave against the Mayawati Government, the Samajwadi Party stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday by winning 225 seats. The SP not only got a clear majority but clinched the largest number of seats by any single party since 1977, when the Janata Party had pocketed 272.
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Punjab elections: Did Sukhbir hit jackpot with Narendra Modi model? - Ramaninder K Bhatia, Economic Times
A little less than a year ago, Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had attended the bhog ceremony of Surinder Kaur, wife of Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal, and mother of deputy CM Sukhbir Badal. He sat with Sukhbir for a while but nobody knows what he said apart from offering condolences. Since then, though, many say there has been a perceptible change in the gusto with which he campaigned in the elections, eventually leading his party to victory.
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How Mayawati lost the UP plot - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
The elections were still half-way when bureaucrats at the Uttar Pradesh secretariat, save a couple of Mayawati die-hards, emphatically said that the state was headed for a regime change. On the pancham sthal (fifth floor) of Sachivalaya (secretariat), the wager was on the quantum of losses she would suffer. The most charitable estimate was she would drop from her 2007 high of 206 seats to around 110; the unkindest was she would plummet to 60 or so and perhaps trail the BJP.
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Mulayam picks leaf from CPM book - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
Mulayam Singh Yadav tried to emulate his one-off ally, the CPM, in more ways than one. The Samajwadi Party office on Lucknow’s Vikramaditya Marg is sprawling compared to the CPM headquarters on Alimuddin Street. But like the CPM, Mulayam created space for various departments, including one on research and development. He learnt the skills of cadre-building from Calcutta, of mobilising youth support, carving out separate areas of work, taking student politics seriously and holding periodic study camps.
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Congress, do you have any ideas for redemption? - G Pramod Kumar, First Post
Congress is dangerously running low on fuel. Will it last till 2014? If at all it lasts, will it have anything left to see itself through the Lok Sabha elections due by then? The assembly poll debacle is a strong warning sign of the party’s severe erosion of political capital and the increasing rise of unfriendly regional parties. The rural voters have abandoned them and the regional parties have elbowed them out.
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The Priyanka myth: Why the Congress’ Plan B is a dud - Lakshmi Chaudhry, FP
Ohmigod, Rahul is a big dud! Save us, Priyanka! The ink on the UP verdict has barely dried, but the clamour for the next Gandhi saviour has already begun. It’s time for Sonia to make her very own Sophie’s Choice : choose one child and abandon the other to preserve the dynasty. Never mind all that “serious reflection and introspection” suggested by some deluded Congress leaders, what the party really needs is some “detailed thinking” – as Rahul put it in his little speech – on how to change horses in midstream. While everyone is chanting ‘Hamara Rahul mahaan‘ in front of the TV cameras, party leaders behind closed doors are singing a different and yet far-too-familiar tune:
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Cong’s not so right choice - Maulshree Seth, Indian Express
Out of 22 Congress MPs, 16 failed to ensure victory of a single candidate including party chief Sonia Gandhi, 6 MPs could help candidates win in seven Assembly segments, Each was given minimum target of two and only party general secretary Rahul Gandhi met the target by registering Congress victories in Jagdishpur and Tiloi “Experiment Beni” failed as out of over 60 candidates decided by Union minister Beni Prasad Verma in districts like Barabanki, Gonda, Shravasti, Bahraich, Lakhimpur Khiri etc, only one candidate won from Nanpara.
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How Mayawati blew it - Indian Express
Why has the BSP lost despite the world-class F1 race tack, the Yamuna Expressway, the plus-seven per cent growth, and those impressive stone-and-granite symbols of Dalit pride which have changed the face of Lucknow and Noida? Ask anyone who travelled in UP in recent weeks. In the general sense of disaffection with the government, three points stand out.
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Old whines, new voters - MK Venu, Indian Express
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi showed maturity when he publicly took responsibility for his party’s poor performance in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. He had worked very hard in UP in the hope of replicating his party’s stunning performance in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress was neck and neck with both the SP and the BSP in terms of seats won as all three parties had got around 20 to 23 seats in the Lok Sabha. That, essentially, was the basis of the hype that was created around the Congress’s potential performance in the current assembly polls. But something obviously did not work for the Congress this time.
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Clear away the family cobwebs - Chetan Bhagat, Times of India
The Congress doesn't seem to like advice much. They project themselves as the perfect party led by a wonderful family that can do no wrong. After all, they have remained in power more than anyone else. It is also a party where nobody opens their mouth, even if the emperor has no clothes on. They speak pre-rehearsed messages, which glorify the Gandhi family and bash all opposition. No Congress party member speaks his mind, or comes across as having any sense of personal conviction. Ask them a question about the Gandhi family and they freeze up.
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Congress and BJP compete to form next government in Uttarakhand - Raju Gusain, Daily Mail
Politicians in Uttarakhand will have a lot on their minds this Holi. Hectic lobbying has started in the state to form the next government. The Congress, which emerged as the largest party with 32 seats, seems to enjoy an upper hand. Sources said the party had approached all three Independent MLAs and was confident of getting their support.
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Infighting in U.P. Congress after poll debacle - Hindu
Infighting in Congress in the wake of its electoral debacle in Uttar Pradesh came out in the open with PCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Thursday saying that there should no blame-game when the party is in crisis. She was responding to allegations made by party MP from Sultanpur, Sanjay Singh that neither the party nor several of the candidates from Amethi wanted him to campaign during the polls. His wife Ameeta Singh lost to an SP candidate in the district.
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SP's UP win: Single-party governments and pace of development - Kala Seetharam Sridhar, Economic Times
With a regional party like the Samajwadi Party having swept the UP polls, the question arises as to what are the factors that determine a political party's success and eventually the state's progress. It is evident now from the Bihar experience that the electorate considers development and good governance as key planks on which it makes decisions. In this context, some of our research throws light on the dramatic growth turnaround which Tamil Nadu (TN) experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when compared with states in the north. While on the poverty rate during the 1970s until about 1985, TN was actually about the same as or perhaps worse than UP.
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In touch with both BJP and Congress: BSP - Express Buzz
Giving a new twist to the race for power in Uttarakhand, BSP, whose three MLAs can tilt the balance, tonight said it was in touch with both Congress and BJP as the two rival contenders for power claimed they will form the next government. "We are in touch with both BJP and Congress," said state BSP President Surajmal. He maintained the party would take a decision on the issue of extending support only after consultations with BSP supremo Mayawati.
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MCD: 2 of every 3 councillor didn’t utilise funds - Priyanka Sharma, Indian Express
Two in every three Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) councillors did not fully spend a special fund they are allocated every year to carry out development works in their wards, official records reveal. Apart from the money it spends on the city’s development, the MCD gives all its councillors discretionary local area development funds so they could focus on the specific needs of the electorate they represent.
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Numbers game: Why a mid-term poll looks more likely now - Venky Vembu, FP
That was Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, looking to compensate with manufactured, wide-eyed indignation for what she manifestly lacked in conviction, in response to a question on whether the Congress’ drubbing in the Assembly election had rendered a mid-term election inevitable. Heading a lame-duck government, and living in mortal fear of one’s recalcitrant allies, may not seem a particularly gratifying way of staying alive.
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Sanskritisation of the polity - Sidharth Mishra, Pioneer
Samajwadi Party discarded its old robes and donned clean ones — while the national ‘uns embraced the corrupt and the communal. In Punjab, SAD gave a ticket to a Muslim woman whose husband gunned down Khalistanis in his time. That’s political reform working silently. The verdict of the 2012 round of State Assembly elections is out. The television channels have the habit of calling every pre-general election a “semi-final”.
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Dynasty can do no wrong - Pioneer
Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s diagnosis of her party’s rout in Uttar Pradesh is quite extraordinary. She has said that the Congress has been done in by the presence of “too many leaders”. Everybody knows this is not true because, if anything, the party suffers from a paucity of real leaders. The only leaders that genuinely matter in the party are Ms Gandhi and her son Rahul. This is especially true in the case of Uttar Pradesh where the entire campaign for the Assembly election was crafted and led by Mr Gandhi, with Ms Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka Vadra also investing much of their energy in the State.
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Home truths - Pioneer
An observation balloon has gone up with the following message for all parties in the fray for future Indian elections — corruption and non-performance are not tolerated by voters in the second decade of the 21st century. After a nail-biting finish, the Vidhan Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh has ended up an eye opener for all. Each of the parties has a lesson to learn from the hustings. The refrain for the elected representatives is: perform or perish. The winning Samajwadi Party may not have expected such a windfall but now it is doubly responsible for its steps which would be under scrutiny. In fact the way ahead is strewn with glass and nails.
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Choosing gets easier - Chanakya, Hindustan Times
Sheena Iyengar, a professor at the Columbia Business School's department of psychology points to something very interesting in her book, The Art of Choosing. "We can spend inordinate amounts of time deciding between things with exactly the same purpose: If there's such a vast assortment laid out before us, doesn't it feel as if we should give it some consideration? One wonders, though, just how many types of shampoo or cat litter a supermarket can support before the options become redundant." What Iyengar is really asking is whether "there might be such a thing as too much choice".
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Will fear of early LS poll induce an election budget? - Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, ET
The state election results surprised many. This column predicted that in 60% of states, incumbents that accelerated GDP growth would win. That model proved right in Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand - 60% of cases! The prediction for Uttarakhand was that the BJP would lose, and it has certainly lost seats and dropped to no. 2. Earlier, analysts expected a tough budget, curbing populist giveaways and the fiscal deficit.
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The Triple Ripple Effect - MJ Akbar, Sunday Guardian
For the first 54 years of India's democracy Uttar Pradesh provided seven out of eight Prime Ministers, three from three generations of the same family. The exception, Morarji Desai of Gujarat, proved the rule since he was betrayed and replaced in 1979 by a UP politician, Charan Singh, whose term lasted for a few fortunately forgotten months.
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Don’t give, teach us how to fish - Anil Padmanabhan, Mint
In the euphoria of the dramatic win of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the margin of which was unprecedented, in the election to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly, it would be extremely contrarian to suggest that it was not so one-sided. But then, that is what the facts tell us.It is true that SP won a record 224 seats and so is the fact that the incumbent Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ended up with 80 seats (compared with 206 in the 2007 assembly election).
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Pitfalls of arrogance - Swapan Dasgupta, Times of India
One of the pitfalls of political leadership is the inclination to hear what is convenient. Last week, there were at least two leaders who must have wished they had been less cocooned: Mayawati and Rahul Gandhi. For the dalit icon whose victory in 2007 had been interpreted as a tectonic shift in social attitudes, the results were unexpected. Mayawati had expected a decline in her share of assembly seats but her charmed circle never countenanced the loss of more than 100 seats.
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Mountain of hopes after landslide win - Swati Mathur, Times of India
He maybe in the driving seat of his Ummeed ki Cycle, but Akhilesh Yadav cannot hope for a smooth ride just yet. After the post-victory euphoria abates, there has to be a hard assessment of the legacy left behind for him by the outgoing regime. Besides, he will have to face a mountain of hopes that people of UP will have raised by the time he formally takes over on March 15. Top among his list of priorities will be the need to make good on the party’s promises listed in their election manifesto. First, there will be the pressure of providing unemployment doles of Rs 18,000 per annum to all those who register with employment exchange.
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How the cycle turned full circle - Faisal Fareed, Indian Express
In 2009, after Dimple Yadav, Samajwadi Party candidate and daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav, lost the Ferozabad parliamentary by-election to the Congress’s Raj Babbar, people in Shikohabad, part of the same parliamentary constituency, celebrated by bursting firecrackers. For the SP, the defeat rankled like none other—Shikohabad is the birth place of Mulayam. This was a defeat that hit hard at the SP’s very existence as a regional force in the state and it was left holding little more than its proclaimed Lohia legacy. Nothing, it seemed, was going right for the party.
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Rahul’s poor show should worry Cong - Kuldip Nayar, Sunday Guardian
As the dust settles, I wonder if the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur have further nurtured democracy. When I see most countries, from Europe to Asia, paying lip service to democratic elections, I feel proud that India stands practically alone with a civil authority at the top. Yet I am dismayed that caste, religion and money play a crucial role in the elections. My estimate is that the candidates, together, would have spent more than Rs 2,000 cr in these elections. The Election Commission can do little because the money is distributed at unknown places, generally in the hush of the night. No Lokpal can detect this because the purchasing of votes takes place at the individual level. Political parties employ hundreds of hands in each constituency in the name of "bandobast".
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Why Muslims decided to give Congress a drubbing - Saeed Naqvi, Sunday Guardian
Why is the Muslim so cross with the Congress after having been the party's willing vote bank for six decades? Because an overwhelming sense of injustice has been accentuated by specific grievances. As he replays those 60 years in the mind's eye in very slow motion, that period, in excess of half a century, comes across to him as a chronicle of wasted time.
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Congress insiders furious with UP poll managers, MPs - Nora Chopra, Sunday Guardian
Congress' Brahmin leaders are furious with Digvijay Singh, Beni Prasad Verma and Mohan Prakash for going against the party's upper caste vote base and giving several tickets to OBC leaders imported from other parties. Out of the 356 tickets distributed in Uttar Pradesh, 216 went to outsiders. Out of this 216, 113 were OBC candidates.
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GJM seeks Trinamool's support for Rajya Sabha seat - Marcus Dam, Hindu
The upcoming elections to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal took an interesting turn on Tuesday with the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) leadership deciding to seek the support of the Trinamool Congress for putting up a nominee for one of the five seats up for grabs. “We shall be requesting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for one Rajya Sabha seat in the March 30 elections,” GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told The Hindu over telephone from Darjeeling.
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The March Sky Isn’t Forever - Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Outlook
For once, let’s forget the hype surrounding this round of assembly elections. Imagine an analysis of the next Lok Sabha, whenever they are held—in 2014 or earlier. In that assessment, how prominently would this verdict be factored in? If this is difficult to visualise, rewind to the days after the astounding verdict of 2009. Did Mayawati’s spectacular victory in 2007 play a role then, or was it overshadowed by the impressive performance of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls? Similarly, in hindsight, will this round still resemble a semi-final as it has generally been pitched?
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Zero Worship? - Saba Naqvi, Outlook
When you drop from the skies, the landing can lead to serious injury. After the disastrous showing for the Congress in the Uttar Pradesh election, humiliating defeats in Punjab and Goa, a close shave in Uttarakhand and an honourable win in Manipur where Rahul Gandhi never campaigned, serious questions must be asked about the man who was described as the great hope of the grand old party. Quite bluntly, is Rahul Gandhi a political flop?
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In Bihar, BJP and JD(U) are set to clash over seat - Santosh Singh, Indian Express
After being unable to jointly contest the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, ruling coalition partners JD(U) and BJP seem all set to clash for Rajya Sabha seats. The Bihar Assembly has 243 seats. The JD(U) with 118 MLAs has been eying four Rajya Sabha seats as against the previous three held by Ali Anwar, Mahendra Prasad and Anil Sahni. The BJP, which has 91 members in the Assembly, can easily send two candidates to the RS and push for a third one due to its extra 21 votes.
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Sheila hits out at BJP for turning MCD polls into referendum on her regime - Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, Hindu
Flanked by her Cabinet colleagues, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday attacked the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party leadership for turning the civic elections into a referendum on the Delhi Government's performance and charged that the Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta had much to defend in the working of a non-government organisation Sampoorna being run by him.
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Senator Obama vs. President Obama - Victor Davis Hanson, National Review
As we saw in the case of filibusters and recess appointments, President Obama would not have liked Senator and Candidate Obama. Just recently President Obama gave understandable warnings about cheap talk on the campaign trail, contrasted to his own sober and judicious responsibilities of governance, as a way to chastise the various Republican candidates for their bellicose rhetoric about Iran and Syria.
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How To Get It Wrong - Yogendra Yadav, Outlook
Analyses of Indian elections remind me of Mughal samrajya ke patan ke karan, a popular essay in my school and college days. Our analysis of the decline of the Mughal empire used to be a long list. The longer the list, the higher the marks it was awarded, went school lore. Everything associated with the phenomenon, we explained in detail: the empire’s size, its political strategy, the state of its finances, the emperor’s character, the army, its ammunition, the rains during the battle and, not to forget, the mad elephants. The length of the essay expanded as I graduated from school to college and then to university, but the theme and the approach did not.
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A Road Less Paved - Anuradha Raman, Outlook
For the first time in 10 years, the Kumar household in Machipur saw a shift in voting patterns this time. Youngest son Lalit, 23, and his brother, Ved Prakash, voted Congress this time. The elders, the boys’ father and their tauji (father’s older brother), still can’t believe this rebellion. They, of course, like every other time in the last decade, pressed the haathi (elephant) button. Why did Lalit and Ved move away from the BSP this year, and why is it that their parents never can?
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Kaun banayega Rashtrapati? - Aditya Sinha, DNA
The best thing to come out of the recent state elections is that our next President won't be someone useless, someone blind to corrupt family members and someone whose only qualification is her comfort level with the leader of the coalition running India. With all due respect to the Constitutional post, the person occupying it is a travesty, and certainly no patch on the person who occupied it before her.
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Spectre of Third Front over Congress and BJP - Shankkar Aiyar, Express Buzz
The language of Indian politics, it would seem, has acquired a new lexicon. Victory is scarcely about winning anymore. It is about how badly the other player lost. So the Congress celebrates the fact that the BJP got lesser number of seats in Punjab and Uttarakhand, and the BJP trumpets the fact that the Congress lost more badly in Uttar Pradesh. Of the 690 seats for which elections were fought, the BJP and Congress—together—won just 268 seats. Truth is the biggest losers of Mandate 2012 are the national parties, the Congress and the BJP.
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BSP will not contest local polls under goondaraj: Maya - Indian Express
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) would not participate in the local bodies’ elections which are likely to be held in the state anytime after April 20. Earlier, the BSP government was under attack from opposition parties for deliberately delaying the local bodies’ elections in Uttar Pradesh. The decision to keep the BSP away from the local bodies’ elections was announced by the BSP national president and outgoing Chief Minister Mayawati at all-India workers’ meeting of her party at BSP headquarters in Lucknow today.
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Kovur bypoll an acid test for Andhra Congress - Sreenivas Janyala, Indian Express
The by-election in Kovur Assembly constituency in Nellore district is being seen as an acid test for the ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh as it takes on Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s party, YSR Congress. The by-elections will be held on March 18 in six Telangana constituencies and one in the coastal district of Nellore.
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How UP changed its mind - Sanjay Kumar, Indian Express
This election has been a role reversal for Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh. From 206 seats in 2007, the BSP went down to 80 seats, while the SP increased its tally from 97 seats to 224 in the recent election. The BJP polled 15 per cent votes (2 per cent less than in 2007) and came third, winning 47 seats (-4 seats compared to 2007).
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MCD: Saffron bait for voters: Zero hike in property taxes - Saubhadra Chatterji, HT
To scuttle the Congress's chances of winning seats by securing votes from elsewhere, the ruling parties in at least three states — Odisha, Karnataka and West Bengal — are looking for suitable independent candidates to contest for marginal Rajya Sabha (RS) seats.A marginal seat is where no party has a clear majority, and has to depend on other MLAs to elect its RS candidate. Of the three RS seats going to the polls in Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is sure to win two.
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Goan electorate gives a message in mandate - FR Victor Ferrao, Navhind Times
The fall of Congress, though unexpected by the Congressmen, was deeply inscribed within the Congress culture. The two terms of misrule, along with the annoying and thriumphalist arrogance, and corruption coupled with an attitude of disregard to the welfare of the common man and environment, oozed from the Congress converting it into a monster in the eye of niz Goemkars.
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How Catholic votes swung verdict in favour of BJP - Maya Bhushan, Pioneer
All of a sudden the Catholic electorate in Goa has become the centre of political attention. The BJP has clearly attributed its landslide victory in the State to support from the biggest minority community in Goa (23 per cent out of 14 lakh), a community hitherto known to keep the BJP at an arm’s length. With a carefully planned, coordinated and precise strategy executed to perfection, the BJP has managed to ensure that the Congress wins just two of eight seats in Congress’ backyard — Salcete a fiercely Catholic taluka in South Goa.
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Early polls possible but not certain, feel parties - Shekhar Iyer & Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, HT
Early elections to the Lok Sabha may be possible following the reverses suffered by the Congress in UP, Punjab and Goa, and if the UPA allies become recalcitrant. But nothing certain can be said at this stage, feel political parties. Not just the Congress, which is not in favour of elections ahead of 2014 , even the principal opposition party, the BJP, is in no great shape to face the polls now, say its leaders.
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No bidders for polling paraphernalia - Maria Akram, Times of India
Municipal polls are round the corner, but MCD has not yet procured the earthen pitchers, painda (base for supporting the pitchers), glasses, shamiyana, pedestal fans and curtains required at the polling booths. The civic agency had invited bids for these items on March 3. Till March 12, the tenders were open but the response was lukewarm. The reason is dues amounting to Rs 6 crore still not paid to the contractors that provided items for the 2007 municipal elections.
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Third innings of Manohar Parrikar - I - Nandkumar Kamat, Navhind Times
ALL is well, that ends well. Finally Goa got a new assembly which showed that by statistical default political stability would be here to stay. At any given time, the Bharatiya Janata Party would be in a strong bargaining and dictating position. Technically, the BJP would now have 30 MLAs claiming to support it. The worst case future scenario before it is not the end of honeymoon with Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party but potential trouble or revolt from its’ Roman Catholic MLAs if they sense in future that they’re getting alienated and ‘suffocated’.
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RS bid triggers cries of ‘escape’ - Tapas Chakraborty, Telegraph
Mayawati today filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, looking to move to Delhi from her former fief that has now rejected her and is toasting Akhilesh Yadav. Critics attributed the “escape bid” to insecurity and accused the former chief minister of abandoning her ground-level workers at a difficult time. Mayawati and her supporters claimed she was moving to the capital to take up new and bigger challenges in national politics.
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Why loser Congress needs a Jaitley Dearth of managers - Telegraph
At every stop in his winner-run across Uttar Pradesh, chief minister-designate Akhilesh Yadav could call a dozen or so faces by name. It didn’t come from vintage on the roads, nor from any intimacy with cadres; Akhilesh is too new on the turf of India’s largest state to have acquired such familiarity. It came from a clever trick of campaign management. Shortly before each halt, Akhilesh was given a quick brief of the local who’s who and what’s what by his team. It clicked with his constituents, it clicked for Akhilesh.
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Akalis have shown that a bankrupt state can win elections, but is this sustainable? Probably not. - Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, ET
Manpreet Badal, former Punjab finance minister and nephew of chief minister P S Badal, broke last year with the Akali Dal, complaining that his entreaties for fiscal discipline were being ignored, and would lead to disaster. He looks foolish today after the re-election of the Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine. However, the Akali victory was not based on economic development, as claimed by deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal. It won because of continuing populism: free electricity for farmers, the subsidised atta- dal scheme, free bicycles for girl students, shagun grants for poor girls.
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Mid-term poll only a buzz - C L Manoj, Economic Times
The assembly election results have made political watching all the more interesting. The Congress was hoping for victories in three states and a presentable show in Uttar Pradesh to help it revitalise UPA-II. Instead, it was routed in Punjab and Goa, Rahul Gandhi's Mission UP went up in smoke, is faced with a full-blown crisis in the government-making effort in Uttarakhand, leaving little to crow over its Manipur victory.
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Santorum wins in Mississippi, Alabama - Karen Tumulty, Washington Post
Former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) pulled out narrow wins in the Alabama and Mississippi presidential primaries Tuesday, bolstering his claim to being the conservative alternative to Republican front-runner Mitt Romney. “We did it again,” Santorum told cheering supporters in Lafayette, La.; that state will hold its primary March 24. “Who would have thought . . . that ordinary folks from across this country can defy the odds day in and day out?”
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Parties to play safe, may bet on sitting councillors - Atul Mathur, HT
Majority of sitting municipal councillors, who have not lost their seats to the rotation policy, are likely to recontest the upcoming municipal elections. Senior leaders of various political parties said that the first list of candidates, which is likely to be announced by March 18 or 19, would have names mostly of sitting municipal councillors, in whom the top leadership of the party have expressed faith. While Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — the only other national party in Delhi besides the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress — which had done reasonably well in the 2007 municipal elections, has decided to field each of its 17 municipal councillors, senior Congress and BJP leaders said they would repeat most of their winning candidates in these elections.
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GOP nomination fight is Romney vs. Santorum - Kaise Hunt, Mercury News
The plodding Republican presidential nomination fight is grinding forward toward Puerto Rico—and a two-man race, with Rick Santorum ascendant and Mitt Romney vanquished in the Deep South. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the former Georgia lawmaker whose Southern strategy stalled, was all but relegated to an asterisk in the contest even as he vowed to stay in it. "Now is the time to pull together," Santorum declared to conservatives in Lafayette, La., after winning Tuesday's primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, urging the party's faithful to unite behind him to beat Romney. "We are campaigning everywhere there are delegates because we are going to win this nomination before the convention."
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The South Rises for Santorum - John Dickerson, Slate
Mitt Romney said Rick Santorum was at the "desperate end of his campaign," by which he apparently meant the winning end. The Pennsylvania senator won the primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. He is now the leading conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, though Newt Gingrich promised to take his fight all the way to the Republican convention. Mitt Romney, who came in third in both states, is approaching the qualities of some cursed mythological figure who gets stronger on the outside while his insides decay: With each contest, Romney gains delegates but appears to get weaker.
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India voters demand growth, opportunity - Simon Denyer, Washington Post
In the world’s largest democracy, hundreds of millions of voters are delivering a powerful message to their politicians: Give us growth, give us opportunity, let us take part in the country’s economic miracle. And if you are going to line your pockets, don’t be so brazen about it. The message, which some politicians are gradually absorbing, was underscored in state election results released last week: Deliver, and voters will return you to power. Fail, and you’ll be kicked out.
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Mitt Romney meets ‘peasants with pitchforks’ - E.J. Dionne Jr, Washington Post
Political revolutions leave chaos in their wake. Republicans cannot shut down their presidential nominating contest just because the party is in the midst of an upheaval wrought by the growing dominance of its right wing, its unresolved attitudes toward George W. Bush’s presidency, and the terror that the GOP rank and file has stirred among the more moderately conservative politicians who once ran things. When Pat Buchanan ran for president in the 1990s, the conservative commentator lovingly referred to his partisans as “peasants with pitchforks.” The pitchfork brigade now enjoys more power in Republican politics than even Buchanan thought possible.
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In Punjab, Congress took voters for granted - Amitabh Shukla, Pioneer
The loss of Punjab is one embarrassment which the Congress is not going to forget in a hurry, at least for the next five years. The party’s defeat at the hands of the Akali Dal-BJP combine has contributed to the scripting of history — an incumbent Government has been voted back to power for the first time in 46 years. After the embarrassment of defeat, party managers are ascribing different factors and reasons but clearly the Congress in Punjab developed a suicidal tendency of taking the voters for granted. Even before the poll schedule was announced and throughout the campaign, Congress leaders were so over-confident that their attitude bordered on arrogance.
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Condoms knock Afghanistan off list of poll issues - Hiranmay Karlekar, Pioneer
In the three weeks or so I have been in the United States I have not seen Afghanistan feature significantly as an issue in the coming presidential election. Instead, the red hot issue in the last 10 days or so has been morality — read abortion and the use of contraceptives. It has even overtaken the economy as the centre-stage issue with radio talk host Ross Limbaugh’s vitriolic attack on Sandra Flukes, a Georgetown University law student who spoke in favour of free supply of contraceptives to women before a group of Democratic legislators, touching off searing condemnation all round.
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State Cong leaders want RS seats for local faces - Saubhadra Chatterji, HT
With fewer Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs for the Congress in the upcoming biennial polls, opposition to “outsider candidates” are gathering momentum within the party. In Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra, a significant section of the local leadership has reportedly conveyed to the party’s central leadership that local candidates should get nominations instead of candidates from other states. The Congress may lose three seats from its present tally, 18 out of the 58 Rajya Sabha seats, which are going to polls on March 30. This has prompted state leaders to demand secured seats for local candidates from the party brass.
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Fortunes Turn, as Does Style, for Santorum - Katharine Q. Seelye, NYT
The pickup truck that carried him through Iowa is long gone, replaced by a small motorcade of S.U.V.’s. There was a police escort, and a phalanx of Secret Service agents. The sweater vest was gone, at least for the day, and Rick Santorum, the winner of the last two presidential primaries, was smartly turned out, in a dark suit and power tie, when he held a half-hour private meeting with Gov. Luis G. Fortuño of Puerto Rico. The two men did not take questions from reporters, but allowed photographers to capture the moment. With the cameras whirring, and sitting side by side in formal chairs, the two could have been in the Oval Office.
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An Answer to Romney’s Question, Is It ‘Missour-ee’ or ‘Missour-uh’? - ABC News
Campaigning in Missouri on Tuesday, Mitt Romney touched on the state’s fundamental uncertainty: pronunciation. “Now, he kept saying ‘Missour-uh.’ How many people in this audience call it ‘Missour-uh’ rather than Missour-ee?”” Romney asked at an event with former senator Jim Talent (R-Mo.). “Ok. How many say Missouri like I do?” After a show of hands, he continued: “Ok, I’m in Missour-ee right now. I think we’re going to Missour-uh a little later today, yeah yeah. We’re going to be taking a trip over to Missour-uh!”
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For Mitt Romney, things could be worse - Alexander Burns, Politico
Believe it or not, Mitt Romney may be the luckiest man in America. That’s not how politicos tend to think these days of the former Massachusetts governor, who has seen his public image shredded and his campaign treasury drained in a series of unexpected fights with his disorganized primary opposition. Viewed in a different light, however, Romney’s political travails are relatively mild for a candidate with his vulnerabilities: a history of flip-flops on social issues, an inability to connect with voters that can be painful to behold and a record on health care that makes conservatives recoil.
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How Newt Gingrich Is Killing Rick Santorum - Kyle Leighton, TPM
The calls for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to exit the Republican race for president got more serious on Wednesday, the day after he lost two states in the deep South to former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. When the Mississippi and Alabama primaries went to the former senator, it struck a major blow to the idea that Gingrich could continue on a “southern strategy,” since he didn’t take two of the most southern states after his Georgia win.
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Republican White House Hopefuls Invade Barack Obama’s Home State - John McCormick, Business Week
The Republican presidential race descended on President Barack Obama’s home turf yesterday, as a defiant Newt Gingrich arrived in Illinois following dual losses in Southern states that were supposed to be part of his base. Gingrich’s arrival followed his second-place finishes in the March 13 Alabama and Mississippi primaries that have intensified questions about whether his candidacy is sustainable.
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Obama slips in opinion polls - Jim Rutenberg ,Marjorie Connelly, Deccan Herald
Despite improving job growth and an extended Republican primary fight dividing his would-be opponents, President Barack Obama is heading into the general election season on treacherous political ground, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. At a time of rising gas prices, heightened talk of war with Iran and setbacks in Afghanistan, Obama’s approval rating dropped substantially in recent weeks, the poll found, with 41 per cent of respondents expressing approval of the job he is doing and 47 per cent saying they disapprove – a dangerous position for any incumbent seeking re-election.
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In New Documentary, Obama Confronts a Country on the Brink - Jeremy W Peters, NYT
The Obama campaign on Thursday night released “The Road We’ve Traveled,” a 17-minute video with a series of screenings at its campaign offices nationwide and a live stream on YouTube. The video uses archival news footage, interviews with administration officials and a flurry of statistics to create a narrative arc for President Obama’s first three years in office: He became president when the country was in miserable shape, fought against obstinate resistance to make bold reforms, like overhauling health care and ending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and put the country back on track.
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Buzz over nominees of BJP's Rajya Sabha seats - Poornima Joshi, Mail Today
When the BJP's central election committee meets on Friday to discuss plausible candidates for election to as many as 18 seats in the Rajya Sabha, certain names are surely going to shock. Among those who are being considered, said sources, is 47-year-old Nagpur- based businessman Ajay Shaktikumar Sancheti, also known in the BJP circles as a close confidant of party president Nitin Gadkari.
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Mulayam eyes role, silent on berth - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
Samajwadi Party sources today said Mulayam Singh Yadav was set to “play a bigger role” in Delhi but dismissed queries that their chief was eyeing a berth in the Union cabinet. “Mulayamji is clear. He will give unconditional outside support to the Congress at the Centre only to keep the BJP out of power,” a source said, asked if the Samajwadi boss was looking for a ministership in the UPA cabinet now that he had installed son Akhilesh as Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
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Rick Santorum has embraced Spanish priest behind devout Catholic group Opus Dei - Stephanie McCrummen and Jerry Markon, WP
In January 2002, prominent Catholics from around the world gathered in Rome to celebrate the Spanish priest who founded one of the church’s most conservative and devout groups, Opus Dei. The event drew cardinals, bishops and other powerful Vatican officials. And among those invited to speak was a future presidential candidate: Rick Santorum, whose faith had become so essential to his politics that on federal documents he listed the trip, paid for by an Opus Dei foundation, as part of his official duties as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.
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How Gingrich's candidacy could help Santorum - Scott Conroy, CBS News
When Mitt Romney walked into the West Virginia Republican delegate convention on Feb. 5, 2008, he had every reason to believe that he was about to notch a key Super Tuesday victory that would help spark his candidacy. The Romney campaign had been laying the groundwork in West Virginia for a year-and-a-half, while John McCain and Mike Huckabee barely had a footprint in the state. West Virginia's system that year awarded 18 of its convention delegates based on the results of a vote taken by 1,207 county delegates who had gathered that day in a giant ballroom in Charleston.
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Himachal next test for Cong - Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, Hindustan Times
The shocking result in neighboring Punjab and the below par performance in Uttarakhand has made the Congress nervous in Himachal Pradesh, which goes to polls along with Gujarat later this year.
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MCD journey: 54 years of serving the national capital - Sidhartha Roy, HT
From the crib to cremation ground, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), one of the largest municipal bodies in the world, plays a major part in the lives of 16 million Delhiites. Though the MCD came into existence in 1958 under an act of Parliament, the city had its first tryst with the civic administration in the year 1862 when the Delhi Municipal Commission was formed. The city then was confined to Shahjahanabad and some areas in Civil Lines.
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Raising a poll storm online - Neelam Pandey, HT
The election fever has gone online, and it has gone way beyond campaigning. Various groups and campaigners have started using social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut and Twitter to ask people to come out to vote." That’s not all. To spread awareness about the MCD election sites are providing information about candidates, wards, and even detailing track records of the municipal councillors. The move aims to target the tech-savvy youth. One such page created on Facebook by one Sumit Dubey urges youngsters to exercise their franchise.
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Observers to pick the best in Congress - Atul Mathur, HT
To select the best possible candidates for the upcoming municipal elections, Congress Party has appointed 24 party observers to gauge the "winnability" of each candidate proposed by seven election committees. Appointed by the central leadership, the observers will not only try to understand the popularity and commitment of the proposed candidates and look at his prospects in municipal elections, they will also look for any possible nexus between committee members to promote an undeserving candidate or sideline a better one.
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College students grill Romney on social issues - Sarah B. Boxer, CBS News
Energy and the economy are the cornerstones of Mitt Romney's stump speeches, but on Monday some Bradley University students decided to question him - at times pointedly - on social issues. The first woman to ask the GOP presidential front-runner a question at a rally here on the eve of Tuesday's Illinois primary remarked that she knew he was in favor of the "pursuit of happiness" but added, "You know what would make me happy? Free birth control."
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All eyes turn to Illinois in Republican race - Corbett B. Daly, CBS News
In late January, Florida was supposed to be the firewall for Mitt Romney. Then, earlier this month, Ohio was supposed to be the new firewall. It's now mid-March and another Midwestern state is the new, new firewall for Mitt Romney: Illinois. Voters in the land of Lincoln head to the polls on Tuesday and the former Massachusetts governor is ahead of rival Rick Santorum, 44 to 30 percent, according to a poll released Monday by American Research Group, Inc.
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US election 2012: Mitt Romney's ability to fire up Republicans questioned by prominent supporters - Peter Foster, Telegraph
As polls showed Mr Romney with a commanding 15 point lead in the Illinois primary, where the latest round of the Republican nomination process votes on Tuesday, he was being undermined by heavyweights in the party. John McCain, the Republican candidate who lost to Mr Obama in 2008 has repeatedly endorsed Mr Romney, appearing a multiple campaign events, but admitted that the former boss of Bain Capital needed to up his game.
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Santorum writings voice strikingly consistent views - Jeremy W Peters, NYT
He objected to Mitt Romney’s insistence that the tenets of Mormonism are not in conflict with traditional Christianity. He said there was good reason to doubt the theory of evolution and argued that intelligent design should be taught in schools. And when critics questioned Rick Santorum on even the most innocuous matters, like his support for stronger federal oversight of pet stores, he fired back. Over the last decade, Mr. Santorum has been a prolific writer of op-ed articles, letters to the editor and guest columns in some of the country’s largest and most influential newspapers.
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A campaign that’s gotten stuck in a rut - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
Thus far, the 2012 presidential campaign has been unfocused, dispiriting and largely irrelevant. By the time Election Day comes, a weary nation will be at the point of pulling the covers over its head and screaming, “Somebody, please, make it stop.” What’s that? You say we’re there already? “Both sides are to blame” is usually a cop-out, but in this case it’s true. President Obama has conducted a more reality-based campaign than the Republicans vying to run against him in the fall, but that’s not saying much. Arguably, it’s not saying anything at all, since the GOP primaries seem to be taking place in some parallel universe.
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How an Obama-Romney election battle would pit small donors against large - Adam Sorensen, Time
The 2012 election is, in many ways, shaping up to be a contest defined by financial disparity. The rhetoric of the Occupy Wall Street movement, predicated on the idea of an existential struggle between the 99% and the 1%, has been embraced by the left and denounced by the right, who see it as harmfully divisive. President Obama has constructed his re-election platform around “fair share” policies, which would shift a larger burden of societal costs to the wealthy, while Paul Ryan, the Republicans’ leading policy thinker, has sounded the alarm on deficits and called for a scaling back of the social safety net.
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Bypoll in Andhra Pradesh sets stage for Congress debacle in 2014 assembly elections - A. Srinivasa Rao, Mail Today
After the debacle in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, the Congress could be in for another setback when the results for the Andhra Pradesh bypolls are declared on Wednesday. The by-elections to seven assembly constituencies - six in the volatile Telangana region and the remaining one in the coastal district of Nellore - held on Sunday are believed to have set the stage for an impending debacle of the ruling Congress in the 2014 assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, the only southern state where the party is still in power.
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Psephology has become a game of numbers - Sandeep B, Pioneer
Psephology is tedious business. At a level, it reduces democracy to a savage farce of a triumph of numbers over ideas, ideals, even philosophy. But the times we live in makes it a necessary evil. While it has its undeniable uses, a historical sense and wisdom from experience are better guides, which to a keen observer inform that Uttar Pradesh would go to the Samajwadi Party and Goa, to the BJP. First, Uttar Pradesh. All the pundit-theories about castes and formations apart, there is a fundamental reason, which has to do with the nature of politics that’s in vogue. It’s the politics of divide and rule.
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The writing on the wall - Era Sezhiyan, Hindu
Addressing the media on March 7, a day after the results of the five Assembly elections were announced, Congress president Sonia Gandhi attributed the outcome against the party to “wrong candidates, organisational weaknesses, party members not taking serious responsibilities, and too many leaders in the party.” Further, she observed that the electoral reverses would have no adverse impact on the United Progressive Alliance government. Asked about the possibility of early general elections, the Congress president declared: “We're in 2012, and Manmohan Singh will continue to be the Prime Minister till 2014.”
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House Shift - Ravish Tiwari, Indian Express
Among the prominent faces set to go out are former Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena), who has failed to secure a renomination this time. As far as the Congress goes, it has dropped its spokesperson Rashid Alvi, who failed to secure renomination from Andhra Pradesh along with the party’s Telangana face Keshav Rao. The latter had played an instrumental role in scuttling HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s few Bills in the Upper House.
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The muslim voter isn't dumb - Irena Akbar, Indian Express
The curtains have fallen over the UP elections. We, the public, watched the episodes of the electoral soap opera that stretched on for over a month with much interest. But, thanks to our ridiculously short memories, we seem to have forgotten another hyped drama that preceded the campaign. It had unfolded far away from UP, in Jaipur, but had a “lot to do with the UP elections”. Or so, television anchors and political analysts wanted us to believe. Let’s not blame them. They were only drawing their inferences from the stance of the Congress-led governments at the Centre and Rajasthan.
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Mitt's Magic Number: 1,104 - David Corn, Mother Jones
When the Republicans gather in Tampa this summer for their presidential nominating convention, there will be 2,286 delegates voting for the party's standard-bearer. That has led to the obvious point that the magic number for Mitt Romney (or Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul) is 1,144 delegates. Bag that many delegates, and you can declare victory. But this mathematical conclusion is only partly right. In Romney's case, the real magic number is 1,104. That's because the long GOP slog ends on June 26 with a primary in one state: Utah. That is Romney's ultimate firewall.
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‘Right to Work’ bills face uncertain future in an election year - Monica Davey, NYT
For the first time in more than three decades, Minnesota Republicans are basking in majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature, so on matters that need no signature from the Democratic governor, they can do as they please. Priority No. 1, to some: put a measure on the ballot that would allow workers to avoid paying fees to unions they choose not to join. Critics view the proposed measure, which would amend the state Constitution, as a plain attack on unions.
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JMM appeals to ally on RS - Suman K Shrivsatava, Telegraph
Prospects of Rajya Sabha candidates from Jharkhand fluctuated wildly today with JMM MLAs hopelessly divided over supporting the party’s official nominee, forcing Soren and Co. to appeal to ally BJP to reconsider its decision to abstain from voting. Deputy chief minister Hemant Soren left for Delhi in the evening to try and convince the BJP top brass while his partymen, led by Simon Marandi, expressed their reluctance to back official nominee Sanjeev Kumar, a Supreme Court lawyer and confidante of Soren.
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Romney Cruises to Victory in Illinois - Tom Bevan and Carl M. Cannon, Real Clear Politics
Mitt Romney took another step toward the Republican nomination for president tonight, cruising to victory over his rivals in the key state of Illinois. With 54 delegates at stake, Romney was tallying some 47 percent of the vote, nearly as much as his three challengers -- Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul -- combined. Tuesday’s decisive win, coupled with his landslide victory in Puerto Rico on Sunday, took the sheen off Santorum’s double-barreled win in Alabama and Mississippi a week earlier and earned Romney the lion’s share of Illinois’ convention delegates.
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All for maan-samman - Suman K Shrivsatava, Telegraph
BJP-backed Independent candidate Anshuman Mishra seems to have given up hope of entering the hallowed precincts of the Rajya Sabha, toning down his belligerence by late evening today and promising to withdraw his nomination tomorrow. “I will withdraw my nomination tomorrow on the appeal of Nitin Gadkari to save his maan-samman (dignity),” he told The Telegraph, but indicated his bitterness at ’affair Rajya Sabha not panning out to his expectations.
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Porn & poll pain for Modi - Basant Rawat, Telegraph
Two BJP MLAs in Gujarat were allegedly caught watching “obscene pictures of women” on their iPads while the Assembly was in session, less than two months after three ministers of the party were sacked for a similar offence in Karnataka. The revelation, which came on a day the BJP lost a bypoll in its bastion Mansa in Gandhinagar, has added to the discomfort of the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, where Assembly polls are scheduled later this year.
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BJP loses Mansa to caste politics - Rathin Das, Pioneer
In a setback to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the ruling BJP on Wednesday lost the Mansa Assembly seat in a by-election inconsequential to the legislature arithmetic. Coming within a few days of Modi appearing on the cover of Time magazine, the loss of Mansa seat is a dent to his image. This is the only by-election the BJP has lost since is won the two-thirds majority in the Assembly in December 2007. This was the last election in the State before the run-up begins for the Assembly elections in December this year.
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Kerala by-poll: Thumping win for UDF - VR Jayaraj, Pioneer
Anoop Jacob, young candidate of the Congress-led ruling UDF, was on Wednesday declared elected in the by-poll held on March 19 in central Kerala’s Piravam Assembly constituency. Anoop won the seat by a margin of 12,070 votes over his nearest rival, CPI(M) veteran MJ Jacob of the Opposition LDF. The victory of Anoop, representing the Kerala Congress, enabled the UDF Government to stabilize its position as its strength went up to 72 from 71 in the 140-seat Assembly.
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Romney routs Santorum in Illinois, fires salvos at Obama - S Rajagopalan, Pioneer
The former Massachusetts governor, aided by a well-endowed war chest and a well-oiled campaign machine, captured 47 per cent of the votes against Santorum’s 35 per cent, and his performance in the race for delegates was even more impressive. Needing 1,144 delegates to seal the nomination, Romney now has 563 against Santorum’s 263 in the delegates count maintained by the Associated Press. The other two players, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, trailed way behind with 135 and 50 delegates respectively. Illinois being Obama’s backyard and one of the bigger states, Romney turned his guns on the president in his victory speech.
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Congress headache returns: MLAs want kin as councillors - Pragya Kaushika, IE
With the race for municipal seats moving beyond the heats, the line-up is becoming clearer with stalwarts, especially of Congress, seeking tickets for sons and daughters, kith and kin from wards in their Assembly strongholds. To back their claim that their children are “deserving” candidates for seats in the newly trifurcated civic agency, MLAs are waving lists of qualification and achievements. Those in the queue for tickets to their children and relatives include two-time former Speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh, Deputy Speaker Amrish Singh Gautam and MLAs Dayanand Chandila, Jai Kishan and Mukesh Sharma.
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Romney Wins Where it Counts: Collecting Money, Delegates - Lisa Lerer, Bloomberg
With yesterday’s 12-percentage-point victory in Illinois over chief rival Rick Santorum, which netted about 42 of the 54 delegates at stake, Romney is almost halfway to obtaining the 1,144 he needs to capture the Republican presidential nomination. To finish the job, he must get 46 percent of the remaining delegates. By contrast, Santorum, who trails Romney by more than 2-1 in delegates, would have to win about 69 percent of the remaining number.
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Maharashtra ZP posts: It’s back to back-stabbing - Abhay Vaidya, First Post
NCP president Sharad Pawar acquired the unpleasant sobriquet ‘back-stabber’ in 1978 when he aligned with the Janata Party and dislodged the Congress’s Vasantdada Patil government to become Maharashtra’s youngest chief minister. That epithet has come visiting again. On Wednesday, Congressmen were screaming foul at being outsmarted by the NCP which aligned with the BJP, Shiv Sena and the MNS to keep it out of power in the top posts at the 27 Zilla Parishads (ZPs), which went to the polls last month.
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How does Rahul Gandhi tackle the Narendra Modi threat in 2014? - Nadim Asrar, IBNLive
The Time magazine recently, through a controversial cover story on the BJP mascot and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, made the argument that Modi may be the biggest threat Congress leader Rahul Gandhi would face in the 2014 general elections. "Modi, 61, is perhaps the only contender with the track record and name recognition to challenge Rahul Gandhi," says the story. Indian politics at the Centre today is largely between the centre-right Congress and the right-wing BJP. The possibility of regional parties making a major dent nationally, despite doing extremely well in their own regions, is remote. That perhaps explains why Time thinks it's a Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi battle in 2014.
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Burma Elections: On the Campaign Trail with Aung San Suu Kyi - Hannah Beech, Time
They waited for hours in the merciless Burmese sun for their Lady to come. On March 22, Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi traveled in an unlikely convoy of shiny Land Rovers, ancient Jeeps, tractors, motorcycles, trishaws and even the occasional oxen-cart to the township of Kawhmu. For the first time in her life, the longtime opposition leader is directly participating in the democratic process by running for a parliamentary seat in Burma’s April 1 by-elections.
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Social electioneering signs in - Neelam Pandey, Hindustan Times
Think MCD or its councillors and the first thing that comes to your mind is dirty old rooms filled with bulky registers containing thousands of complaints and queries of residents and paan-chewing netas with secretaries in safari suits to take care of their tech needs. While it is not completely untrue, all that is not far from becoming history. Technology is ushering in a slow but steady makeover with a number of both tech-savvy and tech-shy councillors, and even the MCD, taking to IT in a big way to connect with civic problems.
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Victory margins a mixed bag - Hindu
Compared to the results of the by-elections in 2010, the winning margins of the political parties rose in some segments and fell in others, in the seven Assembly constituencies that went to by-polls on March 18. Though, the candidates in almost all the constituencies were same, the only difference was their party affiliation. The elections were necessitated by the defection of two TDP MLAs – Jogu Ramanna and Gampa Goverdhan besides Jupally Krishna Rao and T. Rajaiah (both Congress) to the TRS.
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A round for regional parties - Hindu
Sometimes, the loss of one seat can hurt a lot more than the loss of 10 seats. In Andhra Pradesh, the Congress drew a blank in the latest round of byelections, losing all seven seats. But more significant than the six seats it surrendered in the Telangana region was the loss of Kovur in coastal Andhra to the YSR Congress led by Jaganmohan Reddy. For the Congress, this is a clear warning of things to come. The ruling party has been ceding ground to the breakaway faction and Jagan can no longer be dismissed as a pretender.
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When nominated RS members accept party membership - Pradeep Kaushal, IE
When the Congress leadership issued a whip to its members in the Rajya Sabha last week to defeat Opposition-sponsored amendments to the presidential address, the party diktat covered two nominated members too, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Bhalchandra Mungekar. For, these two MPs had accepted the membership of a party (Congress), an option which just 17 of the 119 eminent people who have been nominated by the President to the Rajya Sabha since it was set up have exercised. And 14 of them have gone with the Congress.
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Trading votes for rights - Hiranmay Karlekar, Pioneer
As campaigning for the presidential elections in the United States intensifies, one witnesses what may turn out to be the beginning of a process of political polarisation that may have important consequences for the country. The factors behind the development are the economic collapse that began toward the end of 2008, and moves by the Right wing of the Republican Party to abridge trade union rights and remove provisions in President Barack Obama’s healthcare legislation making for free supply of contraceptives to women including employees and students of institutions like hospitals, schools, colleges and universities run by religious bodies.
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The Republican candidates for president - Economist
Our interactive map provides the results of the primaries and caucuses in each state, as well as data on recent polls and those for forthcoming contests. Point your cursor at a state and a summary of the exit polling data will appear in a window on the right. The "Zoom to" drop-down tag above the map allows you to scroll down directly to a state. Not all states are surveyed frequently, and voters’ preferences for candidates can change swiftly during the primaries.
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A bit of a breakthrough - Economist
THE race for the Republican presidential nomination has followed a consistent pattern. Every month or so a candidate emerges from the pack to threaten Mitt Romney’s lead, only to drop back after a week or two. It used to be a new challenger each time: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and so on. Lately, it has been the same man periodically snapping at Mr Romney’s heels before falling behind again: Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania.
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Why even the best exit polls in India are useless - Hartosh Singh Bal, Open
From the last day of polling to the day results are announced, analysis in this country becomes a spectacle subject to the absurdities of exit polls which are almost never close to being correct. This is understandable. The diversity of India extends to every village, so it is almost impossible to ensure that any sample size is completely representative. And even when through some measure of luck a pollster arrives at a reasonable estimate of vote share, converting this into actual seats is perilous.Thus, the only time exit polls get it right is when they reflect an obvious change in popular mood, or when they are right only because they are wrong, obtaining the right ballpark figure for seats won even when their vote share prediction is incorrect.
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Congress unleashes youth brigade at hustings, dissent in ranks - Ambika Pandit & Risha Chitlangia, ToI
The countdown to the civic elections took a defining turn on Sunday with less than 30 of 68 sitting Congress councillors making a comeback to the poll battleground - signalling an end to the power tussle between party MPs and MLAs. Many first-timers and young faces also entered the fray. Most of the 31 sitting councillors who were displaced by 50% women's quota have been dropped. Protests outside Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee office reflected the unrest among sitting councilors who had been shown the door. Also, there was outrage among workers who felt heavyweights had prevailed.
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MCD: Saffron party to partner JD(U) in return race - Risha Chitlangia & Ambika Pandit, ToI
For the first time in Delhi, BJP will fight the MCD elections in alliance with Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) to tap the poorvanchali vote bank. With Congress banking on its traditional vote bank in unauthorized colonies, slums and resettlement colonies, the ruling BJP, which faces anti-incumbency, is now trying to reach out to the over 40 lakh poorvanchalis.
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Can Congress make UPA last till 2014? - Pioneer
Just when the Congress-led regime had begun celebrating the Samajwadi Party’s vote in Parliament in favour of establishing the Government-mooted National Counter-Terrorism Centre, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has startled everybody by asking his party workers to prepare for a mid-term election since the UPA is likely to collapse under the weight of its “own sins” any time soon.
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MCD Poll: Rebels unite to wreck BJP - Risha Chitlangia, Times of India
It is going to be a tough municipal election for BJP as it battles the enemy within. Nearly 25 rebel councillors and party workers have joined hands to wreck BJP's return to MCD. They are all contesting as independents and want to send a strong message to the party high command. And these rebels are helping each other in their campaigns. "We want educated people to be a part of the new corporations. BJP has given to tickets to several candidates who have no knowledge about the role of MCD and its functioning,'' said Jagdish Mamgain, sitting councillor from Kasturba Nagar and chairman of MCD's works committee.
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Whither identity politics? - Kanchan Chandra, Frontline
The most striking aspect of the recently concluded Assembly elections in north India – in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab – is the gathering of initially fragmented political forces around two main parties or poles. So far, regional party systems in India have mostly run parallel with national-level trends towards fragmentation. The proportion of State-level governments with coalitions has been increasing since the 1990s.
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Election shocks - Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Frontline
Right from the time the Election Commission of India initiated the electoral process in the five States of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur in January, the 2012 Assembly elections were billed as a semi-final of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the event, the outcome has produced a seemingly unexpected result: it seems to have advanced the date of the “final”.
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Santorum wins Louisiana primary - S Rajagopalan, Pioneer
Former Senator Rick Santorum inflicted a crushing defeat on front-runner Mitt Romney in the Republican primaries in Louisiana on Saturday but failed to garner a substantial number of delegates to narrow the wide gap. Although Santorum proclaimed yet again that the race is far from over after beating Romney (49 per cent to 27 per cent), he could capture only 10 delegates against five for the former Massachusetts Governor because of Louisiana’s own distribution pattern.
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Is Mitt Romney underrated? - Chris Cillizza, Washington Post
That question hasn’t been asked much during the former Massachusetts governor’s run for the 2012 presidential nomination. In fact, the dominant story line when it comes to Romney is the exact opposite — that someone with his résumé who was widely seen as the runner-up in the 2008 Republican presidential race should have long ago wrapped up the GOP nod.
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Ahead of polls, Modi looks to China for investment - Shekhar Iyer, HT
With the Gujarat assembly election less than six months away, chief minister Narendra Modi is working furiously to get China's big business to invest in his state. As a follow-up of his visit to that country in November, Modi had sent his top aides last week to woo top Chinese companies in power, textiles, construction and auto sector to shift their manufacturing units to Gujarat. An official, however, said Modi's timing had less to do with the polls and more to do with what these companies are doing. These firms are trying to relocate their units from the increasingly crowded Guangdong province to western and central China, where the labour costs are lower.
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Goa: Verdict for change - Pamela D'Mello, Frontline
As Goa's new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government settles down in office, it is easy to forget that a month ago the Congress seemed confident of returning to power in the State. The party is shell-shocked at its crushing defeat, its worst performance since 1980. The Congress won a mere nine seats, and, worse, eight of its Ministers lost the election. The party lost 11 seats, eight of them to the alliance between the BJP and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), two to independents and one to the newly revived Goa Vikas Party (GVP), floated by Francisco Pacheco, former Tourism Minister of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
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Manipur: Clean sweep - Sushanta Talukdar, Frontline
The Congress and, more specifically, two-time Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, have performed a hat-trick in Manipur. The party, leading the Secular Progressive Front (SPF), secured a thumping mandate in the Assembly elections held on January 28 to rule the north-eastern State for a third consecutive term. Ibobi Singh, who scripted the party's victory, has created history yet again by becoming the first person to be elected Chief Minister of Manipur three times in a row. In 2007, Ibobi Singh became the first Chief Minister in the State to complete a five-year term.
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Punjab: Bucking the trend - Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta, Frontline
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal)-Bharatiya Janata Party government has defied history by becoming the first incumbent government to be voted back to power in Punjab ever since the formation of the State in 1966. The alliance secured 68 seats in the 117-member Assembly against the 46 seats of the Congress, which banked on the historically proven trend of rotation of power in the State.
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Uttarakhand: In a cleft stick - Purnima S Tripathi, Frontline
Uttarakhand is one State that has become a showcase of political mismanagement by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the two mainstream parties. The State has proved beyond doubt that the leaderships of the two parties have to learn the basics of grass-roots politics from their regional political friends. While the BJP, which was in power, failed to play its cards well, despite the best efforts of Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri, the Congress miscalculated the voters' mood by stamping out regional aspirations. The writ of the high command in the selection of candidates ensured that the Congress ended up woefully short of the required majority of 36 seats in the 70-member House.
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Uttar Pradesh: Reverse sweep - Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Frontline
The crowd that gathered on March 15 in Lucknow to celebrate 38-year-old Akhilesh Yadav's swearing-in as the youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh reflected, in many ways, that which made possible the victory of the Samajwadi Party (S.P.) in the seven-phase Assembly elections. The S.P.'s massive electoral triumph - 224 out of 406 seats - was the product of a rainbow coalition of communities, castes and social groups that had come together to throw out the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from power.
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Municipal poll: Doctors, teachers, managers are all in the fray this time - Maria Akram, ToI
Reflecting the city's changing demographics, the list of municipal poll candidates this time includes a large number of professionals like doctors, advocates, teachers, lecturers, choreographers and management graduates. In the Kashmere Gate ward, BJP has fielded Dr Sambit Patra, who was a surgeon with MCD's Hindu Rao hospital. Patra (38) is an electoral debutant, but he has been active in public life since last year when he started an NGO to help the Balmiki community.
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She gives up broom to make clean sweep - Priyanka Sharma, Indian Express
She has been sweeping the roads around her colony for nearly five years, but now Prakash Wati has a shot at doing a job that could have a more lasting impact. As a safai karamchari in the MCD, Prakash has been cleaning the roads in Sultanpur East in Northwest Delhi since 2007, often loathing the poor sanitation standards in the area. She now has a chance to change all that. Prakash is contesting next month’s municipal elections from the Sultanpur East ward as a Congress candidate, and she says she wants to fix the root cause of civic neglect.
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Old campaign rules still in force - Gary Nordlinger and Ron Faucheux, Politico
Despite super PACs, Facebook and 24-hour news, one thing the 2012 Republican presidential nominating process shows is that most of the old campaign rules still apply. Here are six rules that emerged with the dawn of the television age. Each remains relevant today.
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Can Richie Rich get to the White House? - David O Stewart, Politico
Mitt Romney, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is a rich man. A very rich man. Last year, he spent most of his time campaigning, and he still had pretax income of $42 million. Every day of the year, he had another $115,000 to spend. Weekends, too. Like most presidential candidates, Romney strains to prove that he’s just like you and me. He drops in at diners, sometimes trying the cheesy grits. His standard campaign regalia has become blue jeans and an open-collared shirt.
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Burma: Election Fever Heats Up and Even the Military’s Party Plays Along - Hannah Beech, Time
At the campaign rally on the outskirts of Rangoon, Burma’s largest city, much appeared as it should be. A sweaty crowd, thousands strong, dutifully waved green-and-red party flags; many sported baseball caps with the Union Solidarity and Development Party’s (USDP) elegant lion logo on it. The candidate, Aung Win, was draped with garlands of sweet-smelling jasmine and flashed a politician’s grin. He was introduced on a stage thrumming with a techno bass by Htay Oo, the USDP’s general secretary, who peppered his speech with English words like democracy. There was even a local pop star in tight pink-and-white pants; she knew how to get the crowd roused.
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Opinion: How shootings shook up French election - Agnes Poirier, CNN
Re-election to the Elysée Palace was looking like mission impossible for President Nicolas Sarkozy: Trailing far behind the socialist candidate François Hollande in the polls for months, Sarkozy had only just recently narrowed his rival's lead, but only at the price of a pugnacious and robust few weeks of campaigning, exploiting the extreme right's favorite themes, immigration and halal meat.
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Parties tapping young voters with free mobile applications, blogs - Durgesh Nandan Jha, Times of India
Political parties and candidates are banking heavily on technology, primarily social media, to reach out to the young voters. This is a visible diversion from old campaigning methods such as use of loudspeakers and posters. The Delhi BJP has taken the lead in this by coming up with free mobile applications that will give information on major campaigns and speeches by leaders. A US-trained techie has been roped in for the purpose. "The mobile application can be downloaded by anyone.
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Blast echo in Zakir Nagar poll - Maria Akram, Times of India
Roads, sewers and water, or Zia's innocence? When Zakir Nagar votes in the municipal elections a fortnight from now, it will not only seal the fate of 25 contenders but also announce whether it is still rankled by the aftermath of the September 2008 Delhi blasts. Abdul Rehman certainly hopes the memories of those tumultuous days have not faded away. He wants to make the poll a referendum on his son Zia-ur Rehman's innocence in the blasts case.
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Rajya Sabha poll in Jharkhand countermanded - B Muralidhar Reddy & J Balaji, Hindu
The Election Commission late on Friday countermanded the poll held for two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand in view of incidents of “horse trading and use of money power to influence the voters (MLAs)”. The Commission wrote to President Pratibha Patil to rescind the March 12, 2012, notification for election issued by her. "Having regard to the above Constitutional and legal position enjoining upon the Commission the duty of conducting free and fair elections and upholding the purity of election and after taking into account all relevant facts and circumstances of the present case, the Commission is satisfied that the current election process for Rajya Sabha election from Jharkhand has been seriously vitiated and cannot be permitted to proceed," the Commission said in a release.
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Election a test of Myanmar's new openness - Hilary Whiteman, CNN
If Sunday's by-election in Myanmar is deemed to be free and fair, it will cap off a startling about-turn by the former military men currently running the country. For the first time ever, credible alternatives to the ruling party will appear on the ballot, including pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was serving the final days of her house arrest during the general election in November 2010, which was widely derided as a sham.
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France election 2012: debt and deficit – a glass half empty - Henry Samuel, Telegraph
Although the focus of the past few days has been on security in the wake of the Toulouse killings, the state of France's public finances is a crucial issue in the presidential elections. Sarkozy has promised to balance the budget by 2016, while Socialist rival Francois Hollande promises to do the same by 2017. Either way, it would be a first since 1974. The deficit was 7.1 per cent of gross domestic product in 2010, which makes last year's drop not just impressive but the biggest fall on record.
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Recall election for Wisconsin governor who battled unions - Monica Davey, NYT
Wisconsin officials announced on Friday that critics of Gov. Scott Walker had met the requirements for a recall election, starting a bitterly contentious campaign cycle all over again. Mr. Walker, who has battled public employee unions since taking office last year, will become the first governor in the state’s history to face a recall election, set for June. But Friday marked an ending, too: of unlimited fund-raising for Mr. Walker, who over the politically rancorous past year has raised more than $12 million, more than any candidate for governor has ever collected for a race in Wisconsin.
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Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi 'does not hold a monopoly on democracy' - Dean Nelson, Telegraph
In a small campaign office below a Buddhist temple, 38 year old Lei Lei Aye explained why she will win her by-election in Rangoon's Taung Nyant township on Sunday – one of 45 contests which could herald the lifting of sanctions against Burma and its transformation into a new Indonesia. The people will vote for her because her party, President Thein Sein's Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), is putting "democracy into action, rather than just talking about it," she said. It is a bold claim because she and her party are facing the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's best known "democracy idol," is widely expected to win a landslide victory.
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Romney, eyeing Wisconsin, moves to close out GOP nomination battle - Dan Balz, Washington Post
Eager to shift his focus to President Obama and the fall election, Mitt Romney is moving aggressively on multiple fronts to effectively bring the Republican nomination contest to a swift conclusion, with Tuesday’s primary here in Wisconsin seen as crucial in accelerating his momentum. Coming on the same day as contests in Maryland and the District of Columbia, Wisconsin’s primary has become the latest major battleground in the Republican race and one of the most crucial tests to date for Rick Santorum, who is trying to prove that he can defeat the front-runner in an important general-election state.
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Sleepless in South Kensington as London's French community agonises over vote - Harriet Alexander, Telegraph
The croissants are cooked to perfection for the impeccably-suited businessman sitting outside a cafe, reading Le Figaro in the sunshine. The chic residents stroll through the streets, buying bouquets of flowers or picking up a freshly-baked baguette as students cycle past. Yet this is not Paris or Bordeaux. It is London - home to an estimated 400,000 French expats, and jokingly referred to as France's sixth largest city. And behind the elegant facades of South Kensington, the district has become an unlikely hotbed of political turmoil, as the French community agonises over who to elect as their next president.
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In Wisconsin, Romney Nears the Tipping Point - Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg, NYT
Mitt Romney is on the cusp of taking firm control of the Republican nominating contest for the first time, neutralizing his most powerful critics and rallying a broad spectrum of conservatives behind him as party leaders grow increasingly eager to take on President Obama. A victory over Rick Santorum in Wisconsin on Tuesday would effectively close the first phase of the primary season, senior Republicans say. It would leave Mr. Romney with not only a commanding lead in the race for delegates, but also a claim to have fended off energetic challenges across a range of battleground states with a disciplined and well-financed campaign effort.
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Rajya Sabha: Poll influencing charge on driver - Telegraph
Police have registered FIRs naming three persons, including the occupant and driver of the car from which Rs 2.15 crore was recovered yesterday in Ranchi, but the Independent candidate at the centre of the Rajya Sabha cash stash scandal, R.K. Agrawal, spent the day at his Jamshedpur home, vowing to contest the elections again whenever it was held. According to sources in the Namkum police station, the FIR, numbered 58/2012, named one of the proprietors of Shah Sponge and Power Private Limited (SSPPL), Soumitra Shah, his employee, Sudhanshu Tripathi who was in the car, and driver Nanku Ram and other un-named persons under two sections of IPC — 171F for influencing elections using unfair means and 188 for flouting orders promulgated by a public servant.
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Eye on 2014 polls, govt may award 50% of highway construction projects to UP, Rajasthan - Dipak K Dash, ToI
With an eye on 2014 general elections and key states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan could play at the hustings, the Centre plans to award almost 5,000 km highways projects in these two states during the current fiscal. UP and Rajasthan will get 50% share of the total work plan for 2012-13. Majority of these projects will be two-and-half laning work that will enjoy 100% government funding.
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Post-poll, new challenges for Suu Kyi - Times of India
Newly transformed from imprisoned icon during a long struggle against repression in Myanmar to a key political actor, Aung San Suu Kyi is now on course to take a seat in parliament for the first time. But after two decades in opposition, much of it spent as a prisoner of the former junta, Suu Kyi now faces a slew of unfamiliar challenges . She must find her place in a perhaps hostile lower house while nurturing her crucial relationship with reformist president Thein Sein and managing the expectations of a nation impatient for change after decades of isolation, poverty and military misrule.
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The unfairness of elections - Santosh Desai, Times of India
Can an election ever throw up the right candidate? Or to put it more moderately, is an election the mechanism best suited to throw up representatives that will strive to work for their constituents and attempt to better their life? Are there in-built into the electoral process, a set of imperatives that help pre-determine one kind of outcome, irrespective of the quality of the candidates?
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Obama Campus Fervor Losing to Apathy as Students Sour on 2012 - Andrew Theen, Bloomberg
On election night 2008, freshman Meagan Cassidy left Lake Forest College and hopped a train to Chicago to celebrate Barack Obama’s impending victory. “There was probably no better place to be,” Cassidy said in a phone interview. The excitement generated that evening spurred her on to become an intern and then a field organizer in three congressional contests and two human rights campaigns.
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General elections and the Election of the Generals - Ramachandra Guha, Telegraph
In the late 1990s, I had the privilege of sharing a platform in Berkeley with a gifted Indonesian activist named George Aditjondro. He was then stateless, living as a refugee, having been exiled from his homeland because of his participation in social movements aimed at embarrassing the military regime. In one campaign, aimed at a very large dam from which the Generals and their contractors would make millions of dollars in commissions, Aditjondro had coined the slogan, ‘Megawatt NO! Megawati YES!’ (Megawati Sukarnoputri then being the principal leader of the democratic opposition).
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Who will be the next President of India? - Harsh Goenka, Economic Times
The stage is set for India to elect its 16th president in July 2012. This could turn into a thriller. After UP elections the Congress is weakened, the opposition is baying for its blood and allies like Mamata are not toeing the line. It will have to opt for a consensus candidate. An ideal head of state should be one that has the vision to inspire the country, a statesman rising above the politics of expediency with the ability to balance the judiciary and the executive.
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Congress plea to the Muslims: Don’t split vote - Naziya Alvi, Times of India
Fearing a split in the Muslim vote in the civic elections, Congress on Monday appealed to the community to consolidate its vote-bank. The party had suffered in earlier elections when smaller parties and independents ate into the Muslim vote share, leaving Congress candidates high and dry in many wards. Calling the community "intelligent enough" to choose the right candidate, state Congress president Jai Prakash Aggarwal said Muslims should vote en bloc or they will be hurting their own interests. Traditionally, such announcements are made by imams of local mosques.
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At centre of RS row, a self-made crorepati, Anna & Ramdev supporter - Manoj Prasad, Indian Express
Raj Kumar Agarwal will go down in history for alleged association with the first-ever cancellation of elections to the Rajya Sabha after votes had been cast, following allegations of horse-trading. In his hometown Jamshedpur, he is better known as a “self-made man” from a “humble background” who had links cutting across political lines, and who had lately forged another identity: as supporter of “anti-corruption activists” Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev.
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France's Sarkozy seen losing runoff despite gains - Catherine Bremer, Reuters
President Nicolas Sarkozy may top the first round of a presidential election this month but still lose a runoff on May 6 as most fringe voters say they will back Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, opinion polls show. Sarkozy pulled into the lead for the April 22 first ballot in yet another poll on Tuesday, but surveys for the second round have stabilized with Hollande firmly ahead, as supporters of other candidates prefer him to the conservative incumbent.
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Gujarat polls: Cong to opt for low-key track - Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, HT
The failure of its much-hyped and aggressive election campaign in UP has forced the Congress to change its strategy in poll-bound Gujarat. Fine-tuning its campaign strategy for the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat, party managers favoured a low-key electioneering in the BJP-ruled state in the initial stage. The Congress, sources said, will follow the same tactic that was used during the recent by-election to Mansa assembly seat which it wrested from the BJP after 17 years.
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BJP goes national and Congress local in MCD polls - Bhuvan Bagga, Mail Today
The BJP is clutching at national issues, while the Congress is going local in the run-up to the MCD polls. In doing so, each party is trying to set the agenda for the civic polls to be held on April 15. The Congress, pilloried in the pan-Indian scenario, is desperately trying to limit the poll debates to local issues. The BJP, eager to exploit its opponents over rows on corruption and price rise, is doing just the opposite.
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Potential mass vote absention 'a danger' for France's Socialists - France24
An opinion poll released Sunday shows the 2012 presidential election could see the highest rate of abstention in the history of the modern French Republic. For frontrunning Socialist candidate François Hollande, that is a cause for real concern. Some 32 per cent of the French electorate is expected to abstain from voting in the forthcoming presidential election, according to a recent opinion poll. It would be a record for the French Republic and of particular concern for the Socialist Party, which has the most to lose.
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MCD: Matiala strongman eyes an assembly seat - Durgesh Nandan Jh, ToI
Two-term deputy mayor and BJP heavyweight from Matiala ward in west Delhi, Rajesh Gehlot, says he will be voted back to power for the development work carried out by him in the area - construction of new community halls, relaying of roads, development of parks and success in getting approval for construction of a football stadium in the ward from Delhi Development Authority (DDA), of which he is a member. If voted back to power, Gehlot says his main aim will be to ensure proper water supply in the area. Matiala ward, which has the highest number of voters (90,000) in the capital, constitutes of several sectors of Dwarka, three urban villages, unauthorized regularized colonies and slum clusters.
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Myanmar: The Euphoria can wait - Sanjay Pulipaka & Krishnan Srinivasan, Telegraph
The Myanmar Election Commission has confirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy has won a landslide victory in the by-elections held on April 1. These elections were held in 43 national parliamentary seats and for two seats in Division-level parliaments. Elections in three constituencies in Kachin State were cancelled owing to security concerns. Suu Kyi registered a big victory in her constituency, and the NLD reportedly won more than 40 seats out of 45, soundly beating the ruling party, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. While the number of seats is small, the stakes were high.
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UP: No one blames Rahul Gandhi - Anil Sharma, DNA
Congress Gneral Secretary Rahul Gandhi fought the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections on the basis of a strategy formulated with heavy management style inputs. The results were disastrous. Now weeks after the humiliation, he has begun another management style review. As a part of the exercise, Gandhi met 150 defeated Congress candidates - who polled more than 20,000 votes - in three batches for a detailed review.
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Voters throw cold water on BJP plans - Raj Bahadur Singh, Pioneer
The party failed to retain many of the Assembly seats it had won in the 2007 election and saw its State president Surya Pratap Shahi and Legislature Party leader Om Prakash Singh losing the electoral battle. It even lost the prestigious Ayodhya seat that it had been winning for the last five elections. The only face saving grace for the party was the victory of its two leaders, Uma Bharti and Kalraj Mishra, both of whom were projected as the party’s chief ministerial candidates.
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It’s all about losing the goonda tag - Bishwadeep Ghosh, Pioneer
But like every opportunity which comes along with a price tag of bigger responsibility, the SP too has a heavy yoke to shoulder. For the SP brass (read Akhilesh Yadav), keeping its ‘wild bunch’ under tight leash would probably be the most worrisome Achilles heel to tend. The SP’s wild bunch — MLAs, workers and supporters et al, have been responsible for the notorious image of the outfit being a ‘goondon ki party’ — arming its rivals to use the term to attack the SP in poll rallies.
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Cong uses BJP’s ‘poor’ MCD work to deflect attack - Risha Chitlangia, Times of India
Congress thinks it has an answer to BJP's poll strategy of highlighting corruption and scams. The party is deploying countermeasures by highlighting BJP's "poor" record in MCD. Congress will build up a strong campaign around this to justify the Delhi government's decision to trifurcate the civic body. To achieve this end, the party will compare maintenance of civic infrastructure under the Delhi government and BJP-ruled MCD.
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Left could back Badal as presidential candidate - Sunday Guardian
The Left Front may support Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal as a candidate for the post of Indian President in the July election at the end of President Pratibha Patil's term. Badal's name is likely to be proposed by the National Democratic Alliance. S. Sudhakar Reddy, the new CPI general secretary did not express any objections to Badal's candidature when asked a specific question in this regard. However, he maintained that the matter was yet to be decided.
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EC showcause notice to DPCC chief - Abhishek Anand, Asian Age
The Delhi state election commission on Wednesday served a showcause notice on Delhi Congress president J.P. Agarwal for allegedly seeking votes on religious ground during a campaign for municipal polls. The commission issued the notice after Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta and senior leader Prof. V.K. Malhotra submitted a memorandum to election commissioner Rakesh Mehta. The BJP leaders demanded action against Mr Agarwal for “violating” election code of conduct by allegedly seeking votes on religious grounds.
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AP by poll: Infighting rears its head in the Congress in Andhra Pradesh as the party draws a blank in the byelections - S Nagesh Kumar, Frontline
The Congress in Andhra Pradesh is going through a phase of bitter infighting in the wake of the severe drubbing it received in the recent byelections in seven Assembly constituencies. The demand that makes itself heard most is the one for the resignation of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. He is being blamed for the debacle because he did not take into confidence leaders from the Telangana region in the matter of choosing candidates and in taking other key decisions. His supporters accuse his detractors of having kept away from electioneering for fear of incurring the displeasure of forces supporting statehood for Telangana.
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Myanmar's historic vote - Hindu
The landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, in the by-elections held in Myanmar has confirmed what was already widely known: the iconic Nobel laureate remains as popular with the people of her country since the time she last contested elections, in 1990. Then, the military junta had robbed her of victory, putting her under house arrest for nearly all of the next two decades. This time, she will take her place in parliament as a member of the opposition, but her role is much bigger than that. Her studied decision to contest was crucial for the credibility of the reforms that have been set in motion under President Thein Sein.
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Rahul defends Ministers, wants to divide U.P. into four zones for better management - Smita Gupta, Hindu
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi told elected MLAs and MPs that the entire blame for the party's poor performance in the recent Uttar Pradesh assembly elections could not be laid at the doors of those Ministers whose controversial public statements were said to have adversely affected the chances of those in the electoral fray. They may have contributed, he said, to the results but not entirely.
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The 8 Senate races you should pay attention to - Week
The marquee race of 2012, of course, is the hard-fought battle for the White House. But 33 Senate seats are also up for grabs this November, and along with them, control of the upper chamber. Currently, the Senate has 51 Democrats, 47 Republicans, and two independents who typically caucus with the Left. So while fewer than a dozen of this year's Senate races are truly competitive, the GOP only needs a net gain of four seats to seize control of the chamber for the first time since 2006 — the last time this year's incumbents faced voters.
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US: Should investors be allowed to bet on the 2012 election? - Week
This week, government regulators told a Chicago futures exchange that it can't take bets on who will win the 2012 elections. The North American Derivatives Exchange, or Nadex, had applied for permission to let people buy and sell contracts for as little as $100 that would pay out based on the outcome of the presidential race, or whether Democrats or Republicans end up controlling the House and Senate next year.
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Political parties expect a pre-term election by chance, not by design - Prabha Jagannathan, Week
The first sign of political parties thinking about a pre-term general election came when railway minister Dinesh Trivedi said at the start of the Budget session of Parliament that his party, the Trinamool Congress, was keen on it. That, however, lost merit when Trivedi went out of favour of his party leader, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and lost his cabinet berth on a controversial rail budget. Also, Mamata seems mellowed down after the Congress agreed to withdraw its candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections on her insistence and the Centre agreed to raise Bengal's credit limit to 0950 crore. The cash-strapped state government had been struggling to pay even salaries.
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Regional parties hold the key to Raisina hill and, Pranab Mukherjee seems to hold the master key - Vijaya Pushkarna and Prabha Jagannathan, Week
Senior politicians, both national and regional, are busy finalising their personal preferences for President. The 340-room Rashtrapati Bhavan will need a new resident, as President Pratibha Patil will leave in late July. The strongest contender seems to be Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. His abilities, surely, do work in his favour, but more important is the fact that he might be the only person around whom a consensus could emerge.
The presidential election may not have the colour and noise of a Lok Sabha poll or an Assembly election, but the political involvement is no less.
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Will Nikki Haley be the first Indian-American VP nominee? - Uttara Choudhury, First Post
America is in the grip of all things Nikki Randhawa Haley at the moment. A link posted by the Drudge Report indicates that Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has placed South Carolina Governor Haley on his shortlist of potential running mates. In addition to the vice presidential talk, Haley has also struck a chord with television audiences by revealing more about her childhood experiences, spelled out in her powerful new book Can’t Is Not an Option about growing up Indian in a small South Carolina town.
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MCD: Civic issues swept into the gutter as politics takes priority - Arpit Parashar, Tehelka
Campaigning in Delhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari recently released a booklet listing “Congress scams”. According to him, the people of Delhi will remember this and vote BJP back to the 272-member Municipal Corporation of Delhi that goes to polls on 15 April. The Congress, on the other hand, is reminding the people of the “good work done by the state government”, said Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Jai Prakash Aggarwal.
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Unqualified trio of Congress coroners appointed for poll 'autopsy' - Kay Benedict, Mail Today
The Congress's primary thinktank of party president Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul Gandhi has appointed the 'tried and tested' trio of defence minister A.K. Antony, Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit and Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to surgically dissect the rout in the Uttar Pradesh elections. At the end of Rahul's two-day brainstorming with nearly 200 local leaders from the state on the abysmal slide in UP, the threemember power-packed committee was formed to suggest measures for a Congress turnaround in the politically sensitive and crucial state.
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Azam Khan questions Maulana's credentials as leader of Muslims - Atiq Khan, Hindu
Even as there has been no reaction from the Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh, a day after the Shahi Imam, Syed Abdullah Bukhari rejected his son-in-law's (Umar Ali Khan) candidature for the Vidhan Parishad elections, the SP's ‘Muslim face' Mohammad Azam Khan has taken up the cudgels against the Maulana. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister's opposition to the Shahi Imam is well-known and the latest development has given Mr. Khan another opportunity to take pot-shots at Imam Bukhari.
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A little ink on your finger does count, Delhiites told - Neelam Pandey and Rajat Arora, HT
Democracy has a reason to cheer in Delhi. Laggard voters are being pushed hard and motivated to come out of their houses on April 15 and exercise their franchise in the Municipal polls. Move over the usual suspects, the NGOs or netas, Resident's Welfare Associations have taken the lead in motivating voters in their respective areas, telling them that they could make a difference with their vote. To make them realise the worth of push of a button on polling day, RWAs in the city have been organising mini marathons, painting banner competitions, running campaigns on the internet and even going from door to door to ensure a better turnout.
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Sheila hits poll road, slams BJP for no work - Naziya Alvi, Times of India
With less than a week left in the municipal elections, chief minister Sheila Dikshit is out on roads to woo voters in favour of Congress candidates. Holding public meetings in three constituencies in north Delhi, Dikshit on Sunday showcased the good work done by her government and slammed the BJP-ruled MCD for its failure to deliver.
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Maya, with new smile, gets ready for Lok Sabha - Sunday Guardian
Bahujan Samaj Party president and former UP Chief Minister Mayawati is looking unusually smug these days, too smug for someone who has just been thrown out of power. "The days of anxiety that came immediately after the results, are over and her mood is now upbeat. She is confident that she would bounce back with greater intensity in the next Lok Sabha elections," said a party MP who met her recently.
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US election 2012: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney accuse each other of being out of touch - Jon Swaine, Telegraph
Mr Romney, a multimillionaire Harvard graduate, said the president is "out of touch". Mr Obama, a Harvard graduate and multimillionaire, says the same of his rival. As Americans struggle to recover from the country's economic collapse, their likely choices for the White House are going to eyebrow-raising lengths to prove that the other does not feel the public's pain. Mr Romney said this week that after "years of flying around on Air Force One, surrounded by an adoring staff of true believers," Mr Obama was "a little out of touch" with regular folk.
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MCD Poll: BJP fears rising dissidence may be spoiler - Risha Chitlangia, ToI
The problems faced by BJP due to dissidence seem to be mounting. Party sources say show-cause notices will be served on about 70 of its workers. BJP had recently expelled 14 party workers, including 11 sitting councillors, as they were contesting the municipal elections either as independent candidates, or were supporting other candidates. Senior party leaders admitted that the number of dissidents this year was much more than that in 2007. This has become a cause for concern for the party leadership.
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MCD Poll: Poll heat picks up, as do code violations - Ruhi Bhasin, Indian Express
Alcohol distribution, fights between candidates and illegal occupation of government property are some of the complaints received by the Delhi Election Commission, in violation of the model code of conduct. An independent candidate reportedly broke the lock of a government building in Rohini, to use it as his campaign office. “He was arrested and later let out on bail. He had broken the seal of a government building and had erected a tent outside. As soon as this came to our notice, he was arrested. The building has been sealed again,’’ Chief Election Commissioner Rakesh Mehta said.
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MCD Poll: In the last leg, parties call in their stars - Pragya Kaushika , Priyanka Sharma, Indian Express
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) plan to sweep the city with star campaigners in the last leg of their publicity drive for the municipal elections scheduled coming Sunday. The Congress’s line-up includes parliamentarian and former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin, Minister of State Harish Rawat and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah. After having its manifesto launched by national president Nitin Gadkari, the BJP though is unlikely to bring in more national faces, sources said, and will rely on state leaders and celebrity politicians.
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National Interest: BJP, the lonely - Shekhar Gupta, Indian Express
There are reasons why it is easy to understand the BJP’s jubilation at the Gujarat SIT’s reprieve to Narendra Modi, and there are reasons why it isn’t. For a full decade now, Modi has been the party’s unanointed leader. A star, crowd-puller and vote-catcher, though that claim has never been proven outside his state. So you can see why the BJP should be happy with what they see as Modi crossing one more hurdle on his way to the national stage.
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MCD Poll: Humble migrants get their ticket to ride - Durgesh Nandan Jha, ToI
Gopal Singh ferries people around the city for a living but his own future is riding on next Sunday's municipal polls. For the one-time sweeper-turned-day labourer-turned-auto driver, it's a chance to break into the political orbit. With a BJP ticket for his licence, Singh rushes around northwest Delhi's poor Prem Nagar ward these days, invoking common roots and door-delivering well rehearsed promises. Singh is one of the many subaltern candidates who fit into political parties' game plan to woo migrant voters from the eastern states.
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Confident... MCD polls not a referendum on my govt: Sheila - Ravi Bajpai, IE
Acknowledging there were pulls and pressure during distribution of party tickets, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday said she was confident of Congress prospects in the municipal polls but insisted that the results should not be seen as a referendum on her governance. Three-time Chief Minister Dikshit has led several Congress poll rallies over the last few weeks and has spearheaded the party’s strategy for the election scheduled this Sunday.
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With restraint, BJP seeks to regain appeal - Appu Esthose Suresh, Mint
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been measured and restrained in responding to the controversy surrounding army chief V.K. Singh, as it has been on many other issues troubling the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the recent past, as it attempts to regain its middle-class appeal as “the party with a difference”—as it used to style itself—by seizing the moral high ground.
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MCD: Nine per cent candidates declare criminal cases - Prgaya Kaushika, IE
This municipal elections, all political parties are going in ‘clean’, or at least so they claim. The Association for Democratic Reforms on Tuesday listed the criminal cases against candidates in the fray for the post of councillors. Out of 211, BJP has 39 candidates (18 per cent) who have criminal cases against them. Congress has 28 candidates out of 207 (14 per cent), BSP has 19 out of 214 (14 per cent) and Samajwadi Party has 4 out 77 (5 per cent).
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MCD: Report: One in every four candidates is a crorepati - Ruhi Bhasin, IE
An analysis of the affidavits of 1,485 candidates in the MCD polls showed that one fourth of them are crorepatis, with assets ranging from Rs 6 crore to Rs 112 crore. For the analysis, Delhi Election Watch went through affidavits of 1,485 candidates out of the 2,400 who are contesting. “A total of 342 candidates out of 1,485, which is 23%, are crorepatis. The Congress has 116 out of 207 (56%) and BJP has 103 out of 211 (49%),” said Jagdeep Chhoker, founder member of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). This report was prepared by ADR along with National Election Watch (NEW), which comprises 1,200 NGOs and other citizen-led organisations.
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RS repoll amid CBI probe - Suman K Shrivastava & Pheroze L Vincent, Telegraph
The Election Commission today scheduled repolling for the two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand on May 3, a day after it sought a CBI probe into malpractices preceding not only the rescinded March 30 vote, but also the 2010 election that was held amid similar allegations of horse-trading. In a letter written to the secretary, Union ministry of personnel and public grievances yesterday, the commission indicated that it wanted a thorough probe into the manner in which elections to the Rajya Sabha were conducted in Jharkhand.
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More Rahul review sessions lined up - Sanjay K Jha, Telegraph
Rahul Gandhi’s two-day exercise to
pinpoint the reasons for the Congress’s pathetic performance in the
Uttar Pradesh election may be replicated in other states as party
workers and leaders believe the experience has been valuable. Sources said Sonia
Gandhi herself was impressed by the exercise, where candidates who
polled more than 20,000 votes in Assembly seats and over a lakh votes in
parliamentary constituencies had been invited for an analysis. The
session was not purely election-oriented as the fundamental causes of
the party’s poor health were discussed freely by grassroots workers.
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Delhi's elite skip MCD polls, but pigeonhole dwellers and urban villagers flock to polling booths - Bhuvan Bagga & Suhas Munshi, Mail Today
An estimated 55 to 58 per cent voting took place in the maiden elections to the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Sunday. But a closer look at the figures that add up to make it the highest ever turnout in a civic poll in the Capital spotlights the yawning gap between the voting patterns of the upper middle-class Delhi and the not-so-privileged Dilli. While the educated elite of the city skipped the electoral process and were confined to the air-conditioned comfort of their homes, the pigeonhole dwellers of resettlement colonies, slum clusters and urban villages flocked to polling booths in multitudes.
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MCD Poll: For slums, polls an opportunity to demand better facilities - Nivedita Khandekar, HT
People from slum clusters and unauthorised colonies — who comprise almost 50 per cent of Delhi’s population and actually vote — are looking at municipal polls as an opportunity to demand better basic amenities. These days, the local councillor has become a popular figure among them to seek facilities including internal roads and better sanitation system. “Drains, alleys, removal of garbage and a proper sewer network are basic needs. Each councillor got R2 crore last year but they did nothing,” said Jawahar Singh of Jhuggi Jhonpri Ekta Manch.
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Myanmar: The Yangon spring - Economist
It was an astonishing triumph of hope over experience. Voters in by-elections in 45 constituencies all over Myanmar turned out in a landslide victory for Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy. When the NLD last contested an election—a national poll in 1990—it won over 60% of the votes and 80% of the seats. The ruling junta never honoured the results.
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103 voters, one address: Poll panel to look into ‘unnatural roll’ - Indian Express
A municipal ward in West Delhi has houses with more than 100 voters registered on a single address, raising worries about bogus voters just three days before this Sunday’s municipal elections. In one case, as many as 103 voters are listed against house number WZ 189 in Khayala village, under ward number 108, Khayala, according to the area’s electoral rolls. In the same neighbourhood, house number WZ 102 has 90 residents, house number WZ 40/1 has 80 residents and several others have 40 voters or more.
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From 80 councillors in 1958 to 272 today, MCD has come a long way - Sidhartha Roy, HT
It was exactly 54 years ago that the MCD donned its present avatar after evolving from many municipal commissions and committees. Till 1957, Delhi’s civic requirements were looked after by 12 different committees and boards, which had little coordination. To ensure uniform development of the city, the government enacted the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act in 1957. The first general municipal election was held in March 1958 and the MCD was born on April 7, 1958 after amalgamating 10 different local authorities. The Delhi Cantonment Board and the New Delhi Municipal Committee continued to exist as independent entities.
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Delhi’s civic elections turning out to be a referendum on Sheila govt. - K Balakrishnan, LensOnNews
It will be a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress for the three new municipal corporations of Delhi, elections for which are to be held on April 15. The elections have significance beyond their civic context, as they are seen as a ‘prequel’ not only to the Delhi assembly elections to be held next year, but also to the many other state assembly elections (Gujarat, Himachal, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh) scheduled over the next two years in which the two national parties will be pitted directly against each other.
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BJP set to win all 3 municipal corporations in Delhi: Poll - K Balakrishnan, LensOnNews
After the UP elections, the results of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations gave a rude jolt to the Congress. The LensOnNews survey indicates that the MCD election results are likely to be another wake-up call. Our survey shows BJP increasing its vote share over the 2007 level by 3 percentage points to 39 per cent and the Congress maintaining its share at 29 per cent. However, the seats tally of both parties are set to drop, with the BJP’s overall tally in the three new entities coming down from 164 to 149 and the Congress’s from 67 to 54.
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Mulayam blinks, Bukhari wins - Atiq Khan, Hindu
The week-long impasse in the Samajwadi Party ended on Thursday when the party president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh succumbed to the dictats of the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, and accepted all his demands. Even if it meant alienating his close party colleague Mohammad Azam Khan. The ‘breakthrough' was achieved after a 40-minute-long meeting with the Shahi Imam at Mr. Singh's Vikramaditya Marg residence here. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was also present at the meeting.
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Battle of the beards - Alexandria, Cairo and Mansoura, Economist
Few could have predicted when protesters toppled President Hosni Mubarak last year that Egyptians would replace him with a Salafist preacher. But the clamour in Egypt’s streets suggests that Hazem Abu Ismail, a lawyer-cum-sermoniser committed to replicating the seventh-century ways of the Prophet Mohammed, could be the country’s next pharaoh. Wherever he tours, crowds mob Mr Abu Ismail as if he were a pop-star. His smile and beard, trimmed in a crescent, beam from posters plastered everywhere. In Mansoura, a city in the Nile Delta, women in niqabs, the preferred Salafist dress that hides female faces behind black cloth, ride side-saddle on motorbikes waving posters proclaiming their love.
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French poll could produce a cliff-hanger second round - Vaiju Naravane, Hindu
With just 9 days to go before the first round of voting in the French presidential poll, political observers say a second round run-off between incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and his Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, appears inevitable. “None of the three second rankers — the extreme Left's champion Jean-Luc Melanchon, the extreme Right National Front's Marine Le Pen or the centrist Francois Bayrou — has managed to break away and make enough of an impression on the electorate to create an unexpected upset in the line up and a Sarkozy-Hollande battle seems almost certain,” Renaud Dely, who edits the influential Left-wing magazine Le Nouvel Observateur told The Hindu.
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The race to the top - Times of India
Following the departure of Rick Santorum from the presidential field, Mitt Romney has now effectively won the Republican nomination to challenge Barack Obama in November. The presidential election season thus now moves to the next phase, between now and the party conventions in August, whereby Romney and the Republicans must decisively turn their focus of attention onto Obama and winning the White House. The bruising Republican nomination contest in recent months has done little to endear Romney to the electorate, especially independents. He has been caricatured by his Republican opponents as inconsistent in his political positions (a 'flip-flopper'), and out-of-touch with most voters, partly because of his extremely high wealth.
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Sheila shortchanged MCD, says Gupta . - Parvez Sultan, Pioneer
Calling Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit a villain, Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta on Thursday said that the BJP in MCD managed to bring several reforms and transparency during the past five years despite hurdles created by the Delhi Government. “As an administrative head, the CM should have played a positive role in development of the city, but she acted like a villain. She made every possible attempt to malign the MCD’s image. At times, the Delhi Government did not make available adequate funds, but regardless of these obstacles, we performed constantly,” said the BJP leader.
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Myanmar Diary - Sreenivasan Jain, Outlook
Election night outside the National League of Democracy (NLD) headquarters in the heart of Yangon, the street was a sea of red (the NLD party colour). Every time a giant screen on the roof flashed a win for the NLD, a DJ would cue one of the party’s highly infectious anthems and the crowd would go wild. And yet it was a pure, almost gentle energy. Families, students, office workers waved Aung San Suu Kyi banners, cheered, danced and took time off to explain to the world press the current leads position. In the near distance, the beams from a searchlight lit up the outlines of the Shwedagon Pagoda.
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MCD polls: Small players have a big chance - Durgesh Nandan Jha, Times of India
Will independent candidates remain mere fringe players or will they be the key players in the formation of three new municipal corporations? What role will the smaller parties like Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal(U), Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Indian National Lok Dal play? Their past record doesn't inspire much hope but under current circumstances, when people's frustration with major political parties is at its pinnacle, political analysts say, the fringe players might well play a decisive role. While East Corporation has 64 wards, South and North corporations have 104 wards each.
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Never mind the elections, just rig the rolls - Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, Hindu
Imagine a country without an election commission, where the state makes no effort to prepare an electoral register at national, regional, or provincial level, where it is left to citizens get themselves on the register, and where the ruling party in every province writes the rules and procedures for registration and then conducts the poll and the count.
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Rich BMC scores over MCD - Anahita Mukherji, Times of India
When it comes to the Mumbai versus Delhi debate, there's no dearth of talking points. But a comparison of the municipal corporations of the two cities rarely makes it to the discussion. And yet, a look at the run-up to the civic elections in the two cities this year paints a picture in contrast. While the elections in Mumbai were accompanied by much fanfare in February, with NGOs ranking corporators and youngsters going from door to door exhorting people to vote, elections in Delhi are a tad less lively.
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MCD polls: Elderly 'dabanggs' not behind in exercising their votes - Indian Express
Exercising your democratic right may mean negotiating cumbersome queues, but there was no dearth of enthusiasm today among some not-so-young 'Dabanggs' for whom their vote is a responsibility towards the nation. Ask 91-year-old Ratilal Shah, a voter in Chandni Chowk, and he will tell you that his eagerness to cast a ballot has not diminished in six decades. Shah claims to have voted in all elections since Independence and strongly believes that exercising this right is a duty that everyone should hold sacrosanct.
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Capital gains - Times of India
For the third consecutive time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained its hold on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The country's second-richest civic body was recently trifurcated, creating 104 wards in its southern and northern corporations, 64 in the east. Of these, 138 seats were reserved for women. In the latest MCD polls, the BJP emerged as a clear winner in north and east Delhi while becoming the largest party in south Delhi.
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MCD polls: First time voters throng booths - Times of India
The excitement was visible among the first-time voters; a sense of achievement writ large on their faces. They flaunted the mark of indelible ink on their fingers, which many of them considered proof of their coming of age. But these proud young voters were also an informed lot-they knew the problems affecting their areas and had studied the candidates. They hoped their vote would make a difference.
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Month later, SP govt yet to act on post-poll violence - Manish Sahu, Indian Express
Violence was reported from many parts of Uttar Pradesh following the Samajwadi Party’s victory in the Assembly election results declared on March 6. While in most cases the victims had blamed SP men, Mulayam Singh Yadav and son Akhilesh Yadav had alleged that their party was being framed. Akhilesh had added: “We have not yet taken over. The officers appointed by the Mayawati government are still there, let them take action.” As Akhilesh completed one month as Chief Minister yesterday, the police are yet to arrest the accused in two of the three worst incidents of violence, where four persons lost their lives, while the SP leader named in the third is now a minister. The case file so far:
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MCD Poll: People vote against potholes, poor sanitation, price rise - HT
When Delhi came out to vote on Sunday, there was one common issue that found resonance from Dwarka to Dilshad Garden and Chandni Chowk to Chittaranjan Park — lack of sanitation. Apart from sanitation, the other major issues that made Delhiites vote in numbers unprecedented in recent memory were corruption, parking, bad roads and even price rise. Sultana Begum, a resident of Matia Mahal in Chandni Chowk said, “No matter who comes to power in the MCD, the heaps of garbage remain where they are.”
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Rahul disgusted with Team Manmohan - Sunday Guardian
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi is "disgusted with Team Manmohan", claim some of those working with him. They decline to be named, but say that the Congress party's Heir Apparent "has been venting his dismay almost daily at the mess being created by the Manmohan Singh 'ministry'." According to them, Rahul believes that the "poor performance and poorer optics" of Team Manmohan have been the factors responsible for the plunge in Congress fortunes during the just-concluded Assembly elections.
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CPM presents short sighted pre-poll position in kerala - Venu Menon, SG
With posters of Lenin and other foreign ideologues of the Communist pantheon dotting street corners, it seemed incongruous to bring up the topic of evolving an indigenous socialist model. But that is what the 20th party congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) included on its agenda on the penultimate day before wrapping up on 9 April in Kozhikode. "We need socialism for India, not based on conditions in Russia and China," Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told the media. "We are learning from their experience and applying what is relevant to Indian conditions," he added.
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Apolitical wish list to Sonia on RS polls - Suman K Shrivastava, Telegraph
JVM chief Babulal Marandi wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi today, requesting her to propose the name of a “son of the soil” for the Rajya Sabha polls, a day before the Election Commission issued a repoll notification. In an attempt at finding a common Opposition candidate for the May 3 elections, Marandi in his three-page letter suggested the names of a dozen-odd apolitical persons who could be probable nominees, offering his party’s support if the Congress chose any one of them.
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BJP confident; Cong hopes to upset apple cart - Moazum Mohammad, Pioneer
Massive and rigorous campaigns by Delhi State Election Commission and various other social organisations to persuade voters yielded results as record numbers came out and exercised their franchise on Sunday. As per preliminary data of the Delhi State Election Commission, the voter turnout for the municipal polls increased nearly 15 per cent in comparison to 2007 municipal election. Expressing his satisfaction over the development, State Election Commissioner Rakesh Mehta said he was pleased that efforts made by the commission proved fruitful with 55 to 58 per cent exercising their franchise, which was an all time high.
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MCD polls: Delhi votes to make history, verdict today - Ambika Pandit, ToI
The fate of 2,423 contestants will be known only by Tuesday evening but the city itself moved up a grade in Sunday's municipal polls by recording a 55% turnout. Notorious for its low "third division scores" - in the words of Delhi election commissioner Rakesh Mehta - it showed a dramatic 28.5% improvement from last time's 42.8% turnout to attain 'second division'.
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Hollande has the upper hand, for now - Vaiju Naravane, Hindu
As campaigning for the French presidential election entered its final round, the two frontrunners — Conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and his Socialist challenger Francois Hollande — held massive rallies in the capital in a numbers war that most observers said was a draw. Mr. Sarkozy on Monday insisted there were “at least 120,000 people” at his rally at the Place de la Concorde in central Paris, where he celebrated his win five years ago.
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CM Meet: Federalism is hogwash; leaders have eyes set on 2014 - Akshaya Mishra, FirstPost
Let’s get it straight. The opposition to NCTC from certain states has nothing to do with federal principles, it is about politics. The fear of the Centre usurping the powers of the states through the anti-terror body is too much hype and little substance — yes, we have heard of a KGB in the making in India and worse scare-mongering; none of it makes much sense.
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MCD results dress rehearsal for 2012 assembly poll: BJP - FirstPost
Is the MCD election a semi- final to upcoming assembly elections? The answer depends on whom you are posing the question to. If one were to go by past results, there seems to be no connection between the municipal and assembly elections. The BJP looks like it is well on its way to winning the MCD for the second time in a row, but the Congress has been ruling the Delhi assembly for more than two decades now. This gives the impression that while local issues such as parking, street lighting, garbage heaps and potholes dominate the municipal elections, assembly elections are about the big picture.
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The new voice of urban India? - Udayan Namboodiri, Pioneer
Mumbai, Punjab and now Delhi – Congress’ cup of woe brimeth over. Is urban India returning to the BJP? Not clear yet. The BJP was not expected to retain Delhi in the civic polls held in the city this week. Anti-incumbency, combined with the reported lackluster nature of its campaign, seemed to be working in Congress’ favour and Sheila Dikshit’s long-cherished dream of controlling Delhi at all levels — municipality through Parliament, which she indeed did in the period between 2004 and 2007 — seems in the offing.
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Cong is paying the price for arrogance in Delhi - Bhupendra Chaubey, FirstPost
Another election, another defeat for the Congress! This time in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The only silver lining for the party – it couldn’t get worse. The grand old party, that’s been in power in Delhi since 1998, would be hoping that Delhi-ites have merely given vent to their anger at the MCD level. They must be thinking, good, we now have a better chance at the assembly level, when the level of anger would have reduced. But these could well end up being arguments offered by the party’s spin doctors. Frankly, the time has come for Congress to do a reality check.
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BJP 3/3 - Indian Express
Deepening the divide in the Congress and setting the stage for a keenly contested Assembly elections in Delhi next year, the BJP on Tuesday swept the elections to the three new municipalities to become the first party in 50 years to return to power in a civic poll in the city. It routed the Congress all across Delhi, bagging a clear majority in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for North Delhi and East Delhi and emerging as the single largest party in the South Delhi municipality.
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Wins for richest & poorest, man & wife, and an 18-vote loss - Nandini Thilak , Pritha Chatterjee, IE
In the din of celebrations and the deafening silence of loss, there were some who stood out. BJP’s Jagroshini, a housewife, stunned her party and rivals when she won by a margin much bigger than the total votes her husband and sitting councillor polled in the last elections. She romped home at Begumpur by a victory margin of 17,000 votes — husband Jai Bhagwan Yadav had managed a total of 10,386 votes, and a victory margin of some 2,000 votes.
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Sarkozy set to lose race - Claude Arpi, Pioneer
As a dull campaign winds down and France prepares to vote in the first round of the presidential election, the Socialists appear to have the edge. Has the die been cast? It would seem so. In all probability, President Nicholas Sarkozy will be retiring in May, after the second round of the 2012 French presidential election. At least this is what surveys predict. After the first round, to be held on April 22, ‘Sarko’, as he is popularly known in France, will be left to fend with Mr François Hollande, the Socialist candidate and favorite for the May 6 round.
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The gloves are off, gauntlet is thrown - S Rajagopalan, Pioneer
It’s now clear that Mitt Romney will take on Barack Hussein Obama in a no-holds-barred battle. It may still be a few more months for the Republican Party to complete the formalities of primaries and anoint front-runner Mitt Romney as its presidential nominee. But the gloves, to be sure, are already off for what everyone now reckons is going to be an Obama-Romney showdown in November. And President Barack Obama himself has thrown down the gauntlet in recent days, now that Mr Romney’s principal rival, Mr Rick Santorum, has bowed out of the Republican race.
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Municipal result, national symptom - Sanjay K Jha, Telegraph
The BJP has retained its grip over municipal Delhi, a sliver of a result that need not concern the Union government under normal circumstances but should do so this time because of the symptomatic lessons. Numbers do not always tell the full tale: the BJP has dropped seats, the Congress has made a few gains but the real beneficiaries have been Independents or candidates of smaller parties. The BSP, for instance, bagged 14 seats, the INLD 5 and the NCP 4.
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BJP strikes gold in MCD elections, Cong stunned - Times of India
The BJP struck gold on Tuesday in the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) elections, winning two of the three civic bodies and emerging close to a majority in the third. The results indicated that voters were simply not impressed by the Congress party and chief minister Sheila Dikshit's promise of "development and good governance".
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Outcome of AP bypolls to set course for next LS polls? - Indian Express
Outcome of the impending by-elections to 18 Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat will set the course for the next general elections in Andhra Pradesh. Essentially though, the by-elections will determine the longevity of N Kiran Kumar Reddy as Chief Minister as well as the fate of the ruling Congress in the state. Kiran only managed to prolong his innings by ensuring that bypolls to these 18 seats were not held along with the seven in March or else his fate would have been sealed by now. He has, however, been put under notice by the Congress high command to ensure the party romps home at least in half of the 18 seats now, failing which to put it in Kiran's own lingo -- he will lose his wicket.
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Romney begins search for a popular running mate to beat Obama - Telegraph
Mitt Romney has begun the search for a presidential running mate nearly six months ahead of November's US election in a bid to avoid a repeat of the disastrous appointment of Sarah Palin whose gaffes and inexperience undermined the Republicans' 2008 campaign. After the rushed vetting of Mrs Palin failed to expose gaping holes in her knowledge of foreign and economic policy, Mr Romney has appointed Beth Myers, a lawyer and one of his closest aides, to mount a forensic examination of potential candidates.
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More women in MCD than men - Maria Akram, Times of India
For 14 years, Rajkumari began her day with a long-handled broom on the road. But starting next week she will be called to account for not only the cleanliness in her south Delhi ward but also issues like water supply, schools, potholed roads and choked sewers . Having won the municipal poll by 4,468 votes, the erstwhile MCD safai karmchari is all set to start her innings in public life as the first councillor of South Corporation's Kheda ward.
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BJP, Congress vying to capture South Corporation - Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, Hindu
With the municipal elections in Delhi for the South Corporation throwing up a hung house with no clear majority for any single party, both the Congress and the BJP have started wooing the smaller parties and Independents to garner their support. The Congress has roped in its Ministers and MPs to win over the smaller parties. The BJP has entrusted the responsibility to its senior leader V. K. Malhotra, who was also in charge of the party's campaign committee, to ensure support of all the party rebels and some smaller parties.
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Unease in Cong over drifting urban votes - Times of India
Congress's sweeping defeat in Delhi's municipal elections is causing disquiet in the party as the results are being seen as part of a growing body of evidence of the mood in urban areas souring against the ruling coalition at the Centre. The powerful rebuff delivered by Delhi's voters to Congress despite the BJP-controlled corporation posting a poor record in office and the presence of scores of saffron rebels is seen as an unambiguous sign of voter anger over price rise and corruption scandals.
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Mamata to back Mulayam choice for President - Biswajeet Banerjee, Pioneer
In a game of political one-upmanship, the Samajwadi Party and the Trinamool Congress have given an indication of going together in the Presidential election slated for June. This will give sleepless nights to the Congress, which cannot hope to ensure success of its own nominee without the support of these two regional players. SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav’s emissary Rajya Sabha member Kironmoy Nanda held a meeting with TC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata recently. After the 45-minute meeting, both parties decided to go together in the Presidential election.
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Egypt’s presidential race: Rules tie Egypt’s politics in knots - Economist
As in the 1001 Nights, Egypt’s presidential race features tales within tales and plots within devilish plots. Predictably, suspense reigns over which of the 23 registered candidates will win. But just now it is not clear if any will even survive the first lap. The insurgent campaign of Hazem Abu Ismail, a rotund lawyer-turned-preacher whose jolly demeanour belies a radical Islamist agenda, is foundering on news that his late mother may have been—horrors!—an American citizen. This would bar him from running under Egypt’s strict nationality rules.
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No major swing in vote share - Ambika Pandit, Times of India
The total polling percentage for the civic elections in the city may have gone up from 42.78% in 2007 to 53.95% this time but there is no major swing in the vote share of the main political parties. The BJP got an overall vote share of 37.71%, Congress 30.54%, and BSP 9.9%. Compare this with the 2007 figures of BJP (36.17%), Congress (29.17%) and BSP (9.87%) and you get the picture. The independents got a vote share of 14.23%. The BJP, which won in the North and East corporations by a clear majority, has had to take the support of nine independents to reach the majority of 53 in South. The BSP with 9.9% votes remained the primary spoiler like last time across the corporations, along with these independents.
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BJP passes math test in south - Risha Chitlangia, Times of India
Two days after emerging as the single largest party in South Delhi Municipal Corporation, BJP on Thursday also found the numbers to take charge of the new civic body. Requiring 53 seats for a majority in a house of 104 members, the party had won only 44. But by managing to draw nine other members to its side, it is now poised to lead the corporation. Interestingly, seven of the nine outside supporters are BJP rebels who had upset the party's math in the first place. One councillor each from Nationalist Congress Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal has also offered support.
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Independents, small parties spoiled the show for Cong - Neelam Pandey and Hamari Jamatia, Hindustan Times
They may not have secured many seats, but parties such as the Samajwadi Party (SP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) as well Independents did their job well - denting the vote share of the two major parties, the BJP and Congress. In fact, their gain was mostly the Congress party's loss. Data released by the Delhi State Election Commission shows that in North Delhi, these parties hit the Congress so bad that it was nearly 10% behind the BJP. In East Delhi, considered a Congress stronghold, the party suffered as independent candidates secured more than 15% of the total votes polled.
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Not a luxury suite - Rajdeep Sardesai, Hindustan Times
Five years ago, one 'almost' broke the story of India's next president. Amid feverish speculation, a source sent an SMS: "Congratulations! India is getting its first woman president and it is from your home state!". My instinctive reaction was to think of Nirmala Deshpande, a longstanding Gandhian and powerful votary of Indo-Pak peace. We even flashed her name as a likely choice. To be honest, Pratibha Patil, then Rajasthan governor, was one of the last names on our list of possible Maharashtrian women who would occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan. As it turned out, Patil's near-anonymity and relative low profile proved to be her biggest asset.
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Corporations are new, but Delhi voted the same way as it did five years ago - Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, Hindu
When it comes to electing its civic body, Delhi has been voting in a pattern. According to the results of the elections of the newly-trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the vote share of the three leading parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party -- has not changed much since the 2007 polls despite the trifurcation and 50 per cent reservation for women. A closer look at the data released by the State Election Commission has revealed that 22.57 lakh people across Delhi voted for the BJP, 18.78 lakh for the Congress, 8.75 lakh for the Independents, 6.14 lakh for the BSP, 1.39 lakh for the NCP and 1.18 lakh for the Samajwadi Party in these elections.
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In a year, all UP polling booths to have GIS maps - Lalmani Verma, Indian Express
The Election Commission will get Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping done of all 80 parliamentary constituencies, 403 Assembly constituencies, and 1.33 lakh polling booths across the state. With the target to complete the exercise within one year, the Commission will use GIS images in identifying vulnerable polling booths and ensure necessary arrangements for conducing free, fair and peaceful polling in the next Lok Sabha elections.
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Five myths about female voters - Melinda Henneberger, Washington Post
Have female voters ever been more talked about, pitched to or chased after? Both President Obama and Mitt Romney mention the strong women in their lives every chance they get. And each claims that the other candidate is bad for us — with Democrats talking up the Republican “war on women’’ and the GOP countering that the real casualties are the women who’ve lost their jobs since Obama became president. But female voters are so diverse that there could never be one straightforward answer to what we want — so pandering to us is complicated.
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Sarkozy battles ‘repugnance factor’ as France votes for President - Vaiju Naravane, Hindu
Newspaper headlines suddenly seem bland, the airwaves have fallen strangely silent and television news is subdued — almost denuded of substance — now that campaigning for the French presidential elections has ended 48 hours before the country's 44 million-strong electorate goes to the polls on Sunday. Opinion polls, which last placed Socialist challenger Francois Hollande a full three points ahead of the conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy (28–25), cannot be published during this brief hiatus in which undecided voters can make up their minds without pressure or influence.
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Middle class areas backed Congress - Atul Thakur, Times of India
The Congress has been trying to draw some solace from the fact that its performance in the recent MCD elections was better than in 2007, but there is another silver lining to the otherwise dark cloud for the party -its gains have come from the middle class localities of the city, suggesting that the Anna Hazare campaign has done less damage than expected. An analysis of how parties performed in different types of wards - which we categorized as middle class, poor and mixed - shows that the Congress won in 28 middle class wards this time round compared to 19 in 2007.
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Jilted JMM gives nominee entry nod - Suman K Shrivastava, Telegraph
Licking its wound after BJP’s nominee knock last week, the JMM today unequivocally declared that its party candidate would file nomination for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections tomorrow, hinting that its alliance partner had slighted coalition dharma. The Congress too has renominated Pradeep Balmuchu, despite the JVM’s consensus cry, and the latter will formally enter the fray on the last day for filing nominations. JMM chief Shibu Soren went into a huddle with party legislators this morning and asked them to escort Sanjeev Kumar when he files his nomination in the Assembly. Four of the 18 party MLAs — Hemlal Murmu, Deepak Birua, Aquil Akhtar and Vishnu Bhaiya — skipped the meeting, citing personal reasons.
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Abdul Kalam as Prez: Why not? - Akshaya Mishra, First Post
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam as President for a second term? Well, why not? He is apolitical, he commands respect across the board, is non-controversial and brings dignity to the high office. He is an inspiration for the young and the perfect brand ambassador for the country outside. The missile man’s first term between 2002 and 2007 was exemplary. The only problem is he himself has not yet decided whether to go for another term.
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Mulayam stirs President election pot - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
The Samajwadi Party has begun exploring the chances of putting together a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition in the run-up to the presidential election due in June this year. Sources claimed that party president Mulayam Singh Yadav had reason to be “optimistic” after a meeting between his emissary and Rajya Sabha MP Kiranmay Nanda and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Calcutta on Tuesday. “The CM assured me that she will support the candidate who Netaji (Mulayam) declares. She was unambiguous,” Nanda told this correspondent.
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The First Citizen race hots up. Parties get their pawns in place. - Saba Naqvi, Outlook
President Hamid Ansari? The man is, of course, the quiet ex-diplomat who does not normally grace the covers of national magazines. But the current V-P is also the man most likely to make the move to Rashtrapati Bhavan, come July 25. Indeed, the moves to make him the 13th president of India and the counter moves to deny him is the story of the day. The great irony of the times is that with the prime ministerial office diminished, the ruling UPA feels it must redeem its dignity by anointing a president of its choice.
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Infighting in Delhi Cong out in the open - Anuradha Mukherjee, Sunday Guardian
Supporters of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and state Congress chief J.P. Aggarwal cannot stop sparring with each other. Party workers from the two camps have openly started accusing the leaders of being responsible for the Congress' decimation in the municipal elections. The latest is an SMS campaign that demands for Aggarwal's removal from his post of Delhi unit president for the Congress' dismal performance.
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Poll-hit Rahul cutting back IYC, NSUI role - D K Singh, Indian Express
As the Congress worries over declining urban vote share following poll losses, Rahul Gandhi is gradually scaling down his association with the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) — the outfits that were to be the launching pads of his experiments to reform the Congress, doing away with “family, patronage and money” in politics. His interactions with students on college campuses as well as visits to launch membership drives in states are now few and far between, while comments on the IYC website indicate how long back it was last updated.
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TMC holds Congress’s numbers in presidential poll - Rajeev Deshpande, ToI
Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is indispensible to UPA's bid to safely negotiate the looming presidential election in June as Trinamool's 47,890 electoral votes, or 4% of the electoral college, can tilt the balance in almost any political permutation. But while Congress needs its moody ally - as also regional biggies like Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party - the threat of an opposition coup looks remote. Only desertions from UPA and a grand alliance of NDA, Left and regional parties can pose a threat.
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Jharkhand RS polls: JVM to abstain - Manoj Prasad, Indian Express
Senior Congress leaders in Jharkhand are worried about the anti-Congress stand taken by their ally Jharkhand Vikas Morcha over its Rajya Sabha candidate Pradeep Balmuchu. After Balmuchu filed his nomination today, JVM president Babulal Marandi said his party would abstain from voting on May 3. Earlier, his party had asked the Congress to put up a common candidate from a list of 12 persons. Since this was not acceptable to the Congress, the JVM decided to stay away from the polling.
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Game of numbers ahead of French run-off - Vaiju Naravane, Hindu
The French extreme-Right leader Marine Le Pen has upset the apple cart in the first round of the French presidential poll by winning an astonishing 17.90 per cent of the vote, a feat never achieved by a National Front candidate before. Her hate rhetoric targeting Muslims, foreigners, and the EU bureaucracy in Brussels, her calls for protectionist measures that would verge on the autarchic, appear to have seduced a section of the French population afraid of globalisation and haunted by the spectre of falling incomes, joblessness and a “dilution” of French culture by foreign influences.
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French elections: It is simplistic to blame racism - Hindustan Times
There are two ways of looking at the results of the first round of the French presidential vote. On the surface, voters chose to engineer a classic left-right competition by sending the Socialist candidate François Hollande and the outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy into the second round, on May 6. But that's far from the whole story. The biggest upset did not come, as was expected, from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the maverick leftwing Socialist dissident in coalition with the remains of the Communists — but from Marine Le Pen's far-right Front National. Le Pen was credited with 18% of the vote, higher than the 16.5% that got her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, to the second round in 2002. It was the highest score for a far-right candidate in a presidential election in France's fifth republic.
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Congress sets sights on South Delhi Corporation - Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar, Hindu
The Congress now appears to be within sniffing distance of cobbling up a majority in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation but is unable to decide whether to press ahead with the numbers or respect the people's verdict by leaving the Corporation to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The existing rules providing for voting by the Members of Parliament and legislators from the area in the election of the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and six members of the MCD Standing Committee and the fact that about a dozen councillors from the Nationalist Congress Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party would prefer allying with it has changed the equations in this Corporation, which had thrown up a hung verdict, in favour of the Congress.
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Hatia bypoll bugle sounded by EC - Suman K Shrivastava, Telegraph
The poll cauldron will remain on the boil in the state for some more time with the Election Commission today announcing by-election to the Hatia Assembly seat, two years after it fell vacant following the death of Congress MLA Gopal Sharan Nath Shahdeo. Political parties are already engaged in intense lobbying and tussling for the Rajya Sabha re-election scheduled for May 3 even as the CBI investigates the role of various MLAs and Independent candidates in bartering votes during both the 2010 as well as the March 30 elections to the upper House.
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NDA rules out consensus candidate - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
The BJP-led NDA is unwilling to bite the “consensus” bait on electing the country’s next President, sources said. The BJP is also reluctant to settle for a quid pro quo that the Congress might possibly dangle. Political sources said the “give-and-take” mechanism would entail coaxing the BJP’s support for a presidential candidate from the Congress in return for offering the Vice-President’s post to the Opposition party.
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Rashtrapati race is run-up to 2014, so need contest: BJP - Swaraj Thapa, IE
The BJP is considering the option of fielding its own candidate to succeed President Pratibha Patil. A senior BJP leader indicated on Tuesday that a contest was preferable to consensus — it would keep the BJP at a clear distance from the UPA in a politically polarised situation, and would signal the likely realignment of forces for the real battle in 2014. “It (the presidential election) will be a semifinal of sorts for (the general elections of) 2014,” said the BJP leader. “Why should we endorse a UPA candidate and invite the impression that we are supportive of the government, especially when we have been accusing it of wrongdoing, involvement in scams and a policy paralysis?”
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UP polls: Cong spent most on its candidates - Lalmani Verma, Indian Express
The Congress may have stood fourth in the UP assembly elections by winning only 28 seats, but the party gave more money to its candidates for contesting the elections than even the Samajwadi Party which won, according to details of election expenses submitted by candidates. Incidentally, this is the first time that many candidates have disclosed the money they received from their respective parties to contest the elections. In the past, neither the parties nor candidates shared this information.
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Test for Congress in Presidential poll - Pradeep Kaushal, Indian Express
In 1969, Indira Gandhi had turned a presidential election into a game-changer in her favour. She got her own nominee, V V Giri, elected at th cost of the official candidate of the Congress “Syndicate”, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy. That established her supremacy in the party. Today, her daughter-in-law faces an equally crucial presidential election in July. What is different this time around, however, is that Sonia Gandhi will need to get her party’s nominee, whoever that is, elected in order to keep the party-led government afloat till 2014.
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Playing presidential politics - Inder Malhotra, Indian Express
Unlike in 2007, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance is in no position to install its nominee in Rashtrapati Bhavan this time round. This would have been the position even if the UPA were still a united and cohesive entity. But that is far from being the case, as West Bengal’s chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader, mercurial Mamata Banerjee, has demonstrated so amply. Nor can anyone be sure about what the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will do.
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Regional parties hold key to Presidential polls - AM Jigeesh, Hindu
There is speculation galore on the possible candidates for the post of President, for which elections will be held in July. Interestingly, it's not the Congress or the BJP who are speculating on the prospective Presidential candidates, but the regional parties. They are the main newsmakers on the run-up to the 14th Presidential elections to elect the 13th President of India. They are trying to put together a voting formation against the Congress and the BJP. They insist that every effort by the big parties to thrust a “consensus” candidate on them will be challenged.
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Sonia’s RS nominations exposed: A shocking conspiracy - Bund Gala, First Post
“When in crisis play Sachin. Sonia springs Rajya Sabha nomination” crows the headline in The Telegraph. The punditocracy are already buzzing about her “masterstroke” in trying to “refurbish” the UPA’s scam-riddled image with Tendulkar. Lost in the breathless hoopla and barrage of cricketing metaphors is a darker truth: these men and women are but hapless pawns in Madamji‘s Grand Plan for Everything. Like God – or Voldemort – Sonia Gandhi moves in mysterious ways.
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Kaun Banega Rashtrapati - Meghnad Desai, Indian Express
The founding fathers of the American Republic distrusted the people. They saw to it that neither the president nor the senators would be chosen by the voters. Alas for all their caution, history took its toll and the people asserted themselves. Though the American president is still chosen formally by an electoral college, the college itself is chosen by the people. Similarly, senators began to be popularly chosen early in the twentieth century.
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Next Rashtrapati - Sudheendra Kulkarni, Indian Express
What is it about some—not, I must add, all—of our public servants who, once they occupy a high public office, think that they are lords of the public? That they have a large and unquestionable claim on public money and assets? That they are not accountable to their ‘subjects’ on how they conduct themselves in office—or how they conducted themselves before occupying that office?
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Kerala by-poll: Alliances change by the day - VR Jayaraj, Pioneer
Alliances are changing by the day in Kerala’s Neyyattinkara Assembly constituency where a crucial by-poll is to be held on June 2. Just the other day, the Congress-led ruling UDF got a big relief with the VSDP, outfit of the Nadar community forming almost half the total electorate in the constituency, deciding to drop its anti-UDF stance. VSDP general secretary Vishnupuram Chandrasekharan said on Saturday that his outfit had withdrawn its earlier decision to oppose the UDF and to stage protests during visits by VIPs including Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the context of the assurances given by State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala at a meeting.
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What to expect from Francois Hollande - Mohan Murti, Business Line
It was at the 2010 annual meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos that I understood how concave a man Mr Nicolas Sarkozy was — with neither style, nor substance, and arrogance on a Gallic scale. Listening to him giving an opening speech, he sounded vague and incoherent. Most of his speech reminded the movers and shakers of the world sitting in the audience of a particularly odious wine waiter in an awful French restaurant who flew into a blaring rage when informed about the quality of service.
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Race for the highest office begins - Rasheeda Bhagat, Business Line
The presidential race is going to be interesting. The Congress needs more than its allies within the UPA to push through its candidate, and the Opposition looks keen for a contest. With the presidential elections around the corner, a listless UPA Government is stirring into some form of life. The Opposition, of course, has been firing some shots in the air on the issue for a little while now, and the name of Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam as their first choice has been doing the rounds for a few weeks.
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Bypolls, the recurring constant in a variable Tamil Nadu - Gopu Mohan, IE
When Pudukottai goes to polls on June 12, it will be Tamil Nadu’s third byelection under the current regime and its 26th in 12 years. Bypolls have become virtually a constant in Tamil Nadu. The first under the current regime was in Tiruchy West after sitting MLA N Mariam Pitchai died in an accident in May 2011 before he could take oath as a minister that afternoon. In the ensuing election, M Paranjothi, a loyalist of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, won comfortably.
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Sushma remark on Ansari lacking stature splits NDA - Vikas Pathak & Saubhadra Chatterji, Hindustan Times
With the BJP’s key allies in the National Democratic Alliance distancing themselves from its offer of support for former President APJ Abdul Kalam as a presidential candidate and indicating a willingness to consider even a Congress nominee, the main opposition alliance faces the risk of scattering over the issue. JD-U leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar phoned Vice-President Hamid Ansari on Tuesday to convey his disagreement with BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s view that Ansari did not have the stature to be President. Sources said Kumar may consider supporting Ansari if he is sponsored by the ruling alliance.
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Hollande victory sharpens European austerity debate - Alam Cowell, NYT
After elections in France and Greece punished leaders advocating austerity, Europeans on Monday contemplated a new and untested political landscape shaped by competing demands on the one hand for austerity to counter the continent’s financial crisis and, on the other, growth to avert further deprivation. The poles of the contest lay in the continent’s traditional driving axis between Berlin and Paris, with the president-elect of France, François Hollande, promising to rewrite the austerity-driven pact struck between the outgoing Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, whose own electoral fortunes are uncertain.
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Most expensive campaign so far - S Rajagopalan, Pioneer
Come Saturday, US President Barack Obama will formally kick off his re-election campaign with back-to-back rallies in Ohio and Virginia. If this is going to be the launch, what has he been up to for the past several months hopping across the country for a slew of campaign fund-raisers, ask his Republican detractors. Their worry is that while Mr Obama has been raking in oodles of money, their own challenger-to-be, Mr Mitt Romney, may be lagging behind in the race for campaign funds, preoccupied as he has been with the primaries thus far.
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Allies snub big brother - Suman K Shrivastava, Telegraph
Tension within the ruling alliance over Rajya Sabha elections escalated today with the two deputy chief ministers, Hemant Soren and Sudesh Mahto, refusing to accompany chief minister Arjun Munda to Delhi for a BJP-brokered initiative to thrash out a solution over nominees. JMM leader Hemant, who had earlier indicated his willingness to take part in BJP chief Nitin Gadkari’s effort at resolving the crisis, backed out today, citing prior party engagements.
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Memo to the Youth Vote - Daniel Henninger, WSJ
Why would anyone under the age of 25 vote for Barack Obama in November? Mr. Obama resumed his College Tour 2012 last week, visiting campuses in Iowa, North Carolina and Colorado for the purpose of replicating his 66% youth-vote total from 2008. In 2008, he reeled them in with promises of hope and change. In 2012 he's offering cash, promising to protect 3.4% interest on their college loans. We're about to find out if it's true that when you're young, hope springs eternal.
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Rahul gets the cold shoulder - Tapas Chakraborty, Telegraph
Rahul Gandhi today wrapped up a series of post-election meetings on home turf Amethi, cold-shouldered by a powerful husband-and-wife team and rumblings of dissent ringing in his ears as the bitter aftertaste of defeat refused to go away. The Congress general secretary, who reached Amethi on April 30 for his first trip to his parliamentary constituency since the party’s election rout in Uttar Pradesh, later left for Assam to meet relatives of those who died in Monday’s boat tragedy in the Brahmaputra.
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BSP support gets South civic agency a BJP mayor - Priyanka Sharma & Pragya Kaushika, IE
Mayor Savita Gupta received 66 votes against the 46 received by NCP councillor Phool Kali, who was supported by the Congress. It was an alliance denied by both till the last minute. Rivals at the national front, Bahujan Samaj Party and Bharatiya Janata Party joined hands in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation House, to bring BJP’s Savita Gupta to the post of the mayor of the agency. The BJP had always known that BSP support was crucial, so it promised to reserve the seat of deputy mayor for the BSP candidate Bir Singh.
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Will Hollande’s victory see the rise of a kinder, gentler France? - Jamey Keaten, First Post
If polls are to be believed, leftist Francois Hollande will soon be French president, and will tell Barack Obama next month that France is speeding up its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan — bucking NATO’s slower timetable. Conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has trailed Hollande for months in the polls, is arguably the most America-friendly French leader in a half-century. He has aligned with Washington on Iran and Syria, upped France’s military presence in Afghanistan and took a major role in NATO’s air campaign over Libya that helped oust Moammar Gadhafi.
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Presidential election: Congress goes all-out to woo Mamata Banerjee - Mohua Chatterjee,, Times of India
The UPA leadership was aggressively wooing West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday in order to sew up her support for the presidential elections, and shut any opening for the BJP to cause trouble in the looming political contest. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi went into a huddle with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee over ways to meet Banerjee's demand for a moratorium on interest payments on central loans.
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Fierce Hollande surprises in debate - Charles Onians, Live Mint
Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election bid got tougher Thursday after he failed to land a much-needed knockout blow on Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande in a fiercely fought televised debate. Wednesday’s debate was ferocious, with many French commentators surprised at Hollande’s combativeness, and allies of Sarkozy—called hyperactive and aggressive in the past—now accusing Hollande of being the same.
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Egypt's Islamists seek ‘grand coalition' with liberals, minorities - Atul Aneja, Hindu
Choosing his words carefully to allay fears about the imposition of a narrow Islamist agenda, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsy, on Tuesday appealed to secularists, liberals and religious minorities to join him in order to save Egypt from a counterrevolution, threatened by his rival, Mubarak-era official Ahmed Shafiq.
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Indians win big in UK civic polls, Tories thrashed - Ashis Ray, Times of India
British voters showed their anger against the government's failure to revive the economy in local elections that saw PM David Cameron's Conservatives outflanked on the left by Labour and on the right by anti-European fringe party UKIP. After the latest round of elections on Thursday, local councils in UK have about 200-250 councillors of Indian origin. Jagjit Garewal, president of the British Indian Councillors' Association (BICA) and a councillor from Slough, near London said, "My impression is we (Indian origin councillors) have made gains. Confirmation of this will soon be available."
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Poll clock ticking, BJP counts on 10 years of Modi rule for hat-trick - Kapil Dave, Indian Express
In the run-up to the Assembly elections in the state, the Narendra Modi government is planning to launch a major publicity drive to be called “Gujarat on fast track”. The Chief Minister is said to have asked his ministers to pick out the best works by their departments and prepare a multi-media presentation highlighting the development during Modi’s 10-year tenure.
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Sonia in a fix as DMK okays Dada for presidency - Kay Benedict, Mail Today
Whichever way it swings, it's double jeopardy for Congress president Sonia Gandhi. She could afford a smile for the growing consensus for a Congress candidate in the race for the President's post. At the same time, she couldn't hide a frown over the fact that the candidate happens to be finance minister Pranab Mukherjee - the most illustrious troubleshooter for the Congress-led Union government.
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A left turn in France - Dileep Padgaonkar, Times of India
When Leon Blum, a veteran Jewish politi-cian and intellectual, led the Popular Front, a conglomeration of communists and left-of-centre republicans, to victory in the 1936 legislative elections, an elderly statesman of the Socialist Party remarked: 'We have won. Now our troubles have really begun.' Unable to manage the economy or to resist the rise of Fascism in Europe, the first ever leftist government in France collapsed within two years.
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If elections could change things, they'd be illegal - Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, Aljazeera
Were one to write a pre-election analysis in the glorious days of Greece's ancien regime, one would most probably have to present and analyse the political positions of the main competing parties. Yet, this is one of the most outdated things one might want to do if one intends to say anything useful about Greece today. In fact, no-one expects to learn anything new from the traditionally televised debates among politicians (no doubt that this disillusionment should be regarded as one positive outcome of the "crisis"). Alas, there are still many hopes regarding the outcome of the elections.
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Campaign to forget Kabul - Rudra Chaudhuri, Sunday Guardian
On 1 May 2012, US President Barack Obama delivered what can only be considered a tightly woven campaign pitch. The audience: "his fellow Americans." From the outset, this is hardly unusual. In fact, it's only natural for a President at the early stages of his re-election crusade. Yet, the optics around this particular speech was extraordinary. First, it was made from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. Second, and somewhat incongruously, it had very little to do with Afghanistan per se, and much more so the voters in Middle America. The fact that the speech was delivered a year (minus a day) after Osama Bin Laden was killed was not lost on anyone. "Taking the fight to Al Qaeda" is the key national security message for the Obama campaign, underlined on the election website.
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Gun in campaign - RK Raghavan, Frontline
GUN violence is synonymous with the United States. In no other country is the subject discussed with such passion and intensity as in the U.S. because the rate of crime using firearms remains very high there. According to the Uniform Crime Reports (equivalent of Crime in India) released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last August, 67 per cent of the homicides reported during 2010 were committed by assailants carrying firearms. Ironically, the whole nation, far from being united on the issue, is sharply divided, especially with regard to the interpretation of what is guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the country's Constitution, comprising a part of the Bill of Rights.
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Socialist Hollande edges out Sarkozy - Vaiju Naravane, Hindu
Socialist challenger Francois Hollande on Sunday became President of France, ousting Conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. He won with 51.9 per cent of the votes against Mr. Sarkozy's score of 48.1 per cent. There was loud cheering at the Socialist headquarters in Paris and Thomas, son of Segolene Royal and Mr. Hollande who were partners for some 22 years, burst into tears of joy.
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Let political leaders choose best Prez candidate: Murthy - Indian Express
Refusing to be drawn into the debate over presidential candidature, Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy today said the decision of choosing the best candidate should be left to leaders of political parities. "There are leaders of various political parties who are very competent, who know the situation very well and they will take the best decision and select the best candidate.
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US Presidential: Republican Santorum endorses Romney for U.S. president - Reuters
Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum endorsed his one-time fierce rival Mitt Romney on Monday, a move that may help the party's presumptive White House nominee win over religious conservatives. Santorum said in an unusual late-night statement that the two have differences, but that he came away from a meeting with the ex-Massachusetts governor impressed with Romney's "deep understanding" of economic and family issues central to the campaign.
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Attempt to form Greece government fails after shock poll - Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas, Reuters
A first attempt to form a new Greek government collapsed in less than a day on Monday after a shock election which left gaping questions over the country's ability to avert bankruptcy and stay in the euro. Greeks enraged by the terms of international bailouts which have cut wages, sent unemployment to one of the highest levels in Europe and caused a spate of suicides, deserted mainstream parties in droves in Sunday's poll, plunging their country into uncertainty.
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Sharper austerity debate in Europe after polls Merkel rules out shift in fiscal policy - Alan Cowell and Nicholas Kulish, Telegraph
Hours after voters in France and Greece delivered sharp rebuttals to advocates of austerity as the antidote to Europe’s financial crisis, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany today pointedly insisted that neither she nor her government favoured a renegotiation of a fiscal pact underpinning the continent’s belt-tightening. Merkel’s remarks at a news conference in Berlin came as the victorious, socialist François Hollande prepared to succeed Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France.
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German coalition battered in north state - Melissa Eddy, Telegraph
Voters in Germany’s northernmost state appeared to have ousted their Centre-Right government of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the pro-business Free Democrats, according to exit polls released yesterday. The outcome of the vote in Schleswig-Holstein was being viewed as setting the tone for next week’s election in the most populous of Germany’s 16 states, North Rhine-Westphalia. It was also seen as a foreshadowing of things to come when Merkel’s coalition is put to the test in general elections in 2013.
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Marching to different tunes - Hindustan Times
At the end of each tunnel, rather than there being light, there seems to another tunnel for the BJP. In recent times, it has had its hands full with the Karnataka crisis, now it has the Rajasthan mess to contend with. Rajasthan BJP leader Vasundhara Raje has threatened to quit primary membership of the party and 60 of the BJP's MLAs in the assembly have offered to quit in support of her. The bone of contention was a proposed yatra by senior leader Gulabchand Kataria ostensibly to highlight the failures of the Congress both at the Centre and the state though many feel that the actual intent was to project himself as the future chief minister. The yatra has now been called off.
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The social network: French election inspires U.S. left - Matt Negrin, ABC News
German socialist Werner Sombart wrote in 1906, "For the average American being successful means first and foremost becoming rich." How many times in the 2012 campaign so far have we heard sound bites borrowing from this line of thought? Notably, Mitt Romney said: "What a home this is, what grounds these are, the pool, the golf course. You know, if a Democrat were here, he'd look around and say no one should live like this. Republicans come here and say everyone should live like this."
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No cakewalk for Narendra Modi - Achyut Yagnik, Hindu
The political elite of Gujarat have already set the wheels in motion for the State Assembly elections scheduled in December 2012. Both the national parties, the ruling BJP and the Congress, have started grassroots mobilisation, and their leaders have intensified verbal duels at various levels. Both have completed the first round of constituency-wise reorientation after the new delimitation of seats. Out of a total of 182 constituencies, at least 60 constituencies have either been redrawn or turned into reserved or de-reserved categories as a result of the delimitation. Such alterations in nearly one-third of constituencies have posed new challenges for both parties.
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Hard landing for Hollande - Vaiju Naravane, Hindu
It is barely 24 hours since François Hollande was elected President of France and the sniping has already begun. Economists, especially from the right but some from the left too, have begun expressing doubts on how he will be able to withstand the buffeting the markets now appear determined to give him. Shares slumped on European bourses the day after his election but rallied somewhat later only to slide again on Tuesday morning.
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The Earthquake in Greece - Louis Klarevas, Foreign Policy
Sunday's elections in Greece have shaken markets around the world, fearful that a country suddenly thrust into political chaos won't be able to pay its crushing debts and might even exit the euro. No wonder: They also mark a leap into the unknown for Greece itself. For 35 years, two political parties have dominated the game: the conservative New Democracy (ND) party and the centrist Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). But this Sunday's national elections hit Greece like an earthquake, shifting the tectonic plates that lay beneath the surface of the Greek political landscape.
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Poll forecasts bigger mandate for Modi and another shock for Congress - K Balakrishnan, LensOnNews
n intensive survey of the Gujarat electorate undertaken by LensOnNews finds that, if the elections were held now, Narendra Modi will romp home for an unprecedented third term, with a two-thirds majority possibly larger than the 127 seats he had won ten years ago in 2002. According to the LensOnNews poll, the BJP is likely to poll 50 per cent of the total votes (a gain of 1 percentage point...
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The other candidate - Aditi Phadnis, Business Standard
In Central Hall last week, at a chance meeting with journalists, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee made a case for why Pranab Mukherjee was not a candidate for the president of India. "His own party has said he is too important to be sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan,&" she said. When asked how she could oppose the appointment of a Bengali as president, she said: "I am an Indian. I am not just a parochial Bengali. &" Objectively speaking, these are the only two factors that stand between Pranab Mukherjee and Rashtrapati Bhavan — that his own party has not endorsed his candidature; and that Banerjee will oppose his elevation.
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People want Abdul Kalam to become President again; - India Today
If people's choice is taken into consideration, former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam should occupy the Rashtrapati Bhavan once again. For, he emerged more popular than 15 others suggested by India Today-Ipsos poll. The missile man of India polled more votes than the likes of Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
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Delhi Diary - Vinod Mehta, Outlook
So, what kind of a president does India want? The political class appears united in demanding a ‘political’ president. The consensus is that we live in tricky and complex constitutional times in which only someone who has lived through the dirt and partisanship of our system can operate. Alas, that is not what the country wants. Thus, once again, we’ve a disconnect between the rulers and the ruled.
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Cong expels Goa leader for pulling out of June bypoll - Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, HT
A Goa Congress leader who withdrew from the June 4 bypoll at the eleventh hour of the closing of nominations has been expelled from the party for 6 years.Raymond D’Sa, Congress candidate from Cortalim, did not provide any chance to field a replacement, giving a walkover to BJP’s Alina Saldanha. Independent candidate Ramakant Borkar too opted out at the last moment. As his party colleagues were waiting for him in the Congress house, D’Sa went alone to the returning officer and withdrew from the fray. The bypoll was necessitated after the death of BJP legislator Matanhy Saldanha.
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An Eye For Head, Neck & Shoulder - Saba Naqvi, Outlook
President Pranab Mukherjee or Deputy Prime Minister Mukherjee? Outlook has learnt from well-placed sources that the Congress leadership will offer the Union finance minister the title of deputy PM. The idea is to persuade him to accept this high rank and deflect him from his current path of exaltation in pursuit of the goal of becoming the next president of India. Yet, a deputy prime ministership by itself is not a constitutionally sanctioned position; hence, an incumbent must hold some important portfolio (for instance, L.K. Advani was both home minister and deputy PM).
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Caste, linguistic groups high on Gujarat agenda . - Rathin Das, Pioneer
Though the next Assembly elections in the State are more than six months away, a subtle campaign has already been launched by the major political parties here. As the political agenda for the forthcoming polls is not yet been outlined, this time the campaign has been started by wooing different caste configurations and various linguistic groups which are prevalent in different regions of the State. Modi himself has addressed a few ‘sammelans’ of different caste groups, including the socially and economically powerful Patels and as well as Brahmins.
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Marxist rebel’s murder upsets Neyyattinkara bypoll balance - VR Jayaraj, Pioneer
The May 4 murder of CPI(M) rebel TP Chandrasekharan in Onchiyam, Kozhikode district has changed the entire scene of the June 2 Assembly by-poll in Neyyattinkara constituency in Thiruvananthapuram district. The issues related to the murder have all of a sudden replaced those that were being discussed in the constituency so far. The CPI(M)-led LDF is undoubtedly the first victim of this change as the general impression is that the Marxists are behind the killing of Chandrasekharan but the BJP, which had made good progress in campaigning by focusing on the new unity seen in and among Hindu communities, is perhaps the worst-affected by the change in the situation.
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Why America shouldn't panic over Putin - Daniel Larison, The Week
Contrary to what many Americans expect, Vladimir Putin's return to the Russian presidency need not cause a deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia. Many assume that Putin benefits politically from indulging anti-Americanism, and that in his new presidential term, he'll pursue increasingly adversarial policies. This underestimates Putin's willingness to strike pragmatic deals with Western governments.
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Obama's gay-marriage endorsement is a moral and political win - Robert Shrum, The Week
Forty-nine years ago this spring, as he proposed the landmark civil rights reforms of the 1960s, John F. Kennedy became the first president to declare that ending racial discrimination was a moral issue — that "this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free." Now Barack Obama has taken the next step in the unfinished journey toward that ideal: He cut through a cacophony of political advice, the calculus of pre-election caution, to become the first president to endorse marriage equality — and thus to affirm that gay rights are fundamental human rights.
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Dial M for mayhem - Farrukh Dhondy, Hindustan Times
The semantics of SMS (mobile text-messaging) have always defeated me. I still don’t know what certain yellow circled faces in messages mean, or what :-) and similar signs of the ethereal Kabbala signify. I used to write LoL at the end of texts to my daughters until they told me that it didn’t mean, ‘Lots of Love’ but stood for ‘Laugh out Loud’. Embarrassing. Recently I learnt that I was in good text-semantic-illiterate company. One Rebekah Wade, former editor of the News of the World, a newspaper accused of phone-hacking, told the Leveson enquiry into the antics of the press, that David Cameron regularly texted her and concluded his messages with “LoL” believing, as I did, that it meant “lots of love”.
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LIC money: Is it for investors’ benefit, or Rahul election? - Vivek Kaul, FirstPost
Global credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India from a Baa2 rating to Baa3 rating. This is the lowest investment grade rating given by Moody’s. The top 10 ratings given by Moody’s fall in the investment grade category. Moody’s downgraded LIC on Monday due to three reasons: a) for picking up stake in the divestment of stocks like ONGC, when no one else was willing, to help the government reduce its fiscal deficit; b) for picking up stakes in a lot of public sector banks; c) for having excessive exposure to bonds issued by the government of India to finance its fiscal deficit.
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Romney vs. Obama - Joe Peyronnin, Huffington Post
"I'm for Mitt Romney," former President George W. Bush said to an ABC News reporter as the elevator doors closed. It was the first time he had publicly said he endorsed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. But don't look for the former president to campaign for Romney this year. Why? Two words: Bush recession. Americans don't need to be reminded that when Bush entered office the U.S. government was operating at a surplus.
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National Mood a Drag on Obama's Re-Election Prospects - Lydia Saad, Gallup
Some six months before voters head to the polls to choose the next president of the United States, Gallup finds several indicators of the economic and political climate holding steady at levels that could be troublesome for President Barack Obama. According to Gallup polling in early May, Obama's approval rating is below 50%, Americans' satisfaction with the direction of the country is barely above 20%, and the economy remains a dominant concern.
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AIADMK, BJD back Sangma for President - Smita Gupta, Hindu
Even as the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party continued to keep
their counsel on the presidential elections, Chief Ministers of Tamil
Nadu and Odisha Jayalalithaa and Naveen Patnaik made a surprise
announcement on Thursday: their parties had decided to support the
former Lok Sabha Speaker, Purno Agitok Sangma, for the top job. Mr.
Sangma's own party, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), however,
distanced itself from this pronouncement. “Sangma has not spoken to us.
We've had no discussions,” NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister
Sharad Pawar said here, stressing, “ … with such a limited strength, we
cannot aspire for such a major post.”
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Sangma’s Prez push runs out of steam? - HT
Shooting down partyman PA Sangma’s presidential ambitions, NCP chief Sharad Pawar reiterated his support for the UPA’s candidate on Friday. Meanwhile, BJD leaders also expressed surprise at party chief Naveen Patnaik's decision to back Sangma, hinting they were not consulted. “It was a surprise to many of us,” Bharatruhari Mahtab, chief whip of the BJD in Lok Sabha told HT about his party chief's decision. While the NCP refused to back Sangma, BJD leaders jumped into action-after being prodded by Patnaik-to campaign for the Tribal leader.
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Sangma's entry creates a buzz in Presidential race - Smita Gupta, Hindu
A day after the AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal endorsed Purno A. Sangma's candidature for President, the former Lok Sabha Speaker's chances in the Rashtrapati Bhavan sweepstakes dominated informal discussions across political parties. With Parliament still in session on Friday, conversations in its corridors centred round the significance of the move. The most credible explanation came from BJD circles: since a candidate proposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance would not find favour with Opposition parties not inclined towards the BJP, and a Left-sponsored nominee would be opposed by the NDA, a name floated by the AIADMK and the BJD — both currently unattached to any political formation — might find readier acceptance across the Opposition.
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Tight, Negative US Presidential Campaign Expected - Jim Malone, Voa News
Less than six months before the U.S. presidential election, new polls show a deadlocked race between President Barack Obama and his expected Republican opponent, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. The intense verbal jousting between the Obama and Romney campaigns has begun early and political analysts predict a long and largely negative campaign between now and November. Frank Newport is a pollster with one of the most respected monitors of U.S. public opinion, the Gallup Organization.
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Candidates jockey for lead days ahead of Egyptian election - Patrick Martin, Globe and Mail
n a campaign that has become a referendum on the place of Islam in society and threatens a pivotal peace treaty with Israel, Egyptians vote for a new president next Wednesday and Thursday, the first truly open multi-candidate presidential election in the most heavily populated and influential country in the Arab world. The vote comes 14 months after the military leadership and a widespread popular uprising forced out Egypt’s last president, Hosni Mubarak. Those military leaders have ruled over the country since then, promising to hand over executive power once a new president has been confirmed by the end of June.
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Jayalalithaa steps up campaign for Sangma - Ramakrishnan T & Vinay Kumar, Hindu
Even though his own Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has remained lukewarm in pitching him into the presidential race, Purno A. Sangma's candidature for the country's top post got a shot in the arm as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Jayalalithaa on Sunday intensified her campaign to drum up support for the former Lok Sabha Speaker.
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UPA loses sheen as BJP inches ahead - Times of India
As it completes three years of its second term in office, the Congress-led UPA is losing its sheen while rival BJP is nosing ahead, a survey has revealed. The survey, conducted across 28 cities in April-May, reveals BJP could get 28% of the vote if Lok Sabha elections are held now, while Congress would manage only 20%. According to the ABP News AC Nielsen survey, BJP has is slowly gaining as only 69% of those who voted for Congress in 2009 are still intending to vote for it.
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Greece's Conservatives Gain Ground - Alkman Granitsas and Marcus Walker, WSJ
Greece's conservatives, who support the country's international bailout program, are drawing level in opinion polls with left-wing anti-austerity party Syriza, suggesting the June 17 election is wide open and could yet produce a government that meets Europe's terms for keeping Greece in the euro. Several opinion polls over the weekend showed support for the conservative New Democracy party climbing to 23% to 24%, up from its dismal 18.9% result in Greece's May 6 elections, which failed to produce a viable governing majority and forced the repeat elections next month.
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'Uncommitted' and unknown score points against Obama - Joel Roberts, ABC News
President Obama easily won Tuesday night's Democratic primary in Kentucky, capturing 58 percent of the vote. That sounds like a solid victory. But with the president running unopposed in the Bluegrass State that means more than four in 10 voters didn't pick him. Who did they choose instead? Forty-two percent of those going to the polls rejected the president in favor of "uncommitted."
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Obama's ruthless streak targets Romney - Stephen Collinson, AFP
Barack Obama may have made his name peddling hope and change, but his aspirational politics concealed a ruthless streak now being turned on the man who wants his job: Mitt Romney. President Obama and his hard-eyed political consultants have unleashed a long-planned attack on the Republican's corporate past, seeking to turn November's election on Romney's character rather than his own economic record. The president, who did not hesitate to go negative on Democratic primary foe Hillary Clinton in 2008 and has proven a steely commander-in-chief, is now seeking to debunk Romney's claim that his business wizardry could create jobs.
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Egyptians vote in droves in first free elections - Atul Aneja, Hindu
Egyptian voters headed for polling booths in droves on Wednesday to take part in the two-day presidential polls that are likely to define the course of the revolution that began last year, bringing down Hosni Mubarak. Early risers formed serpentine queues outside polling stations under the strict watch of the police and troops. Many men, sporting beards and attired in gelabiya — the traditional robe cut out of single cloth — stood with fashionable young men, conspicuous in their flashy blue jeans and trendy sunglasses. Women voted in separate booths.
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CEC snubs law ministry over MoUs - Nagendar Sharma, Hindustan Times
Barely a week before he retires on June 10, the Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, in a parting shot, has refused to accept the Centre diktat of seeking its permission before entering into agreements with other countries. The Election Commission, during Quraishi’s nearly two year tenure as CEC, signed MoUs with the election commissions of at least six countries on cooperation in the conduct of free and fair polls. Earlier this year, the Cabinet Secretariat had asked the law ministry, which deals with the EC on administrative matters, to inform the commission that it should seek prior approval before entering into such MoUs.
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Eye on 2014, BJP reaches out to state parties - Swaraj Thapa, Indian Express
BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Thursday outlined the party’s blueprint for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, asserting that its rise to power will hinge on expanding the NDA fold, increasing the BJP vote-share by at least 10 per cent and enlarging footprint in states where it is traditionally weak. Making his inaugural speech at the two-day national executive, Gadkari also wooed regional parties saying “we believe that they also have a national perspective”.
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Egypt to pick Islamist or military man as president - Marwa Awad and Tamim Elyan, Reuters
The Muslim Brotherhood said on Friday its candidate in Egypt's first free presidential vote had won through to a run-off next month against ex-air force chief Ahmed Shafiq, who was deposed leader Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister. This week's first-round vote has polarised Egyptians between those determined to avoid handing the presidency back to a man from Mubarak's era and those fearing an Islamist monopoly of ruling institutions. The run-off is planned for June 16 and 17.
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Egyptian election: Will U.S. lose? - Scott Clement, Washington Post
A burgeoning democracy movement has energized Egypt, culminating in a landmark presidential election that started on Wednesday. But a poll released this month shows Egyptians are grappling with dual commitments to Islam and basic democratic liberties as the country shifts from decades of autocratic rule. The poll shows a majority wants Egypt’s laws to strictly follow the Koran, and the current election may bring bad tidings for Egypt’s one-time partners: The United States continues to be widely unpopular and hostility toward Israel is on the rise.
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Should the best man remain a bachelor? - MJ Akbar, Sunday Guardian
Margins cannot determine the fate of the text. At the moment, the story of the next elections to Rashtrapati Bhavan is in neither array nor disarray: it is blank, because the principal political parties, Congress and BJP, have not written anything down. The Congress refuses to name a candidate; the BJP is under no compulsion to hurry. It might seem, from environmental chatter, that a whirlwind candidate like P.A. Sangma is making some progress, but he is merely blotting the page with blobs of ink. In this phase the best candidates write in invisible ink, which is faintly visible under close scrutiny but should disappear from view under the glare of too much attention.
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And three is a crowd - Chanakya, Hindustan Times
The elections are not really round the corner, but the talk of political alignments is already in the air. And as always, there will be talk of a Third Front. And indeed this could well be a possibility. But let me take you through the present scenarios. The UPA is very much there. It seems to be getting a spring back in its step after its third anniversary bash that had Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh in attendance. The NDA should be getting its act together now that the party president has got another shot at the job.
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Akhilesh's wife in Kannauj fray - Atiq Khan, Hindu
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh's daughter-in-law, Dimple Yadav, will contest the June 24 by-election for the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat, vacated by his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Ms. Yadav's candidature was cleared by the SP central parliamentary board at a meeting here on Saturday.
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Jagan's arrest meant to deter Congress MLAs from leaving the party - Smita Gupta, Hindu
The systematic pursuing of cases against YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy, followed by the just concluded three days of intensive grilling by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) — which received wall to wall coverage on Telugu channels in the State — had already set the stage for a groundswell of sympathy for him. His arrest on Sunday evening and the announcement that his mother Vijayamma — widow of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash in 2009 — will take charge from Monday of the campaign for the coming by-elections to one Lok Sabha seat and 18 Assembly constituencies can only add to the highly surcharged atmosphere in Andhra Pradesh.
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Paid laws, American style - Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, Hindu
The scandal of paid news in India, whereby politicians, private businesses, and perhaps others, buy space in newspapers to publish material which appears to have been written by the papers, has rightly attracted much critical comment, but the United States appears to be well ahead of India, with nothing less than a form of paid law. Powerful U.S. corporations have been writing bills themselves and giving them to state legislators — whose election campaigns they often fund as well — to rubber-stamp and pass on to governors for signature into law.
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Egyptians make history, again - Hindu
Egypt's 51 million voters have made history by voting in their country's first-ever free and open presidential election. They have also proved almost all commentators wrong in the choices they made. The Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, standing on the ticket of the Freedom and Justice Party, has 25.3 per cent of the first-round vote to 24.9 for Ahmed Shafik, standing as an independent candidate. Final figures will not be known before May 29, and the runoff will be held on June 16 and 17.
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Cong loses Shimla after 25 yrs, CPM winners - Gaurav Bisht & Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, Hindustan Times
The CPI(M), which has been struggling to maintain its national relevance, sprang a surprise in Shimla by wresting the offices of mayor and deputy mayor from the Congress, which had held them for 25 years. The CPI(M) did not have any major electoral success in Shimla before.
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Shimla polls: CPM stuns Cong, BJP - Ashwani Sharma, Indian Express
Delivering a major blow to the Congress and denting the ruling BJP’s plans in the run-up to the Assembly elections, the CPM on Monday scripted history by winning the posts of Shimla’s mayor and deputy mayor. While Sanjay Chauhan — CPM’s most familiar face in the town — will replace Congress’s Madhu Sood as the mayor, Tikender Singh Panwar, a former students’ leader, will be the deputy mayor.
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Congress unlikely to gain from BJP's internal war - Kay Benedict, Mail Today
The Congress may be watching with glee the internal bickering in the rival BJP camp. But that's unlikely to have any positive bearing on its own electoral fortunes in the six key states which together account for 291 of the 545 Lok Sabha seats. The general elections are still two years away. But if the present public mood against the Congress is any indication, the party is unlikely to notch up enough numbers to ride back to power.
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Advani demands Opposition role in CEC & CAG selection - Pratul Sharma, Mail Today
Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that the Opposition be involved in the selection of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as the current system is open to 'manipulation and partisanship'. Advani's letter assumes significance as current CEC S.Y. Quraishi retires later this month, while CAG Vinod Rai will retire next year.
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Jagan in jail, sister steps in to campaign Sharmila Reddy - GS Radhakrishna, Telegraph
Her father died in his prime. Her brother needs her to campaign for him. And she hasn’t said no. On Thursday, she just went out and hit the road. No, it wasn’t the dusty battlefield of Amethi but faraway Andhra. And the young woman at the centre of all the attention was the late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s daughter Sharmila. The 34-year-old has been canvassing for her brother Y.S. Jaganmohan’s party since May 31, hitting the campaign trail four days after a court sent her 39-year-old sibling to judicial remand in an assets case.
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RSS divided over Modi: Sangh backs Gujarat CM as PM candidate - Daily Bhaskar
The growing fewd within BJP and the Sangh Parivar over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is getting clearer with each passing day. In yet another instance of bitter faction fight, a latest article in a RSS mouthpiece has backed the 'controversial' CM for the Prime Ministerial candidate while the other two publications of Sangh and BJP criticizing Modi for his functioning.
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The Greek election: Democracy in action - Economist
Greek voters face a bleak choice on June 17th, in their second general election in six weeks. The sensible options are the centre-right New Democracy (ND) party or the PanHellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok). Both parties promise a future in the euro, though the cost is high: at least three more years of austerity in return for shrinking external help. So angry, jobless Greeks may prefer the alternative: the radical left Syriza coalition, which came second on May 6th and is now hard on ND’s tail. They are tempted by talk of Robin Hood taxes to help the poor and the renationalising of much of the economy.
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Pranab's presidential bid muddled - Kay Benedict, Mail Today
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday, instead of clearing the air on the UPA's presidential candidate, deepened the suspense. The CWC unanimously adopted a resolution authorising party president Sonia Gandhi to finalise the candidates for the posts of the President and the Vice-President. Interestingly, it was finance minister Pranab Mukherjee - who himself is being touted as the frontrunner in the race for the post - who moved the resolution.
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Kerala by-poll: Heavy turnout makes calculations difficult - Pioneer
A tough triangular battle and a heavy voter turnout at the polling booths for the Assembly by-election held on Saturday in Neyyattinkara constituency in Thiruvananthapuram district have made calculations about the prospects of their respective candidates difficult for the two main political fronts, the Congress-led ruling UDF and the CPI(M)-led Opposition LDF.
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Mamata wins wards but loses face - Subrata Nagchoudhury, Indian Express
The Trinamool Congress won four of the six civic bodies for which results were announced today. However, the party that had confidently gone to polls on Sunday hoping to silence both the opposition CPM and ally Congress with its performance lost the two seats that mattered: the CPM retained the prestigious Haldia municipality, located next to Nandigram, while the Congress romped home 11-1 in Cooper’s Camp. Not only do the results show an erosion in the TMC’s support base since the Assembly polls a year ago, it is also clear that whether she likes it or not, Mamata Banerjee would do well to keep the Congress as an election partner.
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Kannauj may not see contest - Atiq Khan, Hindu
With the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party backing out and the Bahujan Samaj Party's position not yet clear, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh's daughter-in-law, Dimple Yadav, filed her papers for the June 24 Kannauj Lok Sabha by-election on Tuesday. Nominations close on Wednesday. The by-election has been necessitated by the resignation of the seat by Ms. Yadav's husband and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav. He was alongside his wife when she filed her papers at the Kannauj Collectorate.
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Haldia verdict: Don’t need new Lakshman - Kinsuk Basu and Anshuman Phadikar, Telegraph
Haldia elected Lakshman Seth’s wife but defeated someone who many feared would become his “worthy successor”. The biggest surprise of this round of civic elections is the inability of Trinamul strongman Subhendu Adhikari to deliver the knockout punch on Lakshman, the toppled CPM satrap. Many hear in the stunning outcome an unmistakable declaration from Haldia that the industrial town does not want to risk the prospect of a new power centre replacing the already vanquished Lakshman who has been behind bars since March on a murder charge.
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Lina Left is no alternative - Anindya Sengupta, Telegraph
he results of the elections to six municipalities in Bengal show that the Left is not an option, at least not yet, in spite of perceived disenchantment among sections of society over some of the policies and actions of the Mamata Banerjee government. The cumulative outcome suggests that the Trinamul Congress is still riding on the graph that had emerged in the last panchayat elections, crystallised in the Lok Sabha polls and peaked in the Assembly elections last year.
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Hispanic Voters Could Play Key Role in US Election - Greg Flakus, VOA
Hispanics represent the fastest-growing minority in the United States and an increasingly important segment of the voting population, especially in so-called swing states like Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, where they could play a decisive role in the U.S. presidential election in November. Recent opinion surveys show Hispanics favoring President Obama two-to-one over the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. Luis Torres and Willie Fernandez run a Houston company that does completion work on construction projects.
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German Left Party congress exposes divisions and crisis - Lucas Adler, WSWS
The Third Congress of the German Left Party, held last weekend in Göttingen, exposed sharp divisions and a deep crisis. The two-day meeting was marked by bitter clashes between opposing factions centered on the election of a new leadership. The congress took place against the backdrop of a series of dramatic election defeats for the party and dwindling membership rolls. In 2009, the Left Party polled 11.9 percent in federal elections. Now, according to opinion polls, the party would have difficulty meeting the 5 percent threshold for gaining representation in the German parliament (Bundestag).
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German state election leaves Merkel's party looking for new partners - Kate Connolly, Guardian
Voters in northern Germany appeared to have turned their backs on a governing centre-right coalition in a state election, which was viewed as a test of the durability of Angela Merkel's government and a measure of its chances of re-election next year. According to exit polls, Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) had secured 30.5%, one point more than their Social Democrat rivals in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. But their coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) lost more than 6% of support, securing just 8.5% of the vote.
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Sonia in top gear to get views on Prez choice; Pranab leading race - Annapurna Jha, Pioneer
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has intensified the consultation process with various alliance partners for the next President even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is emerging as the frontrunner in the race. Sonia met DMK leader MK Stalin and Sikkim Democratic Front leader and Arunachal Chief Minister Pawan Chamling on Wednesday. She had on Tuesday held consultations with Rashtriya Lok Dal leader and Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on the issue.
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Sakshi media runs YSR-Cong campaign - Omer Farooq, Pioneer
Sakshi TV channel and the Telugu Daily newspaper, owned by YSR Congress president Jagnamohan Reddy are mired in controversy over their coverage of the campaign for the Assembly bypolls. Even as Jagan was behind the bars in the disproportionate assets case, Sakshi channel was literally running the campaign in support of the YSRC candidates in 18 Assembly and one Lok Sabha constituency.
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Republican Guv prevails in recall - S Rajagopalan, Pioneer
In a gubernatorial recall vote invested with national significance for the presidential and congressional elections in November, President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party suffered a major setback as Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker prevailed in the hard-fought battle. Walker, who faced the recall because of his strong conservative push to curb the powers of workers’ unions, garnered about 54 per cent of the votes against Democrat Tom Barrett’s 46 per cent, prompting Republicans to claim a “momentous victory” in a predominantly-Democratic State.
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Walkover likely for Dimple Yadav; BJP alleges sabotage - Anant Zanane, NDTV
It's more or less certain that when the Kannauj constituency in Uttar Pradesh goes to polls later this month, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife, Dimple Yadav, will emerge as a clear winner. No mainstream political party has fielded a candidate against Mrs Yadav. After the Congress announced yesterday that it would skip the election, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which was forced out of power by Mrs Yadav's charismatic husband, Akhilesh, also decided not to field a candidate against Mrs Yadav.
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Focus narrowing to Pranab - Smita Gupta, Hindu
Ahead of the announcement of the Presidential election schedule next week, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief and Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Wednesday described Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as a “qualified” candidate, while adding that his views on others (without naming them) were equally positive. “The Finance Minister is qualified for President. My views are positive on him, but my views are positive on others as well,” he told journalists here, responding to a question on the likelihood of Mr. Mukherjee being the United Progressive Alliance's nominee.
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Reform champion Quraishi retiring, but ‘paid news' law still elusive - J. Balaji, Hindu
The Election Commission, headed by reform-oriented CEC S.Y. Quraishi, is unhappy the government has not considered the changes it has been pushing for so many years, including declaring “paid news” a poll offence. Mr. Quraishi, known for his voter-friendly reforms, is demitting office on June 10. On February 3 last year, the EC suggested that publication and abetment of “paid news” for furthering the election prospects of any candidate or prejudicially affecting the chances of other contestants be made an offence under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, entailing imprisonment up to two years.
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Karunanidhi not averse to backing Kalam - Hindu
DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Wednesday indicated that he is not averse to the idea of supporting the candidature of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for the post of President. Reacting to Dravidar Kazhagam leader K. Veeramani's stand that Mr. Kalam's candidature should be supported, Mr. Karunanidhi said though it was Mr. Veeramani opinion, he would not like to contradict him. Talking to reporters, Mr. Karunanidhi said that the DMK had already explained its stand on Presidential election to Defence Minister A.K. Antony and informed the media about it to an extent. [He has said that his party will support the candidate fielded by the Congress].
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President Poll: Presidents win elections, not mandates - Ezra Klein, Bloomberg
Forget what President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney say they want to do next year. The better question might be: How do they intend to get any of it done? To use a phrase that was popular during the Democratic primary in 2008, what’s their “theory of change”? One common theory is that the two parties are so far apart that this election, finally, will provide a mandate for the winner and shock the losing side into cooperating. “We’re going to have as stark a contrast as we’ve seen in a very long time between the two candidates,” Obama told donors in Minneapolis.
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Andhra Pradesh: A short history of messing up - P. Sainath, Hindu
It might be an idea for the CBI to contest the 2014 elections in Andhra Pradesh. It is certainly the most active political force in the State and has been for a while now. Given the poverty of choice before the Andhra electorate, who knows, they might even get some votes. It could be a self-financing drive, sort of. The CBI could use the crores they've seized from the other parties for their poll campaign. And exploit that unique resource of theirs — keeping tabs on the poll spending of their rivals. Maybe they'd even have fresh new faces on offer.
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Prez polls draw closer but UPA's choice still a mystery - Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, Hindustan Times
Though the process for presidential polls is likely to start next week, the UPA is yet to name its candidate for the post. President Pratibha Patil's term will end on July 24. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has held a series of consultations with UPA constituents, is keeping the matter under wraps. Though the names of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and vice-president Hamid Ansari have been doing the rounds for weeks now, a final word is yet to come from the Congress leadership.
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NRI makes a point in Wisconsin poll - Yashwant Raj, Hindustan Times
Within minutes of the close of polling Tuesday evening, Hari Trivedi was lost among his emails. The race was over. He had made his point. It was time to move on. Wisconsin, a traditionally Democratic state, voted Tuesday to defeat a move to recall Republican governor Scott Walker, in a race so tight Trivedi had started looking dangerous. He looked in danger of cutting into Democratic votes and taking away the race from the Democratic Party candidate Tom Barrett. Who was this man?
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Bobby Jindal Rising as Romney’s VP Choice - Ronald Kessler, News Max
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is rising as Mitt Romney’s possible pick for vice president, according to campaign sources. Last month, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist touted Jindal for the Norquist tells me he wrote the piece knowing that “Jindal is a leading option.” Jindal is rarely mentioned in speculation about Romney’s possible choice. A rising star in the Republican Party, he suffered a setback when he bombed delivering the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s first speech to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009.
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BJP woos Lingayats, rebellion dogs Cong - Kestur Vasuki, Pioneer
The June 11 Legislative Council biennial elections in Karnataka for 11 seats assume significance in the ongoing political scenario. However, both ruling BJP and Opposition Congress are sure to win six and three seats respectively based on their strength in the Assembly. JD(S), the other Opposition party is sure to win one seat. But the remaining one seat which is contested keenly by a Congress candidate and an Independent supported by the JD(S) has evinced keen interest. Each winning candidate needs 19 first preference votes to be declared elected in the first round.
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Ansari or Pranab: Cong wrestles with convention - Ravish Tiwari, Indian Express
Days before the presidential election is notified, the dilemma in the Congress camp has boiled down to whether to go by convention or take a political decision. Even as the name of Pranab Mukherjee gathers momentum, partymen have raised the fact that the convention in the Congress has been to nominate the vice-president for the post if he had been a party candidate. Only once in Congress history has it not nominated the person who was its vice-president candidate. That was G S Pathak, elected vice-president in 1969 and overlooked for president in 1974.
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Collegium should elect ECs: Quraishi - Rakhi Chakrabarty, Times of India
Chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi, who retires on Sunday, would have left the EC a much happier person had the electoral reforms bill been passed by Parliament during what he calls his "dream tenure" as poll watchdog. "For the first time, the EC and the law ministry held joint consultations for reforms. Union law ministers visited the EC for the first time in 60 years," he said.
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Ex-CECs backed collegium, Law Ministry not too keen - Maneesh Chhibber , Swaraj Thapa, IE
A string of past chief election commissioners (CECs), notably B B Tandon and N Gopalaswamy, have written to the authorities seeking a collegium comprising opposition leaders as well to appoint the CEC, much before senior BJP leader LK Advani’s recent missive to the Prime Minister in this regard. Advani’s call has since got the support of the DMK, a key constituent of the ruling UPA.
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It's no-holds-barred in Punjab civic elections - Sarabjit Pandher, Hindu
What appeared to be an insipid affair so far, the elections to the Municipal Corporations, Committees and Nagar Panchayats in Punjab are now headed instead towards a no-holds-barred contest with former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh exhorting Congress rank and file “to hit the Akalis twice”. The polls have also brought to the fore fierce inter-party as well as intra-party feuds.
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S.Y. Quraishi steps down as Chief Election Commissioner of India - Kay Benedict, Mail Today
S.Y. Quraishi's tenure as the 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India ended on Sunday. In his nearly two-year tenure - he was sworn-in in July 2010 - Quraishi brought about an unprecedented spirit of dynamism and transparency in India's electoral process. But one of his most notable achievements, he says, has been the 'Participation Revolution' - the increased voter involvement in elections. "This was achieved through a scientific voter education programme. The result was very encouraging. The recent assembly elections witnessed unprecedented voter turnout (women outnumbering men), even in traditionally backward cow-belt states such as Uttar Pradesh, surprising the political class," he said.
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At Rs 20 crore a seat, it's a close contest in Andhra bypolls - Kingshuk Nag, Times of India
If YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy wins 17 out of the 18 assembly seats up for byelections, then a huge contingent of MLAs from both the Congress and TDP will turn up at Raj Bhavan to swear loyalty to him, said political sources on Monday. In fact, this number could be as large as 25, they claimed. Most MLAs would be from the Congress, but there might be a significant number of TDP MLAs as well, the sources said. However, it does seem the contest will be lot closer than previously assumed.
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Centre cheated us on quota: Muslim leaders - Rakhi Chakrabarty, Times of India
Muslim leaders slammed the Centre for not being serious about the community's development after the Supreme Court pulled up the government for its casual handling of 4.5% sub-quota for minorities within the 27% OBC reservation in central educational institutions like IITs. However, some community leaders reserved their comment till Wednesday, when the case comes up for hearing next in SC.
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Cong fails miserably to make a mark - Monika Malik, Pioneer
The series of resounding defeats suffered by the Congress since the SGPC polls last year only goes on to show that the party failed to read the warning signals, while the SAD-BJP combine continued to churn victory after victory. Attribute it to the prevailing national level anti-Congress wave, or the ability of the Akalis to read the voters’ mind, the fact remains that the top leadership of the Congress miserably failed to consolidate the party’s position in the State. Not surprising, it is struggling to stand on its feet after a string of defeats.
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Bypolls today, Jagan family says vendetta will backfire - Sreenivas Janyala, Indian Express
As a CBI court on Monday extended the judicial remand of YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy till June 25, his mother Y S Vijayalakshmi pronounced that the YSR Congress will sweep the 18 Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha constituency for which bypolls are being held in the state on Tuesday — a crucial contest that has been dubbed a mini general election in Andhra Pradesh.
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Sangma pins his hopes on third front - Hindu
The Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker, P.A. Sangma, on Monday termed his prospects in the presidential election “very good” and noted that the third front would be the deciding factor. Talking to journalists after meeting Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu here to seek his “support and blessings,” Mr. Sangma said he made it clear to Mr. Naidu that he would contest as an “independent candidate” and was being “sponsored at the moment” by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik.
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Our backing for Congress nominee not a given: SP, CPI(M) - Gargi Parsai, Hindu
Even as the Congress leadership continued further consultations on the selection of a Presidential candidate, the Samajwadi Party — the United Progressive Alliance's supporting partner — and the opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) sought to make it clear that their backing for the Congress nominee should not be taken for granted.
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Cong-Sena lose in Maha mayoral polls - Prasad Patil, Deccan Chronicle
The Congress’ defeat in the local bodies elections continued when its candidate for the Bhiwandi mayoral election was defeated by two votes. The BJP, Samajwadi Party, NCP and RPI joined hands to defeat Congress-Shiv Sena alliance in the Bhiwandi mayoral election. The Congress candidate for the mayor’s post lost by two votes, while two of its corporators remained absent. Interestingly, one of the absentees, Dr Noor Ansari was elected as deputy mayor.
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Man who could sink the world economy - Hindustan Times
In his fresh linen suit and crisp white shirt, Alexis Tsipras cuts a dashing figure. And on the podium on Sunday, exactly one week before Greeks cast their ballots in the most crucial election since their country emerged from the ashes of civil war, the young leftist leader was on vintage form, fists punching the air as the crowd cheered on the man many have come to see as Greece’s salvation in its greatest hour of need. As he crisscrosses Greece, the message is the same. “We speak the language of hope,” says Tsipras, “where others speak the language of fear.”
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38% turnout in Hatia bypoll - Vijay Deo Jha, Pioneer
It was a scorching and humid election day and Hatia returned with around 38 per cent of total poll on Tuesday, keeping top contenders guessing about the result. “Though, a final report of the total votes cast will be available by late evening as polling is going on at some of booths, but available reports suggest 38 per cent polling which may increase slightly to 39 or 40 per cent maximum,” Ranchi DC, Kamal Kishore Soan told The Pioneer after polling was over. The by-election largely remained peaceful in the ledger of the law-keepers barring few incidents of minor clashes among supporters of political parties, complaints of bogus voting and distribution of cash amount on the day of election.
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Race for the White House: Economy will decide the winner - S Rajagopalan, Pioneer
In the run-up to the 2008 White House race, a surging Barack Obama campaign had lost little time to deride Republican rival John McCain for his assertion that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong”. It being a time when America was in the throes of an economic meltdown triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis and the implosion of financial giants like Lehman Brothers, AIG and Merrill Lynch, the Democrats slammed Mr McCain for being “out of touch” with reality. Mr Obama himself came up with the teaser, “Senator, what economy are you talking about?”
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M and M stir President pot - Telegraph
The cards-close-to-chest presidential nomination game is likely to course through political imponderables a little longer even as the Election Commission fixed July 19 as the date of polling for the nation’s highest office and July 22 as the day its new incumbent will be known. With a little more than a fortnight left for the nomination deadline, the Congress has not spelt out its pick, content to let speculation thicken around the nomination of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. It is no secret anymore Mukherjee is keen to find the leadership’s nod but the Congress has held back a positive signal to its senior-most cabinet minister.
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The mathematics for the Presidential election - Bhupendra Chaubey, IBNLive
The Presidential election will be held on July 19, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday, setting the ball rolling for the process to decide on who would be the next occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. All eyes are now on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi who will take the final call on the ruling UPA's candidate. While Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has emerged as front-runner, there is no clarity on who would be the UPA's choice for the post. As the tempo built up, the Congress let out little and only said that there were no differences amongst the allies. It is being hoped that the wait for the UPA's 'consensus' candidate ends on Wednesday when Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee meets UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
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Mamata-Mulayam googly leaves Congress stumped - Srinand Jha, HT
While political circles have been rife with rumours about the grand plans of the Congress to replace a troublesome UPA ally (read Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress) with Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP), the two regional satraps have sprung a surprise by coming out with a joint plan for the Presidential elections. On the face of it, Banerjee and Yadav have nothing in common. The former is considered emotional, mercurial and undependable, while the SP chief is said to be a grounded and sly politician of the old world mould
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Mamata and Mulayam junk Pranab, spring Singh’s name - Sankarshan Thakur, Telegraph
Few are sure yet if this constitutes an open dare to the Congress leadership or the playing out of a scripted palace intrigue, but the presidential sweepstakes have been kick-jerked into a high-voltage humdinger that could reshape the face of politics in coming weeks. On the face of it, the Big Two among the UPA’s allies — Mamata Banerjee and Mulayam Singh Yadav — this afternoon used the presidential contest to virtually demand a change of government by resorting to an unprecedented proposition that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh be considered one of three choices for Rashtrapati Bhavan.
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President test for Sonia tougher than Indira’s in ’69 - Rasheed Kidwai, Telegraph
The original Mrs G had faced revolt, electoral defeats and personal tragedies to emerge as the Iron Lady of Indian politics. Indira Gandhi’s first major political victory was in 1969 when she had successfully checkmated the high and mighty of the Congress in a “first-of-its-kind” presidential poll. Forty-three years later, Indira’s favourite bahu who has fashioned herself as second Mrs G faces a similar litmus test over the 2012 presidential election.
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Two names keep pot boiling Why not just Mukherjee, wonders ally - Sanjay K Jha, Telegraph
If the dramatic twists and turns in the presidential race has confounded the confusion, it also threw up conspiracy theories, countless layers of truth and fiction and wild guesses about who is using whom. In the end, nobody was talking with any degree of finality on who would enter Rashtrapati Bhavan; there were suggestions of a hard bargain, a compromise candidate and a much larger political churning than a presidential election can ever trigger. While most Congress leaders had switched off their phones, others expressed shock at the unfolding scenario.
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Presidential poll no more about president - Sagarika Ghose, First Post
Wednesday 13 June, a hot Delhi afternoon. The day began desultorily enough with the morning news full of doom and gloom about the economy. Azim Premji had just said we are a country without a leader. Narayana Murthy had just lamented that India’s image had suffered badly. Corporate leaders had said this is the end of the India story, the end of reforms, the beginning of decline and the long hurtle towards a 1991-type crisis.
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RSS to BJP: Clean up act, get set for polls - Venkatesh Kesari and Yojna Gusai, Deccan Chronicle
Perturbed over the growing crisis in the BJP, including the manner in which it tried to expel its leader Sanjay Joshi and the controversy created by senior leader L.K. Advani’s recent blog, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat met the BJP top brass, including party chief Nitin Gadkari. Bhagwat, who was in the national capital, also made it clear to the BJP that the RSS is unhappy with the way Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi put pressure on the party top brass to first compel Joshi, his bête noire, to quit the national executive and then the party.
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‘Non-secretive’ M’s silence - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
Mamata Banerjee declared A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s candidacy with alacrity. But her ally Mulayam Singh Yadav was apparently treading cautiously and weighing the pros and cons before committing his support. “Please don’t ask for details on anything today. Whatever I have to say, I will say elaborately tomorrow. You know I am not a secretive person but today nothing please,” Mulayam told The Telegraph this evening.
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EC acquires land for institute without law ministry’s approval - Sahil Makkar, Appu Esthose Suresh & Utpal Bhaskar, Mint
The Election Commission (EC) of India is going ahead with plans to build a campus for the year-old International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM) without having sought the prior approval of the law ministry. A detailed project report (DPR) is being drawn up by the EC based on which approval will be sought, although the land has already been acquired. The issue was at the centre of a spat between former chief election commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi and law minister Salman Khurshid.
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Presidential elections: The race heats up! - PRS India
The Election Commission has announced the schedule for the election of the President of India. The last date for nominations is June 30, elections will be held on July 19, and counting will take place on July 22. The BJD and AIADMK have proposed the name of Mr. P.A. Sangma. The Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress have suggested three names. Other parties or alliances have not announced any contenders. Our calculations show that no single party or alliance has the numbers to unilaterally elect candidates of its choice.
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Pranab likely to file nomination papers by June 28 - Saubhadra Chatterji, HT
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to file his nomination for the presidential election on June 28-four days after he plans to resign from the union cabinet. The last date for filing nominations is June 30. Sources close to Mukherjee claimed he needs time to hold a few more rounds of talks with select political leaders before filing his nomination papers. Another section, however, said he may have chosen an auspicious time to submit his nomination. Meanwhile, the minister will preside over a meeting of Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food and a GoM on telecom pricing on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
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Election results 2012: Signs of a Jagan sweep in Andhra Pradesh - Radhika Iyer, NDTV
Jagan Mohan Reddy's mother, wife, sister and brother-in-law are at Chanchalguda jail right now; family celebrations are in order despite the somber settings. The YSR Congress is close to sweeping the Andhra Pradesh by-elections so big that it has not even spared the Congress its Nellore Lok Sabha seat. As largely predicted, it has also already won 14 of the 18 assembly seats for which by-election were held and is leading in one more.
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Jagan’s poll triumph doesn’t wash away his corruption sins - Venky Vembu, FP
Now that Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress has won an emphatic victory in the byelections to 18 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, the corruption cases against him filed by the CBI will likely take a political turn as well. Jaganmohan Reddy, who is in CBI custody, may well claim, as many politicians before him have done, that his electoral victory means that he has been found innocent in the “people’s court” – and that the cases against him have been shown up to be politically motivated.
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Kerala bypoll: Bodyblow for CPM more than victory for Chandy - G Pramod Kumar, FP
The victory of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate at the lone bypoll to Kerala’s Neyyattinkara assembly constituency is a severe bodyblow to the CPM and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) because the latter had so much riding on its outcome. One, the seat belonged to the CPM and the election was necessitated by the resignation of the sitting MLA of the party and his overnight defection to the UDF. The same candidate has fought against the CPM and retained his seat. Traditionally, the CPM/LDF has a clear edge in the constituency and has held the seat in the last two assembly elections.
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15 to 2: Jagan Mohan deals Cong a resounding bypoll slap - Sreenivas Janyala, Indian Express
The YSR Congress Party of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy swept the by-elections in Andhra Pradesh today, winning 15 of 18 Assembly constituencies as well as taking the Nellore Lok Sabha seat. While there is no immediate danger to the government, the results are a major embarrassment for the Congress. Dubbed “a mini general election” because of the June 12 by-polls being spread across 12 districts, the results showed erosion of the Congress vote-bank in its traditional strongholds.
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AJSU wrests Hatia from Congress - Manoj Prasad, Indian Express
A parter in the ruling coalition, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), on Friday wrested the Hatia Assembly constituency from the Congress in the bypoll held on June 12. AJSU candidate Naveen Jaiswal defeated his nearest Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) rival Ajay Nath Shahdeo by a margin of 11,558 votes. The Assembly seat had fallen vacant following the death of Congress MLA Gopal Sharan Nath Shahdeo in 2010. The turnout of voters was 37.92 per cent. It was 39.45 per cent in 2009.
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New hope dawning for Kerala BJP - VR Jayaraj, Pioneer
Is the outcome of the Assembly by-election in Neyyattinkara in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram district giving new hopes to the BJP which has been unsuccessfully trying all these years to make the Lotus bloom in God's Own Country? Observers say yes. The main factor that gives the BJP the right to dream afresh about opening account in the Kerala Assembly in the future elections is the fact that the votes-hare of the party went up by 500 percent in the June 2 by-poll in Neyyattinkara, results of which was announced on Friday, compared to the party's score in the 2011 Assembly election.
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Gujarat Opp trying to make caste a poll plank - Rathin Das, Pioneer
Even as Chief Minister Narendra Modi is ceaselessly emphasising the significance of development as political agenda, there is a subtle move by his detractors to make caste the main issue in the run up to the Assembly elections due in six months from now. A series of caste-based congregations have been held during the past few weeks all over Gujarat by the Opposition Congress as well as the MahaGujarat Janata Party (MJP) where attempts have been made to mobilise the sub-groups against Modi’s rule.
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Year later, Varun back campaigning in UP - Lalmani Verma, Indian Express
After lying low for a year, BJP national secretary and youngest MP Varun Gandhi will address a public meeting in support of party candidates for mayor and corporators in Meerut on Monday. Varun also plans to address similar public meetings in Moradabad and Agra. The BJP has fielded Harikant Ahluwalia in Meerut, Veena Agarwal in Moradabad and Indrajeet Valmiki in Agra for the post of mayor. Veena is the wife of party leader Vinod Agarwal. Sources said Vinod and the other two candidates are close to Varun and the party has given tickets to them on his suggestion.
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Why Shiv Sena keeps snubbing BJP in presidential polls - Shubhangi Khapre, DNA
The Shiv Sena has dared the BJP to break their alliance in Maharashtra if the latter feels offended by its decision to support Congress candidate Pranab Mukherjee for presidential polls. The BJP's central leadership has directed the state unit not to take any extreme step at this moment as the NDA is already in the doldrums. BJP president Nitin Gadkari has cautioned state leaders not to overreact to the Sena’s decision as a split in the alliance would undermine BJP's political image. A BJP leader admitted, “When it comes to presidential elections, the Sena has been a repeat offender. It always plays the politics of opportunism. This is the fourth time the Sena has betrayed the NDA.”
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Back to the re-drawing board - Indian Express
After BJP’s delimitation assessment, the confidence of earlier Narendra Modi-led polls has gone missing. In 2002, the BJP rode to power on the Hindutva wave of Godhra and its related bloodshed. In 2007, it was the “Maut ka Saudagar” remark on the Sohrabuddin fake encounter that Chief Minister Narendra Modi turned around to take on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Ahead of the 2012 assembly elections, the Congress, compared to the BJP struggling to conceal a split apparently over Modi, looks more united. However, this time, it will be real issues rather than rhetoric that are likely to sway the votes, as this will be the first election fought in the newly delimited constituencies.
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Presidential pain for NDA - Radhika Ramaseshan, Telegraph
The BJP’s plans to keep the NDA intact and prospect for new allies by contesting the presidential election came unstuck after the Janata Dal (United) insisted on supporting Pranab Mukherjee and not Purno A. Sangma. The other glitches in the BJP’s belated desire to go for a contest were Mamata Banerjee’s refusal so far to budge from backing A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. But sections of the BJP, keen on eventually bringing in Mamata, Jayalalithaa and Naveen Patnaik into the NDA “parivar”, asked senior leader L.K. Advani to “keep working” on the Bengal chief minister and coax her to support Sangma.
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European voters could still pull the continent apart - Tristan Stewart-Robertson, First Post
When you have two pivotal nations voting on the same Sunday, it’s easy to see how contradictory Europe still is. For all the talk of unity in the euro zone for the benefit of the markets — and for all the good it does them — the continent is clearly pulling itself apart. Greece elected the centre-right and pro-euro party, New Democracy, on Sunday with about 30 per cent, followed by the far left Syriza party.
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BJP loses Kalam and Sena’s vote - Radhika Ramaseshan and Samyabrata Ray Goswami, Telegraph
L.K. Advani and loyalists Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar were today left isolated in the BJP and the NDA after A.P.J. Abdul Kalam refused to enter the presidential fray as Opposition candidate. The BJP’s strategy to go for a contest, crafted largely by Advani’s former political aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, was not welcomed by allies Janata Dal (United), Shiv Sena or the Akali Dal. Late tonight, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said on record his party had decided to back Pranab Mukherjee as he was “the perfect presidential candidate”. The announcement came after the Union finance minister spoke to Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray in the evening.
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BJP fields former Speaker against CM Bahuguna - Hindu
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday announced the candidature of former Uttarakhand Speaker and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant as its candidate against Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna for the upcoming State Assembly by-election from Sitarganj.
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MLAs can vote outside home states in special cases: EC - Lalmani Verma, Indian Express
The Election Commission of India has for the first time decided to allow MLAs to cast their vote in the forthcoming presidential election at any state headquarters other than their own “in exceptional cases”. In the past, MLAs always cast their vote at their state headquarters or at Parliament House.
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Why Shiv Sena keeps snubbing BJP in presidential polls - Shubhangi Khapre, DNA
The Shiv Sena has dared the BJP to break their alliance in Maharashtra if the latter feels offended by its decision to support Congress candidate Pranab Mukherjee for presidential polls. The BJP's central leadership has directed the state unit not to take any extreme step at this moment as the NDA is already in the doldrums. BJP president Nitin Gadkari has cautioned state leaders not to overreact to the Sena’s decision as a split in the alliance would undermine BJP's political image.
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Politics of deceit and betrayal - Rajesh Singh, Pioneer
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s open flip-flop on the presidential election left Mamata Banerjee high and dry. The West Bengal Chief Minister gravely erred in so openly trusting the wily Uttar Pradesh politician, who is a rank opportunist. The unsavoury drama that preceded the announcement by the Congress of Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature as the next President of the country has left a bad taste in the mouth of even the hardened cynical watchers of Indian politics. There is no disputing the fact that Mr Mukherjee is an excellent choice. He has all the right credentials and the credibility to occupy the post which in the last five years has been demeaned by the incumbent President. So, his likely elevation has to be welcomed. What should be condemned is the deceitful conduct of the Samajwadi Party in the entire episode.
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Have Jaya, Naveen lost interest? - Shekhar Iyer, Hindustan Times
Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa along with her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, may have taken the first step of projecting former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma as an Opposition candidate for the presidential poll. But goings-on within the NDA seems to have left both leaders quiet disinterested, and may even force a rethink. What if Sangma changed his mind, since he had not come out before TV cameras to make the announcement, ask insiders in both ADMK and BJD.
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Netas with vested interest spiking poll reforms: Ex-CEC Quraishi - Danish Raza, First Post
Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi has complained to the Prime Minister that important election reform proposals are being scuttled by politicians, including proposals to debar candidates with criminal charges from contesting elections, bringing transparency to the functioning of political parties including auditing of their accounts, and giving constitutional protection to all Election Commissioners and not just the CEC.
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Stagnant Wages May Decide Mexico's Election - Nacha Cattan and Eric Martin, Business Week
Julio Don Juan makes $400 a month working at a noisy, cramped call center in Mexico City that counts major American companies among its clients. The 37-year-old hasn’t had a raise in three years, he says, and was forced to pull his son out of a special-needs school because he could no longer afford the tuition. “Because costs keep rising, I’m actually getting a pay cut each year,” says Don Juan, who lives with his parents. “We’re scraping by.”
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Obama’s Race for Swing Voters With Romney Tight in Poll - Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Bloomberg
In an early indicator of a potentially tight presidential race, pivotal swing voting groups are split between President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney, according to a Bloomberg National Poll. A majority of suburban independents, Catholics, and working-class voters earning $75,000 to $99,999, voted for Obama in 2008 and then switched to Republicans in 2010, exit polls show. According to the Bloomberg poll, suburban independents now are roughly split between Romney and Obama, while the president is favored by the working class and married moms, another voting bloc being targeted by both campaigns. Catholics are divided, as the whole group leans Obama even as white Catholics favor Romney, according to the survey conducted June 15-18.
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Mamata sees red as CPM backs Pranab - Ravik Bhattacharya, Hindustan Times
The CPM’s support to Pranab Mukherjee for the presidential poll may further sour relations between the warring allies, the Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC), according to some TMC leaders. If West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee veers closer to the NDA, this support might be cited as one of the contributing factors, they pointed out. The CPM politburo decided to support Mukherjee on Thursday in a move seen as driven by the so-called Bengal lobby. Banerjee has always alleged there was a tacit understanding between the CPM and the Congress that had helped the former to rule Bengal for 34 years.
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Eye on Karnataka polls, Cong earmarks districts for ministers - D K Singh, IE
Seeking to link ministerial rewards with electoral performance, the Congress has entrusted party responsibility to its union ministers from Karnataka, giving them about half-a-dozen districts each to prove their political worth in next year’s Assembly elections. This comes after the party’s successful experiment last March when it had assigned different Assembly segments to these ministers in the Udupi-Chikmagalur bypoll.
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Once more, with meaning - Peggy Noonan, WSJ
You know what Republicans on the ground think when they look at Mitt Romney? "Please don't blow it." They think President Obama can't win but Mr. Romney can still lose. So they're feeling burly but anxious, hopeful yet spooked. They see Mr. Obama as surrounded by bad indicators—bad polls, bad economic numbers, scandals. They see a grubbiness in the administration now, a vacuity. When the White House sends out spokesmen to make the case for him on the Sunday morning shows, it's campaign operatives, like David Plouffe and David Axelrod.
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UPA choice wedges rift in Left too . - Pioneer
After the NDA, the Presidential poll has created a schism in the unity of Left parties also with CPI(M) and Forward Bloc deciding to support UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee and CPI and RSP opting to abstain from the voting. The division came at an hour-long meeting attended by top leaders of the parties, including Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), AB Bardhan (CPI), TJ Chandrachoodan (RSP) and Debabrata Biswas (FB). Karat said his party has decided to support the candidature of 77-year-old Mukherjee as “in the present situation, he is the candidate for the post of President with the widest possible acceptance.”
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Romney shrinks the campaign money gap - Karl Rove, WSJ
It's a good bet that there was an air of smug satisfaction in President Barack Obama's Chicago headquarters last month when both sides in the White House race posted their end-of-April cash-on-hand numbers. Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee had a combined $139 million in the bank while the newly minted presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, and the Republican National Committee had a total of $44 million. And $35 million of that was the RNC's. Mr. Romney's coffers were nearly bare.
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Obama Campaign Banks on High-Tech Ground Game to Reach Voters - Jackie Calmes, NY Times
A cheer erupted at about 8 on a June evening as a woman scrawled with red marker on paper taped to the wall: the small group in a storefront Obama campaign office in this Mayberry-like southern Ohio town had exceeded the night’s goal of calling 700 voters with an hour to go, despite time out for a pep talk from a surprise visitor, former Gov. Ted Strickland. Other volunteers entered information from the calls into computers — which voters would support President Obama, which were undecided and why — thereby expanding the VoteBuilder database instantly accessible at his campaign’s state headquarters in Columbus and at the national command center in Chicago.
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Cong turns down Sangma offer of debate with Pranab - Indian Express
A day after the BJP extended its support to P A Sangma’s candidature in the Presidential polls, the former Lok Sabha Speaker asked for a debate with UPA’s nominee Pranab Mukherjee on the state of economy and corruption scandals but the Congress was quick to turn it down. “Who is responsible for all this corruption? It has to be a candidate to candidate debate...democracy means debate and I am asking for a debate,” Sangma said here on Friday.
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Will Hamid Ansari get a second term? - Smita Gupta, Hindu
Vice President Hamid Ansari -- who was a strong contender for the UPA’s presidential candidate, as West Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee revealed after she met Congress President Sonia Gandhi – may be offered a second term in his current job. A few days ago, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh, responding to a question in a TV interview on the possibility of a second term for Mr Ansari as VP, said, “It’s not a bad idea. Mr Ansari has conducted himself admirably as vice-president.”
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Congress doomed in 2014: Chiru - Times of India
In a surprising outburst at the state Congress leadership, party Rajya Sabha MP Chiranjeevi said the role of the erstwhile Prajarajyam Party leaders and workers was not being recognized and that the Congress returning to power in 2014 would be a distant dream if the present 'sorry state of affairs continues.' Addressing a gathering at his Jubilee Hills residence of his followers from Ramachandrapuram, from where Thota Trimurthulu, an erstwhile Prajarajyam leader, won in the recent byelections as Congress candidate, Chiranjeevi said the chances of the Congress coming to power in Andhra Pradesh looked a distant dream. "If the same sorry state of affairs continues, target 2014 will become unrealizable," he said.
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Calm above the storm - Sunanda K Datta-Ray, Telegraph
A story doing the rounds last week had Mamata Banerjee as Pranab Mukherjee’s ardent secret champion. Determined that a Bengali should at last hold one of the country’s two top jobs, she suggested Manmohan Singh for the presidency in the certain knowledge that it would leave the field open for Mukherjee to become prime minister. When that gambit failed, she appeared to resolutely oppose Mukherjee’s presidential candidature, again in the certain knowledge that nothing else would force Sonia Gandhi to swallow her reservations and belatedly nominate him.
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No clear choice in Mexico’s election for new president amid drug wars - Oakland Ross, Star
Heavily armed gunmen attacked a drug rehabilitation centre in the northwestern Mexico town of Torreón earlier this month, killing 11 patients, wounding nine others, and sending a powerful message. It seems the assailants — members of either the Sinaloa drug cartel or a rival outfit known as Los Zetas — were worried that the men in rehab would | |
