Uncertainty remains over Jharkhand Rajya Sabha polls -
Economic Times
Fate of the three candidates in the fray for the Rajya Sabha polls from Jharkhand remained uncertain with just two days left for the election. Though partners in the ruling combine, BJP and JMM are vying for votes to have its candidate elected to the Upper House. The two parties have fielded a candidate, each, while Congress too has fielded acting state unit chief Pradeep Balmuchu as its nominee. "We will know on May 3," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters here when asked if the party would manage to win the support of the five-member AJSU or independents in the 81-member assembly to ensure victory for its candidate SS Ahluwalia.
|
Jharkhand RS polls: CBI to scrutinise MLAs’ votes -
Manoj Prasad, IE
In connection with its probe into the seizure of Rs 2.15 crore from a vehicle belonging to a relative of an Independent candidate of the countermanded Rajya Sabha polls, the CBI will scrutinise the votes cast by MLAs during the March 30 election. The scrutiny will take place at the Election Commission office in Delhi. “We will look into each and every vote cast by the MLAs in order to find out who all cross-voted. This will help us progress in the case,” said a senior CBI officer.
|
JMM suggests BJP toe coalition line for Jharkhand RS elections -
Suyash Verma, Pioneer
With the BJP fielding SS Ahluwalia as its Rajya Sabha candidate, its coalition partner in the State, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM), has suggested the party adhere to coalition dharma. As the situation gets murkier, Jharkhand Deputy Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren has, however, assured that the party would consult its allies on the issue of the Rajya Sabha election. Addressing media after the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha legislators’ meet at Shibu Soren’s residence, Hemant said that the party’s stand will be the same, hinting that the BJP may withdraw the nomination. |
Jharkhand RS Pollls: Congress offered Central posts for votes: JVM -
Pioneer
A ‘trading’ of different kind has been alleged to be taking place in Jharkhand despite the tight vigil of Election Commission and other law enforcement agencies in the backdrop of Rs 2.15 crore seized during the countermanded Rajya Sabha polls last month. The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) has charged the Congress with offering three posts of chairman at various central agencies in lieu of 11 votes of the party. Support of JVM is considered to be crucial for the Congress to sail through. |
Jharkhand: Riled BJP rips into Marandi -
Telegraph
The BJP today castigated Babulal Marandi for berating the ruling party over the just-countermanded Rajya Sabha elections and insisted that the JVM boss had hobnobbed harder with the Independent candidate at the centre of the horse-trading row. State party president Dineshanand Goswami said Marandi had been cosying up to businessman nominee R.K. Agrawal in the run-up to the polls to teach the Congress a lesson. He demanded a high-level probe (read CBI) against the JVM, as well as the Congress, saying that authentic sources had suggested the involvement of both parties in promotion of horse-trading. |
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. |
RS nominations reunite erstwhile NDA partners -
Mohua Chatterjee, Times of India
The latest round of Rajya Sabha polls has built new bridges between old allies, who had fallen apart. Sensing the growing anti-Congress space in the political horizon, erstwhile NDA allies like BJD and Trinamool Congress have been carefully mending fences with BJP even as they firmly remain outside NDA's orbit. BJP has also made small moves to extend help, and renew ties with them. |
Soren meets Gadkari to seek support -
Telegraph
BJP president Nitin Gadkari has indicated to Jharkhand deputy chief minister Hemant Soren that the BJP might revisit its decision to abstain from voting in the state’s Rajya Sabha polls on March 30. Soren, a leader of the BJP’s ruling coalition partner Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, met Gadkari in Delhi on Saturday morning and requested BJP support for Morcha candidate Sanjeev Kumar. Sources close to Gadkari said he had told Soren he would have to sound out other leaders, notably L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, before reconsidering the diktat to the BJP’s Jharkhand MLAs to abstain from voting. |
55 elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha -
Hindu
With the time for withdrawal of nominations for the March 30 Rajya Sabha biennial election in 15 States ending on March 22 in 14 States and on March 23 in Bihar, 55 of the 58 seats have already been filled from 13 States. The candidates were declared elected unopposed after the deadline for withdrawals was over and election certificates given to them by Returning Officers. Now the actual poll will be held only in Jharkhand for two seats and for one seat in Uttarakhand between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on March 30 and the counting of votes will be taken up the same evening. |
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. |
|
