POLITICS

As polls near, BJP workers turn Advani into Lord Rama

Lucknow: After Congress President Sonia Gandhi was depicted as Goddess Durga by some Congress workers recently, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers have put up hoardings in Kanpur depicting L.K. Advani as Lord Rama who is out to destroy the evil - seen as the Congress.
Advani is scheduled to address a Vijaya Sankalp (victory oath) Rally in Kanpur on July 27.
So it seems Advani, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, is spearheading the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, armed with Lord Rama’s bow and arrow.
“Posters have been put up depicting price rise as a demon with Sonia Gandhi one side and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the others side with Advani out to slay the demon with an arrow. It just reflects the feeling of the workers and nothing more,” says Satish Mahana, BJP MLA from Kanpur.
The posters of Advani have left the Congress fuming though not too long ago Congress supporters depicted their party president as Goddess Durga. Angry Congress workers also burnt an effigy of Advani in Kanpur.
“If these hoardings are not removed we will protest and show Advani black flags,” says Congress worker Manish Kumar.

Sonia ponders over poll date

New Delhi: After backing Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh to the hilt on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is likely to take a political call on deciding the timing of the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting would be convened next week to take senior leaders into confidence on the latest political events — in particular the Left parties’ threat to vote against the government on a no-confidence motion in Parliament.
The party’s stand vis-à-vis the Samajwadi Party and the smaller parties would be finalized at the same meeting. The Congress leadership on June 26 made it clear that the party was seeking alliance with the Samajwadi Party only for Uttar Pradesh elections. Even if Mulayam Singh Yadav joins hands with the Congress to bail it out in Parliament, the UPA government would still be falling short of numbers. It has strength of 220 members and even if the Samajwadi Party, with its 39 MPs, lends its support, it would still fall short of 13 MPs.

Three states get new Governors

New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil on June 26 appointed new Governors in three states, including a politician, a former bureaucrat and a retired police officer.
She also interchanged the occupants of Raj Bhavan in two states.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman said that former Rajasthan Chief Minister Shiv Charan Mathur, a senior Congress politician, will be the Governor of Assam as the term of Lt. Gen. Ajai Singh comes to an end.
Retired bureaucrat Balmiki Prasad Singh will be the Governor of Sikkim in place of Sudarshan Agarwal, while former Border Security Force chief Rajit Shekhar Moosha-hary goes to Meghalaya, replacing S. S. Sidhu.
Bihar Governor R. S. Gavai has been transferred to the Kerala Raj Bhavan for the remainder of his term. Kerala Governor R. L. Bhatia will be the new occupant of the Raj Bhavan in Patna.
A few days back, former home secretary N. N. Vohra was appointed Governor of J&K.

BJP to rope in Obama adviser

New Delhi: The BJP may hire Kevin Bertram — the architect behind Barack Obama’s election campaign — for an aggressive, high-tech campaign ahead of the general elections. Bertram, who was in India recently, is the founder and CEO of Distributive Networks, a Washington DC — based company that develops promotional campaigns for mobile phones. Bertram strategy included content downloads and ring tones specific to the Obama campaign. The campaign won the 2008 Golden Dot award for best mobile/text messaging campaign. BJP secretary Shahna-waz Hussain confirmed the party is talking to Bertram.

Gujarat BJP rebels may float new regional party

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Jan Andolan, a group of expelled BJP MLAs and leaders, who proved themselves to be totally ineffective in the last assembly elections, are now contemplating to float a regional party. About a dozen MLAs, who had either ganged up with the Congress or had contested as independents and had lost their deposits, now feel that a regional outfit would help them fight against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Their first common program will be to launch a statewide movement against inflation. Sunil Oza, an ex-BJP MLA, who contested as an independent after he was refused ticket by Modi and eventually lost his deposit, is the convener of the jan andolan. He is optimistic that inflation will reunite all BJP rebels and expelled party leaders.
“We are getting together against the BJP and the Congress both. This would help all of us in the coming days with Lok Sabha elections approaching,” he said.
Former Home Minister and BJP rebel Gordhan Jhadafia said that both the Congress and BJP are blaming each other for the inflation. It is the common man, who is suffering.

Pushed to limits, govt. lives to die another day

New Delhi: It’s been a long day in the life of the UPA coalition. While the Congress and the Left may have averted a showdown on the Indo-US nuclear deal for now, a break in ties between the two appears inevitable. A terse two-minute joint press conference summed up the day-long confrontation between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Left leader. But with both Manmohan Singh and Left leader Prakash Karat unflinching, it was ultimately left to the government’s chief troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee to try and work out a compromise. “The next meeting will be convened in due course of time,” he said. At the end of the crucial meeting, all that could be said was the two sides had bought some time to avoid a final break in ties that could result in a winter election. Through the day too, there had been several attempts to break the ice. l The Left asked for a written assurance from the Congress that the deal will not be operationalized which the Congress was unwilling to give.
l Prakash Karat rejected last-ditch efforts from the Congress leaders to work out a middle path, he also asked Mulayam Singh Yadav to support the Left in saying no to the deal.
l The TDP, a constituent of the UNPA, warned it will pull out of the Third Front if Mulayam goes with the Congress on the nuclear deal.
l Mulayam said that his party’s decision will be based on a collective decision of the UNPA to be taken on.
The tough-talking Left claimed it was for the Prime Minister to decide whether he wanted his government to survive.

LS poll: Maneka’s son to contest from Pilibhit

New Delhi: Former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi’s concerted efforts to put her son Varun in Parliament may materialize in the next Lok Sabha elections, with the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party recommending him for the Pilibhit seat.
Varun will have the advantage of the constituency nursed by her mother all these years and his own involvement in the campaigning for her from this constituency in the last elections.
The mother intends to shift to Aonla constituency in Uttar Pradesh that now has Janata Dal(U)’s Kunwar Sarvraj Singh as the MP.
It is learnt that Maneka had also tried to push Varun for the Vidisha seat in Madhya Pradesh that was vacated by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chavan, but without success. She had been trying to have him in the Lok Sabha since 2004.

BJP wins Rajya Sabha by-poll

Patna: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy on June 26 won the Rajya Sabha by-election from Bihar.
The former Civil Aviation Minister, who defeated independent candidate Shiv Shankar Prasad Nishad, was the joint candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which has 145 legislators in the 243-member state assembly. Of these, 90 are from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and 55 from the BJP.
Rudy got 148 votes in the by-elections and Nishad, who was projected as a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supported independent candidate, got only six votes.
The election for the Rajya Sabha seat became necessary after Captain Jainarayan Nishad left the party.
Rudy was defeated in the last Lok Sabha elections by RJD president Lalu Prasad in Chapra.

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