Politics & Religion

The mercurial Meena leader has been staging a dharna along with tribals of the area outside the collectorate in Udaipur since Friday. He also demanded that the state should pay compensation to the families who lost their near and dear ones "in the absence of food".

Meena also submitted a memorandum to Udaipur Collector Anand Kumar, apart from a list of persons who, he claimed, died of hunger in Jher village. He said he visited Kotra on Thursday and saw that the tribal people in the region were facing starvation and were forced to eat toxic seeds. Stating that he had no faith in the government report, he also sought a CBI probe into the deaths of tribals at Kotra.

Meanwhile, lapping up the opportunity to boost its support in the Rajya Sabha polls, the BJP lost no time in coming out in support of Kirori who had been backing the Congress so far. Former Rajasthan Home Minister and Udaipur MLA Gulab Chand Katria joined the dharna, recognising Kirori, a former BJP man, as an "old ally".

If Golma Devi resigns, the vote arithmetic of Rajya Sabha elections in the state will swing in favour of the BJP, which is grappling to get adequate support for its second candidate. The BJP, with 79 MLAs in the 200-member House, needs the support of only three MLAs to get its both the candidates -- Ram Jethmalani and VP Singh -- elected to the Upper House and in such a scenario, Kirori's support may come in handy for the party.

In his letter to Golma, Kirori said, "The call of morality is to forsake the ministerial post for the cause of people dying of hunger. If you don't resign I will be forced to quit my Lok Sabha membership."

Source: The Tribune RS  Elections
Kirori's appeal to wife to quit jolts Congress

Party general secretary Tariq Anwar, while ruling out any truck with RJD and LJP, pointed out that the NCP has electoral alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat.

For the first time, the party's national executive meet will be held here on June 19 in which senior leaders like Pawar, Praful Patel, Chaggan Bhujbal and others will participate to discuss many issues, including the strategy for the assembly polls due on November this year, he said.
The leaders will also attend a function on completion of a decade of the party's formation, Anwar said. Pawar has accepted the resignation of national secretary Aquil Haider who was asked to resign after his supporters created unruly scenes at the party headquarters here, Anwar said.

The father- son duo had left the Congress in 2005, formed the Democratic Indira Congress ( Karunakaran) and later joined the Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP).

The Congress is not averse to obliging the old warhorse. With its fortunes on the upswing, the party is striving to expand and consolidate its base across the country. That many of the former rebels and their political heirs or heiresses are keen to return to the parent party’s fold is only going to make it easier for the Congress.

After the Lok Sabha polls, senior NCP leaders P. A. Sangma, his daughter and minister of state for rural development Agatha Sangma and Tariq Anwar were also said to be keen on ‘ homecoming’. Sources close to Sangma said the father- daughter duo would have joined the Congress but for the fact that Agatha would have lost her Lok Sabha membership in the absence of a one- third split in the NCP. While the anti- defection law has tied the Sangmas’ hands, Muralidharan may not to wait too long to get his wish.

Murali spoke to AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala Mohsina Kidwai on Wednesday regarding his return to the party.

Source: Mail Today Cong opens door for return of prodigals

Signaling a major re-alignment of political forces in Andhra Pradesh in the post-YSR scenario, Chiranjeevi’s fledgling Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) and the Congress are coming together in what appears to be a long-term electoral understanding.

“We feel that working together with Chiranjeevi will serve our long-term interests. We had preliminary discussions with PRP leaders including Chiranjeevi and details of poll pact will be worked out soon,” state Congress President D Srinivas said here today.

After taking the political plunge in August last year, Chiranjeevi had projected himself as an alternative to the two main contenders for power - the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party.

However, his party came a cropper in the April-May elections, managing to win just 18 seats in the 294-member Assembly and drawing blank in the Lok Sabha.

Source: The Tribune Chiru gets closer to Cong

The leaders of the two parties are expected to meet here on Thursday to thrash out the differences. While the Congress will be represented by Mr Ahmed Patel and A K Antony, NCP’s case will be put forth by Mr Sharad Pawar and Mr Praful Patel.

On Wednesday, the two sides refused to move an inch from their stated positions. While the NCP reiterated its demand that the 1999 formula for power sharing be adhered to, the Congress kept up its demand for a change. Claiming that 10 years was a long time for any arrangement to persist, Congress has made it clear that it will not agree to any compromise on the two big ministries.

Congress, which is on a upswing in the state, would like to leverage its ascendancy to get a better deal for itself. It argues that the 1999 arrangement was made in distress. “NCP had just been formed, and since its leaders parted on bitter terms with Congress there was no communication between the top leadership of the two parties. With no government in place even 15 days after results were announced, the local level leaders of NCP and Congress came together to cobble up the alliance. It adopted the Sena-BJP model because that was the simplest thing to do,” MPCC spokesperson Kanhayalal Gidwani said.

Source: Economic Times Eyes set on plum posts, Cong & NCP stare at each other

Sarvankar, a sitting MLA from Dadar, now re-organised as the Mahim constituency, was denied ticket by the Sena. Upset over refusal of nomination for the Mahim constituency, he rebelled and joined the Congress today and was instantly rewarded with a nomination for the constituency by the Congress.

Not just the Shiv Sena, allies- the Congress and the NCP are also facing rebellion threats. Amravati candidate Sunil Dehsmukh has already expressed his displeasure after being denied a Congress ticket from the constituency he has been representing for the past two elections. Deshmukh said he would contest the polls from Amaravati as an independent and there were others likely to follow suit.

While efforts are on to placate him and others, fearing more such episodes, the Congress is tactically keeping names of remaining 11 names close to its chest and delaying their announcement as much as possible. In fact, till late this evening the party had not announced the names of candidates of the remaining candidates from Maharashtra.

source: The Tribune Sena rebel joins Cong, gets ticket

Presiding over the function to welcome them into the Congress, Naryayan

Rane said the party would benefit immensely from their joining the

party. The three MLAs were to quit the Shiv Sena and contest on Congress ticket nearly three years ago. However, the Nationalist Congress Party, which is part of the government in the state, had staked claim for the three seats. Consequently, Rane had asked the three to stay put in the Sena and bide their time.

Mithadi was the state Joint Secretary of the HJC (BL) and among close confidants of party supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi and strong contender for the party ticket from the Kalanwali constituency.

Bishnoi had declared Mithadi as his candidate from Kalanwali while addressing a rally of his party in February 2008.

Mithadi had earlier contested the Assembly elections on the Haryana Vikas Party ticket in 1991 from the Dabwali (reserved) constituency and finished second after the INLD's Mani Ram.

The Kalanwali constituency has now come to the share of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the distribution of seats between the HJC (BL) and the BSP, finishing Mithadi's chances of contesting the coming poll on the HJC (BL) ticket.

Incidentally, the Congress does not have any established leader in the Kalanwali seat, which has been carved out as a new constituency after delimitation.

Mithadi announced his decision to join the Congress in the presence of Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar and a former OSD to the CM, Dr K.V. Singh, at Dabwali.

Talking to The Tribune, Mithadi said it was homecoming from him as before joining the HJC (BL), he had been the district president of the Congress Sewa Dal and state vice- president of the SC and ST cell of the Congress.

Faced with the predicament of sharing the same fate as its arch-enemy, the SP has now apparently decided to revise its political strategy especially vis-à-vis the Congress party, which has consistently cold-shouldered it. It has convened a special national convention from August 19 to 21 in Agra for the purpose.

The meet will deliberate on the future role of the SP, which wears its "Congress-inflicted wounds" on its sleeve. The party's top leadership, too, makes no bones about how frustrated they feel over "having got nothing in return for having given away everything" (in a reference to supporting the UPA's trust vote on July 21 and now supporting the government unconditionally).

Speaking to The Tribune on the eve of the convention, to be preceded by a national executive meet, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said he would still like to give the Congress six months before taking any final decision (on whether to continue supporting it).

Source: The Tribune SP calls special meet to rethink ties with Cong

Chaos is expected to revisit the party with Mr Muraleedharan voicing his desire to return to the Congress fold, giving up the state presidentship of NCP, following his father who is already back in the party after a brief detour to the Democratic Indira Congress (K).

After declaring that he had recommended dissolution of the NCP's state committee to the party's national president Sharad Pawar, and that he was himself desirous of stepping down from the post of state president, Muraleedharan announced on Friday that he was looking ahead to join Congress.

"Over the last two days I have mentally prepared for a return to Congress. Party members have left and returned in the past and Congress has shown magnanimity to accept those who have returned after correcting their mistakes. I don't think I have done any major mistakes since leaving the party."

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the main speaker at the "thanks rally" organised in the grain market here today.

As the steady stream of leaders from opposition parties into the Congress continues, former Education Minister Bahadur Singh, national vice-president ML Ranga and intellectual cell leader Krishan Chand also joined the bandwagon.

While Indora and Ranga joined the party at the rally, Bahadur Singh and Krishan Chand joined the Congress at the party office this evening.

Buoyed by the development, the Chief Minister claimed that people in the state had understood the reality of the opposition and showed faith in the development programmes unleashed by his government in the past four and a half years.

Source: The Tribune Indora, Ranga quit INLD, join Cong

The demand within Congress to go solo has been gaining strength with leaders like Mr Deshmukh making an active pitch. However, a senior Congress leader from the state suggested that the increasing decibel is more in the nature of a pressure tactic than any real effort to break the alliance.

In the 2004 elections, Congress contested 157 seats in the 288-member assembly and won 69 seats while NCP contested 124 seats and won 71. In view of Congress' performance in the state during the Lok Sabha elections, the party would like to ensure for itself a stronger role in the state alliance. A section of Congress would like "friendly fights" in some of the seats and they feel that stepping up the pressure on NCP may help them do that.

A senior Congress leader acknowledged that going solo was not really an option for the party given its weakness in certain regions like Mumbai and Thane. It was the split in the Shiv Sena votes that helped the ruling alliance win the Mumbai seats.

In addition, there is the fear that in regions like Thane, where the traditional anti-Congress vote moved away from the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance to Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena during the Lok Sabha polls, could well find its way back to the BJPSena camp. The shift from the BJP-Sena to MNS served Congress well in the Lok Sabha elections, but given that MNS was unable to secure any seats, the voter could move back to the BJP-Sena alliance. The Mumbai region has as many as 36 assembly seats.

Congress's Jyotiraditya Scindia says, "The BJP has a full stop post 185. Congress will emerge as the single largest party."

This is an optimism borne out of the realisation that the Left may just end up being forced to support a Congress-led government. The Congress is also hopeful of striking deals with AIADMK and BJD while bringing back old allies (LJP and RJD) which are now a part of the Fourth Front.

The BJP though is equally optimistic.

BJP Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad says, "The BJP's present allies and potential allies are doing well."

Already BJP's star campaigner, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is camping in the Capital - his brief to ensure that AIADMK support can be counted upon. Talks have already been initiated with BSP's Mayawati. The party hopes to be ahead of the Congress as early as May 17 in the hunt for allies. They have also not given up hope on bringing back Naveen Patnaik and the BJD into their fold.

But it's the Third Front that has the most to be worried. A picture of Kumaraswamy hiding his face while going to meet Sonia Gandhi secretly dealt a body blow to the Third Front as well as Jayalalithaa making it clear that she is keeping all options open.

All of this is leading to an edge of the seat thriller, which will build into a climax on May 16.

Deep Chand, who has influence in the Sadhaura area, believed to have joined the Congress after Selja assured him of assembly ticket from Sadhaura. He has contested four times assembly elections from this place. He had remained in second position. He had suffered defeat only of small margin in both last assembly elections.

Deep Chand's merger in the Congress considered to be second significant move of Selja to woo the voters and shocking the HJC camp.

Yesterday, HJC former general secretary Chowdhary Mahipal of the Chhachhroli area has joined the Congress.

The euphoria was generated following generous announcements made by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for various sections of society during the Budget session of the Assembly.

But in their wisdom those who matter in the Congress did not take a call on the proposal for premature Assembly elections and the party preferred to participate in the Lok Sabha elections with a fully working government and not a caretaker Chief Minister.

The party took such a long time in selecting its candidates that much of the sheen was lost by the time it finalised its nominees. Reports of hectic lobbying by various factions and the virtual stand-off between Hooda and his Finance Minister Birender Singh for the Sonepat seat and between him and his Minister of State for Tourism Kiran Choudhry for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat did dent the party image.

Source: The Tribune Trojan horses worry Haryana Cong