Naveen had rejected Modi’s help during cyclone Phailin: BJP

Bhubaneswar: The BJP today rejected Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's allegation that Gujarat did not extend any help for the victims of cyclone Phailin.

"A day after the cyclone made its landfall, Modiji called up Naveen and asked if the Gujarat government can be of any help to Odisha. Naveen said the situation doesn't warrant any outside help," state BJP president K V Singhdeo said, reacting over Patnaik's statements given at three different public meetings.

PTI

Patnaik while targeting BJP's prime ministerial candidate, said "Where were Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, BJP president Rajnath Singh and party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi when people suffered due to cyclone Phailin and subsequent floods."

Referring to Modi's recent public meeting here where he called upon people to send 21 MPs from Odisha, Naveen further said "Where were the leaders seeking votes in the name of Lord Jagannath and Biju Patnaik, when the people in the Jagannath's land faced the worst natural calamities."

PTI

Mamata names candidates in Manipur, Tripura and Jharkhand

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress Wednesday announced its six candidates for the northeastern states of Tripura and Manipur and the eastern state of Jharkhand.

Mamata Banerjee. Agencies.

In Tripura, the party's two candidates would be Vikuram Riyang from Tripura East and Ratan Chakraborty from Tripura West, Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee told a media conference here.

In Manipur's Inner Manipur seat, the Trinamool would field Sarangthem Manobi Singh, with Kim Gangte in fray from Outer Manipur.

The party nominated Bandhu Tirkey and Chamra Linda from the Ranchi and Lohardanga constituencies respectively of Jharkhand. The two legislators, who were supporting the Heman Soren government in the tribal state, had recently merged their outfits with the Trinamool.

IANS

BJP questions Rahul Gandhi sharing stage with Ashok Chavan

Mumbai: BJP today targeted Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for sharing the stage with former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who had been named by CBI in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.

PTI

"Rahul Gandhi's utterances about corruption are a political farce as he shared stage with Ashok Chavan (at a rally at Aurangabad)," senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde said
this evening.

Chavan had to resign as the Chief Minister when the scam came to light. He was also indicted by the judicial commission which probed the scam.

PTI

Tamil Nadu: Left’s alliance with Jaya’s AIADMK in trouble?

Chennai: The CPI and CPI-M will decide on the future of alliance with Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK party for the general elections as there has been no progress in their seat sharing talks, said party leaders on Wednesday.

"The party's executive committee will meet in Chennai tomorrow (Thursday) to decide. You will have to wait for some more time," D.Pandian, state secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI), told IANS.

Speaking to reporters here, G.Ramakrishnan, state secretary of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said there has been no progress in the seat sharing talks with AIADMK during the past 15 days.

He said there will be a meeting with CPI Thursday to decide on the next course of action.

Jayalalithaa. AFP.

Pandian said AIADMK repeated what it did during the 2011 assembly elections - announcing the names of the party's candidates for 160 seats even when seat sharing talks were in progress with allies that included the Left parties and DMDK.

Furious at AIADMK's unilateral decision, the Left parties and DMDK threatened to walk out forcing the former to withdraw its list and hold negotiations.

This time around Jayalalithaa announced the party's candidates for all the 40 Lok Sabha seats (39 in Tamil Nadu and one Puducherry), declaring that the party's candidates would withdraw in favour of allies once the seat sharing deals conclude.

She said talks are on with the Left parties and she is satisfied with the two allies to fight the elections.

Reacting to the development, Ramu Manivannan, head of political science and public administration in Madras University, told IANS: "I don't think Jayalalithaa would let go off the Left parties at this stage as it would give confusing signals for other parties and the voters."

Conversely the AIADMK may be looking at hidden options - aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party post poll- if it wins around 30 seats and settle down for deputy prime minister postion. The hidden option if any, has not been revealed till now, he added.

Agreeing that such strategies would be worked out by political parties during seat sharing talks, he said AIADMK may finally agree to give the left parties two seats each.

"It may leave a bad taste at the end but it is part of the political game," Manivannan said.

IANS

Modi’s AAP problem: Kejriwal’s ‘attack me’ strategy in Gujarat

BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad, overcome with anger of the kind that makes you breathless and repeat the same words till they echo in the head, bristled at the mention of Arvind Kejriwal. "Urban Maoists" he hollered at the TV news reporter and uttered the word 'Maoist' possibly more times in 30 seconds than Mamata Banerjee has in her entire career as West Bengal's chief minister. BJP leader Nalin Singh, also visibly agitated, sparred with yet another reporter suggesting Arvind Kejriwal is capable of orchestrating a BJP attack on himself to stay in the news before the Lok Sabha polls.

This was in Delhi.

The BJP honchos are being proved right today in Gujarat. What Nalin Singh got wrong is that Kejriwal doesn't want to attack BJP, as much as he wants to incite the BJP -- especially Modi -- to attack him.

Arvind Kejriwal. Agencies.

Barely hours after Kejriwal entered Gujarat, news wires flashed reports that Kejriwal was arrested by the Gujarat police for violating the Election Commission's code of conduct. The Gujarat Police detained Kejriwal for 30 minutes in Gujarat's Patan district giving AAP the chance to position Modi as the frontrunner running scared of their scrappy leader.

Soon enough, tweets started flying fast and thick about Modi's "fear of AAP" -- which is exactly what Kejriwal is aiming for: An arrest in Gujarat that he can spin as evidence of Modi's anxiety.

Meanwhile, TV grabs showed BJP workers, armed with lathis, grabbing AAP workers by their hair, shoving them against carts and downed shutters of shops, kicking them and beating them up. Only 20 workers had walked to the Lucknow office of the BJP - nothing that the party should have lost sleep about. But they chose to retaliate and beat them up with such violence that it would shake even the most cynical politics watchers.

This was in Lucknow.

Soon after the police in Gujarat let Kejriwal go, news poured in that his convoy was attacked. Reporters said that as Kejriwal alighted from his car and walked towards a gathering where BJP workers were demonstrating, scores of BJP workers attacked his car with sticks.

This was from Ahmedabad.

Within hours, AAP sprinted back onto prime time news headlines with visuals straight out of a Salman Khan film. If we might add, visuals that even a disinterested news watchers will be immediately hooked on to?

The BJP supporters can whine about Kejriwal's machiavellian tactics, but BJP's hot-blooded politics led by the mid-rung leaders must equally share the blame. They are undoing the best efforts of their chosen candidate to defuse the K-bomb.

In his own election campaign,  Narendra Modi has not ceded much space to AAP. As long as Modi is at the helm of it, most of the political wrestling has been limited to the Congress party. It's all about dynasty, incompetence, and corruption. In other words, Modi has focused on his favourite opponent: Rahul Gandhi.

One has to keep in mind that with by literally bombarding states like Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka etc with Modi rallies, where BJP's presence is at best superficial, the party has at least been able to turn Narendra Modi into an name that now has recall value among average voters. Modi, being the clever political player he is, possibly realises that while every word that leaves his mouth might not resonate immediately with voters, they will also be not dismissed in a hurry. Therefore, if he does mention Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP in any of his speeches, there is a likelihood that people hitherto unaware of Kejriwal might just wake up and take note. And the BJP cannot even risk voter curiosity about Kejriwal at this stage.

Arvind Kejriwal's car with the smashed windshield. Image courtesy: Twitter.

Ignoring Kejriwal is exactly what they did in Delhi -- to disastrous results. But BJP now seems to be giving Kejriwal and AAP exactly the wrong kind of attention -- the kind that works perfectly for him.

That is exactly why the BJP-AAP street-fight in Lucknow, the BJP leaders likening AAP with the insurgent Maoists, the BJP internet brigade helping NaxalAAP trend on Twitter, the detainment of Kejriwal in Radhanpur will only hurt the BJP. If luck has it, it might also profit the AAP.

The odds against the AAP in the Lok Sabha polls are immense. The buzz around the party was set to die a natural death following the week-long media hyperventilation about Kejriwal's talents as a politician soon after his exit from Delhi. Kejriwal's reported target states - UP, Rajasthan and Bihar - are states where the political discourses are already heavily clouded by a multitude of players. It is least likely that Kejriwal will be heard amid the Nitish-Modi, Mulayam-Modi din.

So, AAP decided to draw blood and strike at Gujarat. It is evident that AAP has no intention to win over the Gujarati voter. It is obvious to even a layman that his chances are thinner than Congress' in the state. However, by landing in Gujarat to 'verify' Modi's claims -- and more importantly, do his best to get arrested -- Kejriwal is cleverly attempting to use Brand Modi to keep Brand AAP in the headlines.With Rahul Gandhi widely perceived as already ceding the race, the space for Kejriwal to emerge as Modi's true opponent is wide open.

It is also why Kejriwal merrily retweeted a BJP supporter's tweet calling him a "suar."  More hardcore Modi supporters abuse him the better. The problem for BJP is that Kejriwal has locked the party between the proverbial rock and a hard place. If they hit back too hard, Modi looks threatened. if they ignore him, it just offers him incentive to ever greater provocation.

The lesson of today's little debacle: BJP better come up with a better Kejriwal strategy... and fast!

Nitish rakes up special status issue during poll campaign

Bagha (Bihar): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today attacked the Congress-led UPA government for denying special category status to the state under 'political pressure' and appealed people to provide 'strength' in the ensuing general elections and make Delhi hear them.

"Delhi takat ki sunti hai (Delhi hears only those who have strength)," he said during a 'Sankalp yatra' for the special category status to Bihar from Bagha in West Champaran district.

A file photo of Nitish Kumar. AFP

Kumar alleged that Congress and BJP teamed up to provide special category status and special package to Seemandhra but not to Bihar.

Confirming that Bihar's special status would be JD(U)'s be main poll plank in the Lok Sabha elections, the chief minister said he would continue the struggle for the special category status to spur development till it was realised.

In an apparent dig at rival RJD which is in the final process of forging tie-up with Congress for the elections, Kumar said under 'political pressure' the Centre put the special category agenda in 'cold storage'.

"There was every possibility to provide the status that will give tax benefits for setting up industries on the basis of the Raghuram Rajan committee report but in the last minute a brake was applied (under pressure of RJD) by calling off the Finance Secretary meeting on 26 November last year," he said.

PTI

LS polls: Congress seals alliance with RJD, praises Lalu

New Delhi: Congress today hailed Lalu Prasad as an "extremely supportive" ally as the two sides sealed a deal under which it will contest 12 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

"We have a very good rapport with RJD chief Lalu Prasad. He has been extremely supportive of Congress inside Parliament and outside," party spokesperson Sanjay Jha told reporters here.

Lalu Prasad Yadav. PTI

Asserting that there was "no dispute" between the two parties, the Congress spokesperson said that the issue of an alliance during any election is a very complex issue that cannot be dealt in a hurry.

While Prasad said that the candidates list for the elections will be declared within two days, sources in the Congress said that under the seat sharing agreement, it will get 12 seats, NCP one and RJD will contest from the other 27.

The sources said that while Prasad did not accept Congress' demand for seats like Madhubani, East Chamaparan and Nawadah, it has given it the two seats held by Congress Sasaram and Kishanganj from where Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Md Asrarul are MPs.

Besides these two seats, the party is getting Aurangabad Supaul, Purnia, Hajipur, Nalanda, Patna Sahib, Balmikinagar, Jamui, Muzaffarpur, Aurangabad and Gopalganj. On the last two seats, there could be a change also. NCP leader Tarique Anwar would be contesting from Katihar.

Former Kerala Governor Nikhil Kumar, who resigned yesterday, was an MP from Aurangabad seat in past. There is speculation that he may prefer to contest this time from Karakaat seat in place of Aurangabad while Gopalganj seat could be substituted with Gaya, which is currently held by the BJP.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad had lost from Patna Sahib in 2009 Lok Sabha polls when Congress was not part of the RJD-LJP alliance.

Similarly Madhubani seat was a bone of contention with Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed, who had won in 2004 Lok Sabha polls seeking it while RJD's Abdul Bari Siddique, who was runner up from the seat in 2009 Lok Sabha polls in no mood to spare the seat currently held by BJP's Hukumdev Narayan Yadav. The Congress general secretary finally blinked agreeing to forego his demand for the sake of "secular alliance".

Shakeel Ahmed was later asked to contest from another seat, which he declined, the sources said.

Congress leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who was earlier a minister from RJD in UPA I government, wanted to contest from East Champaran but the RJD did not spare the seat for Congress. Congress is now persuading Akhilesh to contest from Muzaffarpur, the sources said.

Some of the seats offered by RJD to Congress like Hajipur, Nalanda, Patna Sahib and Valmikinagar could really prove tough for the party.

Hajipur is the turf of Ram Vilas Paswan, while Nalanda is home district of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

RJD sources said both parties have agreed to "concede" to each other's demands.

Earlier, RJD had offered 11 seats to Congress and one to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as a pre-condition for alliance.

Congress had fought the 2004 Lok Sabha election in alliance with RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP and they had won 29 of the 40 Parliamentary seats.

In 2009, Congress fought alone as its alliance for Lok Sabha polls broke with RJD and LJP. The results were disastrous for all three parties with RJD winning only four seats, Congress two and LJP even failing to open its account.

While Paswan has aligned with BJP this time, RJD and Congress have come together.

In 2004, Congress had won three seats including Madhubani, Sasaram and Aurangabad. In 2009, the party won only two seats retaining Sasaram and losing the other two. The other seat it won was Kishanganj.

PTI

HC seeks clear reply from EC on plea for cancelling AAP’s registration

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today sought a "clear answer" from the Election Commission to issues raised in a plea for cancellation of AAP's registration on the ground that it allegedly used forged documents to register itself.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed and Justice S Mridul did not issue notice in the matter and instead renotified it to March 21.

Representational image. AFP

"We are not issuing notice. We are simply renotifying the matter to 21 March. Give us a clear answer on all the issues raised in the petition," it said.

The court passed the order on the petition by Hans Raj Jain, who also sought directions restraining AAP from contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections till final disposal of the case.

Jain, who claims to have contested the Parliamentary elections in 1989 and 1991 from East Delhi, alleged the "registration of AAP was allowed (by the EC) in a hurried manner on the basis of false and fabricated documents without making any proper enquiries".

He also charged that "the ECI indulged in partiality under some inducement or undue pressure" as the registration of no other party had been allowed so quickly.

Jain alleged that there are discrepancies in residential addresses given by some AAP members in their affidavits when compared to the addresses given in their voter identity cards or income tax returns.

He also alleged that provisions of State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act has been violated by AAP as its registration application contained the 'chakra' logo as depicted in the national flag.

He also sought a probe by a Special Investigation Team into the alleged forging and fabrication of documents by AAP while registering itself with the EC as a political party.

Jain further sought initiation of disciplinary action against officials concerned of ECI for allegedly failing to verify documents submitted by AAP members.

PTI

Polls should be state-funded, says Mamata

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister on Mamata Banerjee Wednesday contended the union cabinet's decision to increase the poll campaign expenditure limit for candidates will encourage corruption and called for state funding of elections.

"There is so much talk about black money and corruption, then why this move to increase the expenditure? I don't know if it's an attempt to legitimise black money, it's unfortunate," Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress chairperson, told media persons here.

"There are some who are indulging in corruption and using black money in elections. That's why I have been fighting for state funding of elections. If countries like US, Britain, Austria, Japan can have state funding for elections why can't we," she asked.

Mamata Banerjee. Agencies.

The union cabinet Friday raised expenditure limits for Lok Sabha elections to a maximum of Rs.70 lakh and a minimum of Rs.54 lakh, allowing candidates to spend more on their poll campaigns.

Banerjee also hit out at the Congress led UPA over the Telangana issue.

"We don't support any kind of divide and rule policy. We are for united India. If somebody feels there is need to increase a district of a state, the state government needs to be consulted. People cannot take unilateral decision. One has been given the power to govern and not break and destroy the country," she said.

The Trinamool chief said the party was in talks with social activist Anna Hazare to finalise its manifesto.

While she asserted that Trinamool will be the third-largest party, Banerjee refused to talk about the party's plans regarding post-poll alliances.

Banerjee, who will be addressing a joint rally with Hazare in Delhi, said she would be holding public meetings in several parts of the country including in Ahmedabad.

IANS

Mulayam has the right to scold me, says son Akhilesh

Lucknow: A day after Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav publicly admonished the working of his son's government in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said it was his right as the party supremo.

"Whose fathers don't scold their sons? As party chief, Netaji (Mulayam) has the right to say this," Akhilesh said, responding to questions during a function at his residence.

Mulayam Singh with his son Akhilesh Yadav. AFP

The Chief Minister, however, said, "I sometimes fail to understand when he (Mulayam) becomes father and when party chief."

Mulayam had yesterday given a 10-day ultimatum to party ministers and babus in UP to "mend their ways" or face the sack, and even ticked off his son Akhilesh asking him to keep distance from "sycophants".

PTI

Cong using Left, AAP to stop Modi: Prakash Javadekar

Gandhinagar: BJP's national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said here today that the Congress is "using" the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Third Front to stop Narendra Modi from becoming Prime Minister.

"The Congress party is left with nothing to talk about. So their leaders are pushing AAP and Third Front against Modi. We believe that all votes given to the AAP and Third Front are actually given to the Congress," Javadekar said here, while addressing a press meet today at the newly inaugurated Gujarat BJP headquarters called 'Shri Kamalam'.

A file photo of Prakash Javadekar. Ibnlive

He also questioned AAP giving a Lok Sabha ticket to Medha Patkar, who opposed the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada river.

Javdekar claimed that AAP must come clean on the question of the Narmada dam issue before making enquiring about funds received by the BJP for election rallies.

"For the people of Gujarat, the water of the Narmada river is a question of life and death. The Gujarat government always tried to increase the height of the dam, but Medha Patkar stalled the project through her petition. AAP must tell the people of Gujarat people if Medha Patkar will ever withdraw it," said Javdekar, who claimed ignorance about AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's brief detention at Patan.

On the question of corruption in Gujarat, Javdekar gave a clean chit to Modi.

"The Congress was involved in numerous scams such as Adarsh, 2G, coal, CWG and many more. Such large scale corruption was never seen in Gujarat" claimed Javadekar, who refused to accept allegations of corruption in the Sujalam Sufalam project in Gujarat.

Defending the BJP's decision to include the tainted B S Yeddyurappa once again in the BJP, Javdekar claimed that the former Karnataka CM is "clean".

PTI

Former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit appointed governor of Kerala

New Delhi: Sheila Dikshit, a former three-term Chief Minister of Delhi, was on Tuesday appointed Governor of Kerala within three months of her defeat in the recent Assembly polls.

AFP

Highly placed sources said that the decision has been conveyed to 75-year-old Dikshit, who will succeed Nikhil Kumar, a former Delhi Police Commissioner.

PTI

Election Commission likely to announce Lok Sabha poll dates today

New Delhi: The Election Commission is likely to announce the dates for the Lok Sabha election on Wednesday.

Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath.

The term of the current Lok Sabha expires on 1 June. A new house has to be constituted by 31 May.

An estimated 814 million voters will be eligible to vote, with 97.1 million new voters added since the 2009 election.

The "None of the Above" (NOTA) option will be given to voters -- for the first time in a parliamentary contest.

About 800,000 polling stations will be set up across the country, according to Election Commission sources.

Around 1.2 million electronic voting machines will be used in the election and another 250,000 have been ordered from public sector companies.

In 2009, there were 714 million voters and 671 million in 2004.

IANS