Saturday, October 2, 1999
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Saturday, October 2, 1999 |
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Change in voters’
mood PATNA: Even as Bihar prepares for the third phase of polling on October 3, the state political scenario has changed substantially. The BJP-JD(U) combine, which was riding high during the first phase of polling on September 18, now fears that its calculations may go awry. The basis of its apprehension is the fact that the ruling RJD-Congress-Left combine is getting its act together, shedding inhibitions. So much so that there is now talk of the ruling RJD even retaining its tally while its alliance partner, the Congress, may win more seats this time. Even the Left parties, which drew a blank in 1998, may end their electoral drought this time around. Despite the NDA’s claim of having the upper hand in Bihar, almost all prominent leaders of the alliance, including George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and Anand Mohan, are running the risk of losing the poll battle. BJP stalwarts like Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, may, however, romp home with reduced margins. In the initial stages of the election campaign, it looked as if the 1999 poll would prove to be the Waterloo of Laloo Prasad Yadav. But as electioneering is coming to a close, fortunes seem to have fluctuated. Now only leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan of the JD(U) say that “this poll will be Laloo’s Waterloo”. But Paswan himself is not satisfied with the performance of the NDA during the last two phase of polling in the state. Mr Paswan, who is said to be the brain behind the recent split in the Janata Dal and it unification with the Samata Party in the state, seems disillusioned with the newly formed JD(U) and the NDA led by the BJP. That is why he is toying with the idea of floating a political outfit of his own. He has recently been quoted as saying: “I want to float a new party... though I have yet to work out the modalities. Surely the base of the new party will be the ideologies of Babasaheb and Ram Manohar Lohia.” Such utterances are symptomatic of the despair prevailing in the NDA camp. |
October 1, 1999
September 30, 1999
September 29, 1999
September 28, 1999
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| Campaigning during the last five weeks has
also witnessed a major shift in caste-oriented politics
in the state. Some militant caste-based organisations
like the Ranvir Sena of Bhumihars have shifted their
loyalty. The support of Bhumihars, traditionally
anti-Laloo, had been taken for granted by the BJP-led
alliance. But, as of now, a majority of the Bhumihars are
against BJP politics. Of late, the Ranvir Sena has made
its political ambitions known by deciding to participate
in parliamentary politics in a big way. They have even
launched a front organisation called the Rashtriya Kisan
Mahasangh. It has decided to contest in at least 23
districts in the assembly elections to be held early next
year. The Mahasangh has already fielded its candidate
from the Ara parliamentary constituency, and its
candidate, Rang Bahadur Singh, is posing problems for the
BJP combine’s candidate, Hardwar Singh, the sitting
MP. This gives CPI(ML) candidate Rameshwar Prasad a good
chance of winning the seat. In the altered political scenario and in view of the shifting loyalties of forward and backward castes, CPM candidate Khalil Ahmed from Purnia, CPI candidate Gaya Singh from Nalanda, MCC candidate A.K. Roy from Dhanbad, CPI candidate Bhogendra Jha from Madhubani and the CPI(ML) candidate from Kodarma have all emerged as formidable candidates, giving the candidates of the BJP-JD(U) combine the jitters. As far as Laloo Yadav’s RJD is concerned, its Yadav and Muslim vote base seems to be intact. Both communities account for 27 per cent of the votes in the state, 11 and 16 per cent, respectively. Some intermediate castes and a few communities of other backward castes, who had abandoned Laloo, seem to be coming back to the RJD fold of late, mainly due to the calibrated efforts of Samata Party leaders like Shivanand Tewari, Shakuni Chaudhary (Koiri) and Brishan Patel (Kurmi). A substantial section of the Dalits, who form 25 per cent of the state’s population, also seems inclined to vote for the RJD-Congress-Left combine. These developments have added to the strength of the RJD-Congress alliance, much to the chagrin of the NDA. No wonder, the spring is back in the gait of RJD activists. In the last elections,
Laloo Prasad was the lone fighter, who won against the
combination of parties spearheaded by the BJP-Samata
combine on the one hand, and by Congress and the Left
parties as also the Janata Dal. Even the Jharkhand
parties were arrayed against him. Yet, he not only
managed to survive, but went on to win 17 seats, polling
26.58 per cent of the votes. Now, with Congress and the
Left supporting him, he is likely to perform well
upsetting the calculations of the rival NDA camp.
However, some others contest this assessment citing the
performance in 1998 of the BJP, the Samata and the JD
(now JD-U), which polled 48.49 per cent of the votes.
— IPA Service |
Politicians flood Vidisha,
Hoshangabad BHOPAL: The Narmada waters having receded, politicians have now flooded the Hoshangabad and Vidisha Lok Sabha constituencies slated to go to the polls on Sunday. Polling in the two constituencies was originally scheduled for September 18 but was postponed to September 28 and then to October 3 because of heavy rains and floods caused by the swollen Narmada. Hoshangabad, with an electorate of 11.53 lakh spread over the three districts of Hoshangabad, Narsinghpur and Raisen, has been converted into a prestige seat by the Congress which has thrown almost its entire might into the constituency over 60 of its MLAs and 24 ministers plus the PCC President, Mr Radhakishan Malaviya, the Speaker Mr Shreenivas Tiwari, and Chief Minister Digvijay Singh himself. The former Chief Minister, Mr Sunderlal Patwa, is the BJP candidate there. The seat has been with the BJP since 1989. Mr Arjun Singh as the Congress candidate had to suffer his life’s most humiliating defeat there in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections when he failed to get a lead in any of the eight assembly segments of the Hoshangabad parliamentary constituency. The Congress has fielded Mr Rajkumar Patel, a former Minister of State, who was denied the party ticket in the 1998 assembly elections as he was not considered a winning candidate. It appeared at the time that the Congress had virtually given Hoshangabad to Mr Patwa on a platter. The situation seems to have changed after the floods. The district administration has nowhere else worked with such diligence as it did in Hoshangabad to help the flood-affected people. The Congress is claiming credit for this. Mr Digvijay Singh was said to have prayed before the river Narmada: “Mother Narmada, be kind to me and save my honour by getting my man elected this time.” He did not rest contented with prayers but took recourse to all material resources at his disposal to see his man through. To the voters his appeal is categorical: “You are a giant-killer. You trounced a former Chief Minister last time. Please keep up the tradition by defeating another former Chief Minister this time also. The BJP, too, is trying hard to compete with the Congress in deploying manpower in the constituency. It has drafted 40 of its MLAs over 12 former ministers and over 50 RSS “pracharaks” for the constituency. The people, though, are more concerned at the moment with resuming normal life. Vidisha, too, has been with the BJP since 1989 and the party has renominated Mr Shivraj Singh Chauhan who was first elected from there in a byelection in 1992. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee had won from Vidisha as well as Lucknow in 1991. He decided to keep Lucknow and resigned from Vidisha causing the byelection. The Congress candidate is a former minister, Mr Jaswant Singh. Vidisha has an electorate of 11.72 lakh spread over Sehore, Raisen and Vidisha districts. Vidisha had been a Jana Sangh stronghold since 1967 when Mr Shiv Verma of the party was elected from there. In 1971 Mr Ramnath Goenka was elected from Vidisha on the Jana Sangh ticket. It has since yielded to the Congress only twice, in 1980 and 1984. Though there are five
candidates vying for the Vidisha seat and seven for
Hoshangabad, the contest in the two constituencies is
between the Congress and the BJP |
Tension rises in Narsaraopet HYDERABAD: An already surcharged political atomosphere in the Narsaraopet constituency in Andhra Pradesh in the backdrop of a bomb blast case has turned further volatile with the opposition demanding dismissal of the Chandrababu Naidu government following “strictures” passed by the High Court on the handling of the blast case. Amidst growing tension and elaborate security, the Narsaraopet Lok Sabha constituency and its seven assembly segements will go to the polls on October 3, marking the completion of the poll process in the state. Following the August 28 bomb blast at the residence-cum hospital complex of the state Panchayatraj Minister K. Sivaprasada Rao that claimed six lives, the election for Narsaraopet, which was originally scheduled for September 5, was postponed. The stormy campaign in the prestigious constituency was dominated by the blast case with the opposition Congress alleging the minister’s involvement in the case while the ruling Telugu Desam accusing the opposition of trying to gain politcial mileage out of the tragedy. The High Court’s order directing the state government to hand over the case to the CBI has provided much ammunition to the opposition attack. The TDP supremo and
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his Congress
challenger Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy have been camping in
the constituency along with a battery of party leaders in
view of the keen contest and a perceived
“no-wave” situation in the rest of the state
where polling is over. — PTI |
Never-say-diecontestant BERHAMPUR (Orissa): Mr Kotakata Shyambabu Subudhi, relentlessly pursuing that elusive electoral win perhaps, knows he has no chance of making it to the Lok Sabha. But contesting the poll has become an integral part of his life. Sixty-year-old Subudhi has contested six elections to the Lok Sabha till now and is in the fray for the seventh time from Berhampur. Standing by the roadside, he rings a bell to draw crowds while exhorting them to vote for him. He has also had his name on the list of candidates for elections and byelections to the state assembly a dozen times from various constituencies. He has lost his security deposit each time. He is unfazed that in the lineup is last year’s winner Jayanti Patnaik (Congress) and Mr Anadi Sahu (BJP). Mr Subudhi says: “The people are fed up with political parties. I have been getting a good response from the people when I go around to seek their support”. But interestingly enough, Mr Subudhi has already pledged support to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee if elected. “I like Vajpayee as he is a clean person but I do not like his party,” he says. Mr Subudhi has mainly contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Aska constituency, but filed his nomination papers from both Aska and Berhampur seats during the 1991 and 1996 poll. Throwing his hat in the electoral ring as an Independent from the beginning, Mr Subudhi became a candidate of the Ajeya Bharat Party from Berhampur last year with the same disastrous result - he forfeited his security deposit as usual. His big moment came during the 1996 poll when he brushed shoulders with the then Prime Minister, Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao, when he chose to contest from Berhampur in addition to his own Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh. “The people have experienced political parties. Sooner or later they have to opt for persons like me,” Mr Subudhi, his own campaigner clad in his trade mark black coat, asserts. “I have no funds to campaign like others. I can’t deploy cars but I request the people to vote for me for the development of Berhampur,” he says. “The previous Lok Sabha members from here, including former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, has done little for this constituency and the people must choose the right candidate who can be depended upon to serve them.” The hike in the amount
of the security deposit and increase in the number of
proposers by the Election Commission has not affected Mr
Subudhi. — PTI |
Cong slogans swamp Amethi AMETHI: If the writing on the wall is any indication, the Congress seems to have an edge over the BJP in this constituency. In the ‘slogan war’ ahead of Sunday’s polling, the Congress has surged way ahead for this VVIP seat where party President Sonia Gandhi is a candidate. Even in the more remote parts of the constituency one could find Congress slogans swamping those of the BJP which has fielded Dr Sanjay Singh, sitting Lok Sabha member from here. The Congress has given a rebuttal through catchy slogans to almost all issues raised by its rivals, including personal attacks on Mrs Sonia Gandhi. “Jo Bahu ko bahu na manne, woh desh ko kya pehchaane” (those who do not recognise their daugher-in-law can’t do service to their nation). The slogan is a rejoinder from the Congress against BJP’s campaign of ‘foreign origin’ against Mrs Gandhi. The issue seems to have made little dent in the area which has been a pocketborough of the Gandhi family through the days of Sanjay and then Rajiv Gandhi. “Jan jan ki pukkar, sthir sarkar, Ab ki baar, Congress ki ummeedwar” (people are clamouring for a stable government. This time it will be the Congress nominee) It could be an appeal to the voter to make amends for having given the seat to a non-Congress candidate in the last elections. “Rajiv Gandhi ki pehchaan, Soniaji ki haath nishan” (Sonia is the successor of Rajiv Gandhi, “Bigdi baat banayenge, Soniaji ko layenge (things can be set right by bringing Sonia here) another graffiti says. The Sangh Parivar’s agenda gets a jolt from the slogans “ab nahin chalegi dharm ki aandhi, jab se aaye Sonia Gandhi” (there will be no more communal campaign with the arrival of Sonia Gandhi). Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Vadra, who has been the sole compaigner for the party in the last fortnight, has, perhaps, more slogans written on her compared to the Congress President. “Amethi ki aandhi, Priyanka Gandhi’’ (Priyanka is the storm of Amethi) says a ubiquitous slogan. “Nayi (Amethi, nayi hajum, machi Priyankaji ki dhoom’’ (in the rejuvenated Amethi, Priyanka is the name of the new movement) says another. “Bahar se bjp, dil se Congressi’’ (from the exterior it may be bjp, but at heart it is in Congress) is another slogan which may be interpreted as the psyche of the people of Amethi. A sprawling poster at a crossing takes a dig at the functioning of the bjp-led Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh. “Apradhi khule aam ghoom rahe hain, Kalyan Singh ke bhay mukt raaj mein’’ (Criminals have a free play in the rule of Kalyan Singh), it says referring to the rise of crime in the state. The bjp, on the other hand, is harping on its ‘’swadeshi-videshi’’ campaign. “Swadesh lao, videshi bhagao’’ (bring in swadeshi, drive out the foreigners) is the only slogan of the party which catches attention. Party workers can be
seen wearing T-shirts and caps carrying the slogan.
—UNI |
Hard task for lottery baron TEZPUR (Assam): Lottery baron Mani Kumar Subba, renominated by the Congress despite opposition from within, is pitted in a multi-cornered battle with the agp and the bjp among others in the Tezpur Lok Sabha seat. Mr Subba, whose nomination was opposed by several party leaders both at the state level and the Centre, has been accused by the Comptroller and Auditor-General (cag) of financial irregularities. He had won the last elections from Tezpur polling 45.15 per cent of the votes. The ncp has fielded former state minister Kulbahadur Chetri in a bid to draw the major chunk of Nepali votes. The Agp contestant Dr Kosheswar Bora and bjp’s Ram Prasad Sharma also expect to give Mr Subba a tough fight. Mr Bora, a former Health Minister of the state, replaced Mr Kartick Hazarika as the agp candidate who finished third in the last elections, polling 21.65 per cent of the votes, and is campaigning intensively. Prominent party leaders
and several ministers of the ruling alliance in the state
are helping Mr Bora though ‘‘secret’’
killings and the recent murder of bjp’s Dhubri
candidate Dr Pannalal Oswal may adversely affect the
agp’s prospects. — PTI |
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