The Tribune – Congress wrests Himachal, Modi scores a hat-trick; Anti-incumbency, Dhumal-Shanta rift sink BJP

Rakesh Lohumi, Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 20. The Congress bounced back to power in the hill state winning 36 out of the total 68 seats, while the ruling BJP had to contend with 26. As expected, the Independents put up a good show to bag five seats. The BJP breakaway group Himachal Lokhit Party, which had floated the Third Front with the CPM and the CPI, could just muster a solitary seat.

The Congress, which had 23 members in the outgoing House, improved its tally by 13 seats, while the BJP’s score came down to 26 from 41. The margin of victory was not very big but it was a creditable performance by the Congress keeping in view the prevailing anti-party sentiment at the national level due to unfolding of various scams and measures like reduction in number of subsidised LPG cylinders.

The political aware electorate maintained the three-decade old tradition of voting out the incumbent government and gave a clear verdict in favour of the Congress throwing aside all the predictions of a hung House. The strong anti-incumbency factor against the Dhumal government more than neutralised the impact of national issues such as price rise, corruption and FDI on which the BJP was banking on.

While four out of 11 BJP ministers, Ramesh Dhwala, Krishan Kapoor, Narinder Bragta and Khimi Ram, were defeated, some prominent Congress leaders like former Speaker GR Musafir, former ministers Ram Lal Thakur, Rangila Ram Rao and Vijay Singh Mankotia and national mahila Congress chief Anita Verma also lost.

The prominent winners included Chief Minister PK Dhumal, state BJP Chief Satpal Satti, ministers Gulab Singh, Mohinder Singh, Ravinder Ravi, Jai Ram, ID Dhiman, Sarveen Chaudhary. PCC Chief Virbhadra Singh, CLP Leader Vidya Stokes, Kaul Singh, GS Bali and Asha Kumari, former Congress minister, and HLP president Maheshwar Singh also emerged victorious. Rajiv Bindal, who had to resign as Health Minister, also won.

The Dhumal-Shanta Kumar rift cost the party dearly as evident from the poor performance of the BJP in Kangra were the party could win only 3 out of 15 seats while Congress bagged 10, while the decision of the Congress high command to hand over the reins of the party to Virbhadra Singh at the last minute helped the party win despite intense factionalism.

While the BJP lost out in its traditional stronghold of Kangra, made deep inroads into the Congress-dominated old Himachal Sirmour, bagging 4 out of 5 seats, and Chamba (3 out of 5 seats). The Congress did well in Shimla, the home district of PCC Chief Virbhadra Singh and CLP Leader Vidya Stokes, winning 6 out of 8 seats and the BJP securing just 1.

The two parties shared the honours in Mandi securing 5 seats each, while Congress fared well in the Kullu district, where it failed to open its account in 2007, winning 2 out of 4 seats and the BJP had to contend with one seat. HLP president Maheshwar Singh won the Kullu seat.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121221/main1.htm

The Tribune – Congress steps up efforts to placate Virbhadra Singh

Anita Katyal, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 27. The Congress today stepped up efforts to placate senior leader Virbhadra Singh who has offered to resign from various party committees which have been set up to prepare for the year-end Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.

Upset over the composition of these panels, five-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is pressing for a greater say in the selection of candidates for the forthcoming polls and the appointment of a working president in the Himachal Pradesh state unit on the plea that PCC chief Kaul Singh is ineffective. The veteran leader has even threatened to leave the party if his demands are not met.

Realising that Virbhadra is the party’s tallest leader in Himachal Pradesh, the party Central leadership immediately despatched senior AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh to meet the former chief minister and assure him that his grievances would be redressed.

This was followed up by a late evening meeting with Ahmed Patel, Congress president’s political secretary, who is stated to have counselled Virbhadra not to go ahead with his resignations as his demands would be considered sympathetically. The two had also conferred last night when Virbhadra is said to have conveyed his annoyance over the handling of the coming Assembly elections.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who has been appointed chairperson of the screening committee to short-list candidates for the Himachal Pradesh elections, is slated to meet the veteran leader tomorrow.

Unhappy over his exclusion from the screening panel, Virbhadra has offered to resign from the campaign committee, which he heads, and from the membership of the drafting and election strategy panels.

It is learnt that Virbhadra has told the party leadership that he should have a larger role in ticket distribution if he was being entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring Congress victory in the next assembly polls. Pointing to the party’s recent experience in Punjab and Uttarakhand, the veteran leader underlined.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120728/main4.htm

The Tribune – Akhilesh Yadav set to be CM

Lucknow: Barring a last minute hitch, Akhilesh Yadav will be the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. A meeting of Samajwadi Party MLAs scheduled for 11 am tomorrow will elect Akhilesh their leader, following which he will formally stake claim to form the government, sources said.

At 39, Akhilesh, currently the MP from Kannauj, will be UP’s youngest chief minister. The family of Mulayam Singh Yadav has arrived at a consensus that the party chief will focus on national politics while Akhilesh runs UP.

There has been uncertainty over who among father and son would be CM ever since the SP roared to victory with 224 seats in the 403-member UP house on March 6.

Sources said two of the SP’s seniormost leaders — Shivpal Singh Yadav, Mulayam Singh’s brother and MLA from Jaswantnagar, and Azam Khan, MLA from Rampur — will propose Akhilesh’s name at tomorrow’s meeting. It will be supported by Atrauliya MLA Dr Sangram Yadav, son of senior leader Balram Yadav, and seconded by Hardoi MLA Nitin Agarwal.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120310/latest-news.htm

BBC News – India Samajwadi Party to meet to elect chief minister

Thursday, 8 March 2012. The regional Samajwadi Party, which has swept the elections in the politically crucial Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, has called a meeting on Friday to elect the new chief minister.

Party leaders have publicly said that three-time chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav will be the next chief minister.

But, there is a growing demand to appoint Mr Yadav’s son, Akhilesh.

Akhilesh Yadav has been widely credited with the party’s fantastic performance in the polls.

He himself has repeatedly said that his father will be the next chief minister.

But Mulayam Singh Yadav, 72, is suffering from various ailments and wants his son to take over, reports say.

On Wednesday evening, the two met the state Governor BL Joshi, who invited them to form the government.

Samajwadi Party leaders met the governor after Dalit icon Mayawati quit as the chief minister after her party’s poor showing in the elections.

She said as the results did not favour her party, she had recommended to the governor to dissolve the assembly.

The Samajwadi Party took 224 seats out of the 403 in the legislative assembly, while Ms Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party was a distant second with 80 seats.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17295883

The Tribune – Assembly Elections, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, UP

BJP takes Goa – Landslide victory for Cong in Manipur – Dead heat in Uttarakhand – Tough times for UPA ahead – Mulayam routs Maya, setback for Rahul in UP

Anita Katyal, Our Political Correspondent

New Delhi, March 6. Widely perceived as a litmus test for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the results of the five Assembly polls declared today served as a serious warning for the Congress in general and its heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi in particular about the party’s capability to lead the country once again as the morale of cadres sank to a record low.

More immediately, the party’s dismal performance in these elections will spell further trouble for the already beleaguered Congress-led UPA government which will have to contend with a more aggressive Opposition as it heads into a crucial budget session of Parliament. The results were nothing short of a nightmare for the Congress. It faced a humiliating defeat in Punjab where the ruling Akali Dal-BJP government set a record by bucking the anti-incumbency trend to emerge victorious for a second consecutive term. While the party drew some solace from its victories in distant Manipur and Uttarakhand (a wafer-thin margin), it was mauled badly in Goa by the BJP-MGP combine.

However, the UP results were clearly the big story of the day. The Samajwadi Party won a landslide victory and will form the next government without any outside support. While the projection of Mulayum Singh Yadav’s son Akhilsh Singh Yadav as the party’s new face proved to be a real winner, the SP’s ride to power was also helped as it was seen as the strongest party capable of dislodging the Mayawati government.

The results were a personal blow for AICC general secretary and Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi who had taken complete charge of the elections in the state to revive the fortunes of the grand old party. As it happened, Rahul’s intensive and aggressive campaign failed to deliver as the Congress was unable to add substantially to its tally of 22 seats.

While Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, and Rita Bahuguna Joshi, UP Congress chief, were quick to insulate Rahul from criticism, the man who led from the front did not shy away from taking the blame for party’s poor performance. “I led the campaign, I led from the front and so it is my responsibility. We fought collectively, we fought well but the results have not been so good,” he told reporters outside Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence this evening.

Gracious in defeat, Rahul also conceded that the party’s organisation was not in very good health. “Organisationally, we are not where we should be in UP…I think it will be a very good lesson for me because I think it will make me think about things in a detailed way,” he said, adding that the fundamentals of the Congress in UP are weak and need to be corrected.

Although the party is expected to introspect the election results at a later date, party insiders maintained that the state Congress unit’s over-confidence and complacency had cost them dearly in Punjab. “Everybody assumed they were winning,” remarked a senior AICC functionary. Faulty distribution of tickets and the presence of a large number of rebels were the other factors, which proved to be the party’s undoing, he said.

The Congress campaign in UP got off to a flying start with Rahul focusing on the poor governance record of the Mayawati government but got derailed after the third phase when senior leaders Salman Khurshid and Beni Prasad Verma raised the pitch on the Muslim quota issue.

References to Hindu terror in a state where nobody has been charged in any such case, the possibility of President’s rule and the Batla House encounter issue also contributed in changing the course of the UP election.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120307/main2.htm

The Tribune – Assembly Elections

Punjab (seats 117) SAD+BJP: 68, Cong: 46, others 3

Uttar Pradesh (403) SP 224, BSP 80, BJP 47, Congress 37, others 15

Uttarakhand (70) Congress 32, BJP 31, BSP 3, others 4

Manipur (60) Cong 42, TMC 7, others 11

Goa (40) BJP+ 24, Cong 9, others 7

More election news to follow

The Asian Age Editorial – High voter turnout is boost for democracy

Tuesday 6 March 2012. A proactive Election Commission of India has truly made a breakthrough in the just held elections to

five state Assemblies. Each of the five states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur — has seen its highest

voter turnout ever. This has been achieved through painstaking voter awareness programmes conducted by the ECI, and the

poll body making elaborate arrangements to ensure voter security.   It is no mean achievement that in a very large state like UP, where competition among political parties is known to be fierce

and has acquired unwholesome dimensions in the past, there was not a single case of serious violence in any of the seven

phases of polling. This tells us something about the extent of water-tight preparations. The story was more or less the same

in the other four states.

While the EC richly deserves the kudos that will come its way, the people of these states are to be congratulated as well. The

extraordinarily high poll percentage — in Goa it touched 81 per cent, and in Punjab, a much larger state, 70 per cent votes

were cast — signifies a massive expansion of the democratic space. This has permitted many more people than hitherto to

come out and have their say. It bears underlining that people have cast their ballots in favour of whoever they liked, and

were not coerced into staying home or voting for a particular party or candidate. These were routine problems not so long

ago, especially in a state like UP.

About two crore voters exercised their franchise for the first time in UP. Not all were youngsters who had just reached voting

age. Very large numbers of people had not found their names on the election rolls in the past. This lacuna was filled by the EC

this time round. This is indeed an achievement. It enabled women to come out in significant numbers.

Factors such as these have put punters in a tight spot and left analysts stuck for answers. The socio-political path the voting

states would follow, and the kind of impact polling patterns are likely to have on policy and governance in those states,

cannot be second-guessed. Nor can be predicted the impact of voting by such stupendously large numbers on politics at the

Centre. But it is undeniable that we have witnessed the enlargement of political democracy in India. Although it is

appropriately said that economic democracy has lagged far behind and must be the next hill to climb if we are to make any

sense of our brand of democracy, it is heartening that people have taken the trouble to walk to the polling booth when

conditions were created for them to do so.

http://www.asianage.com/editorial/high-voter-turnout-boost-democracy-768

The Hindu – Price issue takes the shine off Hazare campaign

Mixed reviews in western Uttar Pradesh

Smita Gupta

Firozabad, 23 November 2011. Raj Pratap Sisodia is the prosperous young Thakur pradhan of Nagla Sikandra in the Tundla Assembly area. “We are very impressed by Anna Hazare’s campaign and the way he’s drawn attention to corruption — we would like corruption to be pulled out from the roots,” says Mr. Sisodia, “but it’s not that much of an election issue. What is an issue is high prices, and that is going to hurt the Congress.”

Indeed, as this correspondent travels through a vast swathe of western Uttar Pradesh, it becomes clear that while people are divided on the impact of Hazare’s campaign, depending on social background and occupation, virtually everyone feels high prices — mahangai — is a killer, and the blame is being laid on the door of the Central government.

The only exceptions are the sugarcane farmers in the districts close to Delhi: much like Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, they described ‘mahangai’ as a sign of ‘vikas’ (development).

A sizable number 

There appear to be two reasons why the Hazare campaign is getting mixed reviews: one, the Muslims, who are a sizeable number in western Uttar Pradesh, are suspicious of both Mr. Hazare and yoga practitioner Baba Ramdev because they believe the two men are being sponsored by the BJP-RSS combine. “Muslims,” says Murtaza Iqbal, a writer and journalist in Moradabad, “see an RSS connection in the campaign, so they are staying away from it.”

Two, Hazare’s campaign — including his demand for a Jan Lokpal Bill — has greater resonance in the cities than in the villages. The ‘India Against Corruption’ has been active in cities: in Moradabad, this correspondent spots a banner announcing a Hazare event, held earlier this month.

‘Anna campaign destroyed Congress’

In Etah, Rajiv Kulsreshta, who runs a medical clinic in the heart of the district town says, “The Anna Hazare campaign has destroyed the Congress. A year ago, the Congress looked poised to do much better, but now that momentum’s gone.” In Aligarh, a well-known local journalist points out that a year ago, it looked as though the Congress might cross the 100 mark, perhaps touch 130, but it’s “mishandling of the Hazare issue” has laid it low: now, he says the party will be lucky if it touches 40.

In Agra, some Congress workers, too, say that the inept way the party’s leadership dealt with the Hazare issue and, especially the Lokpal Bill, has made people suspicious about the party’s intentions. “People don’t believe we are serious about dealing with corruption,” says a former Congress MLA here.

Peaceful co-existence

But in Bareilly, lawyer K.N. Sharma and his wife, who live in a traditional locality, where Hindus and Muslims co-exist peacefully, believe the Hazare campaign is “politically inspired.” And, interestingly, a Bania businessman in Agra, who is active in the Bahujan Samaj Party, says, “It’s an issue for the urban upper castes.”

In the village of Nawada, which falls in the Garhmukteshwar Assembly segment of the newly carved out Panchsheel district, jat pradhan Hameer Singh says Hazare is simply not an issue: “It’s the corruption of the Mayawati government that bothers us,” he says.

But there is near universal condemnation of high prices, both in the cities and villages with some even linking it to corruption. The only exception this correspondent comes across is in the Allahbarspur village in the Garhmukteshwar Assembly segment: Shafaqat Ali, a sugarcane farmer, says, “Development comes from high prices. We are sugarcane farmers — unless we get high prices, we can’t make profits and progress.” Clearly, the recent hike in the price of sugarcane has made him a happy man — and in this case grateful to Ms. Mayawati.

But where the Hazare campaign has succeeded is in creating contempt for all politicians: in Ratanpur village, not far from the Narora Nuclear Power Plant, Raguvir Dayal Sharma, a farmer says, “All politicians are corrupt. They have black money stashed abroad. Having an account abroad should be banned. Am I allowed to farm abroad?”

In the cities, among those who have been looking closely at the Hazare campaign, there is concern that contempt for the political class should not translate into a disenchantment with democracy. In Aligarh, Mir Arif, an upper middle class well-to-do businessman, laments, “All this has harmed not just the Congress, but the system. I hope it doesn’t shake people’s faith in the democratic system.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2650976.ece