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Kashmiri Pandits to boycott LS polls

          Jammu: The Panun Kashmir Movement, fighting for the cause of displaced Kashmiri pandits, has ruled out taking part in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls as "their community had not benifited from elections in any way." "We will not take part in the LS polls or even vote since our community does not have a 'true' representative, who is sympathetic towards our issues," PKM president Ashwani Chungoo told reporters here today. "Kashmiri pandits standing for the elections do not represent the cause of the community and people who are already elected are not the representatives of Kashmiri pandits since they were elected by default," he said. Accussing the Election Commission of India for ignoring their interests Chungroo said, "despite submitting a memorandum and holding meetings with the concerned body no viable solution was sought to redress their grievances." As a result, the community has no representative who can put forth its interests, he added.

Parties come up with new ideas to woo voters  (Go To Top)

          Madurai: As election campaign reaches a feverish pitch aross the country, political parties have thrown up unique ideas to woo voters. In Tamil Nadu the parties are literally catching women voters by their sarees-five-meter-long traditional apparell. Major political parties have come out with designer sarees having their election symbols printed on them. Many saree shops are offering synthetic sarees, embossed with the "rising sun" of the Dravida Munnetra Kazgham (DMK). They also sell sarees with the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazgham party's symbol of "two leaves."

          The sarees have become a hit among women workers of these political parties. "With parliamentary election approaching, this time we are going for a new type of campaigning. That is campaigning through sarees to woo the women voters. These sarees have good response among the women voters," said S.V. Sumathi, AIADMK party worker. These sarees are made of synthetic fabrics to overcome the difficulties of maintaining traditional cotton sarees. Shop owners say they are already flooded with orders and expect to get more orders in the coming days. "We have got a good response from the people. We are getting many equries about these saree. Many people have placed their orders and in next 14-15 days we are expecting more orders," said B.Sathiamoorthi, owner of a saree shop.

           What's more, these sarees are availble for just 145 rupees Election campaigning in southern India has traditionally been pompous with larger than life size cutouts of leaders and colorful banners dotting cities and villages as parties spend millions on publicity. Meanwhile in Lucknow, a "high flying" mode of campaigning is on. Designer kites with photos of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is also contesting from the constituency, are flooding the markets. Madhav Singh, a worker of Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party said it was a cost effective way of publicity. "It is a cheap alternative to the expensive posters and banners. It reaches a lot of people and costs as less as one rupees he said.

Youngsters to decide fate of Himachal (Go To Top)

          Shimla: The political fate of Himachal Pradesh depends on whom the youth brigade votes for in the upcoming national elections. The state, ruled by the Congress party, sends four lawmakers to the Lok Sabha. Around 400,000 voters aged between 18 and 23 are eligible to vote for the first time on May 10. They make up around 10 percent of the more than four million voters in the state.

          The new voters are very clear-headed about who they want to elect. "Though Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has done development work in the country, they were unable to provide employment to people. Basically if the youth do not get jobs then in the near future it will be very bad for the country," Rajinder Singh, a young voter said. Dilip Chouhan, another young voter, said: "We will vote on the basis of the information we have and whatever we know about the politics and the parties in the fray. We will see the candidate, their party, their leader and the nature of the party and will decide whom should we vote." The Congress party turfed out the Bharatiya Janata (BJP) Party in 2001, two years after the Hindu nationalists won three out of the four seats. One constituency is represented by the Himachal Vikas Party.

Sahabuddin joins Congress (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Syed Shahabuddin, convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee, on Sunday joined the Congress and said he has decided to 'join the largest secular party to defeat the politics of deception'. Sahabuddin, a three-time Member of Parliament, met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the morning and expressed his desire to join the party, spokesman Kapil Sibal told reporters at the AICC headquarters here in the presence of Sahabuddin. Senior party leaders Salman Khursheed and Chowdhury Virendra Singh were also present.