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Heavyweights in third phase

          New Delhi: The third phase of polling for elections to the 14th Lok Sabha began at 7 a.m. this morning amidst tight security. Polling, which ends at 5 p.m., will cover 136 Lok Sabha y constituencies across 11 states. Simultaneous polls are also being held for the second and final phase of Assembly elections in 147 constituencies in Andhra Pradesh, 104 in Karnataka and 70 in Orissa. An estimated 175 million voters are expected to exercise their franchise through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). A total of 1278 candidates are in the electoral fray, including several prominent leaders and Bollywood stars. In all there are over 1.72 lakh polling booths, of which 75,618 have been declared sensitive and 28,119 hypersensitive. The Election Commission has deployed over 100,000 central forces to prevent anti-social elements from disrupting the polls. The largest chunk of 27,700 CRPF personnel has been deployed in Srinagar, where National Conference Chief Omar Abdullah is seeking re-election for the third time. A total of 2076 polling stations in that constituency have been declared hypersensitive and 1604 as sensitive.

          In Uttar Pradesh, the fate of Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and her son Rahul (Amethi) will be decided in today's voting. Voting has begun in 32 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. The other key contenders include former state chief Minister Mayawati from Akbarpur. She won the seat in 1998 and 1999. Arif Mohammad Khan's fate would also be decided from Kaiserganj. Khan joined the BJP recently and had lost from Bahraich in 1999 on a BSP ticket. Former Prime Minister Chandrashekar's constituency Ballia also votes today. He has won this seat seven times and lost it once. Other key leaders include, Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker and BJP leader Kesrinath Tripathi from Macchlishahr. The Samajwadi Party had won the seat in 1999. Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand's fate will also be decided as he contests from Jaunpur. He had won narrowly with a margin of just over one per cent in 1999. In 1999, the BJP had won 14 of these 32 seats, while the Samajwadi Party won nine seats, Bahujan Samaj Party got five, Congress won three and others had one.

          In Bihar, the electoral fates of former chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Laloo Yadav and Union Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy will be decided in Chhapra. This contest is being watched keenly, as both leaders have already won this seat twice in the past. Polling began today in 17 of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats amid shoot-at-sight orders against booth grabbers and the sealing of the Indo-Nepal border. Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the poll. A total of 8,463 booths have been declared hypersensitive, while 6,166 booths have been identified as sensitive. Around 2.06 crore voters are eligible to participate in today's exercise to decide the fate of 182 contestants. In 1999, of 17 seats the BJP-JDU combine won 14, while the RJD got three. Other heavyweights in the fray include former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan from Hajipur. He has lost the seat only once since 1977, Defence Minister George Fernandes fate will be decided in Muzaffarpur from where he is contesting after 13 years. The fate of RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh will also be decided from Vaishali.

          In Karnataka, voting started early morning in 13 out of the 28 seats. Former Karnataka Chief Minister S Bangarappa is seeking re- election from Shimoga, taking on Ayanur Manjunath of the Congress. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda is contesting from Hassan in the state, a seat that he lost in 1999 to the Congress. Deve Gowda is also contesting the Kanakpura seat. Out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in 1999, the Congress had won eight, while the BJP/JDU combine bagged five. The fate of Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna will also be decided in the Assembly polls today. The state is also simultaneously voting for 104 of the 294 Assembly seats. Karnataka had given split verdicts on the earlier two occasions when polls for Lok Sabha and Assembly were held either in tandem or close to each other.

           In Maharashtra, the fate of two Bollywood stars -- Govinda and Sunil Dutt, contesting from the Mumbai North and Mumbai North West seats, respectively, will be decided today. Govinda is competing against five-time winner from the seat, Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, while Dutt faces a stiff challenge from the Shiv Sena's Sanjay Nirupam. Votes are being cast for 24 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, which will decide the fate of 202 candidates. Over three crore voters are expected to cast their ballots in the 35,000 polling booths set-up in the state. Of the 24 seats where votes are being cast, 15 had gone to the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in the 1999 polls. The Congress had won on one seat, the NCP on six, while others had bagged two seats. Others in the Maharashtra electoral fray are Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi. Kalmadi, who is contesting from Pune, from where he had won in 1996, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar from Baramati, from where he had registered a win in 1999 with a comfortable 57 per cent majority, former Union minister Suresh Prabhu from the Rajapur constituency which he won with a 51 per cent majority in 1999 and Milind Deora from the posh Mumbai South constituency

          In Andhra Pradesh, the second phase of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and Assembly in Andhra Pradesh also began amidst tight security. Twenty-one out of 42 seats go to the polls today. In 1999, out of these 21seats, TDP-BJP won 19 seats while the Congress got only 2 seats. There are 147 aspirants in the fray for 21 Lok Sabha seats while 1,037 candidates are testing their fortunes in 147 assembly segments. Over 2.36 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise today, covering politically volatile south coastal belt and faction-ridden Rayalaseema regions. Among the key contenders are Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu who is seeking re-election from the Kuppam Assmebly segment of the Chitoor district of the Rayalseema region. He has won thrice from Kuppam with huge margins. Congress leader Y S Rajashekhar Reddy is contesting from the Pulivendla Assembly segment in Cuddapah district. He has won this seat in 1978, 1983, 1985 and 1999. Union Minister and actor-turned politician UV Krishnam Raju, NTR's daughter Purandareswari, veteran film producer C Aswini Dutt and M V Mysoora Reddy are among the other key contenders for Lok Sabha polls in the second phase.

No stay on opinion, exit polls: SC (Go To Top)

         New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the publication, telecast and broadcast of opinion and exit polls as of now. The court gave the order while admitting a Public Interest Litigation that sought a ban on such polls till the last ballot was cast on May 10. In its order, the apex court issued notices to the Central Government, the Election Commission and the Press Council of India to file their respective replies on the issue. Notices were also issued to the four TV news channels- NDTV, Zee, Aaj Tak and Sahara after Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee requested that the news channels should also be included as necessary parties in this matter. A three-judge bench of K G Balakrishnanan, S Rajendra Babu and G P Mathur heard the case.

Vajpayee, Sonia to campaign in Rajasthan (Go To Top)

          Jaipur: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will visit Ratangarh and Rajasmand areas of Rajasthan today to campaign for BJP candidates seeking to win elections from the Churu and Udaipur Lok Sabha seats. Elections in Rajasthan are to be held on May 5. Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, party general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi are scheduled to visit the state during this week. Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj, Shatrughan Sinha and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will follow them.

           Meanwhile, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will launch her campaign in the state on Tuesday. She will also address public rallies at Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Banswara and Udaipur on April 28. The fate of the Congress in the state may plummet further in the wake of a cash-on-camera scandal involving three former ministers of the previous Ashok Gehlot government.

CPM to play the role of 'honest broker' after polls
by Gautam Ghosh

          Kolkata: The CPM appears bent on playing the role of an "honest broker" between Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi party leader and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav to pave the way for installation of a non-BJP government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls. CPM general secretary HS Surjeet and the party's leader in the dissolved Lower House Somnath Chatterjee are believed to have held discussions with the Congress as well as Samajwadi party leadership on the issue, expecting the BJP-led NDA's defeat in the on-going elections. West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state CPM secretary Anil Biswas are also hopeful about a "favourable poll outcome" which will enable the "secular forces to form a government which will look after the people's interests." Both the leaders have been underscoring in the poll campaign the need for electing the maximum number of Left Front nominees in the May 10 polls "to prevent the communal BJP's return to power."

          The Marxists are happy over the BJP's "diminishing electoral prospects" in Uttar Pradesh which will send the largest number of members to the Lok Sabha. They have been watching with interest the people's response to the campaigns and road-shows undertaken by Sonia Gandhi's children, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Bhadra and enjoying what is being described in political circles as "the saffron party's panic reaction." The CPM firmly believes that the BJP will not be able to form a government in the event of a major electoral setback in Uttar Pradesh. According to informed sources, the Marxists also expect Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh to join the "secular front" along with Mulayam Singh Yadav despite their known reservations about the Congress led by Sonia Gandhi. Surjeet, who has been trying to befriend both the Samajwadi party and Rashtriya Lok Dal, recently charged the BJP with spreading confusion about the latter's relationship with Yadav in the post- election scenario. The CPM general secretary feels the saffron party is "resorting to a false propaganda about the SP and RLD to influence U.P. voters." The West Bengal CPM leaders, however, are somewhat worried about the measures the Centre and the Election Commission may take to prevent electoral malpractices in the state on May 10. The Marxists have already registered their protest against the poll panel's decision to bring polling personnel from other states to ensure a free and fair election in their traditional stronghold, describing it "as an affront to the credibility of the Left Front government."

          Opposition parties here, however, rightly feel that the CPM's protest simply indicates the party's "panic reaction" to the Election Commission's firm stand. The CPM also believes that the Vajpayee-led Centre may be "politically compelled" to mobilize power and resources to increase the tally of the Trinamul Congress-BJP combine in view of the saffron party's possible reverses in the Hindi heartland. The coming visits of deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to West Bengal to campaign for Trinamul Congress and BJP candidates indicate that the CPM's apprehension is not totally unfounded. While Advani will address a number of rallies in Midnapore, Nadia and north Bengal on April 28, Vajpayee will come here to address a joint rally of Trinamul Congress and BJP workers in south Kolkata on May 3. Both the parties feel the visits of the BJP's apex leaders will considerably boost the morale of respective party workers and help them effectively deal with "the CPM's strong-arm tactic on the poll day."

          Another area of concern for the state CPM is "the secret entente" between the Congress and Trinamul Congress at the grassroots level in a number of Lok Sabha constituencies. The Marxists, who expected to gain from a possible split in anti-left votes among the Congress and Trinamul Congress candidates, have been dismayed by the Congress' failure to put up "strong and effective candidates in several constituencies." State CPM leaders, who do not mind the party joining hands with the Congress at the national level to keep the BJP at bay, feel the state Congress' action will indirectly enhance the poll prospects of Trinamul Congress nominees in some crucial seats.