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Vajpayee campaign shifts to Aligarh

         Lucknow: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will campaign in Aligarh and Mathura today. His campaign in the largely Muslim-dominant city comes a day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi campaigned in the area. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is seeking to make crucial gains in Uttar Pradesh, which holds 80 seats in the Lok Sabha. Vajpayee has said that if the NDA fares well in the state, the certainty of it being voted back to power is bright.

Campaigning picks up in Kashmir despite militant attack (Go To Top)

          Doda: Kashmir's main Opposition National Conference party on Thursday held a rally in Doda district a day after suspected Muslim rebels killed two people and wounded 55 in a huge explosion. Militants have stepped up violence to enforce a poll boycott in the disputed region. Wednesday's explosion took place when former minister Khalid Najib was about to address a rally in Doda, south of Srinagar. In the address, Najib blamed the federal government and also the state ruling People's Democratic Alliance for neglecting the region's development. "There has been no impact and there is no feel good factor. Seventy percent areas do not have connectivity. This slogan is for urban area. We do not have internet facility nothing, so it will not affect at all non-rural areas," said Najib. The federal ruling BJP has been running a high profile campaign with a "feel good factor" brought out by a resurgent economy. Najib, a senior member of the National Conference party and a former state minister, is contesting the parliamentary election from Udhampur constituency, which is due to vote on May 10.

          The level of violence in the troubled state has fallen since India and Pakistan began a peace process last year but there have been attacks in the run-up to the general election by anti-India militants who say polls in the region are a farce. About a dozen rebel groups have been battling Indian rule in the Muslim-majority region since 1989. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency. Militants and political separatists have called for a boycott of the poll in Kashmir saying elections cannot resolve the decades- old conflict over the Himalayan region that has led to two wars between India and Pakistan. The guerrillas have attacked politicians, voting booths and party offices since campaigning started for the five-stage poll being held from April 20 to May 10. Turnout was low in the two rounds of voting in Kashmir so far.

Rudy charged with booth-capturing (Go To Top)

          Patna: Police have registered two cases against Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy and his bodyguards, charging them with booth capturing during the April 26 polls in Chapra. The officer in charge of Amnaur police station, said that the cases were registered on receiving complaints from presiding officer Ragho Prasad of Taraiya's booth No 168 and RJD activist Rajiv Singh. Rajiv Singh has accused Rudy of using abusive language and intimidating voters. He added Rudy's bodyguard forcibly took Rs 3,000 from him.

          Rudy has also accused ruling RJD activists of unleashing large-scale booth capturing and violence and has called for re-elections. RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav is pitted against Rudy in the constituency. When contacted, BJP state president Gopal Narayan Singh alleged that the cases were lodged at the behest of Laloo Yadav after Rudy had complained to the Election Commission. Accusing Rudy of trying to cover up widespread booth rigging by BJP workers during the poll, RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav said the "law would take its own course". "The cases against Rudy and his bodyguards have exposed the sinister design of the BJP to get the elections to the seat countermanded," the former chief minister of Bihar said. "It is not us but the BJP supporters who have lodged complaints against Rudy and his bodyguards for indulging in booth capturing, skirmishes and intimidation," Yadav said. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has decided to send a two- member team to hold a detailed inquiry into the incidents of booth capturing and ascertain the factual position. The Commission, which has kept pending the decision on a repoll despite the Returning Officer's report, will send the officials in the next few days.