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Campaigning for May 5 polls to end on Monday

          New Delhi: Campaigning for the fourth phase of voting on May 5 in 83 Lok Sabha constituencies will end on Monday. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav are among the 921 candidates who are in the fray for the 83 seats spread over seven states - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Former Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav (RJD) and Sharad Yadav (JDU) - Madhepura, Union Ministers Syed Shahnawaz Hussain (BJP, Kishanganj), Digvijay Singh (JDU, Banka) and Sukdeo Paswan (BJP, Araria), NCP leader Tariq Anwar (NCP), former Union Minister Krishna Sahi (Cong, Begusarai) are the others. Jammu and Kashmir: Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter Mehbooba Mufti (Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party, Anantnag).

Vajpayee to visit Lucknow, Chennai (Go To Top)

          Lucknow/Chennai: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will address an election rally in Lucknow today, the second such visit to his constituency in three days. Lucknow goes to the polls in the fourth phase of election on May 5. Vajpayee will thereafter reach Tamil Nadu on May 5. He will arrive at Coimbatore by a special flight at 4.10 p.m. and address a public meeting at Coimbatore in support of BJP State president CP Radhakrishnan, and the party's Nilgiris candidate Master Mathan and others, official sources said. Later, he will leave for Chennai at 5.45 p.m. to address a joint public meeting with AIADMK chief and State Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa at Island Ground in the city. Vajpayee will return to New Delhi at 8.30 p.m. the same day, the sources added. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani will hit the campaign trail in Punjab, where he will address rallies in Nahan, Nurpur, Bilaspur and Patiala.

Tongas line up for Vajpayee campaign in Lucknow (Go To Top)

          Lucknow: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moved into a unique campaign mode in Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Lucknow constituency to ensure his victory. The BJP on Saturday (May 1) took out a procession of tongas or horse-carts, remnants of the city's Islamic culture, to step up their poll campaign. The drivers of these dying mode of transport said that they hoped to get a helping hand from Vajpayee when voted back to power. "If Vajpayee comes to power then he will help us. We are very much harassed by the police," Yakub Sultan, a horse-cart driver said. From around 3,500 in 1971, tongas have dwindled down to just 100. Many tonga stands in the city have also closed because of no work. The slow moving means of transport has been restricted to only some localities in the city.

           Meanwhile, in Meerut, school children took out a march, urging people to vote only for those who adhere to the two-child norm. "Our leaders always say that we need to reduce our population. But do they practise it?. We appeal to the people of the city to vote for only those who have no more than two children," Rashmi,a 10-year-old girl said. Parliament has been comtemplating a legislation on two-child norm for candidates in both Assembly and parliamentary elections. Two more rounds of voting are due next Wednesday and May 10.

Vajpayee predicts Congress rout (Go To Top)

          Jhajjar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), rattled by a poor showing in exit polls, has intensified its campaign ahead of the final rounds of voting in key heartland states. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who has been doing a hectic poll campaign, said on Sunday that the Congress party would be washed out in this elections. While addressing a public rally in Jhajjar in Haryana, he urged the voters to make their final choice for the party which can form the best federal government. "It is elections and the time has come to make the final choice. You have to decide what kind of government you want in New Delhi. In the recent provincial election, the Congress has lost in some states. It lost in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The party is on a losing spree and it will lose in Haryana as well, I have no doubts about that," Vajpayee said.

          In Haryana, the BJP faces a triangular fight after the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) drifted away from it. The faction-ridden Congress party expects to cash in on the division in the votes of BJP and INLD alliance in the state. Two more rounds of voting are due next Wednesday and May 10. Ten constituencies of Haryana vote on May 10.

Sonia campaigns in Punjab, Uttaranchal (Go To Top)

          Gurdasspur: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has alleged the NDA government has been practising corruption for five years and that the BJP and its alliance have indulged in large-scale corruption. Sonia was addressing an election rally at Pathankot for her party's candidate Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder who is contesting for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat. Taking up the coffin issue, she said "the tall claim of the NDA to provide corruption-free government has proved hollow. In fact, even coffins of soldiers were on sale in the NDA regime," she added. The BJP, which promised employment to one crore youth, did nothing for the unemployed, Sonia said and claimed that all sections of society, specially women and dalits, were unhappy with the policies of the BJP-led government, while the new exit poll in favour of the Congress has infused a new vigour in the Congress campaign here.

           Aaddressing a public rally in the hilly town of Dehradun, the capital of Uttaranchal, Sonia blamed the smaller parties for dividing the Congress votes and helping BJP win the elections. "In our country there are some parties which proclaim to be for the poor but it is because of their policies that groups like the Bharatiya Janata Party have gotten a chance to spread the poison of communalism and religious distinctions in the society." The state's ruling Congress party is likely to have a fierce fight from the BJP in Uttaranchal, in its first parliamentary election after its formation in 2000.

EC team arrives in Chapra to probe rigging charges (Go To Top)

          Chapra: A two-member team of the Election Commission arrived in Chapra district on Sunday to hold a detailed inquiry into the complaints of booth capturing and violence. The BJP had alleged rigging by supporters of Bihar's ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) during the poll on April 26. A two-member team comprising K.J. Rao and Ananth Kumar said they would look into other complaints, besides holding discussions with the observers for the seat and the district returning officer. Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy is pitted against RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav in the constituency. Rudy had presented video clips of booth capturing and violence to the officials of the Election Commission last week. Yadav said his statement was recorded both on paper and camera by the commission officials. "I have said what I wanted to say before the election commission. They have recorded the statement both on video and on paper. I cannot divulge anymore details in public," Yadav told reporters. Rudy reiterated his demand for re-polling in the constituency. "We have kept our demand for a countermand for the polling before the election commission. We have given them our arguments," he said.

           India has held three rounds of a five-stage election, the world's largest democratic exercise involving 670 million voters, that pits the BJP-led coalition against the Congress party. Exit polls after the third round of voting on Monday indicated the BJP and its allies were still ahead of Congress but they could fall short of the halfway mark of 273 seats needed to form a government in the 545-member lower Lik Sabha. The polls have predicted a resurgence for the Congress party and its allies in heartland states. A much-needed shot in the arm for the beleaguered Congress, the results have infused enthusiasm amongst its workers who have begun campaigning with renewed vigor. The polls end on May 10. Votes will be counted on May 13 and results are expected the same day.

NC threatens to pull out of polls (Go To Top)

         New Delhi: The National Conference has written to the Election Commission threatening to pull out of the elections unless action is taken against PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti. In Srinagar, the women's wing of the National Conference is holding a demonstration against Mehbooba Mufti. They are protesting against the incident during the polling on April 26 when the PDP leader pulled off a woman voter's veil at a polling booth.

Nagaland gears up for polls (Go To Top)

           Kohima: Election fever is catching up in Nagaland as the insurgency-racked state prepares to vote for its single parliamentary seat on May 5. Flags of political parties dot roadsides and leaders are busy holding rallies, as the state for the first time polls without threats and boycott calls from rebel groups, including the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN). In November 2002, the government lifted a 12-year ban on the group, the biggest among the northeast's 50-odd rebel armies, to pave the way for its leaders to return to try to end a conflict that has claimed 50,000 lives over more than five decades. The peace process between the rebel group and the government received a boost when NSCN chairman Isak Chisi Swu and party general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah met deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani in New Delhi in January last year.

          The ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) led by the Nagaland People's Front (NPF), which also has the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a junior partner has been cashing in on the peace process. "Well, politicians should be able to deliver three things specifically, peace, sustenance and hope. So we believe given chance with this government, definitely it should come there," Kakugha Zhimom, NPF leader, said in capital Kohima. The Congress party, the NPF and the Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) are prominent parties in the fray. "I am here to make an appeal to the people of Nagaland to vote for my party candidate," former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, who is campaigning for his JD (U), told a news conference. Constituted in 1963, the state has an entirely tribal population and is often described as a conglomeration of village republics. Over one million people in the state are eligible to vote.