ND Tiwari quits as Uttaranchal CM citing old age

     Dehradun: Uttaranchal Chief Minister ND Tiwari today quit from his post citing his advancing age. He said he had turned 81 and did not feel like continuing as the chief minister any more at such an old age. "I have turned 81 and no person of my age is serving as Chief Minister in the country," said Tiwari to reporters. He, however, said he would continue to participate in social life. Today's decision should also be seen in the light of his reported differences with the Central leadership of the Congress Party at regular intervals. A case in point was his absence from the plenary session of the Congress in Hyderabad, in January this year. There were also rumours of the Congress Central leaders wanting to ease him out of the Chief Minister's post and offering him a governorship as a post-retirement sinecure. Tiwari said he wanted to relieve the office within a month, and had in this respect, requested party President Sonia Gandhi to do the needful. Tiwari, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh four times and Union Minister twice, was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Uttaranchal on March 2, 2002. Governor SS Barnala had administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 78-year-old Tiwari and 17 of his ministerial colleagues here. The Congress got a wafer thin majority winning 36 seats in a House of 70 in the first ever elections after the state was carved out of UP. The party has the support of two independents.

MDMK joins hands with AIADMK for polls (Go To Top)

     Chennai: Irked over the offer of 22 seats against the request of 25 seats by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) in Tamil Nadu to its alliance partner the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), MDMK today decided to part ways with DMK and form an alliance with All India Anna DMK (AIADMK). In the AIADMK-led alliance MDMK is offered 35 seats for the May 8 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister and AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa said here today. The seat-sharing deal was finalised when the MDMK General Secretary Vaiko called on Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence here today. After the meeting, Jayalalithaa told reporters that POTA and other matters were things of the past, adding, "we are here on a positive note, on a positive matter". It may be recalled that Vaiko was detained under POTA for over a year during her current regime. Vaiko said the AIADMK-led alliance would "sweep" the polls. "The alliance is a formidable one," he added. However, DMK chief Karunanidhi has refused to comment on MDMK and AIADMK alliance in the assembly polls. After the DMK`s general council meeting here yesterday, Karunanidhi had said that his party could only offer 22 seats to MDMK, apparently prompting the Vaiko-led party to switch sides. In its 13 years of existence, this is first time when MDMK will be facing assembly polls in alliance with a major political party in Tamil Nadu.

      In 1993, following differences with DMK chief Karunanidhi on Sri Lanka Tamil's issue, Vaiko was suspended from DMK. He had then floated a new party MDMK and in the 1998 assembly polls in alliance with the Communist Party of India-Marxist, it had drawn a blank. During 1998 Lok Sabha polls, MDMK was part of a grand alliance floated by AIADMK in which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) were partners. Vaiko came out of the grouping when AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa decided to withdraw her party's support to the Atal Behari Vajpayee led Central Government. Later MDMK, aligned with the DMK for contesting 1999 Lok Sabha polls. However, the alliance was short lived as the MDMK left the front ahead of the 2001 assembly polls over non-allocation of two seats wanted by it. During 2004 Lok Sabha polls, MDMK faced the elections along with DMK, Congress, PMK and the Left parties. MDMK won all the four seats allotted to it. However the party decided to keep out of the Manmohan Singh led Government and decided to extend outside support to it.

KJ Rao quits as advisor to EC (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: KJ Rao, an advisor with the Election Commission has decided to quit and declined an offer of extension in the post. Rao's exit comes ahead of elections in five states -- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. "I have left the commission due to personal reasons and whatever I did it is because of the orders of the commission only," said Rao. Rao received widespread praise for his role in the conduct of free and fair elections in Bihar recently. Politicians disliked Rao as he proved to the bureaucracy that being servile to politicians was not necessary. Rao, 63, was chosen as Bihar's hero of 2005 ahead of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in an online poll conducted by Bihartimes.com, whose readers had to choose from among half a dozen people who tried to make a change in Bihar. Rao was chosen Bihar's hero of the year for making history in conducting peaceful, violence-free and trouble-free elections in the state for the first time. Elections in Bihar are usually associated with large-scale violence and rigging, and it was thanks largely to Rao that the recent polls were largely violence-free. In the assembly polls in February 2005, 20 people lost their lives in poll-related violence; whereas in 2000, 48 people were killed and 150 people injured. In the October polls, Nitish Kumar trounced Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal. Seventeen people were killed and 60 injured in the elections.

     In January, Rao was deputed to West Bengal to oversee poll preparations in West Bengal. He was one among 19 poll observers sent by the Election Commission for the task that lasted almost a month. At the end of the exercise, 12.98 lakh voters were removed from the revised state electoral list, as they were either declared fake or dead or had shifted. On Rao's recommendation, the Election Commission added 21.49 lakh names in the electoral rolls. The strength of total number of voters included in the list is 4.9 crore which means there has been an increase of 8.51 lakh voters in West Bengal. According to the Election Commission, Assam will go to the polls on April 3 and 10, West Bengal on April 17, 22, 27 and May 3 and 8, Kerala on April 22, 29 and May 3 and Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, with the exception of Mahe and Yanam, on April 8. Mahe, which is situated in Kerala, and Yanam, which is situated in Andhra Pradesh, will go to the polls on April 3, according to the reports. Counting of votes will take place on May 11.

Lucknow bandh after anti-Bush protests  (Go To Top)

     Lucknow: The old quarters of India's northern Lucknow city observed a shutdown on Saturday, a day after four persons were killed and several were injured as a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush spun out of control and triggered communal clashes. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) gave the call for the shutdown. Police said the situation was currently under control. Many cities were hit by anti-Bush protests this week.

Charles, Camilla to visit India (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India during a two-week official tour in March. All three countries are important partners for the United Kingdom and it is hoped that the visits will help to develop further the close relations with these countries. The visits provide an opportunity to support the UK's international contribution and profile. The key themes of the tour are promoting better understanding and tolerance between faiths, supporting environmental and conservation initiatives and encouraging sustainable employment and training opportunities for young people.

    Charles and Camilla will visit Egypt from March 20 to 24.They will visit Cairo, as well as an Oasis town, before laying a wreath at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at El Alamein. The visit will include events to promote British education in Egypt and better understanding between faiths, as well as attending an exhibition of traditional Islamic art. The visit to Saudi Arabia will take place from March 24 to 26 where their engagements will focus on education and training opportunities for both men and women, as well as faith issues. The visit to India will take place between March 26 and March 31. In New Delhi, Charles and Camilla will attend the British High Commissioner's annual reception for diplomats, politicians and businessmen. They will also visit Punjab and Rajasthan, where The Prince of Wales and the British Indian community have been taking forward a range of charitable initiatives. Chief Ministers of both states have invited both Charles and Camilla to support plans to help promote sustainable farming, water conservation and employment generation. This is their second joint overseas tour, following a visit to the United States of America in November last year. Charles s last visited Egypt in March 1995, Saudi Arabia in August 2005 and India between October 28 and November 5,2003.

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