Bharadwaj, Shinde, Praful Patel to return to RS
by Pankaj Yadav

     New Delhi: Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Kalraj Mishra, Vikram Verma, Bal Apte and SS Ahluwalia are among the BJP leaders who would retain their respective Rajya Sabha berths in the polls scheduled to take place on March 28. Vinay Katiyar, Gopalji Vyas and Anusuya Uikey would be the new faces representing the BJP in the Upper House. While Katiyar is sure to win the RS election from Uttar Pradesh, Gopalji has been fielded from Chhattisgarh and Uikey is all set to win a Rajya Sabha berth from Madhya Pradesh. According to party sources, while a total of 16 RS members belonging to the party would retire, 18 members of the party would manage to enter the Upper House. While the party announced nine names this morning from five states - Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhatiisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh, the names of rest of its contenders from other states would be announced this evening after a meeting of the party's election committee.

     Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh, Union Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan, who are also among the 58 members retiring this month, would also return to the Upper House for another consecutive term. Bhardwaj is currently a member from Madhya Pradesh, but this time he is likely to be fielded by the Congress from Haryana, where the party is in power. Though several other Congress leaders are making their claims for the only seat in the state that would be vacated. Meanwhile, with the issue of notification today, lobbying for Rajya Sabha berths gathered pace today. A maximum of ten seats in Uttar Pradesh, six each in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra, five each in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, four each in Gujarat and Karnataka, three each in Orissa and Rajasthan, two in Jharkhand and one each in Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal will fall vacant. Arjun Singh is expected to be re-nominated from the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh where opposition Congress could bring only one member to the Upper House. Union Minister Praful Patel is expected to be re-nominated by the ruling NCP in Maharashtra, while former chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde would be one of the two nominees of Congress from the state. Noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani, whose term is also ending, is keen on a re-entry through the nomination category amid reports that Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is backing his case. Meanwhile, former Union minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief is also trying to get a nomination from Karnataka. The elections are, however, subject to the ruling of the Supreme Court, which has reserved its order on a PIL filed by noted journalist Kuldip Nayar challenging the constitutional validity of doing away with the domicile clause and secret ballot for the polls. The last date for filing nominations is March 17. Scrutiny will take place the following day and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is March 20. The counting of votes will take place on March 28.

Poll process begins in Assam

    Guwahati (Assam): The poll process for the first phase of elections in Assam began today with the issuing of the notification by the Election Commission. Polls in Assam will be held in two-phases - the first phase for 65 assembly constituencies will take place on April 3 and the second phase for the remaining 61 seats will take place on April 10. The second notification will be issued on March 17 for the second phase. This time, a total of 1.74 crore voters will exercise their franchise in 18716 polling stations in the elections. "A total of 92,07,320 voters would cast their votes in 9719 polling stations in the first phase," State Election Office sources said. "The last date for filing nominations for the first phase has been fixed on March 17. The nominations would be scrutinised next day, while the last date for the withdrawal of nominations has been fixed on March 23," sources added. The State Election Commission has identified around 6,000 polling stations as 'sensitive' and 3512 as 'hyper sensitive'. According to sources, extensive videography would be done in all the sensitive and hypersensitive stations. Security personnel would be deployed around the polling booths to ensure fair polls. Polling staff would not be allowed to man the polling stations in their home constituencies this time, the source said adding that polling staff would come to know the polling stations they would be posted to, while on their way. To have the provision of lodging of complaints directly to the Commission, the State Election Commission had set up a helpline at Dispur. The elections for the 126 seats will be held when ruling Congress is expected to be locked in a multi-cornered contest due to the split in Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bhartiya Janta Party's (BJP) try to become the king-maker. After the scrapping of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983 (IMDT) by the Supreme Court, this is the first time that the State is viewing the polls.

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