OID ‹ ‰ † ‰ K OID ‹ ‰ † ‰ OID ‹ ‰ † ‰ M OID ‹ ‰ † ‰ C

8 Saturday,November 29, 2003 ELECTIONS ’03 The Times of India, New Delhi

ELECTION DIARY Without OBCs, Union ministers make Jogi panic By Law Kumar Mishra were out. ising secretary Harendra Jogi’s adivasi TIMES NEWS NETWORK On Friday evening, the Kumar. Raipur: Chhattisgarh chief CM made a dash to Mar- Helping them with fre- DMs have to go, says HC wahi, where the NDA gov- quent visits are Deputy minister Ajit TIMES NEWS NETWORK Jogi has bro- ernment has lined up Prime Minister L K Advani, card may fail ken his Union ministers Dilip Union agriculture minister Bilaspur: The Chhattisgarh High Court on Friday pledge. Gandhi, Rajnath stayed the order of the Central Administrative Tri- By Rajesh Ramachandran Vidyasagar Singh and been on for long. Blame it on bunal (CAT) quashing the Election Commission’s di- TIMES NEWS NETWORK Rao, Sripad Jharkhand Hence, Prahlad Dewan- the Vajpayee rective to transfer the Collectors of Bastar and Jashpur gon’s prediction. Along Former Chambal bandit government. Naik, Jual chief minis- Raipur: When Prahlad Malkhan Singh, who is districts for violating the model code of conduct for with Kurmis, Sahus and With as Oraon, ter Arjun Dewangon, who sells silk contesting election from Tapan Sik- Munda and state assembly elections. in Jagdalpur, says, ‘‘Yeh Kalhars, Dewangons Ajit Jogi many as 11 (weavers) are considered Karaira constituency in dar, O Ra- his predeces- A division Bench comprising Chief Justice K H N Jogi ka one-man show MP, speaks with his sup- Central Kuranga and Justice L P Bhado passed the order after as OBCs with the greatest ministers camping in Mar- jagopal, Kariya Munda, D sor Babulal Marandi. nahin chalega bhai,’’ he is porters on Friday. hearing the arguments of the Commission which had upward mobility and they wahi, and quite a handful Raju, I D Swami and Jogi’s campaign manager actually explaining two Ramesh Baish to plot Jogi’s Raj Awasthi said the CM challenged the CAT ruling of November 25. crucial things: the larger- identify with the Hindut- Foolproof measures: In flying in and out, poll downfall. would not hold any public Appearing for the EC, advocate Kanak Tiwari said than-life image of chief va ideology. a bid to prevent booth prospects took precedence But in three years, Jogi capturing during the as- over his promise not to vis- Leading the BJP cam- meeting during his two-day the issues relating to conduct of free and fair elections minister Ajit Jogi and the paign is Union minister of stay at Marwahi. He would role of the other back- has countered this by sembly polls in Madhya it his assembly constituen- could not be decided by the CAT as they come under the holding caste meetings all Pradesh, the EC has taken cy till the election results state for home Swami Chin- rather focus on door-to-door purview of the poll panel. ward castes in determin- mayanand and RSS organ- campaigning, Awasthi said. ing election results. over the state. His target foolproof measures includ- ing switching off of elec- As late as Friday, Con- has been the lower classes PTI gress advertisements in among the OBCs like Ya- tronic voting machines in case of trouble. PTI local papers said, ‘‘Some davs, Dhobhis, Nais, Jaitley: Police people don’t like an adi- Kumhars and Lohars. Outsiders in MP: Con- vasi’s son becoming the A sight in Kandora vil- gress in MP on Friday al- CM: vote for the son of the lage in Jashpur district leged that a large number terrorising soil.’’ The picture in the explained how difficult of people from Haryana, ad left nothing to imagina- this task must have been: UP, Bihar had entered the BJP activists tion. It had two very upper The sacred thread across state as workers of certain caste-looking people with the bare chest of Chakrad- political parties and peti- TIMES NEWS NETWORK a familiar moustache in har Yadav meant his initi- tioned the Election Com- the backdrop. ation into the Gayatri mission to regulate their Bhopal: The BJP has made The Chhattisgarhia Parivar by a Hindu sect. activities. PTI yet another complaint to the Election Commission. This pride (Jogi’s speeches are He would not vote for Con- Sensitive booths: As in this language), the poli- gress even if Laloo Yadav time it is against an order many as 8,939 polling sta- passed by the Guna district tics of lower caste identity knocks at his door. tions out of 35,689 in Ra- collector in connection with and pointing out the up- But an aide of the CM jasthan have been de- chief minister Digvijay per caste as the other are said, ‘‘By consistently clared sensitive or hyper- Singh’s Raghogarh con- all fine. But 51 per cent of concentrating on the sensitive where security stituency. Chhattisgarh’s population OBCs, we have brought in forces would be keeping Lok Sabha member and comprises OBCs and they an OBC awakening. The extra vigil during polling on BJP national general secre- would finally decide who deprived ones would iden- December 1. PTI tary Shivraj Singh Chauhan, will rule the state. tify with Jogi.’’ Case against Swami: Even Congress spin- who is pitted against Digvi- And Jogi would need A case has been regis- jay, has alleged the adminis- doctors admit that the every bit of this support tered against Uma Bharti’s OBCs are the traditional tration has passed an ‘‘un- because his base of trib- elder brother, Swami necessary’’ order with the base of the BJP and have als, though 32 per cent of Prasad Lodhi for using in- not identified with Jogi, sole intention of identifying the population, could get temperate language during BJP’s polling agents so that unlike Mulayam Singh Ya- split. In the north, thanks poll rallies. PTI dav or Laloo Prasad Yadav. they could be terrorised. to the Sangh Parivar, trib- Union law and commerce In fact, Union minister als are divided on commu- Water for Rajasthan: Punjab chief minister minister Arun Jaitley ex- Ramesh Bais and MP nal lines with the neo-Hin- Amarinder Singh said on plained the district collector Tarachand Sahu are the dus being pro-BJP. known faces of Thursday that Rajasthan who is also the returning of- Kurmis and MORE ON OUR WEBSITE will continue to get ficer has issued an order the regular supply of water making it compulsory for all Sahus and the Elections 2003 process of San- till the Supreme Court the polling agents of the Complete coverage skritisation of gives its verdict on the constituency to submit their matter. these OBCs have visit www.timesofindia.com names to the collectorate well before the elections. SAME JOB: A Congress worker chatting with a BJP activist while campaigning in Jodhpur. HC dismisses Jogi case New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday dismissed a A delicate balance on border breaks down complaint, seeking summoning of Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi for allegedly “concealing By Smita Gupta rate ways and now there is a his son, Sale Mohammad. stituencies, it has fielded 27 km from Jaisalmer, facts” and filing “false and fabricated affidavit” TIMES NEWS NETWORK tussle for political power. The Congress did not oblige Muslim candidates in three Aam Singh Rajpurohit says for procuring petrol pump when he was a member In Jaisalmer, for instance, him. Now Gazi Fakir is yet — Phalodi, Chottan and he and 14 of his fellow vil- Jaisalmer: On the Indian of Parliament in 1994. the Congress had promised to decide whether to ask his Sheo — and any more would lagers fork out Rs 50 a side of the Rajasthan-Pak- The order was pronounced by metropolitan to field a Muslim. fellow Muslims to vote for cause an imbalance. year for 13 issues of the istan border, in Jaisalmer magistrate Nivedita Anil Sharma on a complaint It eventually,gave the tick- the Congress or to go with an This balancing game is magazine. and Barmer districts, three filed by the state BJP president and leader of op- Independent candidate, of the dominant communi- et to a Rajput, Janak Singh, difficult and cuts both ways. The Samiti is also active position in the state assembly, Nand Kumar Sai. Ramji Ram. ties— the Muslims, the Ra- to take on the BJP’s Rajput In Phalodi, for instance, in setting up Adarsh He had sought registration of a case against Jogi, jputs and the Meghwals— nominee, Sans Singh. where the Congress has Vidyalayas (the Saraswati alleging that the CM had given false affidavit were once engaged in the The Congress says this fielded Jaipu Khan, Nathu Shishu Vidya Mandirs in about his income and that of his family. PTI smuggling of heroin, opium was done to divide the Ra- Singh, a Rajput says bluntly: this region) to counter the HC query to EC: The MP derivatives and gold. While jput community and ensure ‘‘I am voting for the BJP be- mushrooming madarsas. High Court directed the EC to the Muslims ran the busi- that Hindus in the area are cause a Hindu is better than Not just that, in this elec- look into whether it has execut- ness, the Rajputs and Megh- not alienated. a Muslim.’’ tion, two members of the ed in totality its November 10 wals were the couriers. But this has not been tak- Indeed, the end of Mus- Samiti, both RSS order asking the government to This economic interde- en to kindly by Gazi Fakir, a lim-Rajput interdependence, pracharaks, have decided to defer its decision to provide pendence ensured social powerful Muslim leader, The Congress has tried to has made this desert area a enter the political arena. free power to poor farmers till harmony,says Mahesh Bora, whose brother, Fateh Mo- appease him by pointing out fertile soil for the RSS. They have got BJP tickets the elections is over and dis- lawyer and activist. But with hammad, is chairman of the that it has its quota of Mus- It has made inroads here from the Siwana and Sheo posed of a PIL challenging it the fencing of the border, nagar palika, and whose lim candidates in the region. with its Seema Jan Kalyan assembly segments of the here on Friday. The PIL was smuggling has virtually end- word is law among members In the 16 assembly seats Samiti which publishes a Barmer LS constituency de- filed by Dr N Pande, the presi- ed. The Muslims and the Ra- of his community. falling under the Barmer monthly periodical, spite opposition from local and Jodhpur Lok Sabha con- dent of a consumer forum. TNN jputs have gone their sepa- He had wanted the seat for Patheya. In Kitta (pop: 2,500), BJP leaders.

Sonia Gandhi Venkaiah Naidu ‘For Sonia, Rajasthan poll was on Nov 20’ Indore: BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu here on Thursday alleged Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not even re- member the poll dates and had appealed to the voters in Ra- jasthan to vote for the Congress on Novemebr 20, the date of polling in Mizoram. Addressing an election meeting here, he alleged, Sonia who used to deliver speeches through the written texts might have read the speech of Mizoram in Rajasthan. PTI BJP has lost right to seek votes: Sonia TIMES NEWS NETWORK Ajmer: The BJP has broken all records as far as corrup- tion is concerned and as a re- sult, it has lost the right to seek votes, Congress president Sonia Gandhi told an election meeting here on Friday. Sonia said: ‘‘It seems that BJP leaders are vying with one another to find a place in a book of records for indulging in bribery and corruption.’’ Alleging that corruption is rampant under the NDA rule, she asked: ‘‘On what basis is the BJP seeking votes in as- sembly elections? “The BJP has no right to seek votes from the people af- ter betraying them,’’ the Con- gress president said. Without naming any one, Sonia asked: ‘‘What kind of justice is it where people are not arrested even after being caught on video accepting a bribe?’’

TOID291103/CR1/08/M/1TOID291103/CR1/08/C/1TOID291103/CR1/08/K/1TOID291103/CR1/08/Y/1 CMYK