Round The States
New Delhi, 10 March 2011
Tamil Nadu Spat
Congress Wins First
Round
By Insaf
All is well in Tamil Nadu. After four days of prolonged
suspense and tension in Chennai and Delhi,
the Congress and DMK have kissed and made up. Thereby, saving their seven-year-old
ties. When push came to shove, the DMK agreed to give 63 seats to its ally for
the Assembly polls next month. The turn around came after Congress President Sonia
made plain her displeasure to the Southern satrap for not adhering to the “coalition
dharma.” An angry Sonia asserted that she was willing to let the UPA Government
fall to save her Party’s prestige. It is no secret that the alliance had come
to breaking point on ‘extra political issues,’ read the CBI quizzing DMK Chief
Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhy and her mother in the 2G
Spectrum. Thus taking the scandal right to the Chief Minister’s door step and
making things difficult for the First Family on the eve of elections. The
Congress brusquely asserted that as the Supreme Court was monitoring the case the
Government could not intervene or influence the probe. There was nothing it
could do, was the stern message.
Post the drama on seat sharing, the focus has now shifted to
two other thorny issues. One, identifying constituencies the two Parties will
contest for the forthcoming elections. The DMK is prepared to let Congress
retain the 48 constituencies it contested in 2006 polls but has made clear that
negotiations would decide the other 15 constituencies. Two, Karunanidhi has to
take a call on the Congress’ demand for a pre-poll agreement for power-sharing in
the event the alliance returns to power.
This is causing the DMK Chief much discomfort. Importantly, it is clear
that neither the DMK nor the Congress want to go to polls alone as the biggest
beneficiary of that would be rival Jayalalitha’s AIADMK. Amidst the poll
headache, Karunanidhi has to settle the internal wrangling between his family
members for cornering maximum seats for their respective supporters. Will this
alliance sound the victory bugle remains to be seen?
* * * *
Congress Headache
in West Bengal
The Congress may have posted a victory in Tamil Nadu, but in
West Bengal it may not strike gold. The
Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee, a hard nut to crack, has bluntly told her ally
that she won't offer more than 58 seats as against 98 demanded by the Congress
in the 294-seat Assembly. While the Congress is trying to hard-sell the line
that if it decides to ekla chalo, in
a three-way vote split, the Trinamool has more to lose given that it has become
the symbol of all anti-CPM forces. On the other hand, Mamata believes that the
Congress ploy is to ensure that her Party does not form the Government alone
and should be dependent on it. The Trinamool reckons that the Congress could
win around 25 seats only. In the last Assembly polls the Congress had contested
alone and won a mere 19 seats. Adding to the Party’s troubles, there is a
tussle between its local units with 19 administrative and five organizational
districts demanding a maximum quota. What next?
* * * *
No Cakewalk In
Kerala
In Kerala too, while the
Congress, heading the United Democratic Front, has sewed up its alliance with
its Indian Union Muslim League on seat-sharing and the Communist Marxist Party,
the Kerala Congress-Mani and the Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy is proving
to be troublesome for the 140 Assembly constituencies. The Congress-Mani wants
22 seats after its merger with the PJ Joseph faction and the JSS nothing short
of five seats. Also, its arch rival the Left Democratic Front is sailing in the
same boat. The CPI is demanding at least 30 seats from its lead partner, the CPM.
Meanwhile, the CPM has still to decide on the vital question on fielding Chief
Minister V S Achuthanandan for the contest. It remains to be seen who will
untie these knots?
* * * *
EC Diktat For Candidates
In the five poll-bound States
candidates not only have to grapple with their rivals but the Election
Commission as well. Following the Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi’s
decision to set up call centres in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and
Puducherry. To be operated round the clock, these centres will receive
complaints about violations of the model
code of conduct by candidates and their supporters. In another unique
initiative, the EC plans to put up cameras at polling booths in remote
constituencies and broadcast the polling process to the State Chief Election
Officer's office to ensure that the process goes on smoothly. It would also record election meetings of all
parties and candidates to be watched by the poll monitoring committees. This is
not all. Media exposes will be treated as formal complaints and necessary action
taken. Towards that end, district level media watch committees would be set up
to monitor the phenomenon of paid news. The poll battle gets tougher!
* * * *
Millions March For
Telengana
The bugle for the creation of Telengana State
just became louder. Whereby Andhra’s Capital Hyderabad was paralysed thanks to
the Millions March called by the pro-Telengana groups including the TRS, TDP,
BJP, CPI and CPI-ML on Thursday last. They sought introduction
of a Bill on the formation of a separate State in the ongoing Parliament
session. Notwithstanding, that the pro-Telengana leadership was placed under
preventive arrest, Section 144 CRPC imposed in Hyderabad and about 120 police
check posts set up, the march threw normal life out of gear. Worse, in nine
other districts too trouble arose over the delay in the formation of Telengana.
Last week too, Andhra MPs cutting across Party lines had upped the ante in both
Houses of Parliament leading to its adjournment. Clearly, the Centre cannot
soft peddle the issue for long.
* * * *
Delhi Gets Going on “Aadhar”
Kudos to the Delhi Government for
commencing work on bringing the entire city under the “Aadhar” project wherein every person will be enrolled and issued a
Unique Identification Number (UID). The State intends completing the UID
enrolment exercise by October. Already, it has garnered information in regard
to the 8.77 lakh BPL (below poverty line) families and other vulnerable
categories. Once these data are in place the Government plans to prepare grounds
for the linkage of LPG subsidy to these families. Significantly, the foolproof
UID will not only provide definite identification for an individual but also
enable the person access to various financial benefits. Finally, one can say
good riddance to multiple identities and duplication at the time of accessing
the benefits of social schemes.---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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