Another major round of Lok Sabha polls tomorrow

April 23, 2014
jayaNew Delhi, Apr 23: Stakes will be high for Congress and BJP and a number of other parties like AIADMK, DMK, NCP and Shiv Sena when 117 constituencies will go to polls tomorrow in yet another substantial round of polling in the Lok Sabha elections.

Over 18 crore voters in 11 states and union territory of Puducherry will be able to vote in the sixth of the nine- phased elections tomorrow in which there are 2076 candidates.

It will decide whether BJP, which has cobbled a rainbow coalition of six parties, will be able to break the citadels of dravidian parties DMK and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. 39 constituencies in the state and the lone seat in Puducherry will complete voting on a single day.

DMK has 18 seats and AIADMK 8. Congress, whose success in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the last two general elections in alliance with DMK is unlikely to retain any of the eight seats it has.

Among the prominent candidates in the field in Tamil Nadu are former minister Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai), former Telecom Minister A Raja (Nilgiris), DMK leader T R Baalu, Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti (Sivaganga), DMK leader Vaiko (Virudunagar) and Union Minister V Narayanasamy (Puducherry).

Another prestige contest tomorrow will be the elections in Maharashtra where polling will be held in 19 seats, including six in Mumbai, all of them held by Congress and its ally NCP.

Important candidates in fray are Union Minister Milind Deora (Mumbai-South), Priya Dutt (Mumbai-North Central), Gurudas Kamath (Mumbai-North West), AAP candidates Medha Patkar (Mumbai North East) and Meera Sanyal (Mumbai-South).

In the battleground states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, polling will be held in 12 seats and 7 seats respectively.

The fourth phase of polling in UP will decide the fate of 187 candidates, including SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri), his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav in Kannauj and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid (Farrukhabad).

Jayant Chaudhary, son of RLD chief Ajit Singh, is locked in a stiff contest with BJP candidate and Bollywood star Hema Malini in Mathura.

In Bihar, BJP's Shahnawaz Hussain, party's lone Muslim face in the outgoing Lok Sabha (Bhagalpur), NCP General Secretary Tariq Anwar (Katihar), former Union Minister and RJD leader Mohd Taslimuddin and former Home Secretary R K Singh (Supual-BJP) are in the fray.

Polling will be held in six constituencies in the second phase of polling in West Bengal where President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit and Mamata Banerjee's bete noire Deepa Dasmunshi are among the candidates.

Abhijit had won the Jangipur seat by a slender margin of 2,536 votes in a 2012 by-election when his father Pranab Mukherjee vacated the seat to become the President of India.

While five of the six seats - Raiganj, Maldaha Uttar, Maldaha Dakshin, Jangipur and Murshidabad - were won by the Congress in 2009 general elections, which it fought in alliance with the TMC in West Bengal, the Balurghat seat was won by the RSP.

Tomorrow's election will also decide fate of Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha) and BJP veteran Sumitra Mahajan, who is eyeing a record eighth consecutive victory in Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

Four constituencies will go to poll tomorrow in the third and last phase of Lok Sabha election in Jharkhand where a total of 72 candidates are in the fray.

Former chief ministers Shibu Soren (JMM) and Babulal Marandi (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantric) are among the prominent candidates contesting from Dumka. Also in the fray from Dumka is BJP's Sunil Soren.

In the third and final phase, six constituencies will go to poll tomorrow in Assam to decide the fate of 74 candidates.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been representing Assam in the Rajya Sabha since 1991, and his wife Gursharan Kaur are scheduled to arrive here tomorrow and cast their votes at Dispur Government Higher Secondary School.

In minority-dominated Dhubri constituency, the contest is expected to be between AIUDF Chief and sitting MP Badruddin Ajmal, Congress candidate Wazed Ali Choudhury and BJP's Debamoy Sanyal.

An interesting battle is on the cards in the Kokrajhar (ST) constituency with six candidates in fray including Assam Tourism minister Chandan Brahma of BPF and sitting BPF MP S K Bwismuthiary who was denied a ticket by the party and is now contesting as an independent bidding to win for the fifth consecutive term.

In Jammu and Kashmir, polling will be held in Anantnag Lok Sabha seat against the backdrop of the killing of four political workers. 12 candidates including NC's Mehboob Beg, sitting MP, and opposition PDP president Mehbooba Mufti are in fray in the constituency in which over 12 lakh voters are eligible to vote.

The fate of 81 contestants including two Union Ministers and a former cricketer will be decided in the second and last phase of Lok Sabha polling in five constituencies in Rajasthan tomorrow.

Former cricketer Mohd Azharuddin, who has shifted from Moradabad in UP, is facing a triangular contest against BJP's Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria, and NPP's Jagmohan Meena (brother of KL Meena).

In Chhattisgarh, polling will be held in the remaining seven of the 11 seats in which among the prominent contenders are Karuna Shukla, niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Congress) and Union Minister Charan Das Mahant (Korba)- lone Congress MP from the state.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 3,2020

Wayanad, Mar 3: Anguished over the alleged delay in receiving flood relief from the Kerala government, a 42-year-old man committed suicide in Wayanad district, police said on Tuesday. Sanal Kumar, a native of Thrikaipatta in Meppadi near here was found hanging inside the temporary shelter built by his friends and local people on Monday. He was among the hundreds who had lost their homes in the August 2019 floods.

His home, built on a three cent plot, had been damaged partially in 2018 floods and completely in the 2019 deluge. Family members of the deceased alleged that it was due undue delay on the part of the authorities in allotting funds for rebuilding his house that drove Kumar to take the extreme step. Kumar was hoping to get a house under the Life Mission project, sources said.

A relative said Kumar had only 3 cent of land and had lot of debts. Even the Rs 10,000 assistance promised by the state government for the flood affected, had not reached him. Since the past two years he had filed several applications for assistance and apporached many revenue authroties for the promised government assistance, but it never came, the locals alleged.

According to K K Sahad, president of Meppadi Panchayat the deceased had some other financial issues and it was not the delay in rehabilitation that made him commit suicide. "It is true that he was not included in the first list of beneficiaries under the LIFE project as he had to have "pattayam" (land records) for his land.

However, he was included in the second list, thanks to the dilution in the norms that possession was enough for those who had no 'pattayam' for their property. The amount of Rs 4 lakhs was sanctioned for him, but was delayed a bit due to some technical issues."

Wayanad MLA C K Saseendran described it as an "extremely sad" development. As Kumar had some difficulties in producing the land recrods, the authroties had been unable to include his name in the LIFE housing scheme in the first phase.

The matter has been brought before the notice of the revenue authorities, he said. Vythiri Tahsildar, Abdul Hameed, visited Kumar's relatives this morning as the family members of the deceased wanted his presence before the body was taken for post-mortem.

"There was some technical issues with regard to the land as it falls within the adhivasi reserve. But they were occupying it for long. However, the issue has been sorted out and that his family members would be getting the eligibility amount of four lakhs," Hameed said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 1,2020

New Delhi, Feb 1: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday greeted the Indian Coast Guard on its raising day, appreciating its efforts to keep the country's coasts safe.

The Coast Guard came into being in 1977.

"Greetings to the Indian Coast Guard on their foundation day. Our Coast Guard has made a mark due to their remarkable efforts to keep our coasts safe," Modi tweeted.

The prime minister said the force's "concern towards the marine ecosystem is also noteworthy".

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 10,2020

New Delhi, Mar 10: A military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) brought back 58 Indians from coronavirus-hit Iran on Tuesday, official said.

The aircraft, a C-17 Globemaster, was sent to Tehran on Monday evening.

About 2,000 Indians are living in Iran, a country that has witnessed increasing numbers of coronavirus cases in the last few days.

"The IAF aircraft has landed. Mission completed. On to the next," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted.

In an earlier tweet, he said, "First batch of 58 Indian pilgrims being brought back from Iran. IAF C-17 taken off from Tehran and expected to land soon in Hindon."

"Thanks to the efforts of our Embassy @India_in_Iran and Indian medical team there, operating under challenging conditions. Thank you @IAF_MCC. Appreciate cooperation of Iranian authorities. We are working on the return of other Indians stranded there (sic)," Jaishankar added.

The aircraft landed at Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad, from where the passengers were take to a medical facility.

According to latest reports, 237 people have died of novel coronavirus in Iran while the number of positive cases stands at around 7,000.

It is the second such evacuation by the C-17 Globemaster in the last two weeks.

On February 27, 76 Indians and 36 foreign nationals were brought back from the Chinese city of Wuhan by the aircraft of the Indian Air Force.

The C-17 Globemaster is the largest military aircraft in the IAF's inventory. The plane can carry large combat equipment, troops and humanitarian aid across long distances in all weather conditions.

Four days ago, a Mahan airline plane brought swab samples of 300 Indians from Iran to India.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.