BJP campaign to focus on development

PUNE: State BJP general secretary Vinod Tawade said here on Monday that the party was banking on the vast section of young voters, which is more inclined towards the politics of development, to ensure significant gains in the Vidhan Sabha elections.

Tawade said, "A large section of voters, particularly the youth, is looking at how Maharashtra is developed in the next five years or more. This, makes politics of development more relevant than ever before." The party's poll campaign will be high on what it proposes to do for Maharashtra's development rather than highlight failures' of the Congress-NCP's decade-long rule, he said. "The Congress-NCP will form only 25 per cent of our campaign component," he added.

Tawade was speaking to reporters at a function to announce the entry of Pune zilla parishad member and agriculture market committee director Mangaldas Bandal and his followers into the BJP. Bandal, an independent ZP member and former sarpanch of Shikrapur in Shirur taluka, has taken on the NCP in the local politics of Shirur. His entry into the BJP coincided with the high-profile switch-over by NCP's former minister of state Shivajirao Kardile to the BJP, in Mumbai on Monday. Kardile unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 on NCP ticket from Ahmednagar.

Based on the opinion and feedback by experts from different fields, the BJP has drafted a Maharashtra Vision Document' and the same would be unveiled in the city by senior party leaders Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari on September 20, Tawade said. "The document would not just elaborate plans for the next five years but also give an extended vision of how the party wants to change the face of Maharashtra in the next 15-20 years."

On the delay in a formal announcement of a pre-poll alliance with long-time partners Shiv Sena, Tawade said, "The tie-up would be announced in the next two days as senior party leaders were engaged in thrashing out last-minute seat-sharing details relating to a couple of seats. There are no differences on this but, a dialogue is on."

Tawade said, "The party's election committee has finalised 60 to 65 names for recommendation to the central leadership as candidates for the polls. Post-seat sharing agreement, we will finalise the remaining names." The BJP was better placed than the Congress-NCP, which is yet to finalise a pre-poll alliance, he added. The last date of filing of nominations is September 18.

On the qualifying norms for BJP ticket, Tawade said, "The ticket-seeker's winnability; political and social equations in a given constituency, ability to truly represent that constituency and grasp on local issues were the main factors determining the party nominee."

Asked whether the BJP would go the Sena way by promising tickets to only party loyalists and insiders, Tawade said that the party was open to giving tickets to outsiders depending upon the ground realities of the concerned constituency.

Eunuch seeks right to vote in Maharashtra polls

A eunuch has moved the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission seeking the right to vote for his community and transgenders in the forthcoming Maharashtra state Assembly polls. In the complaint, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi termed the denial of right to vote as gross violation of human rights in the state.

Supported by a group of four law students, Tripathi demanded that the state should extend the fundamental right of voting to eunuchs and transgenders.

The SHRC issued notices to the chief secretary of the state with a direction to ensure that departments concerned file their reply to the complaint by November 4.

Sonia launches campaign for Maharashtra polls, skirts alliance issue

Skirting the issue of alliance with Sharad Pawar's NCP, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday kicked off her party's campaign for Sonia Gandhi Congress president Sonia Gandhi with CM Ashok Chavan and other senior party leaders at newly renovated Mumbai Congress office, Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, in Mumbai .


October 13 Maharashtra Assembly polls with a call to workers to reach out to the people with renewed vigour.

Sonia reaffirmed her party's irrevocable commitment to protecting the interests of the "aam admi", who was the focus of the Congress' policies and programmes.

"Your enthusiasm and vigour gives me confidence that the Congress will emerge victorious in the Maharashtra Assembly elections once again," She told party workers inaugurating the newly renovated Mumbai Congress headquarters.

The renovated Congress headquarters has been named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

"You deserve kudos for ensuring that the fruits of the policies and programmes of our government in the state reached the targeted beneficiaries," she said, asking them to reach out to the masses.

Source : Times of India

Congress NCP alliance for Maharashtra polls may take couple of more days

Talks between Congress and NCP to seal an alliance for the Maharashtra polls may take a couple of days in view of Congress's keeness to identify seats alongwith the proportion that each party will contest. NCP could contest around 114-115 seats while Congress may get 174-175 seats.

Congress NCP alliance was expected to have been announced on Monday but the exercise to complete indentification of seats is understood to have held up an announcement. Congress expects three seats where Shiv Sena MLAs crossed over and another three where independents joined the party to be part of its share.

In addition to these seats, Congress is pressing for a few seats more which the party feels should fall to its share through the process of delimitation. The talks have been subject to some suspense as NCP boss Sharad Pawar is yet to clinch an agreement with Congress even though he has appeared reconciled to accepting lesser seats than the 122 his party contested in 2004.

The final bargaining for seats seems to make the high-decibel calls for Congress to go it alone look like mere posturing. Some argue that tough talk by leaders like former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh helped mellow the NCP. But NCP's bargaining position had already been weakened by the Lok Sabha result where it won eight seats in Maharashtra to Congress's 17. But it has been evident that narrow margins for assembly segments projected by Lok Sabha results do not leave room for complacency.

Some leaders in Congress claim that even on its own, the party could be in a position to win around 110 seats and emerge the single largest party in a House of 288. They feel the party can then strike an alliance with NCP on its own terms. But this school of thought seems to be in a minority. The party is looking to leverage its improved performance as well as Pawar's compulsions of being a UPA partner at the Centre.

In Mumbai, Congress president Sonia Gandhi launched her party's campaign on Monday for the October 13 assembly election but did not utter a word about a pre-poll alliance with NCP.

Complimenting voters for supporting the Congress in the recent Lok Sabha election, she hoped that they would repeat their performance in the upcoming polls.

She has, however, asked defence minister A K Antony to convene a meeting with Maharashtra leaders in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the issue threadbare.

Both the Congress and the NCP have kept their list of probable candidates for all 288 seats ready in case the pre-poll tie-up does not materialise.

Source : Times of India

SC nod to MNS' rail engine symbol

In a reprieve to Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Election Commission to allot the party a common symbol for the assembly elections in Maharashtra.

The apex court asked the EC to allot the common symbol ‘railway engine’ to the MNS, subject to the condition that any other candidate who has won the last election on the same symbol would be allowed to retain it for contesting this poll.

The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam on a petition filed by MNS seeking to contest around 150 assembly seats on a common symbol. “It’s a major, strategic victory for our three-year old party. In the absence of an exclusive symbol, it was difficult to reach out to people. The SC verdict will help us perform better,” Raj Thackeray said after the judgement.

The bench directed allocation of common symbols ‘coconut’ and ‘whistle’ to the Jan Surya Shakti party and the Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi, respectively. The parties are contesting around 100 seats each. All three parties, initially registered as unrecognised, had sought election symbols. As per the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 2005, a common symbol is allotted to a recognised party that wins 6% votes in the previous election, besides returning at least two candidates to the assembly and a candidate to the Lok Sabha.

Source : Economic Times

Gujarat Election result

BJP has comeout victorious by winning 5 of the 7 Gujarat Assembly seats forwhich the by elections were held on 10th.

Some assembly seats got vacant due to MLAs winning loksabha elections and shifting to indian Parliament. While Chotila seat got vacant due to the death of congress MLA.

The Gujarat By election results are good for BJP as earlier it had only 1 seats of these 7 seats. and now they have go 5.