Posts Tagged ‘Lucknow’
Written by admin on 06 February 2012
Lucknow, Feb 6 (IANS) When he passed out of the prestigious Delhi School of Economics (DSE) with a master’s degree, his plan was to pursue academics. But after completing M.Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Harshvardhan Shyam’s interests began moving in a diametrically opposite direction.
He made up his mind to try his luck in public life. And when the first opportunity came his way to contest the 2012 state assembly elections, he took the plunge from the Mohanlalganj constituency on the outskirts of Lucknow.
And none other than the Congress party decided to award him a ticket.
Asked why he chose Mohanlalganj, the most unusual candidate from this rural constituency said: ‘I was looking for a reserved constituency and Mohanlalganj ideally suited me as it was a traditional seat of the Congress. Even though R.K. Chaudhary has succeeded three times from there, the electorate is now looking for change. I know I am capable of living up to the expectations of the people there.’
And this young man is leaving no stone unturned to pitch in his best. Setting off on his door-to-door campaign at 8 a.m. every day, he moves from village to village and hamlet to hamlet, reaching out to people in their fields, homes, schools and colleges. He also addresses numerous roadside meetings.
And what is the vision he is projecting for Mohanlalganj?
‘I wish to take this constituency forward. Despite being barely 25 km from Lucknow, Mohanlalganj has not seen the fruits of development. This place has neither basic infrastructure, civic amenities nor industry. I see no reason why this place should remain deprived of all that it rightly deserves by virtue of its proximity to the number one city of India’s most populous state,’ he added.
This 32-year-old bachelor came on Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s radar when he went to attend the 2009 Youth Congress convention in Ambedkar Nagar.
Queries posed by him drew Rahul’s attention and propelled him into the Gandhi scion’s team, by virtue of which he was also made a Youth Congress coordinator at the JNU.
Born and brought up in Lucknow, he did his early education from St. Joseph Cathedral School in the city, before he was shifted to a more prestigious school in Nainital by his father, a government official here.
Soon after completing his schooling, his high aggregate got him into Delhi University’s well-known Sri Ram College of Commerce from where he obtained an honours degree in economics.
DSE became his next destination followed by JNU, where he was pursuing Ph.D on ‘The changing dynamics of UP politics post 1989′.
Not only that, his electoral battle is against a seasoned campaigner, R.K. Chaudhary, 52, who has romped home from Mohanlalganj for three successive terms.
Chaudhary had taken off into politics as a trusted lieutenant of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram, who even got him inducted as a minister in the first Mayawati-led BSP-BJP government in 1995.
A law graduate, Chaudhary was compelled to make an exit from the BSP because of souring of relations with Mayawati. However, considering that he won the next two elections as an independent candidate, he still remains a formidable challenge for Harshvardhan.
(Sharat Pradhan can be contacted at sharat.p@ians.in)
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 05 February 2012
Lucknow, Feb 5 (IANS) The run-up to assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh has set the illegal betting market abuzz with bookies putting their money on a hung house, sources close to the bookmakers said Sunday.
Stakes were high on the possible successor to the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government which was facing a tough challenge to stage a come back, they said.
Unlike assembly elections in the past, the bookies this time were not expecting any single party to win a clear majority, the sources said.
Elections in 403 constituencies in the state would be held in seven-phase voting between Feb 8 and March 3. Results would be out March 6.
Sources said that the latest betting market trends suggested that the Samajwadi Party may win 137-141 constituencies. The ruling BSP may end up with 118-122 constituencies.
The Congress was expected to win 66-69 constituencies and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s tally may range between 52-56 constituencies, they said.
“As the polling days get closer, speculation is bound to change,” said a source close to a bookie, adding that “it will be very much like cricket, where the stakes alter after every ball”.
He said the only difference between cricket and electoral battle was the extent of the stakes. “While the last cricket World Cup saw bets to the tune of Rs.30 crore in Uttar Pradesh, the elections are expected to see bets worth Rs.10 crore,” he said.
“As of now, betting is on a very low key and the stakes may not be more than Rs.1 crore. The bets would increase drastically in the coming days,” he said.
A police official, who did not want to be named, said: “There is no denying the fact that ‘satta’ (betting) business thrives during elections. We have a special cell to look into the illegal ‘satta’ business and I am sure we will grab most of the bookies once they come out of their holes.”
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 04 February 2012
Lucknow, Feb 4 (IANS) Considering what is at stake, top leaders of all political parties have descended in Uttar Pradesh’s poll arena to select its 16th assembly.
However, unlike in the past, when issues used to be clearly visible and so was the inclination of the voter, thereby making poll speculation easier, the 2012 state assembly election appears to be most unpredictable.
Besides the four key political players – the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – there has been the emergence of the Peace Party, that is seen, more than anything else, as a spoilsport.
Congress took the first plunge into the electoral campaign in the state, where it had been out of power for more than two decades. With an uphill task of reviving it in the state, star campaigner Rahul Gandhi had started the ground work way ahead of others.
Be it visiting Dalit homes in the poverty-ridden backwaters of the state or taking a plunge into the cauldron of farmers’ issues in Noida’s Bhatta Parsaul, or boarding a second class compartment of a Gorakhpur train, every move of Rahul was clearly aimed at wooing the electorate. And the moves paid dividends to the extent of establishing the Gandhi scion’s goodwill with a large chunk of the masses across the state.
After all Rahul had finally stepped out of the confines of Amethi and Rae Bareli – his and his mother Sonia’s parliamentary constituencies. By the time elections were announced, Rahul had already done much of the spade work. His mother has recently joined him to cover several areas, while sister Priyanka too has pitched in to take care of the assembly segments under Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies. The only other prominent face to join the Congress campaign here was Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit.
All other parties got down to business only after the elections looked in sight. And SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh Yadav who had also travelled the length and breadth of the state well before the announcement of the elections, was the first to take to the road, moving from one constituency to another. His initial objective to drive home the message that he was out to re-invent the party was well received and the 39-year-old was also making waves in many places.
Meanwhile, his father was hopping all over the state on a chopper with colleague Azam Khan, trying to woo Muslims. The entire focus was on reviving the party’s support base of Muslims, who had in a big measure drifted away from the SP because of Mulayam’s shortlived handshake with ousted BJP bigwig Kalyan Singh, better known as the mastermind of the Ayodhya mosque demolition.
Unlike the Congress and Samajwadi Party, the BJP has a whole army of leaders swarming Uttar Pradesh. While the campaign was initially entrusted entirely to Uma Bharti, who was not very long ago imported from Madhya Pradesh to turn around the party’s fortunes here, several other top line BJP leaders have started spreading their tentacles across the state. These include Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitely. But the BJP has somehow remained shy of bringing in Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the campaign.
The ruling BSP, however, has a lone campaigner in Chief Minister Mayawati, who chose to step in far behind her rivals. But her supporters have an explanation for her late start.
“Behenji has her core constituency of Dalits who form 20 percent of the electorate; none of the other political parties have a solid base of more than five percent, therefore in real terms, she is well ahead of others,” is what one of her close confidantes reasoned.
And doubtlessly, her support was more than amply demonstrated in the mammoth turnout at the half a dozen election rallies she addressed over the first three days of her campaign.
With the first phase of the seven-phase balloting just days away Feb 8, no one is able to say with some confidence which way the political wind is going to blow in the country’s most politically consequential state.
(Sharat Pradhan can be contacted at sharat.p@ians.in)
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 03 February 2012
Lucknow, Feb 3 (IANS) In a move to boost the Congress campaign led by her brother Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Friday addressed public meetings in his parliamentary constituency Amethi and asked the people “to vote for change” in the state, ruled by non-Congress parties since 1989.
“People are not getting their due rights … Politics has turned opportunistic,” she said at a meeting in Balbhadrapur.
Noting that the state’s politics has been based on religion and caste for the past 20 years, she called upon people to vote for a change of regime in the state.
“If a Congress government is formed in UP, it would develop the state. You should do it for the future of your children and not for the Congress,” Priyanka said.
Echoing her brother, Priyanka said that people from Uttar Pradesh have been going to developed states like Maharashtra and Kerala.
“It is time for a change,” she asserted.
She said politics has touched such a low that the parties had to remind people that their candidates are not named in cases of murder or land grabbing.
“I urge you to probe the facts about the candidates and the political parties. Keep this in mind when you go out to vote,” she said.
Speaking to reporters later, Priyanka said the people of the state were fed up with the Mayawati government.
“People are fed up with the present government… People are realising that the present politics are not working. They want to bring about a change. I believe they will,” she said.
Congress circles said that Priyanka will continue her campaign in Amethi parliamentary constituency, represented by Rahul Gandhi and in Rae Bareli, represented by her mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, for the next four days.
Though Priyanka had said recently she would undertake any campaign suggested by Rahul, party circles said there was no indication of her campaign plans beyond Amethi-Rae Bareli belt so far.
This is the second round of campaigning by Priyanka in the Amethi-Rae Bareli belt, which has 11 assembly seats. She had campaigned Jan 16-19 in the first tour.
Three seats of the Amethi parliamentary constituency – Amethi, Jagdishpur and Gauriganj – will go to polls Feb 15 while polling will be held in the two other seats and in the six seats belonging to Rae Bareli Feb 19.
Uttar Pradesh, which has 403 assembly seats, will have a seven-phase polling Feb 8 to March 3.
The vote count will be held March 6, along with the four other states (Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab).
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 01 February 2012
Lucknow/New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) A week before polling begins in Uttar Pradesh, the battle reached a feverish pitch Wednesday as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and BSP leader Mayawati crossed swords, calling themselves the saviour of India’s most populous state.
Addressing major public rallies in UP where balloting will be staggered Feb 8 to March 3, Mayawati accused the central government of starving the state of development funds. Gandhi asserted that Rs.100,000 crore given to the state did not reach the poor and linked Mayawati to corruption.
In Sitapur, a Dalit citadel, an upbeat Mayawati pointed to the large crowds that had gathered to listen to her as a sign of her invincibility. She claimed that her government had done more work in the past five years than any other government since India’s independence.
Asked if she was confident of winning, Mayawati said: ‘You can judge seeing the crowds.’
Pitching for an inclusive growth in the state which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, Mayawati, the first Dalit chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said: ‘There is need to ensure progress of all communities. Only the BSP can ensure that.
‘The centre did not cooperate with us fully,’ she charged.
Holding her first rally in UP, Gandhi slammed the Mayawati government for ‘inefficient implementation of centrally funded programmes’ and questioned the Dalit leader’s motives behind dismissing 21 of her ministers on the eve of elections.
Speaking in Gonda town, Gandhi said though the UPA government provided Rs.100,000 crore in developmental funds to Uttar Pradesh in recent years, it had not reached the poor because of an ‘inept’ state administration.
Asking people to vote for the Congress, Gandhi said: ”Then, we will have a government of the common people and the poor.
‘The present chief minister dismissed 21 of her ministers on election eve. She was not able to see their corruption in the past five years. I want to ask whether taking resignations has made her government clean? Is this not (a case of) cheating the people?’
Gandhi urged non-Congress governments of ruining the state since the Congress has been out of power in 1989.
‘These parties have done nothing for the state. They have filled their own pockets,’ she said.
The Congress has shown signs of revival in the state.
The Congress won only 22 seats in the 403-member state assembly in 2007. But it swept 22 of the Lok Sabha 80 seats in 2009, finishing second among four major parties and stunning foes and friends alike.
Gandhi and RLD chief Ajit Singh will address a joint rally at Meerut in western Uttar Pradesh Thursday.
Tags: Lucknow, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh
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Written by admin on 01 February 2012
Lucknow, Feb 1 (IANS) Slamming the Mayawati government for “inefficient implementation of centrally funded developmental programmes”, Congress president Sonia Gandhi began her campaign for the Uttar Pradesh polls Wednesday.
Speaking at a rally in Gonda town, Gandhi said though the UPA government provided more than Rs.1 lakh crore in developmental funds to Uttar Pradesh in recent years, it had not reached the poor because of an “inept” state administration.
Asking people to vote the Congress to power in the state, Gandhi said: “Then we will have a government of the common people and the poor.”
Congress has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh since 1989. The state will see seven-phased polls from Feb 8 to March 3. Votes will be counted March 6.
Tags: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
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