WHY DID BJP WITHDRAW FROM THE HOWRAH BYPOLL?

By Shri Tathagata Roy
A lot of BJP's well-wishers, both in West Bengal and elsewhere, have wondered on this and regretted this decision of our central leadership. I myself sat in the West Bengal State Election Committee meeting, agreed on Ashim Ghosh's name and thereafter left for the North-east on some professional assignments. On my way back, somewhere near Guwahati airport, I received this bombshell, which left me depressed right through till Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday afternoon I met our President Rahul Sinha and our co-Central Observer Siddharth Nath Singh and had long interactions with them.
Siddharth made it clear that there was no question of holding out an olive branch to Trinamool. In fact (though Siddharth himself didn't say it) Mamata has her tongue hanging out so far for Muslim votes (as evidenced by her stipends to Imams and Muezzins, Muslim reservation, her offering Namaz and wearing Hijab, and saying Inshallah, etc.) that even an olive FOREST, not to speak of a branch, could not draw her into a PRE-POLL alliance with BJP. What she will do POST-POLL will depend ENTIRELY on numbers in the new Lok Sabha, and not one bit on who held out how many olive branches before polls. If she does badly in the Panchayat polls, she might again ally with the Congress PRE-POLL, but never with BJP. One must realize that she is a COMPLETELY self-centred person and doesn't give a damn about niceties or returning favours.
Then why did the central leadership ask us to withdraw? The principal reason, as Siddharth explained, is that BJP is seeking the Prime minister's resignation and polls in November, and running for elections now would be inconsistent with such a stand. A secondary but important reason is the resources position. West Bengal BJP is cash-starved, and has important commitments. The central BJP also is not exactly swimming in money -- unlike the Congress or even the CPI(M) and Trinamool. In such circumstances running for a Lok Sabha that may not last even six months may be pointless.
Therefore, while fully realizing that our media friends will put a pro-Trinamool spin to this and it may demoralize our party cadres, our central leaders took this stand.
We in the state party will later decide what to tell our supporters as to who to vote for. We may tell them to support an independent, follow their consciences, or not to vote at all.
I still won't say this gets me completely out of my depression. But enough to get up and apply myself to party work with renewed vigour.

HT reports: Social media may play decisive role in 2014 polls

Zia Haq, Hindustan Times  New Delhi, April 12, 2013 
Social media is likely to influence politics and elections in 160 of India’s 543 Parliament constituencies, making Facebook and Twitter users the nation’s newest voting bloc, a new study suggests.

In these mostly urbanizing constituencies, social-media usage is now “sufficiently widespread” to influence the outcome of a general election slated for 2014, the study by IRIS Knowledge Foundation and supported by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), indicates.
On April 4, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi’s high-profile address to the Confederation of Indian Industry, a leading business forum, was trending topmost on Twitter in India that day, some posts by rivals mocking him.
A series of lectures by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, a presumptive PM, this week too garnered strong social-media attention, with his and Gandhi’s supporters competing online to run the other down.
A deeply polarizing figure still, Modi is often accused of watching over a carnage that killed nearly 2000 people in 2002, mostly Muslims. Yet, he has pulled off a stunning online strategy to showcase Gujarat as India’s Guandong, a south China province with top GDP rankings and investment.
Research shows that social media is more persuasive than television ads. Nearly 100 million Indians, or more than Germany’s population, use the Internet each day. Of this, 40 million have assured broadband, the ones most likely to have at least one social media account.
“Unlike Obama, who used social media directly for votes, Indian politicians have tended to use it more to mould public discourse,” says Sunil Abraham, the CEO of The Centre for Internet and Society.
That is likely to change in 2014. Not surprisingly, Modi became the third politician globally, a fter Obama and Australian PM Julia Gillard, to host a political conference on Google+ hangout. 
Chief ministers in states are also leveraging social media. Bihar has unveiled a re-branded campaign called, “Bihar ka haq” or Bihar’s Rightful Cause, on Facebook.
Social-media-impacted constituencies, according to the study, are those where Facebook users are more than the victory margin of the winner in the last Lok Sabha election, or where such users account for over 10% of the voting population.

Ritesh Tiwari, Secretary BJP, WB. filed a Writ Petition at High Court Kolkata

(https://www.facebook.com/ritesh.tiwari.969)

That the people in the State of West Bengal for the last few days has been witnessing the conflicts as aforesaid between the respondent no. 1 and 2 in the matter of holding Panchayet election 2013. Your petitioners believe that such controversy should be resolved for upholding the democracy and the constitutional scheme as has been provided in the Part IX of the Constitution of India. Unless this Hon’ble court the immediately intervenes the time bound Panchyet Election will not be held and democratic rights of the citizens will be at peril. That the people in the State of West Bengal for the last few days has been witnessing the conflicts as aforesaid between the respondent no. 1 and 2 in the matter of holding Panchayet election 2013. Your petitioners believe that such controversy should be resolved for upholding the democracy and the constitutional scheme as has been provided in the Part IX of the Constitution of India. Unless this Hon’ble court the immediately intervenes the time bound Panchyet Election will not be held and democratic rights of the citizens will be at peril.

That Article 243K(3) also recognizes the independent status of the State Election Commission. In the matter of conduct of elections, the government concerned shall have to render full assistance and cooperation to the State Election Commission and respect the latter’s assessment of needs in order to ensure that free and fair elections are conducted.

That it is amply evident that section 42 of the West Bengal Panchayet Elections Act, 2003 in effect curtailed the power of the State Election Commission to make notification for appointment of date or dates and hour or hours of poll for any election or bye election and thereby offend Article 243K(1) of the Constitution of India.

That it is crystal clear that the Constitutional scheme provides for primacy of State Election Commission over the State government in the matter of holding election whereas the Section 42 and 43 of the West Bengal Panchayet Elections Act, 2003 provides for the contrary.

OUR PRAYER

A declaration that Sections 42 and Section 43 of the West Bengal Panchayet Election Act, 2003 are violative of Article 243K(1) of the Constitution of India and therefore void ab initio, inoperative and accordingly be struck down.

A writ of and/or in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondent no. 2 to make the notification for appointment of the date or dates and hours of the poll for Panchayet Election in the State of West Bengal scheduled to be held in the year 2013 following the Article 243K(1) of the Constitution of India;

A writ of and/or in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondent no. 1to make available to the respondent no. 2 such staff as may be necessary for the holding of Panchayet election scheduled to the held on in the year 2013 following the Article 243K (3) of the Constitution of India.

WEST BENGAL PANCHAYAT ELECTIONS IMPASSE

Written by Shri Tathagata Roy

BJP filed a separate appeal in the High court on poll dates.

While poll panel's appeal has sought dismissal of state government notification on Panchayat poll, BJP in its plea has asked fundamental question and appealed to struck down the rule in the West Bengal Panchayat Act that empowered the government to fix the dates.

"Article 42 of Panchayat Act says state can fix the poll dates. Article 43 of the same Act says if state election commission has objection the schedule, it should initiate consultation with state government.

Although these articles talk about consultation with state election commission, it is not clear." "The current government is shielding behind the faulty Act. We have filed a separate appeal asking this section of the Act to be declared unconstitutional," West Bengal state BJP president Rahul Sinha said.

Will you go and register your name in voter list?

Most of the states allow online submission (Chief election officer website) of your forms so you can scan your necessary documents and upload it directly. Things that you should know :

1) If you don't have a voter id card, apply it now and fill both form 001A and form 6.
2) If you already have a voter id card, to check whether your name is already registered in the Voter list, follow the below mentioned website of your respective state and search for your name in the voter list available online.
3) If you don't have your name listed in the voter list which is available online, Fill form 6 , you can submit this form online as well as submit in ERO (Electoral Registration Officers) office.
4) You must have 3 important documents before you fill any of these forms - ID Proof, Address proof & Age proof.

Voter registration for West Bengal:- http://ceowestbengal.nic.in/

Letter to the State Election Commissioner by Sri Rahul Sinha, President, WB

Tea, cigarettes and Bengal's ennui

Chandan Mitra | The Pioneer, 1st May 2011

Nothing has changed in West Bengal in three decades, but the suburban and rural Bengali seems as contented as ever. Maybe that's why Mamata Banerjee is poised to win.

I have campaigned in elections before but never as extensively as I am currently doing in West Bengal. People ask me what’s the point of spending so much time and energy in an election in which the BJP has little at stake. Arguably, we aren’t fighting to wrest Writers’ Building from the Left; that’s Ms Mamata Banerjee’s calling. But over the last six months or so, since the young and energetic Rahul Sinha was vested with the reins of the State party and Mr Nitin Gadkari appointed me Prabhari or central observer, it seems we have succeeded in making the BJP matter in the State. It is not widely known that the BJP’s predecessor, the Jana Sangh, was founded by Syama Prasad Mookerjee here in Bengal. On its own, however, the BJP won only a by-election to the Assembly some years ago. This time, the poll is sharply polarised with the stormy petrel (forgive the cliché!) of Bengal politics having mounted a feisty blitzkrieg to dislodge the CPI(M)-led Left Front from power after an incredible 34 years.

The BJP may be a bit player but it seems to have alarmed the two Behemoths to a significant extent. While the universal ‘Didi’, doesn’t let a single meeting pass without fervently appealing to people not to vote for the BJP, the CPI(M), despite chuckling at the thought of saffron forces cutting into her anti-Left vote, is doing everything to prevent it from reaching out to the electorate by placing obstacles in the way of holding public meetings. Particularly since the Cooch Behar to Kolkata Naba Jagaran Rathyatra the BJP undertook in the first fortnight of February, the party’s popularity graph seems to have surged remarkably despite the sharp polarisation.

Yatras and elections are powerful instruments for a political party to spread its organisational tentacles and the BJP seems to have effectively used these to disseminate its message. I was impressed by the sincerity of the rank-and-file, their conviction that something big is about to happen, and the responsiveness of the crowds that attend BJP rallies. Maybe most of them won’t vote for it in the end, but at least they are listening; so when the BJP returns next time it would be talking to people who are partially convinced.

Two weeks of intensive campaigning (I have another week to go) enabled me to observe many facets of my home State, which I abandoned with finality way back in 1987 when I joined The Times of India in Delhi after quitting The Statesman, Calcutta. I migrated originally in 1972 for my college education but my second, three-year stint in Calcutta in the mid-1980s left me so disgusted with the state of affairs (12 hours-a-day power cuts, telephones that were decoration pieces, traffic that was in total disarray and hope dying with every passing day) that I left determined never to return. Things are marginally better now on those counts but I still find the middle class Bengali frightfully unambitious, content to wallow in self-pity without doing anything about it. So I went about looking for reasons for this collective ennui.

Three days of flying around the State in a helicopter offered some clues. It’s difficult to find a State as verdant as Bengal; no wonder Dwijendra Lal Roy penned “Dhana-dhanye pushpey bhara…” successor to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's “Sujalam, suphalam malayaj shitalam, shashya-shyamalam mataram”. On a flight to Sandeshkhali in the Sunderbans, crisscrossed by mighty distributaries of Ganga, co-passenger Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda gazed at the vast expanse of water and commented: “Itna pani hai, eersha hoti hai (There’s so much water, I feel jealous)”.

Devastated by Cyclone Aila, on the islands in the Sunderbans the harried residents eke out a miserable existence since the fertile soil has turned saline and unproductive. Climate change is wreaking havoc here but the people haven’t woken up to it and merely blame official indifference for their misfortune. But it is the stoic acceptance of whatever fate has ordained that amazed me. The ill-fed, ill-clad men and women — skins glistening in the harsh sun, moisture forcing droplets of sweat to drape their bodies — haven’t forgotten how to smile.

As my Xylo traversed narrow by-lanes of interior villages of my home district of Hooghly I recognised the same contentment on people’s faces. Flocks of goats and mother hens chaperoning their brood crowded the road, slowing my car to walking speed. Old women emerged from their dishevelled thatched huts, annoyed at tranquillity being broken by a big vehicle, to shepherd their chickens, ducks and goats back into their pens. But almost every hut had a party flag uncertainly fluttering; in the backwaters of Hooghly it was mostly the CPI(M)’s hammer-sickle-star, but the towns were awash with Trinamool’s two flowers and the occasional BJP lotus.

Bengal lives, breathes and dreams politics. My travel coordinator Mr Swapan Pal, Hooghly district BJP general secretary, insisted I sip a cuppa of “atulaniya (matchless)” tea at Bannerjee Cabin, a street corner restaurant in my hometown. I had visited the town centre many times in my childhood, watched movies at Kairi and Rupali Talkies, but never noticed the inscription on the silver-gray clock tower, which I discovered had been erected to commemorate King Edward VII in 1911, the very year Lord Curzon announced the shifting of the Capital from Calcutta to Delhi.

Past 10 pm, Banerjee Cabin was bustling with argumentative muffosil Bengalis, animatedly debating the news of the day and its impact on voters, namely, Mr Anil Basu, CPI(M)’s former MP from neighbouring Arambagh, using expletives against Didi. Life goes on as usual in suburban Bengal; nobody has even heard of Anbumani Ramadoss and the ban on smoking in public places. The tea house is smoke-filled, although Charminar has been replaced by more refined brands. Instead of the usual order of “ek cup cha ar ekta false”, meaning one tea and an empty cup for it to be shared, tea shops now serve in Liliputian plastic containers; I was lucky to get a decent-sized kullad!

Tea and cigarettes are integral to Bengal’s culture and I found nothing had changed. Whenever I reached a meeting venue, somebody came around with an aluminium kettle and a sheaf of miniature plastic cups even on the dais. Ms Sushma Swaraj asked me if this was customary, for in north India it’s bad manners to sip anything except water on the rostrum. I said here it was perfectly fine and nobody would mind even if somebody smoked!

All said and done, Bengal is a happy place. Much as migrant Bengalis like me feel frustrated, disgruntled and dejected, I found rural and suburban Bengal contented. That may well be the reason why the CPI(M) could uninterruptedly reign for more than three decades. For all their ideological disputes and theoretical commitment to Revolution, the Bengali resists change. Maybe they have now realised they are getting left behind. But my guess is that Ms Banerjee promises status quo, which is why she’ll win. Mr Budhadeb Bhattacharjee wanted change, which is why he may lose even his membership of the State Assembly! This is not a value judgement though.

BJP major winner in Karnataka district elections

Bangalore: Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday emerged as a major winner in polls to the local governing councils but it suffered setbacks in the home turf of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and the powerful Reddy brothers.

Of the 30 zila (district) panchayats, the BJP bagged 12, Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) four each while in the remaining 10 it was a split verdict.

Of the 176 taluka (sub-district) panchayats, the BJP won 68, Congress 31 and JD-S 29 while no party emerged a clear winner in the remaining 48.

But for Yeddyurappa, whose continuance depends on the party's show in these polls, it was a major setback as in his home district of Shimoga, the BJP barely managed to win the zila panchayat, bagging 16 of the 31 seats and conceding 13 to the Congress and two to the JD-S.

The Reddy brothers, who are mining barons and ministers, were in for a shock as the BJP failed to get a majority in the 36-member Bellary zila panchayat. The party won just 18 seats, with the Congress taking 17 and the JD-S one. 

Of the brothers, the younger one G. Janardhana Reddy is the tourism minister and the elder G. Karunakara Reddy holds the revenue portfolio. The Reddys face charges of illegal iron ore mining and income tax evasion.

Yeddyurappa hailed his party's show, though it fell short of the sweep that he and state BJP president K.S. Eshwarappa were predicting. Both had been confidently saying that their party would capture power in at least 20 of the 30 zila panchayats and over 100 of the 176 taluka panchayats.

'I thank the voters for their optimum support to the BJP,' Yeddyurappa, who led the party battling charges of nepotism in prime land allotment to his kin in and around Bangalore, told reporters.

'Earlier, the BJP was considered an urban-based party. These results have shown that the BJP has a huge rural base,' he said.

At a separate press meet, Eshwarappa said he was confident that the BJP would be in power in 14 of the 30 zila panchayats, 12 on its own and two with the help of Independents.

The Congress, though putting up a poor show compared to the 2005 zila panchayat and taluka panchayat polls when it was a clear winner, hailed its performance in Bellary and Shimoga.

State unit president G. Parameshwara and central labour minister Mallikharjun Kharge said the BJP's show in the two districts considered its stronghold showed 'people's anger over corruption in the government'.

Over 65 percent of the around 21 million voters, nearly half of them women, cast their ballots in the elections to the 30 zila and 176 taluka panchayats Dec 26, Dec 31 and Jan 1.

The BJP, Congress and JD-S were locked in a three-way fight in a majority of the 1,013 zila and 3,659 taluka panchayat seats.

These are the first elections to the local governing councils after the BJP came to power in the state in May 2008.

http://www.sify.com/news/bjp-major-winner-in-karnataka-district-elections-news-national-lbeqEmdighf.html