န Pranab Rules Out Support From Left To Form Govt

Burdwan, Arambagh, 24 April : Two days after saying in Kolkata that Congress was open to Left support to form the next government at the Centre, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee on Friday ruled out the possibility.
"Congress has always formed government at the Centre without the support of Left parties. In 2004, they themselves came forward to support the Congress-led UPA to stop the BJP and save their existence," Mukherjee said in a poll rally at Parul village near Bhatar in Burdwan district. He said the Left parties were not a political force in the national arena and do not exist outside the three states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.
Mukherjee said at another election rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district that he saw no chance of the Third Front coming to power at the Centre as indicated by the voting trends. In two of the three CPM-ruled states - Kerala and Tripura - the voting trends indicated that the Third Front was not able to take off, Mukherjee told election meetings in Hooghly and Burdwan districts.

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Left may ally with Congress after polls : Buddhadeb

PTI, New Delhi, 24 April : West Bengal chief minister and senior CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has not ruled out the possibility of the Left parties working with Congress again if the situation warrants after the Lok Sabha polls.
"We are not committing anything.... After elections, when the situation will arise, we will discuss on the concrete situation at that time," he said when asked whether Left parties could again "ally" with the Congress to keep BJP out if the situation demands. He said the Left parties at present are "busy with the task to defeat both the Congress and the BJP." Asked whether Left parties, like in 2004, would again remain out of government if they get a chance to be part of it, Bhattacharya said "History does not repeat itself. What happened in 2004, I don't think its going to get repeated again." He referred to 1996 when the Left parties rejected the idea of Jyoti Basu becoming the Prime Minister and said "we discussed and decided that if situation demands and if we can play a meaningful role in the Government, then we have to think over and we may join this Government."
On Congress, the CPM leader said the Left parties had no problem with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an individual but were opposed to his policies.

။ Record 84 per cent votes polled in Tripura Election

< Voters await their turn to cast their ballot at a polling station in Ramchandraghat village (Left) and Gamchacobra village (Right) in Tripura today.
Agartala, 23 April : Voting to elect two Lok Sabha members from the northeastern state of Tripura ended peacefully Thursday evening with more than 80 percent people exercising their franchise. “Over 80 percent of the 20.8 lakh voters cast their ballot across the state,” said Dilip Acherjee, additional chief electoral officer.
The prominent candidates are six-time MP Bajuban Reang of CPI(M) from Tripura east while his party colleague Khagen Das contested from Tripura west. Altogether, 19 candidates, including one woman, were in the contest for the two seats, polling for which was held amidst tight security. The total number of voters in the state is 20,82,205, the sources said. DIG (Police control), Nepal Das said not a single untoward incident was reported from any part of the state. “In the wake of possible militants’ violence, 30,000 security personnel were deployed while two air surveillance teams led by senior police officials also keept vigil by two military helicopters,” Das said.

State CPI (M) leader and Tripura Rural Development & Panchayet Minister Jitendra Chowdhury expressed happiness over the peaceful and huge turn out. “We are happy with the (huge turnout) and the polling so far is peaceful,” he told Bengal Newz.

Six central observers, 266 magistrates and 500 micro-observes were appointed to oversee the poll process and ensure free and fair elections, said Sanjeev Ranjan, the chief electoral officer of the state. About 20,000 poll officials escorted by security forces were manning 3,008 polling stations across the state, the poll official said.

Besides sealing the India-Bangladesh international border, night curfew was imposed along the 856-km long territory with Bangladesh, Ranjan said. ။ Photo : Reuters & Parthajit Dutta

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Gates on India-Bangladesh border fence open for Tripura voters

Agartala, 23 April : The gates on the barbed wire fence along the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura would remain open till the balloting ends to enable all voters to exercise their franchise, an official said here Thursday.

"We have asked the Border Security Force (BSF) to open the gates on the border fence for the whole day to facilitate the voters to exercise their franchise," said Dilip Acherjee, additional chief electoral officer. The fence is 150 yards from the actual border, and many Indians have their homes and farms in between. The gates are usually opened 2-3 times day to enable them to move back and forth.

An estimated 45,000 people from 10,000 families were displaced after their homes and farms fell outside the fence. Though a large number of people shifted their houses inside the fencing, several thousand families still live outside.

။ Andaman and Nicobar record 49.4% voter turnout

Port Blair, 16 April : The lone Lok Sabha seat in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands recorded a voter turnout of 49.4% amidst heavy rains on Thursday. Braving rains since the morning there was good turnout in the Andamans and Nancowrie Islands, election office sources said.
Today's election sealed the fate of 11 candidates in EVMS. Polling was sparse in the Tsunami-affected area of South Andaman, like Sippighat, Chouldari, Manpur, Farrergunj, where roughly a thousand tsunami-affected people are lodged.
In stark contrast large queues were seen outside booths in Port Blair city of the Nicobar Islands.
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18 killed during first phase of polling for Indian LS
PTI, New Delhi, 16 April : An estimated 60% of the 14.30 crore voters exercised their franchise in the first phase of Indian Lok Sabha poll in 124 constituencies largescale violence by Naxals in four states killed 18 people, including five poll officials and 10 security personnel.

Simultaneous elections to assemblies in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa also drew about 60 voters' response with the polling today covering more than half of the constituencies in the two states. Heavily-armed Naxals went into action shortly after voting began this morning, blasting landmine targeting a bus ferrying Border Security Force personnel in Jharkhand's Latehar district in Jharkhand leaving seven personnel and two civilians dead.
Maoists blew up a vehicle carrying poll officials in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district, killing five of them and traded gunfire with security forces killing two CRPF jawans. Polling booths were set on fire and there was exchange of fire between naxals and security forces in Dantewada and Narainpur areas of the state that left two CRPF jawan dead and five others injured.
In Bihar's Gaya district, the Maoists shot dead two security personnel. "Considering the complexity and the challenges, the Election Commission is totally satisfied with today's polling, deputy election commissioner R Balakrishnan told reporters here while briefing mediapersons about the voter turnout.
Today's election will decide the fate of 1,715 candidates including RJD chief Lalu Prasad, BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha, TRS president K Chandrasekar Rao and union ministers Praful Patel, Renuka Chowdhury, Meira Kumar and S Jaipal Reddy.
Voting began on a sedate note in the 124 constituencies spread across 17 states and union territories and picked up during the day.

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Polling begins in Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Port Blair, 16 April : Polling for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands began this morning. There are 11 candidates, including a single woman in the fray. Six of the contestants are first timers. There would be 347 polling stations.
The largest polling station is at Pathrapur in the South Andaman with 1611 voters. The smallest polling station is on East Island where there are only 7 voters, all forest department employees. A high security alert has been sounded for the polls.

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