16 BSP nominees in Uttar Pradesh have criminal past
March 24th, 2009 - 5:37 pm ICT by IANS ( 1 comment )
Lucknow, March 24 (IANS) At least 16 of the 80 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Lok Sabha candidates in Uttar Pradesh have a criminal past, says the National Election Watch, a voluntary body opposed to criminalisation of politics.
According to its study, 13 of the BSP’s 16 tainted nominees were involved in heinous offences like murder, attempt to murder, extortion and kidnapping.
“Election Watch proposes to make country-wide appeals to voters to say ‘no’ to all such people irrespective of their party affiliation,” I.C. Dwivedi, the Election Watch’s Uttar Pradesh chapter chief, pointed out.
Anil Bairwal, the Association for Democratic Reforms representative and Election Watch coordinator in the state, released a list of people with criminal records who have been named as candidates by the BSP.
D.P. Yadav, fielded from Sambhal, tops the list along with Mukhtar Ansari (Varanasi). While Yadav’s name spells terror in parts of western Uttar Pradesh, with his sons facing charges in the murder of Nitish Katara, Ansari was once convicted by a court for indulging in alleged terrorist activities. Ansari is also a murder accused.
Among the BSP’s other tainted nominees are Akbar Ahmad ‘Dumpy’ (Azamgarh), S.P. Singh Baghel (Firozabad), Qadir Rana (Muzaffarnagar), Vinay Shakya (Mainpuri), Islam Sabir Ansari (Barielly), Swami Prasad Maurya (Kushinagar), Rizwan Zaheer (Shravasti), Ram Kumar (Hardoi), Girish Chandra (Kaushambhi), Rakesh Pandey (Ambedkar Nagar), Mohammad Tahir (Sultanpur), Afzal Ansari (Ghazipur), Kunwar Shivraj Singh (Aonla) and Aruna Shankar Shukla ‘Anna’ (Unnao).
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Tags: afzal, ambedkar, azamgarh, bahujan samaj party, bahujan samaj party bsp, chapter chief, d p yadav, firozabad, ghazipur, hardoi, kunwar, kushinagar, Lok Sabha, murder attempt, muzaffarnagar, party affiliation, ram kumar, shakya, sultanpur, voluntary body
March 26th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Maya draws them by droves
Jagatheesan Chandrasekharan
Deoria
The BSP leader makes up in star quality
On stage, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister is matter-of-fact and precise, her no-nonsense, militarist manner a barrier to all, including party functionaries and Ministers who wait on her as she furiously heli-hops from meeting to meeting. For journalists on the election beat, Ms. Mayawati is a vexing challenge. Forget cadging a lift on the helicopter, they cannot even get within hand-shaking distance of the overly security-conscious Bahujan Samaj Party supremo.
Ms. Mayawati’s mesmeric, star quality that brings lakhs to her election rallies. They come in droves, young mothers with babies tucked under their arms, old men and women barely able to walk, and tens of thousands hitching a ride on tractors, buses and trucks. The BSP does not pack its cadre into chartered buses; it does not tempt them with offers of free food and per diem. It expects them to find their own way to the rally venue. And they do so — uncomplainingly, wishing for nothing except to be able to see her.
This election season, the mood is even more buoyant. With all the buzz around her possible Prime Ministership, it is a colossal turnout at the eastern UP town of Deoria, Ms. Mayawati’s first stop on UP’s election route.
As a videographer with some experience in covering Ms. Mayawati’s election campaigns and rallies, I know I have to be really early to beat the crowds at the rally. Yet as always, they have already filled the venue to overflowing, and many, many lakhs are still pouring in.I remained stuck behind, as what seems like a human deluge takes over every inch of road space. They hurry towards the pandal, the men and women, kicking up giant clouds of dust.
The crowd composition is overwhelmingly rural: Women in nylon with bright vermillion in their hair-parting; men in dhoti-kurta and headgear. A good many of them carry the BSP’s trademark blue flag.
Behind me the road stretches in an endless line of tractors. I try to get there and join the human rush. The next half hour is a struggle as I wave my pass and plead to be allowed to go to the press enclosure. I fight my way through a sea of entwined limbs and by the time I get to the spot I’m breathless with exhaustion. I look behind to witness one of the largest turnouts I have seen at an election rally. I catch the eye of a policeman on duty. “Kitni bheed?” (how many people?”) I ask him. Lakhs, he says, grinning unabashedly. “Historic. This is the biggest ever turnout in Deoria,” he shouts at me.
Though the Chief Minister is yet to arrive, the excitement is palpable on stage. Amidst earsplitting slogans, a cabinet minister reads out a long list of people who have deserted other parties to join the BSP. Another Minister urges the crowds to shout after him: “UP hui hamari hai, ab dilli ki baari hai; Bharat ki majboori hai, behen Mayawati zaroori hai” (we have taken UP, we will take Delhi; the country needs Mayawati). It is a Maya surge across the country and she will become Prime Minister, declares speaker after speaker.
The Chief Minister’s arrival causes more commotion. The crowd rises like a wave, and cell phone cameras click away her pictures. A Hindi poet extols her virtues and sings: “Behna banegi PM, kehta hai zamana” (people say our sister will be PM). Ms. Mayawati’s speech bristles with references to Delhi and BSP rule at the Centre. But the tone is inspiring.
For her rapturous fans though what matters is that they have seen their behenji. “Ab Dilli ki bari hai” (it is Delhi’s turn), they shout, drowning out her speech.
BSP to contest all seats in Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad, March 23 (IANS) The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will contest all the assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, said party supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati here Monday.
Addressing a public meeting here, she said the party would contest the elections on its own and have no alliance with any party. She promised that justice would be done to all sections of the society in party ticket distribution.
Mayawati called upon the people to defeat both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She alleged that both the parties were responsible for the problems faced by people, especially farmers and the working class.
“Though the Congress was in power most of the time since the country’s independence, it failed to do justice to the weaker sections of the society,” she said.
Mayawati said poverty and unemployment were the main causes for the rise of Maoist violence in the country.
Simultaneous polls to the 294-member state assembly and 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state are scheduled to be held in two phases - April 16 and April 23.