Politics

Bangalore, June 22: An Independent legislator on Monday withdrew support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka but there was no threat to the B.S. Yeddyurappa ministry’s survival.

K. Varthur Prakash, a Congress rebel who won as Independent from Kolar in the May 2008 assembly polls, was one of the six unattached legislators who helped BJP to come to power for the first time in Karnataka and south last year.

Kolkata, June 22: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused West Bengal’s ruling Left Front of being in cahoots with the Maoists saying the Communists had used the rebels to win the polls in the western districts.

“The Left used Maoists to rig the elections and now they are saying Maoists helped the Trinamool. (Prakash) Karat and (Sitaram) Yechury need to clear their stand on Maoists,” Banerjee said, referring to the Communist Party of India-Marxist leaders.

Panaji, June 22: Saying that “ministers going to casinos is bad”, Goa Congress chief Subhash Shirodkar Monday said the involvement of Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) cabinet ministers in casino-related controversies was “in bad taste”.
“I can only say that the casino episode is in bad taste,” Shirodkar said at a press conference at the party headquarters here.

Bangalore, June 22: An Independent legislator Monday withdrew support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka but there was no threat to the B.S. Yeddyurappa ministry’s survival.

K. Varthur Prakash, a Congress rebel who won as Independent from Kolar in the May 2008 assembly polls, was one of the six unattached legislators who helped BJP to come to power for the first time in Karnataka and south last year.

Patna, June 22: RJD chief Lalu Prasad should explain whether his party was still with Congress or has severed its ties, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said today.

“The RJD with its four Lok Sabha MPs is extending support to the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre, but at the same time its leaders including Lalu Prasad are taking the Congress to task on various issues, including the one related to its electoral debacle in Bihar,” he told a press conference here.

New Delhi, June 22: Varun Gandhi found himself virtually friendless at the BJP National Executive meet here.

Gandhi, whose hate-speeches created controversy for him and for the BJP in the elections, was under attack at the two-day meet which concluded yesterday.

“At our office-bearers meeting two days back, two eminent colleagues of ours affirmed their faith in Hindutva but cautioned against any narrow, bigoted, anti-Muslim interpretation being put on it,” senior BJP leader L K Advani said in his concluding remarks yesterday.

New Delhi, June 21: Grappling with the electoral debacle, the BJP on Sunday sent out a strong message that it was not giving up Hindutva nor severing its links with the RSS but party veteran L K Advani called for immediate halt to blamegame and bickering being aired in the media.

Mumbai, June 21: The word on the Varun Gandhi tapes is out and it says not doctored. The Forensic Science Laboratory’s report, which was submitted to the Pilibhit police on Saturday, confirms what many believed-it was indeed Varun Gandhi’s voice on the tapes containing the hate speeches he delivered in Desh Nagar on March 7 and Barkhera in Pilibhit on March 8.

Varun had alleged that the recordings were “doctored” and there was a “political conspiracy” to defame him. “These are not my words and not my voice,” Varun had said after the footage was aired on TV channels.

New Delhi, June 21: Amid dissent and blame game, a soul-searching meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began here Saturday with its president Rajnath Singh owning up the humiliating election defeat and reiterating the party’s commitment to Hindutva ideology.

After days of intra-party wranglings when senior leaders demanded that heads should roll and the poll debacle must be analysed, Rajnath Singh attempted to cool off tempers by accepting the onus for the results while also underlining collective responsibility.

New Delhi, June 21:Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Sunday expressed concern that the party was “plateauing” even in its strongholds, while stressing on the need to expand its base in several other big states and strengthening the organisation.

“It is a matter of concern that our party seems to be plateauing in some states, which are our strongholds, and have actually suffered big reversals in some others,” Advani said in his concluding remarks at the party’s two-day national executive here.

New Delhi, June 21:Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Sunday appealed to party leaders to ensure that Muslims don’t get alienated and become the cause of the party’s electoral defeat in future again.

Naqvi, speaking on the second day of the party’s two-day national executive meeting here, said: “We know that we don’t get the votes of Muslims, but we must ensure that Muslims don’t become the cause of our defeat.”

New Delhi, June 21: In another setback to the BJP as the party meets for its crucial introspection on Lok Sabha poll debacle, forensic experts have said the hate speech CD of the BJP leader and MP from Pilibhit, Varun Gandhi, is not doctored.

Sources said the Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad has submitted its report to the District Magistrate of Pilibhit.

Varun had alleged that the CDs were doctored, a line that was also the official BJP stand on the row. He had also refused to give his voice samples for examination.

Delhi, June 21: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad today warned the party that excessive dependence on its ally in Bihar, Janata Dal-United (JD-U), could affect its fortunes.

At the party’s two-day national execitue meeting that started here Saturday, Prasad voiced his concern during discussions over the party performance in various states.

New Delhi, June 21: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Maneka Gandhi has said some party seniors were targeting her son and Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi and blaming him for the party’s poll debacle.

According to reliable sources, Maneka was responding to party leaders Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi at the BJP’s two-day national executive meeting which began Saturday.

Hussain and Naqvi had said the party was practising the “Pilibhit brand of Hindutva”, which cost it dearly in the polls.

New Delhi, June 20: In a dramatic turnaround of events, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh on Saturday accepted responsibility for the party’s debacle in Lok Sabha polls.

Rajnath took the blame at the two-day BJP national executive meet, which began here today to discuss the causes of the defeat and ways to revive the party. This is the first major gathering of the party leader to discuss the electoral failure.

Lucknow, June 21: Making her first public appearance after the BSP’s unimpressive performance in the Lok Sabha election, UP Chief Minister Mayawati said she stood by her party’s programme of Sarva Samaj and will keep fighting the “casteist mindset” of the Opposition which prevented her from becoming the prime minister.

New Delhi, June 20: Varun Gandhi, whose alleged hate speeches triggered a row during the elections, should not be made a scapegoat for the BJP’s poll
debacle, his mother Maneka Gandhi said at the party’s national executive meet on Saturday.

Launching a strong defence of her son, Maneka alleged that those who lost the elections were wrongly blaming their defeat on Varun’s speeches. In an apparent reference to chief poll strategist and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Arun Jaitley, she alleged he was not accessible even on the phone and was mainly involved in planting stories in the media.

New Delhi, June 20 : Declaring that it would not give up its core issues, the Bharatiya Janata Party today ascribed the Bahujan Samaj Party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha election to the latter’s dilution of its dalit agenda.

The party also said the Left also owed its debacle to its deviation from its core ideology.

Kerala, June 20: Veteran Congress leader and former chief minister K. Karunakaran, who turned 91 Saturday, demonstrated despite his advanced age he was abreast of current political affairs.
Karunakaran, who is tipped to be appointed a governor, advised the state Congress leadership not to displease the Nair Service Society (NSS), the social organisation of the Nair community.

Talking to reporters here after offering prayers at the Guruvayoor Krishna temple, Karunakaran said it was unfortunate that the NSS is upset with the Congress.

Lucknow, June 20: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Friday accused the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other political parties of conspiring to prevent her from becoming the prime minister.

“It was amply evident that the Congress, BJP and SP (Samajwadi Party) ganged up to prevent my rise to the prime minister’s chair, simply because they could not digest the idea of a Dalit occupying the highest office,” Mayawati, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo, told a public rally here.

New Delhi, June 20: Virtually daring the BJP to snap links with the RSS, former party ideologue K N Govindacharya has said the RSS can “walk straight without the crutches of the BJP”.

Govindacharya, who parted ways with the BJP sometimes back, accused the party leaders, including its chief Rajnath Singh, of practising “pseudo-Hindutva”.

Besides, he dubbed Varun Gandhi’s election speeches as “pesudo-Hindutva of the reactionary, irresponsible kind” and “not Hindutva”.

New Delhi, June 20: The West Bengal government should ban the Left extremist outfit, Communist Party of India-Maoist, which has declared the state’s Lalgarh area a ‘liberated zone’ and wreaked havoc there, forcing security forces to launch a major offensive against them, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said.

‘No one can understand why the Communist Party of India-Maoist has not been banned (by West Bengal),’ the home minister told reporters here after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

New Delhi, June 20: Virtually daring the BJP to snap links with the RSS, former party ideologue K N Govindacharya has said the RSS can “walk straight without the crutches of the BJP”.

Govindacharya, who parted ways with the BJP sometimes back, accused the party leaders, including its chief Rajnath Singh, of practising “pseudo-Hindutva”.

Besides, he dubbed Varun Gandhi’s election speeches as “pesudo-Hindutva of the reactionary, irresponsible kind” and “not Hindutva”.

New Delhi, June 20: On the eve of its national executive meet, the BJP faced fresh challenge from within as Arun Shourie told party president Rajnath Singh that the party was controlled by conspirators and he faced opposition from other leaders over the issue.

In a letter to Singh, Shourie demanded a serious debate in the BJP national executive meet over the party’s electoral debacle. The letter said that conspirators are taking over the party and BJP has failed to show any accountability.

New Delhi, June 19: Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, a strong votary of Congress going it alone in the coming Maharashtra assembly elections, today appeared to have mellowed a bit as he did not rule out a post-poll alliance with NCP.

“There are two types of alliances — pre-poll and post-poll. We can opt for a post-poll alliance with the NCP after contesting elections separately,” the former Maharashtra Chief Minister told reporters here.