Wednesday, November 11, 2009

[ZESTCaste] Congress can emerge as an alternative in U.P.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article46983.ece
National

LUCKNOW, November 11, 2009
Congress can emerge as an alternative in U.P.
Atiq Khan Share

The Hindu Supporters greet Congress leader Raj Babbar on his win in
Firozabad on Tuesday. The Congress camp is upbeat after victories in
Firozabad and Lucknow West by-polls.

The outcome of the November 7 by-elections in Uttar Pradesh has handed
the Congress a chance to emerge as an alternative to the Bahujan Samaj
Party (BSP) at the expense of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the
Bharatiya Janata Party, which have been routed.

Given that the party has won the Firozabad Lok Sabha and Lucknow West
Assembly seats, and notched up an increase in its vote share in eight
other Assembly seats, the mood in the Congress camp is upbeat.

However, much will depend on how the party is going to sustain the new
vigour to achieve Rahul Gandhi's "Mission 2012" in the State.

Though the Congress's vote share has dipped in four constituencies,
compared with the 2007 Assembly elections, it has gone up in seven
other seats. In Firozabad, the party polled a mere 6,341 votes in the
Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year; this time round, the tally
has shot up to 3,12,728 votes, with its candidate Raj Babbar winning
the seat.

But again, six Congress candidates have lost their deposits in the
Assembly by-elections from Etawah, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Padrauna, Kol
Asla and Rari.

In Powayan, the Congress polled 31,322 votes in the 2007 Assembly
elections, but in the by-elections, its candidate has garnered 44,322
votes. In Lucknow West, the party came third with 11,011 votes in
2007; but this time, it has won the seat with 32,166 votes. The party
polled 8,794 votes in Isauli in 2007, but has come second this time,
polling 32,686 votes. In Bhartana, its tally has shot up from 3,270 in
2007 to 31,166 in 2009; in Lalitpur from 4,741 to 29,479; and in
Hainser Bazaar from 3,462 to 39,018. At Rari, the increase is
negligible though: from 4,755 to 4,880.

The party's vote share has declined in Jhansi, Padrauna, Etawah and
Kol Asla. Jhansi and Padrauna were represented by Union Ministers
Pradeep Jain and R.P.N. Singh before they were elected to the Lok
Sabha in 2009.

Now the Congress is focussing on strengthening the organisation and
increasing the membership. The organisational elections will start in
January next. This apart, the party is determined to expose the
shortcomings of the Mayawati government.

"Armed with the Rahul Gandhi factor, the Congress will expose the
mismanagement of the Mayawati government," says UPCC spokesperson
Subodh Srivastava. The Congressmen also view the BSP's sweep in the
by-elections with scepticism, as Chief Minister Mayawati has been
accused of having misused official machinery.


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[ZESTCaste] Asian caste discrimination rife in UK, says report

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/11/caste-discrimination-uk-report


Asian caste discrimination rife in UK, says report

Tens of thousands affected 'at workplace, school and doctor's surgery'
Buzz up!

Sam Jones
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 November 2009 14.31 GMT

Activists in India at a rally demanding reforms for lower status
people. According to today's report, caste discrimination is rife in
Britain too. Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP

Caste discrimination is rife in the UK, with more than half of those
from traditionally lower-status Asian backgrounds finding themselves
victims of prejudice and abuse, according to a report published today.

The study, co-ordinated by the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance
(Acda), suggests that the caste system is still widespread and affects
tens of thousands of people in the workplace, the classroom and even
the doctor's surgery.

Fifty-eight percent of the 300 people surveyed said they had been
discriminated against because of their caste, while 79% said they did
not think the police would understand if they tried to report a
caste-related "hate crime".

Almost half of the respondents (45%) said they had either been treated
negatively by co-workers or had comments made about their caste. Nine
per cent felt they had been passed over for promotion, and 10% said
they had been paid less because of their caste. A further 5% said they
had experienced threatening behaviour because of their caste.

One woman said she had been demoted from her job at a radio station
after her manager discovered her caste background, while one bus
company decided to reorganise shifts so that a "higher caste"
inspector would not have to work alongside a "lower caste" bus driver.

The classroom also appears to be subject to caste divides: 7% of those
surveyed said they had been the victims of threatening behaviour while
aged under 12 at school, with another 16% suffering verbal caste
abuse. According to the study, 10% of those responsible for caste
discrimination against under-12s were teachers, and 42% fellow pupils.

One of the most commonly reported forms of discrimination is
caste-related name-calling. Almost three quarters (71%) of those
questioned in the survey identified themselves as members of the Dalit
community. Dalits, who were formerly known as Untouchables because of
their low caste status, are sometimes referred to abusively as chuhra
and chamar.

"[Such] names [are] as derogatory as calling a black person a nigger,
anyone from the subcontinent of Indo-Pakistani diaspora Paki, or
someone of Jewish extraction a kike," says the report. "These names
are associated with hereditary work such as scavenging and working
with leather – occupations regarded as beneath 'caste Hindus'. These
names are deliberately used to offend and provoke. They are hurtful
and exceedingly offensive."

A number of respondents also reported being asked – directly or
indirectly – about their caste background by their family doctor,
nurse or a community nurse. One elderly woman felt her care worker had
discriminated against her on caste grounds, while a physiotherapist
was also alleged to have refused to treat someone of low caste.

The report says that the significant number of doctors from the Indian
subcontinent now indicated "a potential for caste discrimination
occurring in the healthcare sector".

The Acda hopes its findings will persuade the government to amend the
equality bill to make caste discrimination illegal.

Although the issue was raised over the summer when the bill was at the
committee stage, a caste discrimination amendment was not added as
there was not enough evidence on the matter.

The report – which was produced in collaboration with focus groups and
academics from the University of Hertfordshire, the University of
Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University – aims to provide a
snapshot of caste discrimination in 21st century Britain.

The study concludes: "There is clear evidence from the survey and the
focus groups that the caste system has been imported into the UK with
the Asian diaspora and that the associated caste discrimination
affects citizens in ways beyond personal choices and social
interaction. There is a danger that if the UK government does not
effectively accept and deal with the issue of caste discrimination the
problem will grow unchecked."

Allowing such a situation to develop, it adds, would undermine the
"values of fairness and equality of treatment" that the government
promotes.

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood
Green, said: "Caste discrimination, like other forms of
discrimination, needs to be outlawed. This is the evidence that will
prove the case for its inclusion in the equality bill."


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[ZESTCaste] Poll verdict against those who opposed my becoming PM: Mayawati

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/poll-verdict-against-those-who-opposed-my-becoming-pm-mayawati_100273203.html

Poll verdict against those who opposed my becoming PM: Mayawati

November 11th, 2009 - 4:18 pm ICT by IANS -
Lucknow, Nov 11 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has
termed her party's sweep of by-polls in the state as a reflection of
people's anger against those who "got together and prevented me from
becoming the prime minister".
In a statement issued here Wednesday, a day after the poll results
came out, Mayawati said: "The entire opposition had got together at
the last general elections in May to prevent a Dalit's daughter from
becoming prime minister."

Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, which finished a poor third in the
last Lok Sabha election in May, bagged as many as nine seats out of
the 11 Utar Pradesh assembly seats for which polls were held Nov 7.

The state's chief opposition Samajwadi Party drew a humiliating blank.

"The outcome of the by-election in the state has clearly shown how
people have rejected the Samajwadi Party, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)
as well as the Congress."

According to her: "It was my policy of 'sarvjan hitaye-sarvjan
sukhaye' (the good of all) in which people have once again reposed
their faith."

Training her guns at her bete noire Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam
Singh Yadav, she said: "On the other hand, people have given a blow to
Mulayam's designs for establishing a dynastic rule in the state."

Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Dimple lost to Congress'
actor-turned politician Raj Babbar in the Firozabad parliamentary
constituency.

Terming Dimple's defeat as "total rejection of Mulayam's dynastic
designs", Mayawati said: "What was worse was that his party could not
even retain Bhartana and Etawah assembly seats that were widely
proclaimed as his political bastions".

She also attributed the Congress' victory in Firozabad and Lucknow
(West) to the "systematic transfer of votes to the Congress by BJP,
whose real intention was to see BSP lose".


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[ZESTCaste] "Developing Volunteer Management Systems Workshop" - Pls respond asap..only 4 days left!!!!

 

Dear all,

Glad to inform you all that iVolunteer Institute of Volunteer Management (IIVM), conducts the Volunteer Management Workshop on "Developing Volunteer Management Systems"  for the first time in Chennai on 16th and 17th November 2009, by iVolunteer's best Volunteer Management Facilitators and Trainers.

Request you to confirm your presence asap as we have only 4 days left for the workshop. 

To make it more precise and understandable, by the end of the two day workshop participants will have
  • a good understanding of the concepts of volunteering and volunteer management
  • identified some of the tools, methods and skills needed to set up a volunteer management system (VMS)
  • drafted basic policies and procedures for the operation of their own VMS
  • explored key aspects of volunteering, such as effective recruitment methods
  • considered the importance of maintaining volunteers' motivation and goodwill by providing appropriate support, recognition and resources
  • understood the value of feedback from volunteers in retaining voluntary helpers
The usefulness of the workshop can be better understood from the below feedbacks.We have already conducted around 30 workshops on volunteer management across the country. Please enjoy reading a few feed backs of various organisations who were benefited by volunteer management workshops, 2009 as listed below:

"I would love to volunteer at your workshops to speak/faciliate. Thanks Komal and Jamal". –Manoj Mathew,CCS

"It was great fun and learning, leant a lot in bus stop activity which I wanna apply.All activities were enjoyable".
-Meenakshi , Aman Biradari

"The workshop triggered the thoughts and was fun as well.the workshop will probably make the implementation of the volunteer program easy". – Jigyasa Bhagat, Navjyoti

"Most of the group sessions and sessions which required thinking and analyses were most enjoyable" – Snigdha Jain, Make a wish foundation

"I enjoyed all the activities but the one that was most enjoyable and helped me to start thinking how to form a policy was 5Ws and 1 H –CafĂ© sharing" - Mini Bhargava, Etasha society

"Two days workshop on Volunteer management was very useful. It was good opportunity given by iVolunteer. We shared, discussed, learnt & also enjoyed two days with all the participants from different organisations & trainers as well. Hope you will organise many more such useful workshops in the coming days. Thank you for providing us such a good opportunity." - Ms. Pavithra Puttur, Programme Officer, Prerana Trust

"I must appreciate the great workshop conducted by you all. It was very interactive ,I personally learnt a lot of things after attending the same. Keep it up! Looking forward to a long association with iVolunteer group…." - Ambika Bhujel, Communication Assistant, Mobility India

"It was great pleasure to meet you and your team. It was a wonderful learning experience for us. All the best for your future activities." - Mr. Prashant Gautam Nanaware, Outreach Manager, Jaagte Raho, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy

We look forward to your participation and meeting your representative at the workshop. Many community organisations fail to make the best use of volunteers because they have little or no process for supporting and managing voluntary helpersThis will be a very good opportunity for you to network, share ideas and learn on how to best utilise and manage a volunteer and have volunteer polocies in place for your organisation. For your organisational development and benefit, don't miss it.

Kindly spread a word to your contacts. Will be very useful to all NGO's!!! So don't miss it…

P.S: Plz ignore if already registered.



 

iVolunteer Institute of Volunteer Management (IIVM) is back with it's Volunteer Management Workshop for 2009 at Chennai which would be conducted by iVolunteer's best Volunteer Management Facilitators and Trainers. Since volunteers are a never ending requirement to an NGO, Volunteer Management is an area to be focused, understood and utilized by the organizations.

iVolunteer (www.ivolunteer.in) a non-profit working in India to promote volunteering, set up iVolunteer Institute of Volunteer Management (IIVM) to enhance volunteer management and training capacities of the non-profit organizations. The Institute has organized 27 volunteer management workshops across India and has trained over 500 professionals from social development sector in India and abroad.

The two day workshop is being conducted to assist & provide value addition to NGOs to gain a better understanding of the methods and skills involved in setting up systems that would help them make effective use of volunteers in their respective organisations. Please do make the best use of this wonderful opportunity of learning how your organization can develop a successful volunteer management system.

Date: 16th and 17th November, 2009

Venue: DMI Hall, St. Thomas International Centre, Hill Top, St.Thomas mount, Chennai - 600016

To know more about the workshop, please refer to the attached brochure and confirm your participation by sending us the participation form asap. Please send in your confirmations through mail and the Participation forms to iVolunteer Office to the below address:

iVolunteer

Veekey Manor

Flat No 11, 2nd Floor,
No.8, Gopalakrishna Road,
T Nagar
Chennai - 600017
Mobile - +91 9940482042

Please find attached the invite and the schedule details.

We look forward to your participation and meeting your representative at the workshop.

P.S: Kindly spread a word to your contacts. 


Best regards
Dheepam S

Relationship Manager - iVolunteer Centres, Chennai
iVolunteer -"Your skills can change lives".
www.iVolunteer.in

Veekay Manor
Flat No 11, 2nd Floor,
No.8, Gopalakrishna Road,
T Nagar
Chennai - 600017
Mobile - +91 9940482042

"The influence of a beautiful, helpful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town" - Collier Graham



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[ZESTCaste] Guj HC rejects bail pleas of Patan gangrape convicts

 

http://www.ptinews.com/news/371413_Guj-HC-rejects-bail-pleas-of-Patan-gangrape-convicts

Guj HC rejects bail pleas of Patan gangrape convicts

STAFF WRITER 23:49 HRS IST
Ahmedabad, Nov 10 (PTI) Gujarat High Court today rejected the bail
pleas of six teachers convicted of repeatedly gang-raping a
19-year-old Dalit student in Patan district's Primary Teachers'
Training College.

A division bench of Justices A L Dave and J C Upadhyay rejected the
bail pleas, saying the accused have been convicted of a gruesome
crime.

They further observed that the lower court had convicted the six
accused -- Manish Parmar, Mahendra Prajapati, Ashwin Parmar, Kiran
Patel, Suresh Patel and Atul Patel -- based on medical evidence and
testimony of the victim.

Granting bail in such a matter where a Dalit girl was gangraped would
send a wrong signal to the society, the court observed. Moreover,
there were no convincing arguments made on behalf of the accused, it
added.

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[ZESTCaste] Murdered Dalit's mother appeals to government

 

http://www.samaylive.com/news/murdered-dalits-mother-appeals-to-punjab-government/667046.html

Murdered Dalit's mother appeals to government

(Source: IANS)
Published: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 at 15:19 IST

Chandigarh: A Dalit woman on Wednesday sought the intervention of the
Punjab government in the suspected killing of her son by some
influential people in their village last week and urged police be
directed to arrest the main accused.

Jeevan Kumar, a resident of Chukar Chak village in the state's Moga
district, 210 km from here, was shot dead following an altercation
with a man who used to play music at a high volume.

"Gopi, who belongs to a very rich family of our village, used to play
vulgar songs at very high volume in his tractor when he crossed our
street every evening. My son objected to it and he paid with his
life," Kuldeep Kaur, mother of Jeevan, told reporters here Wednesday.

"Gopi called his cousin Dhanna Singh, who is a dreaded man in our
village, and they came to our house in search of Jeevan, who was not
at home at that time. Then they again came in the evening and started
firing at Jeevan who was in the market."

Jeevan died on the spot whereas three onlookers sustained injuries.

Police arrested three people, but key accused Dhanna Singh is still at large.

Kaur said, "Police are afraid of Dhanna Singh and are pressurising us
to close the case. There is nobody to help the Dalit families of
Punjab. Other Dalit families are also living under the terror of these
rich boys. This is our desperate appeal to Punjab government to come
forward for our rescue."

The family of the deceased, who was in his early twenties, also
demanded a compensation of Rs.1 million from the government and
appealed to it to direct the police to arrest the main accused Dhanna
Singh.

They have also demanded Rs.100,000 aid for the families of the injured.

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[ZESTCaste] Tribal, Dalit women bear brunt of climate change

 

http://www.samaylive.com/news/tribal-dalit-women-bear-brunt-of-climate-change/667042.html

Tribal, Dalit women bear brunt of climate change

(Source: IANS)
Published: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 at 14:51 IST

F Prev Next LNew Delhi: Marginalised groups, especially women, who are
heavily dependent on natural resources for their livelihood are
bearing the brunt of climate change that hardly affects those staying
in cities, it was evident at a public hearing organised here on
Wednesday.

Rural households, that are most affected by climate change, are also
learning to slowly adapt to the changes in their lifestyle and
agricultural practices, women and NGOs members said.

Civil society groups Oxfam India and Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (Dont break
your promise movement) have been organising public hearings across the
country - the last leg of which began in Delhi Wednesday - where
people from marginalised communities and rural areas come together to
speak about changes their lives have been seeing in recent times.

The first of the three-day hearing at the Constitution Club was
dedicated to a women's tribunal in which more than 200 rural women
from across the country came together to speak about the drastic
changes in their lives because of delayed monsoons, drought and other
effects of climate change.

Kamlawati Devi, 52, for instance said that a number of people from her
village near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh have left the main livelihood
of agriculture because of poor harvest.

"The livelihood of around 80-85 percent people depend on agriculture
in my village. But because the seasons - the summer, monsoons and
winters - have lost their balance and their timings, the cultivation
has been badly affected. Thus most people have migrated from the
village in search of different jobs," Devi said.

Dalki Rawat of the Narmada valley similarly said: "The water table has
drastically come down and this has seriously impacted the yield of our
crops and forest produce".

While changes in the climatic pattern have affected the society in
large, women are the worst sufferers, Sandhya Venkateswaran of the
Wada Na Todo Abhiyan said.

"If a pond disappears, its the women who have to walk longer for
water. They are the ones looking for fire wood. Whatever be the
calamity it's the women who bear the brunt," Venkateswaran said.

Talking about the elevated impact of climate change on marginalised
communities, Venkateswaran said: "Climate change does not impact the
typical urban woman's livelihood as badly as those rural and
marginalised women whose lives are dependent on the forests,
agriculture and natural resources".

"Take an Adivasi woman for instance. Her life depends on the forests
and climate change affecting the flora will impact her household
economy immediately," she added.

However, in the face of all these challenges, people are evolving new
techniques to adapt to the changes.

Devi said that in the face of drought, they have changed their
agricultural practices.

"We now sow corn, groundnut, arhar and other vegetables together so
that even if one or two crops get destroyed for heavy or no rainfall,
atleast the others survive. This is called mixed cultivation," she
said.

Venkateswaran said the voices of the people and their recommendations
will be put together and submitted to the Environment Minister Jairam
Ramesh at the end of the three-day hearing.

"We want the government to put the people's voices into focus when
they discuss climate change at Copenhagen. As of now, even the
National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) doesn't focus on the
people's voices," she said.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati makes comeback, Mulayam has his back to wall

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Mayawati-makes-comeback-Mulayam-has-his-back-to-wall/articleshow/5217676.cms

Mayawati makes comeback, Mulayam has his back to wall
11 Nov 2009, 0508 hrs IST, Devesh Kumar, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: By-elections to 11 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh have
re-established Ms Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party as the dominant
player in the
state. BSP bagged 9 out of 11 seats, while Congress slugging it out
against the Samajwadi Party, in its bid to emerge the main challenger
to BSP, wrested the Ferozabad Lok Sabha seat from SP and Lucknow West
assembly seat from BJP. A independents bagged one seat. The Samajwadi
Party and BJP drew a blank, while Congress lost its Padrauna and
Jhansi seats.

If this trend persists in the assembly polls in early 2012, BJP, which
is at a distant fourth at present, will struggle to retain its tally
of 49 seats. The Ferozabad Lok Sabha constituency, which fell vacant
after Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akhilesh
vacated the seat and retained Kannauj, saw Mr Akilesh Yadav's wife
Dimple, losing the seat to Congress' Raj Babbar.

In what could be described as voters rejecting expansion of the
dynastic politics of the Samajwadi Party chief, veteran film star Raj
Babbar trounced Ms Dimple Yadav by over 85,000 votes, delivering a
severe blow to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's plans to get his
daughter-in-law into the Lok Sabha.

The Yadav clan is already well represented in Parliament. Apart from
the father-son duo of Mulayam-Akhilesh the Lok Sabha has Mr Yadav's
nephew Dharmendra too. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's younger brother Ram
Gopal is a member of the Rajya Sabha, while another brother, Mr
Shivpal Yadav, is a member of the state assembly. The Samajwadi
Party's attempts to retain its eminence in the state was dealt a blow
by voters at Bharthana and Etawah, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's family
backyard. Bharthana is dominated by Yadavs, and the party supremo
hails from neighbouring Etawah. BSP wrested both assembly seats from
the Samajwadi Party.

BSP, by all accounts, has staged a remarkable comeback, having
pocketed 9 of the 11 assembly seats. The Samajwadi Party fared
miserably as it held five of the assembly seats that went to the
polls. BJP, which held Kolasla and Lucknow West faced a meltdown,
notwithstanding the fact that party president Rajnath Singh hails from
the state.

Congress ceded Padrauna, won in 2007 by Union minister R P N Singh,
and Jhansi, vacated by Union minister Pradip Jain, to BSP but had the
satisfaction of snatching the Lucknow West assembly seat from BJP.


BSP seems to have re-built the social coalition that had helped it
leapfrog the half-way mark in the state assembly in the 2007 polls. It
won Padrauna, Jhansi, Bharthana, Etawah, Hainsar Bazar, Isauli,
Lalitpur, Rari and Powayan and finished runners-up in Kolasla.

The results indicate Dalits continue to cling to BSP, notwithstanding
Mr Rahul Gandhi's concerted attempt to poach upon Ms Mayawati's core
constituency. The UP chief minister was simultaneously wooing sections
of other upper castes, particularly Brahmins and non-Yadav OBCs. After
the jolt delivered by the electorate in the Lok Sabha polls, Ms
Mayawati realised that her core voters, the Dalits, could not be
overlooked in favour of other castes. She has since gone back to the
basics by trying to re-cultivate loyal voters.

For the Samajwadi Party, the by-election verdict should set alarm
bells ringing. It not only failed to open its account, but had the
mortification of ceding control of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's home turfs
Bharthana and Etawah to BSP. Its woes were compounded by the loss of
the Ferozabad Lok Sabha seat. Bharthana, a Yadav-dominated
constituency located close to Etawah, was won by the party supremo
himself in 2007, and had fallen vacant after his elevation to the Lok
Sabha. BSP's Shiv Prasad Yadav inflicted a humiliating defeat to the
Samajwadi Party candidate, Mr Pradeep Yadav, winning the constituency
by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

The Samajwadi Party could only draw consolation from the fact that its
candidates finished runners-up in Padrauna, Bharthana, Etawah,
Lalitpur and Rari. Muslims, it would appear, have deserted the party
and gravitated to Congress and BSP.


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[ZESTCaste] By-polls result a reaffirmation of people’s faith: Mayawati

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article46489.ece


States » Other States

LUCKNOW, November 10, 2009
By-polls result a reaffirmation of people's faith: Mayawati

Atiq Khan Share
The president of Bahujan Samaj Party and the Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister, Mayawati dubbed her party's sweep in the Assembly
by-elections as a reiteration of the people's faith in the policy of
"sarvjan hitaya, sarvjan sukhaya."

She added that the by-poll results had exposed the Opposition parties,
who had unleashed a malicious propaganda against her Government.

Targeting the Samajwadi Party, the BSP president said in a press
release that the negative politics had led it to lose its traditional
Bhartana and Etawah seats. Ms. Mayawati slammed her bete noire and SP
president, Mulayam Singh and said the Congress victory in Firozabad
was a manifestation of the people's anger against dynastic politics
pursued by him.

Ms. Mayawati noted that in the 2007 UP Assembly elections, the BSP had
won only the Lalitpur seat, but in the recent by-elections the party
added eight new seats to its tally in the State Assembly. The BSP
wrested Bhartana, Powayan, Isauli, Hainser Bazar and Etawah from
Samajwadi Party and Padrauna and Jhansi from the Congress. The BSP
also triumphed in Rari, which was won by the party's MP from Jaunpur,
Dhananjay Singh on a Janata Dal ( United ) ticket in the 2007 Assembly
elections.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister waxed eloquent that the BSP won in
Jhansi and Padrauna, which were represented in the Vidhan Sabha by two
Central Ministers, Pradeep Jain and RPN Singh. She claimed that the
BSP would have won from Lucknow West had the BJP not diverted its vote
to the Congress.

Stating that the by-polls had exposed the Opposition's conspiracy
against her, Ms. Mayawati said the BSP cadres had been told about the
designs of the Congress, SP and the BJP before the by-elections. She
said the verdict had cut short the Opposition design to upstage her.


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[ZESTCaste] Bypoll a shot in the arm for Mayawati

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/bypoll-a-shot-in-the-arm-for-mayawati_100272908.html

Bypoll a shot in the arm for Mayawati

November 10th, 2009 - 10:26 pm ICT by IANS -
Lucknow, Nov 10 (IANS) While jolting Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam
Singh Yadav, the results Tuesday of bypolls to one Lok Sabha and 11
state assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh have come as a shot in the arm
for Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and Chief Minister Mayawati.
The Congress may have received a boost by registering a landslide
victory on the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat, as also by winning the
Lucknow (West) assembly seat, besides emerging as the second biggest
party in three constituencies.

Yet, it also lost hold over two seats.

BSP, that had won three of the four by-elections held earlier in
August, would now take its tally to an all-time high of 227 seats in
the 403-member Uttar Pradesh assembly.

It was not just the ruling party's victory on as many as nine of the
11 assembly seats that had given Mayawati reason to revel. What was
more significant was that her biggest adversary Mulayam's SP was
reduced to nought.

On the other hand, the ruling party that had only four of these 11
seats in its kitty at the beginning of the bypoll, could boast of
taking its count way ahead.

Neither could the Samajwadi Party retain the three seats it held
earlier, nor could the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) keep its hold over
the lone seat (Lucknow-West), held by its veteran Lalji Tandon for
years.

While SP ostensibly lost its hold over three seats - Bhartana, Etawah
and Isauli - to BSP, it effectively lost five. Powayan and Hainsar
Bazar - won by SP in 2007 - had fallen vacant following resignations
by the SP incumbents, who switched sides to BSP.

What had clearly given a devastating blow to Mulayam were his party's
shocking reverses in his personal political bastion. Apart from the
fact that his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav lost very badly to the high
profile filmstar-turned-Congressman Raj Babbar, the SP nominee lost
the Bhartana seat also which Mulayam had himself won in 2007. The SP
chief vacated the seat after his election to the Lok Sabha earlier
this year.

For the Congress, it was a mixed bag. Even though Congress had found
some reason to rejoice, the fact remains that it had also lost two key
seats earlier held by its prominent leaders R.P.N. Singh and Pradeep
Jain, who were not very long ago named ministers in the Mamnohan Singh
government.

While R.P.N. Singh had vacated the Padrauna seat after his election to
the Lok Sabha, Pradeep Jain was earlier the party MLA from Jhansi.

What was perhaps even more disheartening for the Congress was that it
also lost quite badly in Powayan, that was entrusted under the charge
of yet another union minister Jitin Prasada, who hails from
Shahjahanpur in the vicinity.

BJP's case was even worse as it failed to figure anywhere, other than
Lucknow, at the number two position. The loss of Lucknow (West) was
colossal for the party in many ways. The seat had been the
pocket-borough of BJP veteran Lalji Tandon, who has now replaced
former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as the party MP from here.
And Amit Puri, the party nominee had taken a plunge into the fray with
Vajpayee's blessings.

While a top state BJP leader attributed the party's poor performance
to "rampant infighting", SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary refused to
accept the bypoll results as the party's rout.

"We have suffered reverses essentially on account of gross misuse of
government machinery by the ruling party; yet, netaji Mulayam Singh
Yadav proposes to shortly hold an open house to find out other reasons
for such performance by the party," he said.

While Mayawati was not available for comment, one of her close aides
told IANS: "The poll results were a referendum on the performance of
the two-and-a-half-year-old BSP government, that had devoted its
energies only towards the development of the state."

He said: "It also shows how the people of the state have rejected all
other parties."


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[ZESTCaste] Return to Dalit agenda revives BSP's fortunes

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Return-to-Dalit-agenda-revives-BSPs-fortunes/articleshow/5217414.cms

Return to Dalit agenda revives BSP's fortunes
Ashish Tripathi, TNN 11 November 2009, 03:24am IST

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Mayawati might have failed in realising her
pan-India dream but the BSP juggernaut seems unstoppable in UP. After
lapping up
three out of four assembly seats in the byelections in August this
year, the Bahujan Samaj Party has now swept the latest round by
winning nine out of 11 seats. A jubilant Maya took the opportunity to
declare that the `victory' was people's befitting reply to those who
prevented `Dalit ki beti' from becoming the prime minister.

Jubilations started in the BSP office since morning as the trends
started pouring in. It was in sharp contrast to the gloom prevailing
after BSP could not score in the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly
elections last month. Later, Maya thanked the people and gave credit
to her `Sarvjan Hitay' policy for the victory. However, party insiders
said, and as it was reported by the TOI on September 12, the credit
for BSP's success goes to the change in strategy by Mayawati.

After a poor show in Lok Sabha polls in May this year, Maya not only
reverted to her Dalit agenda but also adopted her old style of
election campaigning. Instead of high profile canvassing by big
leaders flying in choppers all over the state, the BSP relied more on
extensive ground level mobilisation of voters by the cadre through the
booth level committees. Besides, Maya introduced reservation for
Dalits in allotment of government contracts and in private technical
colleges.

The moves have shown results, with BSP winning 12 out of 15 seats in
the two bypolls since August. BSP while retaining Lalitpur and Rari,
snatched seven assembly seats from the rival parties. Meanwhile,
sources said that all those leaders who worked hard in the bypolls are
likely to be awarded with ministerial posts. They will include BSP
state president Swami Prasad Maurya, who had to quit state cabinet
after losing two successive elections. But now, he has won from
Padrauna.

Barthana seat was vacated by SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav after being
elected to the Parliament. BSP's Shiv Prasad Yadav had lost to Mulayam
in Barthana in 2007 assembly polls but in bypolls he defeated SP. Maya
had fielded SP turncoats -- Mahendra Singh, Dasrath Prasad and Chandra
Bhadra Singh -- Etawah, Hainsar Bazaar and Issauli respectively. The
three had won from the same seats in 2007 as SP candidates but had
crossed over to the BSP during the Lok Sabha polls.

In Lalitpur, BSP's Suman Devi has won. She is widow of Nathu Ram who
was elected in 2007 from the same seat. BSP's Kailash Sahu won in
Jhansi with a razor thin margin of nine votes defeating independent
candidate Dam Dam Maharaj. Rajdev Singh, father of
mafia-turned-politician and BSP MP from Jaunpur, Dhananjay Singh, won
in Rari. Dhananjay has been MLA from Rari twice before he was elected
MP.

Regarding defeat in Lucknow West and Kolasala, Mayawati said that BSP
got good vote share at both the places but lost because opposition
parties joined hands to defeat her candidates. On Congress victory in
Firozabad Lok Sabha byelection, Maya said it was an outcome of
people's anger against Mulayam's parivar vaad.

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[ZESTCaste] Fwd: edp

 



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: bheema rao <ebheemarao@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 10, 2009 10:37 PM
Subject: edp
To: bctimeseditor@gmail.com, jannu evans <evansjannu@gmail.com>, jnr54rao@hotmail.com, Karthik Navayan <navayan@gmail.com>, neela veni <neelveni@gmail.com>

I invite you to attend the FREE AWARENESS CAMP - Entrepreneurs Development Programme on the occassion of Birth day celebration of Former Prime Minister of India late Smt INDIRA GANDHI  who has nationalized the BANKS & intiated 20points formula
On 19-11-2009 Thursday at 9-30am shortly
at RAVINDRA BHARATHI Hyderabad.
for SCs & STs and also others
to start New Idustry or Service sector with
 LOAN upto ONE CRORE
 ---- urs 
 E.BheemaRao 


--
B.Karthik Navayan,
Cell:09346677007,Email:navayan@gmail.com
http://sites.google.com/site/karthiknavayan/home
http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Profile.aspx?uid=10379805095932756525

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