BJP: Can’t allow UPA a walkover

Senior BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj on Thursday said that the BJP, being the main Opposition party, could not “allow a walkover” to the UPA since it did not consult the party before announcing its candidate.
NDA convenor and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav said his party was against any contest after former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had refused to enter the fray. Trying to downplay the rift within the NDA, Mr Yadav argued: “We are not supporting a Congress candidate. Under the present circumstances, we are supporting a UPA candidate for whom there is a consensus.”
He indicated that after the 2014 general elections, there could possibly be a political crisis. “In that kind a scenario, we need a competent person to handle the situation,” he said. While Mr Yadav said that this was not the “first time” that the allied parties differed on presidential elections, CPI leader A.B. Bardhan said the differences “will not have any impact on Left unity”.

YSR party outs CBI director’s phone list

YSR Congress MLAs protest in the Assembly premises on Thursday.

YSR Congress MLAs on Thursday demanded a probe by a Supreme Court judge into an alleged “conspiracy” behind the arrest of their leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Accusing CBI joint director V.V. Laxminarayana of leaking information and planting stories in one section of the media before affecting the Kadapa MP’s arrest, YSR Congress MLAs staged a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue on the Assembly premises. They released a list of calls made by Mr Laxminarayana to various reporters and also to one Vasireddy Chandrabala, said to be a former techie of Hyderabad.

YSR Congress leaders demanded why the CBI joint director called up media personnel in clear violation of the CBI manual. They also wanted to know who Ms Vasireddy Chandrabala was and why she had called him repeatedly. They alleged that the CBI joint director did not act fairly and had conspired with some parties with vested interests and had arrested Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy a few hours before attending court.


YSR party smells a rat in jail blackout:


There was a 12-hour blac-kout on Thursday at the Chanchalguda Central Prison where several high-profile undertrials including Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and former minister Mopidevi Venkatramana are lodged. As news of the blackout spread, supporters of the YSR Congress chief started a rumour that it was a conspiracy to eliminate Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy. The power cut was rep-orted in the early hours of Thursday at the prison. Jail officials said one of the phases in the new prison block had developed glitches but power was restored by pulling a line from the old prison block which is empty.

Power problem resolved, says jail in-charge:


In-charge superintendent of Chanchalguda prison, Venkateshwar Reddy said, “We immediately addressed the problem by disconnecting the third phase from the old prison block and connecting it to the new prison block which holds all the inmates. The electricity department rectified the problem by Thursday evening. “There was no issue about the security of the inmates, including the special prisoners, being compromised. The charges are baseless.” Mr Jagan’s wife Bharathi Reddy had filed a petition in the HC seeking security for her husband in jail but the authorities had submitted a report stating that security was given to special category prisoners as per norms.

Sangma resigns from NCP, likely to be Opposition candidate for Rashtrapati Bhavan

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA)’s presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee will have to face a contest now that former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Sangma has resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to enable him to make a bid to be the next incumbent of Rashtrapati Bhavan without “embarrassing” his party.

Mr. Sangma’s resignation, addressed to NCP president — and Union Agriculture Minister – Sharad Pawar has been accepted, freeing him from the pressure of his party not to file his nomination and support Mr. Mukherjee’s candidature instead.

In a press note, Mr. Sangma has reiterated the fact that the Tribal Forum of India has nominated him for election to the office of the President, a nomination that has been endorsed by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Biju Janata Dal. He also claims that he has “received promises of support from senior leaders of non-Congress parties, including those in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).”

With former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s first choice for First Citizen, announcing on Tuesday that he does not wish to take a second shot for the keys of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mr.Sangma’s chances of securing the support of the BJP have brightened. Of the BJP’s allies in the NDA, the Shiv Sena has already declared it will back Mr. Mukherjee; the Janata Dal-United, currently engaged in a war of words with the BJP and RSS, party sources say, is not very keen on Mr. Sangma; Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Chief Prakash Singh Badal has stated publicly that his party will go by what the NDA decides.

Mr. Sangma telephoned West Bengal chief minister — and Trinamool Congress chief — Mamata Banerjee on Saturday to seek her support, even though the two share a troubled history: in January 2004, Mr. Sangma sought to split the NCP after Mr. Pawar became close to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, but when he lost the battle for the NCP election symbol, he merged his faction with the Trinamool. But in February 2006, he was re-elected as a NCP candidate after he quit the Trinamool. But now, with Ms. Banerjee’s bid to prop up Mr. Kalam as a Presidential candidate having failed, and her opposition to Mr. Mukherjee’s candidature still unwavering, Mr. Sangma’s overtures to her might make some impact.

Mr. Sangma’s bid for the presidency has complicated matters for his daughter, Agatha Sangma, who now faces the prospect of being turfed out of the union council of ministers – she is the MoS for rural development -- if she campaigns for her father, a senior NCP leader indicated. “If she campaigns, we will have no option but to show her the door,” he said shortly after Mr. Sangma resigned from the party, a day ahead of a meeting of the NCP Parliamentary Board. The Congress, however, chose not to comment on the matter, with party spokesman Rashid Alvi saying, “Congress is not going to advise the NCP on what to do about Agatha.”

Simultaneously, Mr. Sangma’s son and Leader of the Opposition in Meghalaya Assembly Conrad K. Sangma told journalists on Wednesday that his father’s resignation from the NCP was a “personal” issue and would therefore “not have any impact on the membership of the NCP in Meghalaya.”

NDA would not have lost power if Modi had been sacked after Guj riots: Nitish

Targeting Narendra Modi for the second time in a week, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said the NDA government would not have lost power in the 2004 general elections had the Gujarat government been dismissed in the wake of the 2002 riots.

Kumar's remarks came close on the heels of his stating that NDA needs a "secular" candidate as PM for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, which were construed as an attack on Modi.

"The NDA government would not have lost power in 2004 general elections if Vajpayee had been allowed to sack the Modi government for not adhering to 'raj dharma'," he told a group of news channel reporters at the JD(U) office here.

Vajpayee, who had castigated Modi for his failure to abide by the 'raj dharma', was prevailed upon by the senior BJP leaders against sacking the Modi government and that was the main reason of NDA's defeat at the hustings in 2004, Kumar said.

Under attack from the RSS and the BJP for his latest salvo, Kumar dismissed the charge that he was a selfish leader.

Kumar's detractors accused him of changing his tune after enjoying the fruits of power aligning with the BJP.

"I am not a selfish leader," he said while trying to deflect RSS-BJP criticism against him over the Modi issue.

Jagan case: CBI grills BCCI chief N Srinivasan for 7 hrs

HYDERABAD:

The CBI on Monday sought to know from N Srinivasan, MD of The India Cements Ltd, the logic behind his decision to invest Rs 90 crore in rival cement company Bharati Cements when the latter was in the hands of Jaganmohan Reddy.

Srinivasan, who also happens to be the chairman of the BCCI and owner of IPL team Chennai Super Kings, was summoned by the probe agency as part of its ongoing investigation into the Jagan assets case and was questioned for more than seven hours at the CBI's makeshift office at Dilkusha Guest House on Raj Bhavan Road. The probe agency sought to know certain details about how India Cements managed to secure huge additional water allocations for its plants in Nalgonda and Rangareddy districts from the YSR regime. The CBI's charge is that the YSR regime allotted water from Kagna and Krishna rivers for these two plants which crossed the quota allotted to Andhra Pradesh under the Bachawat award. In return for the water allocations, India Cements invested Rs 135 crore in Jagan's companies, the CBI alleged.

Responding to the CBI query about why he invested in another cement company, Srinivasan reportedly maintained that his decision to invest in Jagan's Bharati Cements paid off in the ultimate analysis as he made a huge profit by selling his shares when Jagan sold his cement firm to a French player. The CBI wants to unravel as to why not only India Cements, but two other cement companies, Penna Cements and Dalmia Cements, also chose to invest in a rival cement company. Its contention is that all these three firms were given limestone mines and huge water allocations. The CBI is said to be done with the questioning of India Cements MD on Monday and that it will be the turn of the MDs of the other two companies to be quizzed beginning Tuesday.

Sources said the role of three ministers in the alleged benefits doled out by the YSR regime to the three cement companies will come under CBI scanner.

The investigating agency is slated to probe whether then revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao allotted huge tracts of land containing limestone to these companies and whether former irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah cleared the additional water allocations. The role of then mines minister Sabita Indra Reddy in granting mining licenses to these cement firms for extracting limestone will also be examined.

President poll: Mamata Banerjee running out of options

Kolkata: Former President APJ Abdul Kalam's decision to withdraw from the Presidential race came as a huge shock to Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. This was the second blow in three days after her short-term friend Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav abandoned her to back Pranab. It now seems that the Trinamool Congress chief is running out of options.
The Trinamool Congress on Monday came up with a thinly veiled threat with party leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay saying, "We are with the government but can resign when the time comes."
After APJ Abdul Kalam himself ruled out his participation in the Presidential race, for Mamata, who was his most vociferous proponent, there was little to do but go back to political brinkmanship. Kalam's refusal is a big blow and Mamata wrote on Facebook, "Kalam Saheb...I have seen your statement that you are not contesting. This news has hurt us all deeply."
Having hedged her bets on Kalam, Mamata has already refused to back NCP leader PA Sangma's Presidential ambitions.

The Congress, meanwhile, is playing it cool. It even reached out by pulling up party general secretary Digvijaya Singh for criticising Mamata's stand on Pranab.

Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed said, "Mamata Banerjee was, is and will be a close ally of the UPA. I am hopeful that she will take lead in making Pranab Mukherjee victorious in President's race."
Mamata Banerjee is now left with few choices. Having said a firm no to Pranab Mukherjee, she can now either abstain from voting or side with the NDA, which also seems political improbable as she then would have to pull the plug on the UPA.

PM calls TDP chief seeking support for Pranab's candidature

With the UPA announcing Pranab Mukherjee as its Presidential nominee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday reached out to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu requesting him to support the veteran Congress leader.

While Singh sought support for Pranab, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, who also got on phone with Chandrababu, urged him to endorse the candidature of former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma for the July 19 Presidential election, party sources said.

The TDP, however, remained indecisive on whom to support in the election.

Sangma had met Chandrababu Naidu here early this week and requested the latter to support his candidature for the President's post.

The TDP said it would take a decision on whom to support in the presidential election after consulting other parties.

The politburo of the TDP, which met under the chairmanship of Chandrababu Naidu here today, discussed the presidential election issue but did not come to any conclusion on its support.

"We have decided to take a final decision after discussing the issue with other political parties," Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party leader Nama Nageswara Rao told reporters after the politburo meeting.

The politburo also discussed the latest political developments in the country, he added.