Andhra Pradesh minister quits over Congress' defeat in by-polls

Hyderabad:  Andhra Pradesh Health Minister DL Ravindra Reddy has submitted his resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the party's defeat in the by-polls.

He has cited the dismal performance of the Congress party as the reason behind his resignation and has reportedly owned moral responsibility for the party's defeat.

The Telangana Rashtriya Samiti or TRS won four of the seven assembly seats in the by-poll results declared yesterday. Voting was held on Sunday. Six of the seven seats are located in Telangana.

The TRS, headed by K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR), defeated the ruling Congress party and main Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Station Ghanpur, Kollapur, Adilabad and Kamareddy constituencies. Both the TDP and the Congress are accused by the Telangana movement of not supporting its demand of statehood.

The results pose a serious survival threat for the ruling Congress and also make the writing on the wall clear: That the demand for a separate Telangana state cannot be wished away.

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Akhilesh Yadav sworn in as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister; SP workers on bad behaviour

Lucknow:  New Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will be hoping hard this is not a portent. Barely had the 38-year-old been sworn in as  the state's youngest Chief Minister, that his biggest challenge was demonstrated by his party workers who shoved their way onto the stage and were seen climbing on sofas.

So shortly after being sworn in, the young SP leader assured the people of his state that his government "will not tolerate lawlessness and will tackle it with an iron hand." "Samajwadi Party will fulfill promises made in the manifesto. Law and order will be our responsibility from today," he said. During extensive campaigning in Uttar Pradesh during the recently held polls, Mr Yadav had vowed to cleanse his party of "goonda-giri" or hooliganism; he had also said
that his top priority would be to deliver law and order to a state besieged by crime.

Earlier in the day, Mr Yadav, dressed in white kurta pyjama and black sleeveless jacket and looking uncannily like his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, took oath at 11.34 am at the La Martiniere College grounds in Lucknow.  He firmly shook hands with Governor BL Joshi, and then, a picture of calm, reached into his left breast pocket for a pen, signed and waved to the hundreds of SP supporters who had gathered at the venue since early morning.
Nineteen Cabinet ministers and 29 ministers of state also took oath, among them the controversial independent MLA with criminal antecedents, Raghuraj Pratap Singh or Raja Bhaiyya, who expectedly thrown his lot with the SP. After taking over as the CM, Akhilesh defended Raja Bhaiyya, who has been a minister before in a Mulayam Singh government, and accused his predecessor Mayawati of filing false cases against him. "We all know how cases against Raja Bhaiyya were filed," he said.
"Organised corruption as happened in the previous regime never took place in the state. There were restrictions during the previous government and UP is now celebrating democracy," he added.

In the star-studded audience cheering Mr Yadav at the swearing-in ceremony were Sitaram Yechury, Biman Bose and industrialist Anil Ambani.

His unruly cadres are already proving to be the new UP Chief Minister's Achilles Heel. He has the advantage of having come to power with an unambiguous majority with 224 seats in the 403-seat UP Assembly. He scripted that Samajwadi Party win with a forward-looking agenda that has promised the people of UP freedom from goonda raj and good law and order, jobs and education, and good economics. He now has his task cut out - he has vowed to implement his election manifesto to the full.

Rival parties wager that law and order will deteriorate in a Samajwadi Party regime, as has happened before. Even before Akhilesh was sworn in, he has been called upon to explain violent conduct of SP workers in several places. He had so far pleaded that officials of the old dispensation were to blame. Now, having taken charge, he has to prove that those were not empty words.
Among other things he promised in that document were sops like laptops students who passed class 10, tablet computers to those who passed class 12, allowance to unemployed youths, free treatment to patients suffering from serious ailments and loan waivers for farmers.

Akhilesh will also have to take a call on constituting a commission for taking legal opinion on providing reservation to Muslims and implementing recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission and the Sachar Committee.

The SP leader has also said that rooting out corruption in the state is among his top priorities. And has promised to remove the ban on student politics in the state.

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Akhilesh Yadav to be sworn in as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister today

Lucknow:  Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav is set to take oath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh today for the first time, after his party gained absolute majority by winning 224 seats in the 403-member Assembly.

38-year-old Akhilesh will be the state's youngest chief minister and his Cabinet is likely to be a mix of youth and experience.

He, however, will have his task cut out fulfilling the long list of promises made by his party in its poll manifesto.

Samajwadi Party had announced a slew of poll sops, including providing laptops to intermediate pass students, tablet computers to high-school pass outs, allowance to unemployed youths, free treatment to patients suffering from serious ailments and loan waivers for farmers.

Akhilesh will also have to take a call on constituting a commission for taking legal opinion on providing reservation to Muslims and implementing recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission and the Sachar Committee.

The SP leader has said improving law and order situation and rooting out corruption in the state are among his top priorities.

Besides, restoration of student unions in universities and colleges will also be a challenge for him.

Even before taking the reins of the state, the party is under attack from Opposition parties, including outgoing Chief Minister Mayawati, who has alleged that the law and order situation had deteriorated following declaration of poll results in favour of SP.

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Sand mafia fires at officials probing illegal mining in Madhya Pradesh

Panna, Madhya Pradesh:  Just two days after an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was allegedly killed by the mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh, officials probing illegal mining were fired at by the sand mafia in the state's Panna district today. The officials, however, managed to escape unhurt.
Alleged members of the sand mafia fired at the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) and sub-divisional officer (Police). The incident took place at Chandipati village in Ajaygarh area of Panna, over 400 km from Bhopal. The area is situated on the Madhya Pradesh-Uttar Pradesh border.
"Along with SDOP, town inspector and some policemen, we were heading towards the area from where the mafia illegally transport sand. But soon, they started firing at us. We also fired a few rounds in retaliation. We are safe and have demanded more forces, which is reaching the spot," SDM NA Gaud told IANS from the site of the incident.
The SDM said he suspected former dacoit Kuber Singh, who now conducts illegal transportation of sand, as having led the group that fired at them.
Superintendent of police Anal Maheshwari has rushed to the spot.
On Thursday, 30-year-old IPS officer Narendra Kumar was killed when a man driving a tractor ran over him. Mr Kumar had tried to stop the tractor, which was loaded with illegally-mined stones in the Morena district. Mr Kumar spotted the tractor while he was out patrolling. When the driver refused to stop, Mr Kumar got out of his jeep and blocked the tractor's path. The driver ploughed into him. Morena district is rich in stones meant for construction and the sand here is one of the finest in the country. Mr Kumar's family has alleged that his killing was a well-planned conspiracy.
(With IANS inputs)

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Madhya Pradesh: Sand mafia kingpin arrested for firing at officials probing illegal mining

Bhopal:  Police in Madhya Pradesh have arrested an alleged sand mafia kingpin and former dacoit Kuber Singh in connection with the firing on policemen and other officials on Friday. And in a related development, contracts of 14 sand mines allegedly indulging in illegal mining have also been cancelled.
"Kuber Singh had been taken in custody on Friday night by the police in Panna. He is being interrogated," Deputy Inspector General (Chattarpur) Ved Praksh said.
Kuber Singh and his gang had allegedly opened fire on a team of sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), sub-divisional officer (police), town inspector and other policemen on Friday when they had gone to stop illegal sand transportation in Chandipati village of Ajaygarh area. No one was hurt in the incident.
The firing incident happened exactly a day after a 30-year-old IPS officer, Narendra Kumar, was killed when a man driving a tractor ran over him. Mr Kumar had tried to stop the tractor, which was loaded with illegally-mined stones in the Morena district. Mr Kumar spotted the tractor while he was out patrolling. When the driver refused to stop, Mr Kumar got out of his jeep and blocked the tractor's path. The driver ploughed into him. Mr Kumar's family has alleged that his killing was a well-planned conspiracy.
Morena district is rich in stones meant for construction and the sand here is one of the finest in the country.
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In the mood for Akhilesh, Samajwadi Party agrees he will be chief minister of Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow:  As the votes for the Uttar Pradesh elections were being counted, Mulayam Singh Yadav's two young grand-daughters were asked who would be chief minister. "Daadu," they cooed, referring to Mulayam. The political instincts of the youngest generation of the Yadav family apparently need some fine-tuning.  
It is their father, 38-year-old Akhilesh, who will tomorrow be declared the head of the new government, sources have told NDTV. His father has established that his own political acumen remains top-grade - in a matter of three days, he has wooed a faction of the party that was opposed to a rookie as chief minister into consensus.
So Akhilesh's name reportedly will be proposed at a meeting of all its elected representatives to the Assembly by Azam Khan. Before Holi, Mr Khan was among those who reportedly did not share the enthusiasm of most other party members who said it was time for the younger Yadav to take charge. The swearing-in will most likely be on Monday. 
There were signs today of things to come - it was Akhilesh who addressed the press amid a continuum of acts of violence by his party workers in different parts of the state. "We will throw people out of the party if necessary to ensure that fair inquiries can be held," he said, with the authority of a leader with weighty mandate. "I've asked our workers to remain calm and polite even if members from other parties try to provoke or instigate them," he added.
The zero-tolerance for goonda-ism or hooliganism was emphasized by Akhilesh through his long campaign. Pedaling his party symbol, the cycle, he wheeled his party into a whopping 226 seats - the biggest total in two decades in UP for any political party. His youth helped testify for the change he promised - "Ummeed ki cycle" became his mantra. In a complete reversal of earlier agendas, he announced laptops for all college-going students. Three years ago, before the 2009 General Elections, the SP had said it was against the use of English and the use of computers. Voters seemed charmed by his sincerity - he would often hop off his cycle and talk to them for hours, spending as much time at these roadside chats as at the massive rallies that formally requested the people to vote for his father aka "netaji."
His ferocious share of the vote came at the cost of another young leader being projected as Generation Next. 41-year-old Rahul Gandhi took the responsibility for managing the Congress campaign. When the results were declared, he took the responsibility for a lost opportunity. Exhausted by the corruption and misadministration of Mayawati, UP sought a change in record numbers, its turnout through the different days of voting a healthy indicator of a state looking for an option. Despite Mr Gandhi's committed and energetic campaign, the Congress was dismissed as an unsuitable option, placing fourth. It added just six seats to the 22 it won in the last election.  
In his implausibly large victory, Akhilesh has shown humility. "Someone comes first, another person comes second," he said. His experience on the wrong side of the finish line is not inadequate. In 2007, his father was evicted from office by Mayawati, who merged UP's caste equations into a Perfect 10 formula. Then in 2009, Akhilesh's wife Dimple contested a by-election for the Lok Sabha from Ferozabad in UP - a seat her husband had won and vacated just five months earlier. The SP took the voters for granted; the Congress turned the election into a prestige point. Mr Gandhi led a pantheon of leaders to campaign for actor-politician Raj Babbar, a former Samajwadi party man. Embarrassed and bitter, Akhilesh had blamed Mr Gandhi for his wife's defeat.
The political maturity that has been visible during his campaign will be challenged by the state he leads. UP struggles with poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, unemployment, crime and corruption. While he deals with that dire agenda, his father is expected to push the party's fortunes in Delhi. In its alliance with Mamata Banerjee at the centre, the Congress is beginning to feel that it isn't getting a great bargain for the MPs she brings to the UPA coalition. Mulayam's renewed strength in UP makes him an attractive option. His numbers in UP will give him more Rajya Sabha seats, where the UPA is in a minority. With general elections scheduled for 2014, Mulayam is expected by his party to work on the bigger picture.
For Akhilesh, it is the details that will count. He has been handed his state; what he does with it could make history - good or bad.
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Uttar Pradesh elections: Around 62 per cent voter turnout

Bareilly:  Polling for the seventh and final phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections covering 60 constituencies ended today with around 62 per cent of voters exercising their franchise.

The final phase today is in the western part and Terai region of the state. 968 candidates will battle it out today in 60 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. Most of these constituencies like Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur and Lakhempur Kheri fall under the Tarai region of the state.

The area also falls under the sugarcane belt of the state. And, issues related to cane pricing, procurement of produce by sugar mills have acquired political prominence.

Each year during monsoons, the region is ravaged by floods and lives are lost due to release of water from dams along the Indo-Nepal border. So flood relief, rescue and rehabilitation are also issues That matter to locals.

With 28 per cent Muslim voters in these 60 odd constituencies, the Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan, the party's Muslim face is one of the tallest leaders in the fray from the Rampur city constituency. His rivalry with actor Jaya Prada, the sitting MP, led to high drama in the run up to the elections. Jaya Prada accused him of running a smear campaign against her, something that has reduced her to tears not once but several times in this elections.

Bharatiya Janata Party's Varun Gandhi has also been confined only to his pockets of influence, Pilibhit. He has been literally missing from this elections, which saw a massive display of youth power in the name of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi. Both these leaders were leading their parties from the front in these polls.

DP Yadav, a strongman with a criminal past, whose entry into the Samajwadi Party was stalled by state president Akhilesh Yadav is also contesting from the Sahaswan constituency. It is the same seat from which his wife Kamlesh earned the dubious distinction of being the first MLA to be disqualified after the Election Commission found charges of paid news against her to be true.

But fighting against him is the BJP's lone Muslim candidate in this election Saphi Shakil Alam, who was a mechanic by profession.

Former BSP MLA Nawab Kazim Ali Khan is also contesting on a congress ticket from the Suar assembly. He switched sides after being denied a ticket by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Three ex-BSP ministers, who were axed by Mayawati, in a clean-up act just before polls, Yashpal Singh, Phool Babu and Avdhesh Verma, Who broke down after being denied a ticket, have all migrated to rival political parties and are contesting these elections.

Varun's uncle V M singh, on the other hand, is the richest candidate in this election with declared assets of more than 630 crores. Mr Singh is contesting from the Pallia constituency in Lakhimpur Kheri district on a Trinamool Congress ticket.

The Election Commission expects heavy turnout in this phase also in keeping with the trend seen in the earlier rounds where voting percentage has witnessed an unprecedented rise.

More than 1.82 crore voters in this phase of polling, which was earlier scheduled for February 4 but was later postponed to March 3, would decide the fate of 962 candidates
including some political veterans.

In the 2007 assembly polls, BSP had emerged the biggest party bagging 27 seats, while SP and BJP had got 17 and nine seats respectively.

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Andhra Pradesh policemen caught on camera slapping teen repeatedly

Hyderabad:  On camera, a policeman is seen slapping a young boy repeatedly.  That footage - filmed by a local TV channel in Karminagar in Andhra Pradesh, has prompted an inquiry by the state's human rights commission (NDTV did not film the incident; the footage used is courtesy TV9 channel).
"This incident appears to be barbaric and violates the human rights of the boy, who was dealt with unlawfully," said a member of the commission, Kakumanu Peda Peri Reddy.
The boy who is assaulted repeatedly and with full force is 16 years old.  The police has been asked to explain what happened by March 7.
Circle police inspector Deva Reddy and constable Ganga Reddy suspected that the teen was guilty of stealing petrol and spare parts from parked cars.
His family says that the policemen hit him on his hands with a stick and that the inspector took out his revolver and pointed it at him.
After a local television channel telecast the footage, senior policemen conducted an inquiry.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) A Rama Rajeshwari said the inspector and constable were guilty of "high-handedness" and has recommended disciplinary action against the duo.
"I also saw the original video footage and the cops prima facie seem to be responsible for the high-handedness and I recommended for disciplinary action against them," she told PTI, adding the locals handed over the boy to the police when they caught him "indulging in theft".

As part of the investigation, the inspector had taken the boy to scene of offence and while being examined the CI and the constable seem to have slapped and hit the boy with a stick, she explained.

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