Campaigning for 'criminals'?
Team Anna's aggressive campaign against the Congress in the Hisar by-election is tilting the scales in favour of two very wealthy candidates facing a host of criminal charges. Both candidates are from controversial political dynasties opposed to the Congress party. Kuldeep Bishnoi is from the late Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC). Ajay Singh Chautala is from Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
In picture, Team Anna members Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal at an election rally in Hisar.
Kuldeep Bishnoi
The Congress never really had a chance in the bypoll to this Lok Sabha seat, said political sources. It stood third in the last general elections. The seat had been in the HJC's kitty and the election was announced after Bhajan Lal's death on June 3. Any campaign against the Congress would therefore benefit either the HJC or the INLD, principal Opposition parties in the state.
Kuldeep Bishnoi from HJC has a case of attempted murder against him. His declared assets in 2009 were to the tune of Rs 17.3 cr and the value jumped to Rs 48.85 cr this year.
Ajay Singh Chautala
INLD's Ajay Singh Chautala has two pending cases of corruption, cheating and criminal conspiracy against him. Affidavits made available by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Tuesday put Bishnoi as the richest candidate in the Hisar by election. He has declared assets of over Rs 48.85 crore while Chautala has assets of Rs 40.16 crore. Bishnoi and Chautala's assets have increased by over Rs 31.5 crore and Rs 10.19 crore respectively since 2009. Chautala has a case of illegal assets against him.
Jai Prakash
Congress candidate Jai Prakash is way behind with declared assets worth Rs 3.16 crore. He has shown an asset increase of Rs 2.5 crore. He does not face any criminal charges, according to his affidavit.
Hazare's associate Arvind Kejriwal claimed his team is not responsible for the outcome of the polls. He claimed that Team Anna is not responsible if their crusade against the Congress on the Jan Lokpal Bill has helped the Opposition.
Mukhtar Ansari
Not just Hisar in Haryana, Anna Hazare has decided to canvass against Congress candidates in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as well. The direct beneficiaries of this campaign - the BSP, the SP and the BJP - are fielding candidates criminal antecedents without any qualms.
Mukhtar Ansari, independent MLA from Mau, will contest again with support from the SP. He is currently in jail in a murder case. His criminal connections in the Middle-East are no secret.
Raghuraj Pratap Singh
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has entrusted Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, whose criminal activities range from murder to kidnapping and smuggling weapons, with the task of mobilising Thakur votes. Singh is the SP-supported candidate from Kunda in Pratapgarh.
Vijay Mishra
The party has also given ticket to Vijay Mishra who will be contesting from Gyanpur. He is a sitting MLA who is in jail and is allegedly involved in the bomb attack on state minister Nand Gopal Nandi.
Jaiveer Singh
The Bahujan Samaj Party is matching steps with the SP. Jaiveer Singh, minister for rural engineering, is a BSP candidate from Karhal in Mainpuri district. Although Mayawati is protecting him, his alleged role in the murder of a junior engineer is the talk of the town.
The BSP is also planning to field Sushil Singh in the elections. A mafia-turned-politician, he is the party's MLA from Dhanapur in Chandauli. Now he would contest from Sakaldiha seat. When Maya's Higher Education Minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi was found misusing his power and amassing wealth, she told him to choose a member of his family to contest. So his nephew Pankaj Tripathi has got the ticket from Handia in Allahabad.
Political Motives?
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general-secretary Digvijaya Singh wrote to Anna Hazare on Tuesday, but the tone of their letters was strikingly different. Digvijaya, in his open letter, attacked Hazare for singling out the Congress and virtually suggested that he was soft on the BJP because the party had promised to support him as a presidential candidate.
Caricature and cult
Digvijaya's fourpage letter attacked Hazare for singling out the Congress in his anti-graft campaign. He asked whether the anti corruption crusader was unaware that his campaign would benefit people who are steeped in corruption.
Cartoon is a take on the incident at a rally in Hisar where a youth was beaten up for putting tough questions to Team Anna.
PM in agreement
In reply to a September 21 letter from Hazare, the PM wrote: 'Our government is also working on a detailed agenda to combat corruption and improving governance. Many legal, administrative and technical elements will be incorporated in this agenda. The establishment of Lokpal is a part of this agenda,' the PM wrote.
Singh said the government was also 'actively considering' various proposals related to electoral reforms, including the right to reject, as suggested by Hazare. However, he pointed out that a political consensus was needed to be built to take these proposals forward.
Diggy in disagreement
In sharp contrast to the PM's conciliatory tone, Digvijaya's fourpage letter attacked Hazare for singling out the Congress in his anti-graft campaign. He asked whether the antcorruption crusader was unaware that his campaign would benefit people who are steeped in corruption.
'Are you not aware of the history of the family of late Bhajan Lal? Are you not acquainted with the history of the Chautala family? Are you oblivious to the fact that there were cases of corruption pending against them in courts?' he asked. Singh told Hazare that his team members were using him to further their own agenda.
Source: www.indiatoday.in
0 comments:
Post a Comment