LD BYPOLLS Stage set for bypolls
NEW DELHI, JUN 1 (PTI) Amidst elaborate security, the stage is set for tomorrow's bypolls to one Lok Sabha and 16 assembly seats spread over six states, which will decide among others the fate of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and veteran Karnataka politician S Bangarappa. Besides the Shimoga Parliamentary constituency in Karnataka, bypolls will be held in five assembly seats in Goa, four in Uttar Pradesh, three in Haryana, two in Kerala and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The bypolls in Goa, now under President's rule and where the state assembly is under suspended animation, are crucial as their outcome is likely to rekindle efforts for formation of a popular government. The five seats -- Taleigao, Cambarjua, Benualim, Margao and Poinguinim -- fell vacant following the resignation of BJP MLAs in January, reducing the then Manohar Parrikar government to a minority. Congress and its allies have 17 MLAs and BJP 14 in the Goan assembly with an effective strength of 34. A United Goans Democratic Party legislator is supporting the saffron party. Hooda, a Lok Sabha member from Rohtak constituency in Haryana, is trying his luck from his pocketborough Killoi to enter the state assembly. He is pitted against little-known Azad Singh Attri of INLD. In the other two assembly bypolls in Haryana, Savitri Jindal and Kiran Chaudhry, widows of noted industrialist O P Jindal and Agriculture Minister Surendra Singh, are in the fray from Hisar and Tosham constituencies respectively. Both Jindal and Surender Singh, son of former Chief Minister and veteran politician Bansi Lal, were killed in a helicopter crash in March. In Shimoga constituency in Karnataka, the fate of seven candidates including former Chief Minister S Bangarappa, who is seeking re-election as Samajwadi Party nominee, will be decided. For Bangarappa, who resigned from BJP and gave up his Lok Sabha membership, it is a battle for political survival as Congress and BJP have worked hard to outwit him. Amidst tight security, four assembly constituencies of Haiser Bazar (Reserved), Varanasi (North), Allahabad (West) and Khairagarh will go to polls in Uttar Pradesh. Shoot-at-sight orders have been issued in Varanasi to keep at bay trouble- makers. In Kerala, electioneering for bypolls to Koothuparamba and Azhikode segments was high-voltage with both the ruling UDF and opposition LDF turning the battle in the Marxist heartland as prestigious combats. The bypolls assume significance coming close on the heels of a split in the Congress in the state with veteran leader K Karunakaran floating the National Congress (Indira) which kept off the fray to help the LDF. Both the seats were won by CPI-M last time with impressive margins. Random Thought: Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your home. ~David Frost~
