Congress MP Vijay Bahuguna sworn-in as Uttarakhand CM

Congress MP Vijay Bahuguna on Tuesday took oath as Uttrakhand Chief Minister even as senior party leader and Union Minister Harish Rawat refused to give up his claim for the state’s chief .

The fast-paced development in the hill state has complicated things for the Congress party, trying hard to defuse the leadership crisis and avoid a possible split.

Bahuguna was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Margret Alva shortly after the Congress high command ruled out any re-think over the issue and declared that the swearing-in ceremony will take place as scheduled.

However, reacting strongly to Congress high command’s decision, many party MPs openly came in support of Rawat.

As many as 17 Congress MLAs and some MPs including Pradip Tamta gathered at Rawat’s Dehrdun residence to discuss the situation.

Emerging out of the meeting, Tamta told reporters, “We are with Harish Rawat. He is our leader. Congress party has done great injustice to him. Vijay Bahuguna is not acceptable to us as the state’s Chief Minister at any cost.”

Tamta also claimed that a majority of Congress MLAs are with Rawat.

When quizzed about Rawat’s rumoured meeting with the BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, he said that no such meeting took place.

Although Rawat avoided speaking to reporters himself, his supporters and top party leaders from the state kept making statements on his behalf.

After Bahuguna’s swearing-in, six more ministers may be inducted after consultations with the party high command in three or four days.

A sulking Rawat is said to have sent in his resignation as Minister of State for Agriculture and Parliamentary Affairs as he felt that it will be difficult for him to continue in the government when for the second time, his claim has been overruled.

Uttarakhand Assembly Elections results 2012: Congress, BJP leading same number of seats in Uttarakhand

A neck-and-neck race is on in Uttarakhand in the 70-member Assembly.

Both the Congress and the BJP were leading in about the same number of seats. The latest trends from Uttarakhand showed that Congress was leading in 31 seats and BJP followed closely with 25.

BSP was leading in five seats while Uttarakhand Kranti Dal-Panwar (UKD-P) was leading in one seat while others were ahead in the rest of the five seats.

Chief minister B C Khanduri was trailing from Kotdwar seat by 90 votes against S S Negi of Congress.

Congress leader Indira Haridayesh was leading with 4000 votes from Haldwani constituency against Renu Adhikari of BJP.

However, state BJP president Bishan Singh Chufal was leading by 688 votes from Didihaat constituency.

Senior Congress leader Harish Rawat said his party will get "comfortable majority" in Uttarakhand to form government on its own.

"As far as chief ministership is concerned, that will be decided by the party. But Congress will form the government in Uttarakhand that I am confident. We will form the government with the quite good margin," Rawat, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, said.

The Congress leader expressed full faith in the wisdom of the people of the state and said that Congress will get comfortable majority. To a question whether he will be made chief minister of the state in case Congress is voted to power, the Congress party leader said, "Harish Rawat is a humble soldier. Our focus is on the future. Congress traditionally does not project a leader where we are not in power".

Assembly elections: Voting underway for tight fight in Punjab, Uttarakhand

Polling began on a dull vote in the Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttarakhand on Monday with around 10% polling recorded in both states till 10 am.

In Punjab, only about 10 percent of around 1.76 crore voters exercised their franchise till 10 am when reports last came in.

The polling remained peaceful in the initial two hours with no reports of violence received, special Chief electoral Officer Usha R Sharma said.

She said the polling is likely to pick up as the day advances.

The fate of 1078 candidates, including two Chief Ministerial aspirants Parkash Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh in fray for 117 Assembly seats, will be sealed today.

The polling is taking place at 19,841 polling stations across 22 districts of Punjab where.

Prominent candidates whose fate would be sealed today include the Chief Minister from his traditional Lambi Assembly seat, his predecessor Amarinder Singh from Patiala city, their sons Sukhbir Singh Badal (Jalalabad) and Raninder Singh (Samana), former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehra), former Punjab top cop P S Gill (Moga), former Principal Secretary to the chief minister D S Guru (Bhadaur) and former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur (Bholath).

A total of 70972, including 225 paramilitary force personnel have been deployed to conduct the elections.

At least 2627 video cameras and 554 digital cameras have been installed at polling booths. Around 203 polling stations are using live web-casting.

Of the polling stations, 2718 have been identified hyper sensitive and 6379 as sensitive.

Ludhiana East (16), Patiala rural (13) and Jalalabad (14) are the assembly constituencies where maximum number of contestants are in the fray. The least number of contestants are in Attari (4).

Out of the 1,078 candidates in fray 417, including 45 women, are Independents. At the last hustings in 2007, after scrutiny and withdrawal there were a total of 1,055 candidates, including 56 women, in fray.

Low turnout in Uttarakhand

Polling for the Assembly elections in Uttarakhand to elect 70 legislators began a dull note this morning despite a clear sky.

Till 1000 hours, only 10 per cent polling was recorded, said state chief electorate officer [CEO] Radha Raturi. However, the polling was peaceful, she said.

In most of the polling booths, people began queuing up as the day progressed, officials said.

Over 63 lakh voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the elections where the ruling BJP is locked in a close fight against Congress.

The elections will also decide the fate of top state leaders including Chief Minister B C Khanduri from Kotdwar, former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank from Doiwala, the leader of opposition Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag and PCC chief Yashpal Arya from Baajpur seats.

The polling which began at 0800 hrs would end at 1700 hrs in the evening.

A total of 788 candidates are trying their luck with main contenders BJP and Congress contesting all the 70 seats.

Team Anna back start its campaign in five poll-bound states from today

Vowing not to seek votes for or against any single party, Team Anna is due to kick-start its campaign in five poll-bound states from Uttarakhand on today.

Members of Team Anna, including Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and Kumar Vishwas, will campaign for a strong Lokpal Bill, against corruption and other issues such as caste and religion in the five states. Their first stop is Haridwar in Uttarakhand today.

They will also visit Dehradun, Rudrapur, Almora and Haldwani in the state.

Notably, Anna Hazare will not be taking part in the campaign in all five states.

On Friday, Team Anna released a campaign pamphlet for the upcoming polls in which it attacked the Congress accusing it of betraying the country on Lokpal issue.

The four-page pamphlet, titled 'Your Vote can Change the History of India -- Betrayal by Central Government on the Country', also targeted Rahul Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati to question them on Lokpal and land acquisition.

The BJP was also posed questions. However, Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan told a press conference that their campaign is not against or in favour of a party but on "important" issues like corruption, Lokpal and land acquisition.

When pointed out that the title of the pamphlet betrays the claims of not targeting a party, Kejriwal shot back, "Hasn't the government cheated the whole country?" Bhushan said they will raise the issues on Lokpal and what all parties did to the Lokpal Bill.

The pamphlet has listed "six betrayals" on the issue of Lokpal by Central government while another page titled "Congress' strong Lokpal Bill" cites the "deficiencies" in the anti-corruption law. Six questions were raised to all political parties which include whether they agree that the Lokpal Bill is weak, CBI should be independent of government control and whether they will oppose the bill in Parliament.

The parties were also asked about their stand on land acquisition bill. Making the campaign personal, Team Anna also sought answers from Rahul Gandhi on whether Congress will dare to bring a strong Lokpal Bill on the lines of Lokayukta Act in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand.

Team Anna members would also visit Srinagar on January 24 and a few other parts of the state on January 27 and 28.

Aamir Khan says: Vote for clean candidates

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan will urge people not to vote for candidates with criminal background in upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.


The National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms said Tuesday: "Aamir`s recorded message will be sent through automated calls to lakhs of voters till elections in the five states are over."

Besides English and Hindi, the message will go out in regional languages too, ADR said. The actor has already recorded a one-minute video clip.