Everyone fights for this region but no one wants to own it

At the sleepy office of the Bundelkhand Vikas Nigam in Jhansi, senior assistant O P Gupta, lone member of the staff apart from a chaprasi and the newly appointed chairman, is clearly unaccustomed to visitors. He recalls the time when the Nigam — revived by the Mayawati government a last month — was still a working institution. It oversaw sugar mills at Rath and Madhogarh, stone crushers at Bijoli, Khilli and Kabrai, and brick kilns in Jalaun, Hamirpur and Jhansi districts. That was till the Nigam, set up in 1971, closed down in 1992.

It reopened a decade and a half later in April 2008, remembers Gupta, when Mayawati appointed local businessman and BSP politician Ramesh Sharma as Nigam chairperson. It was around this time that Rahul Gandhi made his most high-profile visit to the region. And Bundelkhand, comprising some of the most dry and underdeveloped districts of UP and Madhya Pradesh, became the new political flashpoint between the Congress and the BSP.

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Rahul has qualities needed to be Prime Minister, says Priyanka

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said her brother Rahul Gandhi would one day become the Prime Minister of the country as he had all the qualities needed for the top post. However, she was quick to add that Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister if the Congress is voted to power in the coming elections.

Asked if she herself planned to join politics, Priyanka did not say a direct ‘no’. “I have realised that in politics one should never say no,” she said, and then added: “But I do not see this happening.”

When asked whether she thought Rahul was qualified enough to become the Prime Minister, she told reporters: “I have full faith in my brother. He is hardworking. He means well. He is, according to me, qualified... So, one day he will. He will do a good job of it.”

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Reluctant father Farooq gives in, clears the way for Omar as Chief Minister

When the National Conference and the Congress leadership formally sit down to discuss a coalition government for Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow, they will begin on a positive note: the young heir of Gandhi family Rahul Gandhi and scion of the Abdullah clan Omar Abdullah share an alliance of friendship and have been in constant touch since the fragmented verdict was out last evening.

Sources reveal that one main reason for the last-minute “generational shift” in the NC’s Chief Ministerial candidate — replacing Farooq Abdullah by son Omar — was to “smoothen” the coalition talks. With the Congress high command, Omar Abdullah is the preferred choice for more than one reason. Sources said the father Abdullah does not share a “comfortable relationship” with 10 Janpath while the sons and heirs of the two families are close.

Asked whether his friendship with Rahul will play a role in the NC-Congress coalition, Omar Abdullah told The Indian Express: “I will not use my friendship with Rahul or my equation with him to force a situation which otherwise will not arise.

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For clean polls in Congress youth wings, Rahul turns to former Election Commission

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has asked former Election Commission (EC) officials to help conduct organisational elections. So when the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) kickstarts direct elections for its Punjab unit in October, right from the block president to the state chief, K J Rao, who as an EC observer made a name during the Bihar elections of 2005, will act as the watchdog to ensure that criminal elements don’t find their way into the organisation.

“Rahul Gandhi has accepted our suggestion that any candidate found to have committed a crime punishable for two years under the law should be barred from contesting the organisational elections,” Rao told The Indian Express.

Rahul got in touch with former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) J M Lyngdoh some three months ago to streamline the organisational polls in the IYC and the National Students Union of India, the two organisations under his charge. Lyngdoh, in turn, directed him to Delhi based Rao.

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In Parched Bundelhand boy help for stealig water

Bundelkhand last made news over Rahul Gandhi’s midnight visit to Dalit Home, provoking Chief Minister Mayawati and the BJP to question his motives. But as Lucknow and Delhi debate Dalit politics, Bundelhand is seeing clashes and thefts over some thing far more basic water.

On Saturaday morning, 15 year old Daya Shankar and there fellow villagers were arrested for allegedly trying to capture a tanker to their village Mudhari in Mahoba district. Besides other charges, all four were booked under section 353 of the IPC for obstructing government work. Three armed policemen are since on duty to ensure that tanker water is distributed fairly in Mudhari.

However, as villagers say, a tanker is a drop in the drought for their cattle and them. Where Mudhari has 14 hand pumps, only 10 are functional. Each time they are used for more than half an hour, the supply dries up as the water level falls to low.

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Priyanka meets Nalini, says it was 'my coming to peace'

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today confirmed that she met Nalini Sriharan, serving a life sentence for her role in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, on March 19 but records at the Vellore Central Jail don't mention her name anywhere. She has been logged as "a visitor", with no further details.

Though the records state that Nalini (convict number 301) - categorised as an "important prisoner" by the jail authorities - was paid a visit by her mother, Padma, the previous day, there is nothing in the prison records to show that the two women met.

According to prison records, there were 31visitors on March 19 who had come to meet "remanded prisoners". Details of the visitors and inmates are mentioned in the records. But one entry has been logged as just "a visitor" to a "convict accused", with no further details.

"It is true that I met Nalini Sriharan in Vellore Central Jail on March 19, 2008. It was my way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced," said Priyanka in New Delhi.

In a statement, she she said it was a personal visit "that I undertook completely on my own initiative" and "i would be deeply grateful if this could be respected". "

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Chinese comrades invite Rahul to mark 20th year of his father's visit

Beijing may have summoned the Indian Ambassador at 2 am to protest against the Tibetans trying to scale their Embassy wall in New Delhi but all this was off the record today as a high-level delegation of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) came knocking on the Congress doors with a red carpet.

Signaling a readiness to look beyond its ideological brethren among the Left, the CPC came to the Congress with a proposal to hold a conference in Beijing to mark the 20th anniversary of the late Rajiv Gandhi's path-breaking visit to China in December 1988. The CPC also invited Rahul Gandhi to inaugurate the conference likely to be held towards the year-end.

The CPC proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Congress Party to form an "institutional mechanism of collaboration" between the two. The Chinese delegation, led by Li Jinjun, Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, proposed that Rahul should come to China to inaugurate the conference. These proposals were accepted by the Congress delegation led by senior party leader Devendra Dwivedi.

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