Left parties were decimated in the Lok Sabha

16052014

Left parties were decimated in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal which they had once ruled continuously for 34 years, with CPI(M) alleging “massive rigging” by Trinamool Congress.

“We are not prepared to accept this result as it does not reflect the actual position, the strength and support of the Left parties. We cannot accept it as our percentage of votes has fallen from 41 per cent in the 2009 elections to 28-30 per cent,” said CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters in New Delhi.  While the Left in Kerala made “major gains” and increased margins in Tripura, he said “we place West Bengal in an exceptional situation where the Election Commission has failed to intervene to rectify the situation from the third to the fifth round of elections when 32 of the 42 seats went to polls.  And this was despite complaints by all parties opposing the TMC, including BJP and Congress.” “The widespread rigging, violence and intimidation targeting the Left Front in these elections has led to a distorted result which does not reflect the popular support for the CPI(M) and the front,” Karat said.  Overall, he said the people had voted for a change and against the Congress-led UPA government whose policies led to price rise, agrarian distress and corruption.  “This negative vote was taken advantage of by the BJP.” “We too worked for the rejection of the Congress but I can’t say we are happy with the outcome,” Karat said.  In a similar vein, CPI National Secretary D Raja said BJP had taken full advantage of the anger of the people against Congress and its policies on one hand and the “complete absence” of a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative in the Lok Sabha polls.  “It is a big setback for the Left, which has to do a serious introspection, reinvent itself and rework its strategy for the coming days,” Raja said.

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BJD ahead in 112 Assembly seats,

16052014

BJD ahead in 112 Assembly seats, BJP, Cong far behind in Odisha

Naveen Patnaik on Friday appeared set to retain power for a fourth consecutive term in Odisha with BJD surging ahead in 112 of the 147 assembly seats with counting in progress.

Congress, which was leading in 22 seats an hour ago, was now leading in 18 seats followed by BJP in 12.  Patnaik, the Odisha Chief Minister, was leading in Hinjili by over 27,000 votes, while BJD’s Mayadhar Jena was ahead of OPCC president Jaydev Jena by 16,357 votes.  Two ministers Usha Devi and Ramesh Majhi and BJP state President K V Singhdeo, who were trailing, were now leading.  Usha Devi was now leading by 16,232 votes over her nearest Congress rival Manoranjan Dyan Samantray and Ramesh Majhi by 6855 votes.  K V Singhdeo, facing strong opposition from BJD’s Prakruti Devi, was back on the track with a lead of 793 votes.  Finance minister Prasanna Acharya, however, was trailing by 3001 votes behind his Congress rival Subal Sahu and school and mass education minister Rabi Narayan Nanda by 3800 votes behind his Congress rival Tara Prasad Bahinipati.  Also trailing were BJD leader and former minister A U Singhdeo (Balangir), former speaker and BJD leader Kishore Mohanty, Hema Gamang and Anup Sai, who quit Congress and joined BJD recently.  Congress leaders Lalatanedu Bidyadhar Mohapatra (Brahmagiri) and Chiranjibi Biswal, besides BJPLP leader Jay Narayan Mishra were also trailing. Congress chief whip and senior leader Prasad Harichandan was pushed to the third place in the Satyabadi seat behind BJD’s R R Baliarsingh and independent candidate Uma Samantray.  BJP candidate Bijay Mohapatra was trailing by 3884 votes behind his BJD rival Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak at Mahakalpada, while Manmohan Samal, former state unit president of the party Manmohan Samal was also trailing at Chandabali.  Its candidate Dilip Ray was leading in Rourkela. Ama Odisha Party leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the son-in-law of Assam Governor J B Patnaik, was leading in Khandapada and Samata Kranti Dal nominee was leading in one seat, while independents were ahead in two places.

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 BJP Mission 272 accomplished Modi seeks mother blessing  

16052014

Modi the phenomenal  all set to become the next Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on Friday first assignment was to meet his mother to seek her blessings.

Modi, 63, bowed down before his mother Hiraba, who blessed him by putting both his hands on him, as the trends pointed to a clear win for the saffron party in Lok Sabha polls.”He has my blessings and he will lead the country towards development,” she said, when asked to comment on the counting trends.

The BJP Prime Ministerial candidate also sat with the family members and talked to his mother, who is staying with her other son Pankaj Modi in Gandhinagar.

He was also seen talking to the children of his brother’s family.

Hiraba also prayed to the lord this morning to make his son prime minister and poured holy water looking towards the sun, shortly before the initial trends of counting of votes poured.

Modi’s mother had also used her right to franchise from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, from where veteran BJP leader L K Advani is contesting.

Earlier, before filing his nomination papers from Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency, Modi had sought blessings of his mother.

 BJP has decimated  INC for the first time 2014.Congress leaders have conceded defeat and their tally will be record low  surpassing of LS Election 99 in which INC won 114 seats. 

Addressing e channels the  BJP patriarch L K Advani on Friday congratulated Narendra Modi but apparently did not give full credit to him saying it needs to be assessed as to what contribution his leadership has made to the party’s unprecedented victory.
BJP patriarch, who has not shared the best of relations with Modi in the past, called up the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate as soon as it became clear that the party was headed for a clear majority of its own in the Lok Sabha polls.An emotional Advani, who visited the party headquarters here to be part of the celebrations, told reporters that the country had never witnessed such an election in its history. He termed the BJP’s victory as a result of mainly the people’s anger against corruption, misgovernance and dynastic rule and asked those in politics to draw lessons from the results.

Refusing to entertain any questions, he said, “We won in places where we had never won in the past. Amid all these things, people who are in power in government and those who are in politics should also collectively analyse this result and take lesson.”

Appearing reluctant to give entire credit to Modi for the party’s historic performance, Advani said, “In this victory, the contribution of Modi’s leadership, RSS and other organisations like the BJP, has to be analysed. But today’s result mainly is against corruption, misgovernance and dynstic rule.”

He said he is very happy with the results and feels that there should be a deeper analysis of why the party got this kind of a mandate.

 Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and  top BJP leaders were far ahead in their respective constituencies but majority of their Congress counterparts trailing except Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Kamal Nath, Amrinder Singh thus paving way for saffron party-led NDA  is all set to get a majority in the lower house with brute majority as per the initial trends.

Recording its best ever performance in its 34-year existence, the BJP on its own was leading in 276 seats, three more than the required half-way mark in the 543-member House, while its allies were ahead in 49 seats.The  leads for various constituencies  trickle in, all its top leaders were ahead in the race, barring Arun Jaitley, who was trailing in Amritsar by over 57,500 votes.

VIP constituency of  Vadodra  in Gujarat, Modi was marching  ahead of his nearest Congress rival Madhusudan Mistry by a margin of over 5.60 lakh votes, while he was leading in Varanasi by a margin of around 69,000 votes.Congress President Sonia Gandhi was leading in Rae Bareli by a margin of around 1,39,000 votes from BJP’s Ajay Agarwal, while party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was leading in Amethi by a margin of 9,500 votes against his nearest BJP rival Smriti Irani.BJP President Rajnath Singh was leading in Lucknow by a margin of 35,000 votes from his nearest Congress rival Rita Bahuguna Joshi.  Gandhinagar, BJP’s L K Advani was leading by a margin of over 88,000 votes from his nearest Congress rival Kiritbhai Patel. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid was trailing on the fifth spot even behind the independent candidate in Farrukhabad seat.

The Samajwadi Party is leading on seven seats with party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav leading from Mainpuri and Azamgarh by 1,37,013 and 18577 votes respectively.

His daugter-in-law, Dimple Yadav is leading Kannauj by 25,124 over her nearest rival Subrat Pathak of BJP.

Yadav’s nephew Akshay Yadav is leading by 9247 votes from Firozabad while another nephew Dharmedra Yadav is leading by 22,773 from Badaun. BJP’s young face Varun Gandhi is leading from Sultanpur while his mother Maneka Gandhi is leading from Pilibhit with a comfortable margin of over 90,000 votes.

Murli Manohar Joshi was leading by a margin of 72,000 votes against his nearest Congress rival Shriprakash Jaiswal in Kanpur.

BJP’s Uma Bharti was leading by 40,000 votes against her nearest Samajwadi Party rival Chandrapal Yadav.

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav was leading in Mainpuri by a margin of 1,37,000 votes against his nearest BJP rival Shatrughan Chauhan.

He was also leading by 18,500 votes in Azamgarh from his nearest BJP rival Ramakant Yadav, after initially trailing at third place.

SP’s Dimple Yadav, wife of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was leading by 23,60 votes in Kannauj against her nearest BJP rival Subrat Pathak.

Mathura, BJP’s Hema Malini was leading by 82,600 votes against her nearest RLD rival Jayanat Chaudhary.

reports from Pilibhit, BJP’s Maneka Gandhi was leading by 79,500 votes and her son Varun Gandhi was leading by over 56,500 votes in Sultanpur.
Ruling Naga People’s Front nominee and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio is set to be the lone representative of the state to the lower house of Parliament.
Rio polled 61,4979 votes, leading by 3,56,314 votes over his nearest Congress rival KV Pusa, according to trends available.

This will be the third straight win for the ruling Naga People’s Front, as it had also won the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls in the state.

In 2009, NPF candidate CM Chang won against Congress’ K Asungba Sangtam by a 4.83 lakh votes, setting the highest record margin in the country.

Nagaland Congress President SI Jamir told reporters “We cannot expect a good result on our party.
M Karunanidhi-led DMK on Friday headed for a rout in Tamil Nadu as its arch rival AIADMK was well set for a clean sweep, surging ahead in 35 seats out of 39 seats.
The spectacular performance by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s party in the hustings also decimated a deserted Congress and shattered what was described as a “formidable” six-party alliance stitched by BJP to gain foothold in this southern state.

The outcome of the election was the worst ever for DMK after 1998 when it had won five seats when the party-led United Front ended up with a tally of nine facing crushing defeat at the hands of AIADMK-led NDA that scored 30 seats.

DMK bigwigs and 2G accused Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai) and A Raja (Nilgiris-SC) and T R Baalu (Thanjavur) conceded enough ground to their AIADMK rivals, virtually ruling out a comeback in the subsequent rounds of counting.

The trends have come as a jolt to the four-decade old party, which faced internal rumblings leading to the expulsion of former Union minister and Karunanidhi’s elder son M K Alagiri, who had openly campaigned against the party nominees.

DMK was aiming to convert a perceived anti-incumbency into votes in the backdrop of power cuts and drinking water shortage but it was ‘Amma’ all the way.

According to counting trends available for 37 seats at 12 noon, AIADMK was leading in 35 seats including those perceived to be DMK turfs while PMK and BJP were ahead in one constituency each.

Congress, forced to face polls alone with no takers for an alliance, put up some semblance of fight only in Kanyakumari where the fortunes fluctuated between it and BJP before the saffron party shot into the lead.

PMK’s Anbumani Ramadoss was leading in Dharmapuri, bringing cheers to BJP alliance partners.

However, BJP’s allies – DMDK, PMK, MDMK and KDMK – seemed to be swept away in the ‘Lady Wave,’ as an AIADMK leader put it, although Jayalalithaa’s national ambitions seem to have been cut short by BJP’s good show across the country.

Union Territory of Puducherry saw a reversal as Union Minister of State V Narayanasamy trailed by over 6,000 votes behind his nearest ruling AINRC rival R Radhakrishnan after leading in the initial rounds.

Narayanasamy had taken a lead of about 9,000 votes initially but conceded ground later.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today congratulated Narendra Modi on his party’s massive victory in the Indian general election and invited him on a state visit.
Rajapaksa telephoned Modi to congratulate him on his resounding victory and extended an invitation to the BJP prime ministerial candidate to visit the island-nation, President’s spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said.The BJP win was welcomed in Sri Lanka as the Rajapaksa government’s relations with the Congress Party led-UPA government had soured over the years.The Congress government had backed two UN Human Rights Council resolutions against Sri Lanka while it abstained from voting during the US-backed resolution in March.

Leading commentator Dayan Jayathilaka said the BJP victory would lead the India-Lanka relations into a decisive phase.

Jayathilaka, a former Sri Lankan diplomat, said Rajapaksa needs to develop a close friendship with Modi. “Modi-Mahinda (Rajapaksa) friendship will be the key to all this,” Jayathilaka said.

“There are similarities in Modi’s and Mahinda’s political discourses. Both have a nationalist flavour in their political approaches.”

He, however, warned there will be forces who would want to create wedge between the two leaders.

He hinted that Modi might be more assertive towards Sri Lanka than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Singh.

“This is why I say the BJP victory is decisive for Sri Lanka. It all depends as to how our President will be able to cultivate a friendship with Prime Minister Modi and move ahead.”
Mr Pramoud Rao MD, Zicom electronic Security Systems Ltd

or ten long years was feeling jailed. With the fab election results, feeling liberated and positive, from gloom to dhoom, happy days are here again. We hope to live in good governance, Clear business scopes and admirable environment.  Get Set India, we are back in business.

Media agencies

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Kidnapped Nigerian girls are just the tip of the iceberg

16052014

From: “Tad Stahnke, Human Rights First”  Thu, 15 May ’14 11:02p

To: Nksagar@rediffmail.com

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Dear Naresh: American military and intelligence advisors are helping to search for the more than 200 missing Nigerian school girls taken by Boko Haram terrorists. It is important for the United States to assist in the effort to rescue the girls, whose families are awaiting news about their whereabouts. Rumors have indicated that some or all of them may be taken across Nigeria’s borders to Cameroon or Chad, where the rule of law is even weaker. As the United States assists Nigeria in this effort, it should also address the root causes of the crisis. Economic desperation and human rights abuses committed by Nigerian security forces have fueled the rise of Boko Haram. Urge Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to address the underlying causes of violence and extremism in Nigeria. Evidence is mounting that the Nigerian government failed to act on warnings that the kidnapping was planned. It is all too clear that corruption, poor training and a lack of concern for civilians contributed to the current crisis. Today, senior administration officials testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to answer questions about what the U.S. is doing to help. Now the administration needs to double down on how it plans to help Nigeria confront the root causes of terrorism. Urge Secretary Hagel to address the underlying causes of violence and extremism in Nigeria. Sincerely, Tad Stahnke Human Rights First

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April 2014 WPI inflation declines to 5.2%

15052014

Driven by the decline in the prices of vegetables, cereals, wheat, milk, egg, meat and fish and fuel and power the WPI inflation declined to 5.2% (Y-O-Y) for the month of April 2014 as compared to 5.7% (Y-O-Y) for the month of March 2014. The Index for Wholesale Prices for the month of April 2014 rose by 0.2% to 180.2 from 179.8 for the previous month.

  Trend in WPI inflation since April 2011                                                                                            (Y-O-Y %)

                                                     

Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the office of the economic advisor to the Govt. of India

    WPI inflation in select commodities

Commodity		WPI Inflation Y-o-Y % growth
		Feb’14	Mar’14	Apr’14
1	All Commodities	5.03	5.70	5.20
2	Primary Articles	6.28	7.66	7.06
3	Food Articles	7.94	9.90	8.64
4	Cereals	9.22	8.85	8.31
5	Vegetables	2.38	8.57	1.34
6	Non-food Articles	5.46	4.62	3.15
7	Fuel & Power	8.75	11.22	8.93
8	Petrol	6.60	5.91	7.77
9	Manufactured Products	3.36	3.23	3.15
10	Sugar	(-)6.67	(-) 4.48	(-) 1.72
11	Edible oils	(-)1.54	0.07	(-) 0.54
12	Cement & Lime	(‐)2.65	(‐) 4.00	(-) 3.27

  Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the office of the Economic Advisor to the Govt. of India

The build up in inflation in the financial year (April 2014) stands at 0.22% as compared to a build up of 0.71% in the corresponding period of the previous year. Buildup in WPI inflation has declined due to increase in the prices of vegetables, milk, cereals, fuel and power etc.

   Build up in inflation from March in select food commodities                             (%)

 Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the office of the Economic Advisor, Govt. of India

Manufacturing inflation stands at 3.15% (weight 64.97%)

The WPI inflation for manufactured products stands at 3.15% for the month of April 2014 as against 3.23% in March 2014. The index for this major group rose by 0.2% to 153.8 from 153.5 for the previous month.

    Trend in WPI inflation in manufactured products   (in %)

Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the office of the Economic Advisor

Food inflation declines to 8.64% (Weight 14.34%)

Food inflation for the month of April 2014 has declined to 8.64% from 9.9% for the month of March 2014, on account of decrease in the prices of vegetables, cereals, wheat, milk and egg, meat & fish.

  Pattern of food inflation                                                (Y-o-Y %)                                       Food articles Index since Apr 2011  

    

Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the office of the Economic Advisor, Govt. of India

The index for Food Articles group rose by 1.5% to  238.8 from 235.3 for the previous month due to higher price of tea (12%), fruits & vegetables and poultry chicken (7% each), masur and moong (3% each), pork (2%) and ragi, jowar, rice, mutton, bajra and condiments & spices (1% each). However, the price of egg (10%), fish-inland (5%), barley (4%), wheat (2%) and fish-marine and maize (1% each) have declined.

Non-food articles inflation declines to 3.15% (weight 4.26%)

The rate of inflation for non-food articles for the month of April 2014 stands at 3.15% as compared to 4.62% for the previous month. The index for Non-Food Articles group declined by 0.4% to 216.3 from 217.2 for the previous month due to lower price of fodder (6%), raw rubber (4%), raw silk (3%), castor seed, raw cotton and flowers (2 % each) and rape & mustard seed, guar seed, cotton seed and sunflower (1% each). However, the price of copra (coconut) (14%), niger seed and raw jute (3% each), soyabean (2%) and groundnut seed and logs & timber (1% each) moved up.

Fuel & power inflation declines to 8.93% (weight 14.91%)

The rate of inflation for fuel and power for the month of April 2014 stands at 8.93% as compared to 11.22% for the previous month. The index for this major group declined by 1% to 211.0 from 213.1 for the previous month due to lower prices of aviation turbine fuel and furnace oil (4% each), LPG and petrol (2% each) and kerosene and bitumen (1% each).

Warm regards,

Dr. S P Sharma

Chief Economist