By Kajol Singh | INNLIVE
HUMAN INTEREST Shop owner K Padmarajan doesn't feel like a loser. In fact, he sees much to celebrate in the 158 times he has stood for public office and failed. Starting out in 1988, he had a point to prove -- to those who laughed at the ambitions of a man who repaired tyres for a living and to the cynics who scorned Indian democracy with all its flaws and inefficiencies.
"Back then, I owned a cycle puncture repair shop and a thought struck me that I, an ordinary man with an ordinary income and no special status in society, could contest the elections," he told INNLIVE.
By Shagufta Khanam | Islamabad
SHOCKING The Pakistani government cut off the electricity supply to several major official buildings for non-payment of bills, including Parliament, the prime minister’s offices and the president’s official residence.
Pakistan is blighted by rolling power cuts, caused in part by people not paying their bills, with government offices among the worst offenders.
Ordinary people struggle without electricity for 12 to 18 hours a day in the blistering heat of summer, but up to now little action has been taken against recalcitrant bureaucrats working in air-conditioned offices.
By Saleh Sulaiman | Dubai
EXCLUSIVE An Al Qaeda member on trial in a US military court over the bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000 allegedly plotted other attacks on western targets in Dubai, Saudi and Qatar, a court document shows.
Abd Al Rahim Al Nashiri, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent, is accused of masterminding the attack on the USS Cole and is alleged to have led cells in Qatar, Saudi, the UAE and Yemen as Al Qaeda’s operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula.
By M H Ahssan | INNLIVE
ANALYSIS There has always been a pattern in the elections in Andhra Pradesh ever since the advent of the Telugu Desam Party in 1983. An iconic leader or an emotive issue has always driven the voting pattern in the state.
Facing the assembly elections this time, the TRS has a unique combination of both. It has the leader - K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is being projected as its chief ministerial candidate - as well as the emotional issue of Telangana.
The Congress, on the other hand, doesn’t have one leader who can be projected as its chief minister candidate, though the party is trying to claim credit for the creation of Telangana.
By Rajinder Puri | Delhi
OPINION While Mercury across the length and breadth of the country is soaring up, the histrionics of the political parties and their key leaders is also showing a rising graph. It’s a season of pledges, speeches and rhetoric which electorate of this great land experiences every five years. Perhaps this is the only time when the common man has opportunity and due importance to adjudge the candidates in the election fray, if they are well intentioned and speaking truth or simply playing to the gallery.
First it was BJP Bihar MLA Giriraj Singh. Next it was Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia. Latest it was Shiv Sena MLC Ramdas Kadam. All three made virulent hate speeches against Muslims and Pakistan. Kadam made his hate speech while BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was sharing the stage with him. Kadam told the public rally that when Modi becomes Prime Minister he will “destroy Pakistan within six months of assuming power”.
By M H Ahssan | INNLIVE
EDITORIAL In an interesting development, senior Congress leader and political secretary to Sonia Gandhi Ahmed Patel has hinted that Congress might consider lending support to a non-BJP coalition after the Lok Sabha polls.
This amounts to a tacit admission that Congress believes it might not be in a position to lead a grand alliance after the results are out on May 16. It also suggests that Congress is looking at a scenario similar to that in 1996 when it had propped up the United Front government.
Congress’s track record of propping up Third Front governments has been extremely lacklustre.
By Likha Veer | INNLIVE
With a hung Assembly appearing to be a possibility in Telangana, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Congress have begun exploring various avenues of together forming the first government in the new state even before the votes have been cast.
On the ground though, leaders of the two parties are at daggers drawn. TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has spared no opportunity to hit out at the Congress and leaders of the grand old party have also been describing KCR as a ‘betrayer’ and ‘backstabber’ in the course of the campaign.
By Ramesh Reddy | INNLIVE
Today is April 30, 2014 a big day for 2.81 crore voters in new Telangana state as they exercise their franchise for electing the first government of the new state that will formally come into existence on June 2.
The voters, including 1.37 crore women, will decide the political fate of 1669 candidates contesting for 119 Assembly seats in the region, as also 265 candidates for 17 LS seats.
Congress andTelangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) are the main contenders for power in what will be the 29th state of Indian Union.
