Spectrum scam is Jayalalithaa's return ticket in Tamil Nadu: Opinion poll

Piggybacking on corruption and price rise issues, the Amma of Poes Garden will ride back to power in Tamil Nadu in the ensuing assembly elections. The grand alliance, stitched together byAIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa, is expected to bag 164 out of 234 seats and send chief minister M. Karunanidhi's DMK-led coalition packing.

These are the findings of the Mail Today-India Today-Headlines Today-Aaj Tak-ORG opinion poll. According to the survey, the AIADMK alliance - which has the CPM, CPI and DMDK as its members - will get 50 per cent of the total votes polled. The poll shows there is a decisive distance of 5 per cent votes between Amma's alliance and the DMK-led coalition.

The projection for the DMK alliance stands at 68. It's a near complete reversal from 2006, when the AIADMK had managed 69 seats, while the DMK combine had bagged 163. The result clearly goes to show how Jayalalithaa has understood the virtues of stitching the right coalition to maximise electoral gains.

Unsurprisingly, graft - particularly the 2G spectrum allocation mega scam - is likely to be the thorn in the DMK's side. As many as 50.5 per cent voters believe corruption is a significant issue in these elections. When asked whether they understand the 2G scam involving DMK leader A. Raja, 50.5 per cent respondents have said they are aware of it.

Price rise is the main issue for a big 59.3 per cent chunk of the respondents. Over 43 per cent of the voters have highlighted basic necessities such as electricity, roads and water as a crucial deciding factor. Unemployment, too, will impact the decision of 37.5 per cent of the electorate. The majority of

the people are also unhappy with the way the DMK has handled the killing of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.

The survey predicts that the DMK alliance - which also includes the Congress, PMK, VCK and IUML - will get a vote share of 45 per cent.

In another interesting result, 39.3 per cent of the respondents feel the DMK patriarch is more corrupt than Amma. When asked if they will favour a change of guard in the state, almost 51 per cent have responded in the affirmative.

While 36.1 per cent of the voters back Opposition leader Jayalalithaa as the next CM, 34.1 per cent favour the continuation of Karunanidhi.

Though Karunanidhi wants his son and deputy CM M.K. Stalin as his successor, only 3.5% of the respondents want the latter to be assigned the top post. Just 24 respondents (0.6 per cent) want Union home minister P. Chidambaram as their next CM.

Film star Vijaykant's DMDK, which contested the 2006 assembly polls and 2009 Lok Sabha elections alone, will get the vote of 11.3 per cent respondents.

Just 1.3 per cent of the electorate would have voted for the MDMK, which has decided not to contest following differences with the AIADMK.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/133975/top-stories/spectrum-scam-is-jayalalithaas-return-ticket-in-tamil-nadu-opinion-poll.html

DMK minister's assets rose 780 times in 5 years

CHENNAI: In five years of DMK rule, a state minister has multiplied his assets 780 times. At least that's what the official figures show. 

Tamil Nadu food minister EV Velu, contesting from Tiruvannamalai assembly segment, declared at the time of the 2006 assembly polls that his assets were worth around Rs one lakh. Apart from a 1.1-acre agricultural plot in Pinjur village worth Rs 60,000, Velu had shown cash deposits of Rs 25,000 and jewellery worth Rs 15,000 five years ago. As per his affidavit, his wife did not own any assets then. 

Now, five years later, the affidavit filed by Velu on Monday shows his assets have multiplied in every form - land, buildings, jewellery and cash deposits. The 60-year-old minister and his wife are currently worth Rs 7.8 crore. He has bank deposits running into Rs 17.47 lakh, agricultural lands worth Rs 1.75 crore, buildings worth Rs 1.25 crore and a house valued at Rs 4.5 crore. In addition, his wife has jewellery that costs Rs 5.76 lakh and agricultural land worth Rs five lakh. 

Asked about the astronomical rise in his fortunes and the source of income that helped him accumulate assets, Velu told TOI, "My assets have gone up primarily owing to the increase in their market value. The new EC guidelines which seek more information is another reason for my showing more assets. My accounts are audited regularly and I am an income tax assessee (in the 2006 affidavit he claimed that he was not an assessee) for the past 10 years. My main source of income is from agriculture. I can only say that my auditor prepared the asset details." 

The Election Commission of India has made it mandatory for all candidates contesting polls to declare their assets as well as those of their spouses, children and other dependents. State labour minister T M Anbarasan, contesting from Pallavaram assembly segment, has also seen a considerable appreciation in wealth during the five years in the state cabinet. His listed assets have increased in value from Rs 91.49 lakh in 2006 to Rs 4.95 crore in 2011. They include those owned by his wife. One of the additions is a Mitsubishi Pajero, valued at Rs 22.9 lakh. He has also bought two buildings worth Rs 25 lakh at Kundrathur in 2008 while his cash deposits have gone up from Rs 10,866 to Rs 20.6 lakh.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/assembly-elections-2011/tamil-nadu/DMK-ministers-assets-rose-780-times-in-5-years/articleshow/7767604.cms

Assembly polls: Cong's Bengal ambition faces Mamata wall

The assembly elections are turning out to be a big headache for the Congress. The party may have stitched up a seat-sharing deal with their southern partners, theDMK, but trouble looms large on the eastern front.

The Trinamool Congress, the second largest party in the UPA coalition at the Centre, is not keen to part with more seats for the Congress in the six-phase West Bengal elections, which are scheduled to begin from April 18.

The Congress has asked for at least 98 seats in the poll for the 294-member assembly. But, the Trinamool, which has a larger electoral base in the state, is in no mood to relent. The party has offered its senior partner in the UPA just 58 seats, sources said.

Manas Bhunia, the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC), has been camping in New Delhi for the past week. He wants to mobilise the party high command's support to drive a hard bargain with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool.

The two parties have had several rounds of meetings in the Capital over the last three days.

While both parties are keen to iron out differences, sources in the Congress said Bhunia is not happy with Mamata's claim that the Congress should not ask for more than 42 seats since each Lok Sabha constituency includes seven assembly segments.

The WBPCC chief has held meetings with senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, Janardhan Poojary and Pranab Mukherjee. He is also under pressure from senior state Congress leaders, who are demanding at least 120 seats.

Om Prakash Mishra, WBPCC general secretary and spokesperson, said on Tuesday evening, that WBPCC members and Congress MPs from the state held a three-and-a-half-hour long meeting with Shakeel Ahmed where it was resolved that there is need for a broader understanding on the need for an alliance with the Trinamool.

"We also held a meeting on Monday with Poojary, the chairman of the screening committee," Mishra said. "This is the first time the high command is spending so much time in the selection process of candidates." Mamata, who met Mukherjee on Monday, has reportedly told the Congress leadership that her party has widened its electoral base across the length and breadth of the country in the last two years.

The Trinamool chief also reportedly spoke to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday on the issue of seat sharing.

In Kolkata, Mamata's bête noire and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declared war on her party while kicking off the Left Front's election campaign.

Bhattacharjee said the Trinamool's nexus with the Maoists has set an awful example of cheap politics, and is a threat to the country's internal security. "I guarantee that our government is committed to crushing the Maoist uprising in the state," he said on Tuesday afternoon.

"We are the pioneers of land reforms in the country, we have given land to the landless," the CM claimed, adding that it is because of the Left Front's good work that the state was now self sufficient in rice, fish, vegetable and jute production.

Bhattacharjee began the campaign with two public meetings - at his constituency in Jadavpur and at Maheshtala in South 24-Parganas.

"It would be catastrophic for the state if she (Mamata) comes to power," the chief minister said, adding that the railway minister's promises are never implemented.

The chief minister raised doubts about the railway projects Mamata had promised the state in last year's railway Budget. "Have you seen any progress with the railway projects? How can the railway ministry set up industries?" he asked.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/131887/top-stories/congress-trinamool-talk-seat-sharing-for-west-bengal-polls.html

Sonia Gandhi takes exception to DMK brinkmanship

NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday expressed displeasure over DMK's brinkmanship, telling M Karunanidhi's emissaries that the party's behaviour had been discourteous. 

The plainspeak came even as the sides appeared to be clawing towards a pact, though hurdles remain on Congress's demand to pick the constituencies it wants to contest. 

Sources said Sonia expressed her peeve when Union ministers M K Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran visited her late on Monday evening as part of efforts to wrap up the seat-sharing talks which tensed the ties to the point of break-up. 

Sources said the Congress president, while being polite, told her visitors that the talks being held now could have been held earlier. Instead, DMK people chose to go public on the differences, sources quoted Sonia as telling the DMK ministers in a clear reference to DMK's threat to pull out its ministers from the Manmohan Singh government. She underlined to her visitors that Congress had been accommodating DMK's political demands all the while. 

DMK's top decision-making body had on Saturday passed a resolution to pull out of the central government, blaming its decision what it called Congress's desire to push it out of the ruling coalition. 

DMK sources said the Congress chief did not get into the details of seat-sharing, stressing that she was more concerned about coalition courtesies. 

Sonia's decision to meet the two DMK ministers, particularly Alagiri who has been playing hardball, was interpreted as signalling a breakthrough. Although she is not the last word on alliances, she does not get into the nitty-gritties of seats 

Congress likely to scale down seat demand 

That she chose to focus on coalition manners and not on Congress's claims in her meeting with the DMK duo kept the issue hanging. Sources said differences between the two sides had come down to 6 seats. Congress is still sticking to its demand for 63 seats, but indications are that it may agree to scale down the demand. Congress has been insisting to chose the dozen seats that it will contest over and above its share of 48 in 2006 polls.DMK has offered that Congress could choose six of those. 

The evening meeting followed day-long confabulations between the two sides. The ice was broken on Sunday night itself when Congress's troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee established contact with DMK leadership, giving Karunanidhi room to re-engage with Congress. 

Mukherjee contacted Karunanidhi on Monday morning, leading the DMK ministers to put off their plans to pull out of the government. 

The ministers who to visit PMO at 6.30 pm were told by leadership to put off the plan by a day because, Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin claimed in Chennai, Congress had sought more time. 

The six DMK ministers in Manmohan Singh government met in the capital at the residence of Madurai strongman MK Alagiri to hammer out strategy. It was felt that Congress could take six constituencies of its choice while DMK could make that choice for ally in remaining six. Congress too sought one seat more than the tally of 60 to keep its pride intact in the bare knuckle bargaining. 

The DMK patriarch, controlling manoeuvres from Chennai, found his son Alagiri take the hardline of dumping the Congress but preferred the discretion of his younger son MK Stalin. He nominated textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran as the interlocutor with Congress heads in clear signals that he was keen to salvage the alliance after the Saturday night brinkmanship. 

DMK retained its pride because it was Pranab Mukherjee who reestablished the communication with a latenight call to DMK leadership and followed it up with another on Monday. Karunanidhi tried to impress upon Congress his predicament after delimitation because many of DMK's strong constituencies have got split.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Sonia-Gandhi-takes-exception-to-DMK-brinkmanship/articleshow/7651517.cms

FM may raise tax exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh

NEW DELHI: With an eye on improving the public mood ahead of crucial polls in five states, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee appears set to appease the middle class as well as UPA`s aam aadmi constituency. 

An increase in the income tax exemption limit from Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 2 lakh is expected to be part of Mukherjee`s Union budget speech on Monday. Though the exemption limit is Rs 1.6 lakh, this year, there is an additional benefit of Rs 20,000 for those who invest in infrastructure bonds. 

The benefit available for investment in these bonds is expected to continue though Mukherjee, who will present his third budget in his second innings in finance ministry, is unlikely to heed demands for a Rs 50,000 benefit for investment in these instruments. 

The veteran politician is also likely to announce a debt relief scheme for weavers who draw largely from the Muslim community and are a sizeable constituency in poll-bound Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, besides states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. 

The amnesty may cost the Centre Rs 3,400 crore and would be similar to the Rs 70,000-crore debt waiver scheme for farm loans which is said to have turned the tide for UPA in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. 

Heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi led a party delegation to Mukherjee on the weavers` scheme on Wednesday, lending weight to the demand. His authorship on the relief for minorities is part of an extended campaign for organisational revival in Uttar Pradesh which goes to poll next year. 

That powerloom and handloom weavers are also present in Tamil Nadu, which goes to polls in April, makes the proposed waiver a key election sop. It would be a magnet for the ruling DMK and textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran is learnt to have lobbied hard. 

Tax exemptions on cotton and silk yarns may add to weavers` relief. 

Congress circles are hoping that the budget will help beat down the perception of UPA`s decline, somewhat alleviate the pain of prices and turn people`s attention away from the scams that have eroded the goodwill that the Manmohan Singh regime enjoyed in 2009. 

The goodies will form part of Congress`s political outreach for key social groups in the backdrop of unrest over inflation. 

As per political calculations, the higher exemption limit may help blunt the pressure on the government from middle class which is weighed down by the burden of high inflation, which latest numbers put above 8%. Despite some moderation, food inflation remains above 11% and has upset monthly calculations for most households in the country.

Though the government could lose some revenue due to higher exemptions, the estimate is that higher growth will help rake in more revenue besides keeping fiscal deficit under check. 

Estimates suggest that the economy, despite the burden of higher interest rates and the spike in oil and metal prices, would grow at around 9%, helping the government to stay on course to achieve the fiscal deficit target of 4.8% of GDP

.

Source:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/FM-may-raise-tax-exemption-limit-to-Rs-2-lakh/articleshow/7567189.cms

2G scam: DMK remains silent over Raja's arrest

The DMK has gone into silent mode. The arrest of disgraced telecom minister A. Raja has been a bitter pill for the party to swallow. That it comes barely a day after DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi's return from the Capital, ensuring the alliance with the Congress, has surprised the party rank and file. A gloom has descended on the DMK. None from the party has reacted to the development.

Even Karunanidhi, who had been parotting that action would be taken against Raja if he was found guilty, has chosen to maintain a studied silence.

Though some senior DMK leaders maintain that it is better to face the music now rather during the polls in May, the party had hoped that the arrest would be postponed till the election was over.

What worries the DMK most is how to face the opposition onslaught during the poll campaign, in which the 2G spectrum scam would be a main plank.

The arrest has provided fresh ammunition to the opposition, and especially to AIADMK czarina Jayalalithaa. In private, party functionaries confide that the taint of corruption would certainly affect the party's prospects.

Karunanidhi's visit to the Capital was reportedly to persuade the Congress high command to delay the action against Raja.

But, his hopes were dashed as sources said home minister P. Chidambaram had briefed him about the impending arrest at Tamil Nadu Bhavan on Monday night.

What's more, while his photoop with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was widely publicised, the one with Congress president Sonia Gandhi was conspicuously not. The octogenarian was kept waiting for more than six hours for an audience with Sonia.

The DMK chief and Congress troubleshooters discussed the legal and political fallout of Raja's arrest on the upcoming polls.

Both Congress and DMK leaders maintained that the arrest would not impact their proposed electoral tie-up.

AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said the development would not have any bearing on the relations between the Congress and the DMK.

"It is absolutely no reflection on the alliance. It is continuation of a legal process," AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, adding that no one should mix up legal process and politics.

Already the spectrum scam has created fissures within Karunanidhi's family as everyone is against his daughter, Kanimozhi's, faction. But for her father, she has no one to bank on. Jayalalithaa could not have hoped for much more to take on the DMK as well as the Congress.

Her gameplan is to reinforce the notion that the DMK is corrupt to the core and with the Karunanidhi family holding sway over the party, it serves to build up public opinion. After all, the first time Karunanidhi was dismissed from power was on corruption charges. The patriarch appears rattled by this and also by her charisma to pull huge crowds. If anything, his recent utterances point to his apprehensions of losing power - so much so that he had asked his partymen to remain united or face being thrown out of power.

Source:-http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/128516/top-stories/2g-scam-dmk-remains-silent-over-arrest-of-raja.html