The Madhya Pradesh Congress unit has decided to organise statewide protest demonstrations on February 14 to express solidarity with party MLA Kalpana Parulekar, who was arrested last week from her Assembly constituency Mahidpur in Ujjain district on the charge that she had morphed the photograph of MP Lokayukta P.P. Naolekar to convey the message that he had close links with the RSS. State Congress unit chief spokesman Manak Agrawal said the party’s decision to launch a protest in support of Ms Parulekar has been taken after a high-level discussion between general secretary in-charge of MP B.K. Hariprasad, state party chief Kantilal Bhuria and Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh.
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BSP, BJP, SP trying to deceive people: Sonia
Allahabad/Unnao, Feb. 8: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that the BJP, SP and the BSP were trying to hoodwink people by pretending to attack each other for electoral gains in Uttar Pradesh though they had all shared power and ruled the state without any sincerity of purpose. “Comparing today’s UP with what it used to be 22 years ago brings to one’s notice lots of unwelcome changes,” she told an election rally in Allahabad. “Parties, which had ruled the state during this period, have done so without any sincerity of purpose and they are responsible for the general deterioration, lawlessness and corruption,” Mrs Gandhi said. — PTI
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Bardhan calls for strong Left unity
Kollam (Kerala), Feb. 8: CPI leader A.B. Bardhan on Wednesday said it is vitally important to strengthen the unity of the Left to build a strong alternative to Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party “to save the country.”
Alluding to the spat between CPI(M) and CPI in Kerala, he said the Left should not lose sight of this principal aim by indulging in mutual acrimony and blowing minor differences out of proportion.
“Let us ignore all this. These are not the subjects for our discussion. We are assembling to discuss how a strong alternative can be built to save the country from the neoliberal policies and corruption they have bred,” the veteran leader said in his opening address to the 21st state conference of the CPI here.
— PTI
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No criminal case as 3 mantris have immunity
Bala Chauhan
Bengaluru, Feb. 8
But for the immunity that elected representatives enjoy inside the Legislative Assembly and Council, the three former BJP ministers —Laxman Savadi, C.C. Patil Krishna Palemar — could have been charged with criminal offence under the Information Technology Act for transmitting pornography on a mobile phone. Mr Savadi, former minister for cooperation, alleged that Mr Palemar, the former minister for ports and environment, had forwarded him the pornographic MMS clipping from his cellphone, making Mr Palemar culpable under Section 67 of the IT Act. A senior police officer said the police cannot register a criminal complaint against the three former ministers because the alleged act took place inside the Assembly.