MIM may abstain from Prez poll
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) is still undecided on supporting Congress’ joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar in the Presidential poll, scheduled for 17 July. Sources in the MIM told The Sunday Guardian that the party might abstain from the election to prove that it is equidistant from both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress.
MIM’s senior leaders are meeting in Hyderabad on Sunday, 16 July, to discuss the issue and take a decision on the Presidential election. MIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi will chair the meeting where all its seven MLAs will be present. The Muslim minority dominated party has two MLAs in Maharashtra. An MIM legislator, who preferred anonymity, told this newspaper that the party had supported neither A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, NDA candidate Uttar Pradesh Assembly, an official said. Officials informed IANS that the NIA team arrived here late on Friday and was immediately briefed about the case.
The NIA officials, other than visiting the spot where the PETN explosive was discovered on Thursday evening, were also likely to grill the security staff and agencies of the state police responsible for security of the Vidhan Sabha.
The NIA team would question the House marshals and other security staff along with janitors and others who have access to the exclusive area, near the seat for the 20012 presidential polls, nor the Left’s Laksmi Sehgal, and had instead abstained from voting. In 2007, the MIM had not supported UPA candidate Pratibha Patil over issues with her remarks against Muslim women.
If MIM abstains from the Presidential poll, it may not cause any major damage to Meira Kumar, but it could be a setback to the Congress which is trying to sew up a grand “secular” alliance against the ruling BJP-led NDA coalition. This also re- of the Leader of Opposition. The PETN found in the Assembly has been sent for further forensic testing, officials said.
Meanwhile, a thorough check in the Assembly by Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) sleuths found some more white powder, but police denied it was another explosive. Inspector General of Police, ATS, Aseem Arun denied claims in some sections of the media that another explosive had been discovered, while police identified the powder as magnesium sulphate, which is used as a drying agent in plastic packaging industry. flects the failure on the part of the Congress leadership in reaching out to the MIM.
The MIM’s absence will also help widen the votegap between the BJP’s Ram Nath Kovind and Meira Kumar in Telangana. TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is keen on ensuring Kovind’s resounding victory from Telangana. Former Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumanth Rao expressed doubt that the MIM might be trying to please the ruling TRS by snubbing Meira Kumar.
An official told IANS that some packets of paan masala and “khaini” were found in the House, and had probably been kept by lawmakers for their consumption. Though this had nothing to scare the security agencies, it left the political fraternity red-faced as consumption of “paan masala” is banned in public by the Yogi Adityanath government.
Investigators are poring during through CCTV footage to zero in on the person who could have planted the explosive. The NIA went through the CCTV footage, but denied they had questioned any legislator. The whistleblower in the Sanjay Narang property case in the Landour cantonment area of Mussoorie has been served a notice by Narang, raising serious questions regarding the government’s onus to maintain confidentiality of such complainants, who have often been attacked.
Narang has served a notice to Y. Ashok Babu, estate officer of the Institute of Technology Management (ITM), which is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), asking him “to either substantiate with evidence the allegations made by you, or to unconditionally withdraw these allegations within seven days, failing which I reserve my