Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!remus.rutgers.edu!shakti.ernet.in!ramani From: ramani@shakti.ernet.in Newsgroups: misc.news.southasia Subject: India News Message-ID: Date: 20 Jun 91 20:56:09 GMT Sender: gaddam@remus.rutgers.edu Lines: 239 Approved: gaddam@remus.rutgers.edu =============================================================== Newdel Rao-profile two Mr Rao started his political career as a Congress activist during the freedom movement in the erstwhie Hyderabad state. He was the general secretary of the Hyderabad state Congress committee and became its vice-president in 1956. He was elected to the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly for the first time in 1957 from manthani constituency in karimNagar district. He held a wide range of Ministerial posts during the two decades he served in the legislature. This included a two-year tenure as chief minsiter from 1971 to 1973 when he succeeded Congress stalwart, Mr brahmananda reddy. While implementing a number of revolutionary measures including his land reforMs policy as the Chief Minister, he saw to it that in the 1972 assembly elections nearly 75 per cent of the Congress tickets were given to candidates from the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes. These measures won for the party an impressive number of 220 seats in an assembly of 270. Newdel Cong(I)-leader 4 Mr Rao became the consensus choice of the party for the top parliamentary post after two days of hectic lobbying and confabulations at various levels in the party. A section of the party members, owing allegiance to the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr sharad pawar, had demanded a secret ballot to decide the leadership issue even as Mr pawar had thrown his hat in the ring. To counter the demand, the supporters of Mr Rao had advocated the concept of the consensus, which they felt was necessary for keeping the unity of the party. Cong(I)-leader 5 a meeting of the central parliamentary board was held here late last night to resolve the issue of procedure of selection of the parliamentary party leader in the wake of an assertion by Mr suresh kalmadi, mp, a close associate of mr pawar, that the demand for secret ballot was gaining ground. The parliamentary board meeting, which was also attended by Mr pawar and five other party Chief Ministers as special invitees, unanimously decided to ask senior party leaders Mr k. Karunakaran and Mr s.S. Ray to ascertain the views of the members in the matter today. Even as the two leaders were in the process of ascertaining the views of party members, Mr pawar called on the party president, Mr Rao, to extend him his support to facilitate the unanimous election of the leader. Newdel Cong(I)-leader 6 In a letter to the President, Mr R.Venkataraman, the secretary of the Congress(I) parliamentary party, Mr t.Chandra shekhara reddy, informed him that Mr Narasimha Rao was unanimously declared elected leader of the parliamentary party. He said the mps of both houses met this evening and elected Mr Narasimha Rao. Newdel Rao-profile three Mr Rao moved to Delhi as aicc general secretary in 1975 and continued in that position till 1976. During that period, he played a key role in drafting the political, economic and foreign policy resolutions for the aicc session at kamagatur Nagar in Chandigarh. In the 1977 general elections, he was one of the few Congress heavy weights to withstand the Janata 'wave' and enter the Lok Sabha. He was elected from the hanmakonda lok Sabha constituency. Since then Mr Rao has held several important Ministerial posts, including the defence, external affairs, home and hUman resource development portfolios at the centre. An accomplished linguist fluent in many languages, Mr Rao was made the Minister for external affairs in the Indira Gandhi cabinet when the Congress-icame back to power in 1980. He was moved to the ministry of home affairs in july 1984, a month after the +operation bluestar+. He continued in that post till Mr Rajiv Gandhi constituted his cabinet after the party's victory in the eighth Lok Sabha elections in december 1984. Newdel Rao-profile four last Mr Rao first served as the union Minister for defence in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet before he was given the hUman resource development portfolio. He headed the newly formed ministry of hUman resource development, a synthesis of several ministries. In June 1988, Mr Rao was shifted to the ministry of external affairs and held the post till the Congress-iwas voted out of power in the 1989 general elections. A versatile personality, Mr Rao is a recipient of 'sahitya ratna' degree in hindi literature and is actively associated with the +dakshin Bharat hindi prashar Sabha.+ As a lawyer, hr participated in the vandemataram movement in the erstwhile Hyderabad state under the leadership of swami ramananda tirth. Author of many fictions in hindi, marathi and telugu, Mr Rao has been the chairman of the telugu academy. He has also translated many books into telugu and hindi. End of First Article ================================================================ Calcutta ======== Calcutta, June 20: PTI: following is the final party position in 294-member west Bengal legislative assembly : total seats : 294 declared : 294 C.P.M. -- 182 R.S.P. -- 18 F.B.L. -- 29 C.P.I. -- 6 S.P. -- 4 D.S.P. -- 2 M.F.B. -- 2 R.C.P.I. -- 1 (Left front's total 244) i.N.C. -- 43 S.U.C. -- 2 G.N.L.F. -- 3 Jharkhand -- 1 j.D. -- 1 End of Second Article ================================================================ Pawar not moving to centre New Delhi, June 20 the maharasthra Chief Minister Mr sharad pawar who opted out of the contest for the Congress (I) parliamentary party leadership today said he has no intention of coming over to the centre and would prefer to remain in his home state. +My home is Bombay. I am happy there+, he told newsmen as he arrived in the central hall of parliament to attend the cpp(I) meeting which elected Mr p v narasimha Rao as leader. Asked if his name was considered at any stage for the post of deputy PrimeMinister, Mr pawar said he was strongly opposed to the concept of deputy PrimeMinister. +My advice to Mr Rao is--dont create the post of deputy PrimeMinister. There should not be two centres of power+, he said. Newdel Rao-pawar 2 Mr pawar said he had always discouraged moves to create the deputy Chief Minister's post in maharaSthra. +I am not a davedar (claimant) for the organisational post either+, he replied when asked if he would succeed Mr narasimha Rao as the Congress (I) president. Mr pawar said if mr narasimha Rao wanted he would be too happy to offer a Lok Sabha seat to him from maharasthra. Mr Rao, who had opted out of the last Lok Sabha election, had represented ramtek Lok Sabha constituency in maharasthra twice. Question: were you a candidate for the leader's post ?. Mr pawar: i am happy as Chief Minister. Question: will you prefer to come to the centre?. Mr pawar: nobody has invited me to come to Delhi. Asked if he would continue as Chief Minister of maharasthra, Mr pawar quipped: +nobody has told me that i should not continue+. Lucknow state-position up 1800 hrs lucknow, jun 20 following is the party position for the assembly at 1800hrs state: Uttar Pradesh seats: 425 declared :400 (countermanded-21) party contested won leading trailing 1. BJP 422 209 2. JD 385 90 3. Inc 424 45 4. SJP 414 30 5. Bsp 389 12 6. CPI 042 04 7. Others 10 poll-notification ec notification to cover 502 of 511 ls constituencies New Delhi, June 20 () the election commission today cleared 502 of the 511 parliamentary constituencies for inclusion in the notification constituting the tenth Lok Sabha. The chief election commissioner Mr T N Seshan told newsmen here that the due constitution notification will be issued later today and may exclude nine seats for which results were not not yet ready. The constituencies whose results are yet to be declared are: gauhati(assam), banka, sasaram and bikramganj (bihar) and salempur(u.P.). While counting was still on in guwahati, salempur and banka, the results in sasaram and bikramganj had been held up because of an embargo by the commission which had now been lifted. End of Third Article ============================================================== Edited to suit the needs of MNS ==============================================================