Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday hit back at RSS which accused him of practising “vote bank and communal politics” after RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya published a photograph of him with Sangh leaders. The Congress general secretray clarified that he had attended the Virat Hindu Sammelan in 1997 in Hardwar after seeking the Congress leadership permission. “This virat Hindu sammelan was called by Kanchi seer Sankaracharyaji and I had gone in that conference with the permission of Congress leadership,” said the senior Congress leader.
However, the RSS accused Mr Singh of practising “minority and communal politics.”
“This recent expose of the photograph is the reaffirmation of the age old communal politics that Congress has been indulging in right from the beginning,” RSS leader Ram Madhav said.
Hitting back at the RSS, the senior Congress leader said, “A book has published about Anna Hazare under a publication of RSS. What will you say about it? Has RSS ever written a book praising Digvijay Singh.”
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Punjab, u’khand polls notified
New Delhi, Jan. 5: The process for the January 30 Assembly polls in Punjab and Uttarakhand was set in motion on Thursday with the issuance of notification. With the governors of Punjab and Uttarakhand issuing the notifications, the stage for start of filing of nominations in both the states. The last date of filing nominations in Punjab and Uttarakhand is January 12, scrutiny the next day and last date of withdrawl of candidature January 16. Polling is to be held on January 30 and counting of votes on March 4. The EC has said the election process in the two states has to be completed by March 9, 2012. The term of the present assemblies in Punjab (117 seats) and Uttarakhand (70 seats) ends on March 14 and March 12 respectively.
As per draft electoral rolls, Punjab has a total of 1,74,33,408 electors and the EC has set up 19,724 polling booths in the state.
Of the 117 Assembly constituencies in Punjab, 34 are reserved for Scheduled Castes.
In Uttarakhand, there are a total of 57,40,148 voters as per draft electoral rolls and a total of 9,744 polling booths have been set up in the state. Of the total 70 assembly constituencies in Uttarakhand, 13 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and two for Scheduled Tribes. — PTI
