BJP all set to win Himachal Pradesh

SHIMLA: BJP is all set to win the Himachal assembly polls with early leads showing BJP has already won in more than 20 seats on friday.

After Gujarat, the saffron party is riding on the winning wave in Himachal Pradesh. Many big guns of the party including former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal are leading the poll results.

In the trends available for 60 seats, BJP was ahead in 37 seats, Congress in 20 , while others were leading in three constituencies.

The exact picture is expected to be available by 10am in the morning.

Congress leader P Janardhan Reddy dead

Hyderabad: Rebellious Congress MLA from Khairatabad P Janardhan Reddy died of massive heart attack here on Friday.

He was 59. PJR, as he is fondly called, was participating in the Greater Hyderabad Congress Committee meeting at Jewel Gardens in Secunderabad, when he collapsed with severe chest pain. He was immediately rushed to Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences nearby, where he was declared dead.

PJR, who rose to the level of Congress Legislature Party leader from an ordinary industrial worker and trade union leader, was always in the news with his rebellious attitude. He was a staunch critic of Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and he, along with Sanathnagar MLA Marri Shashidhar Reddy, questioned the indifferent attitude of Rajasekhar Reddy government towards the Telangana region in general and Hyderabad in particular. Both, together, earned the nickname of ‘Hyderabad Brothers.”

PJR was elected to the State Assembly five times and was a minister in the Anjaiah and Vijayabhaskara Reddy Cabinets. He was defeated in 1999 elections by Telugu Desam candidate K Vijayarama Rao.

67% Pakistanis want Musharraf out: Survey

ISLAMABAD: An overwhelming 67 per cent of Pakistanis want President Pervez Musharraf to step down, a new survey says.

According to the Washington-based International Republican Institute (IRI), 70 per cent said the Musharraf-backed erstwhile ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) did not deserve to be re-elected, while two-thirds "expressed anger at the current state of affairs, desired change and were anti-Musharraf".

IRI, a conservative-leaning civic group, randomly surveyed 3,520 people across Pakistan, and the poll carried an error margin of plus-minus 1.69 percentage points.

"The results also appeared to show widespread discontent with the US-backed proposal of a power-sharing arrangement between Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, with 60 per cent opposing the idea," Dawn reported Friday.

Fifty-eight per cent indicated they would prefer to see in power an opposition alliance composed of key anti-Musharraf figures, including former prime ministers Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

Only one-third were "supportive of President Musharraf and were positive about the condition of the country", while 56 per cent said the army should stay out of civilian government, the survey showed.

On the imposition of the Nov 3 Emergency and the dismissal of the Supreme Court judges, the poll showed the people overwhelmingly opposed the measure.

"Musharraf's move polarised the country, and this polarisation carries through the other attitudes and opinions of the Pakistani electorate," Dawn said.

"This line of polarisation splits the electorate into two parts, at roughly the two-third and one-third divide. Throughout the poll, 25 to 33 per cent remained supportive of President Musharraf and were positive about the condition of the country. Seventy-five to 66 per cent expressed anger at the current state of affairs, desired change and were anti-Musharraf," the newspaper added.

Building collapses in Mumbai, three killed

A building collapsed today in Shimpoli in Borivli area, which is located in the western suburb of Mumbai.

Initial reports suggested that three were dead and many more injured in the incident.

At least 10-12 people were feared to be trapped under the debris of the ground plus one-storey building. Relief and rescue efforts have been pressed into service.

According to reports, two or three people have already been pulled out alive.

Today's incident has taken place in the same suburb where another building, Laxmi Chhaya , a six-storey building had collapsed in July.

Light saves Pak but India win series

Chasing 374, Pakistan was 162 for seven on the final day of the third Test at Bangalore on Wednesday when bad light stopped play.

Sourav Ganguly was named Man of the Match for his magnificent double-hundred and second-innings 91. He was also the player of the series.

India won their first series in 27 years against Pakistan at home, but the margin was 1-0 after the Bangalore Test ended in a draw.

The fans though did get what they had hoped for, with plenty of last minute drama.

With Anil Kumble's five-wicket haul driving Pakistan to desperation, he will be disappointed for not having declared just a little bit earlier.

Pakistan lost four wickets in a span of just 10 runs, Anil Kumble and Yuvraj Singh joining hands to bring India back in to contention.

But India's hopes were dashed when poor light forced play to be stopped. With both teams having agreed to not use artificial lights through the Test series, India played the waiting game but in the end the umpires declared the match drawn.

Earlier, India declared their innings at 284 for six setting Pakistan a 374-run target.

Overnight batsmen Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid carried on in style early on Day 5, before both fell in the space of two balls.

Ganguly carried on his great touch and looked all set to complete another Test hundred.

Dravid and Ganguly put on 152 runs for the third wicket, before Dravid fell to Kaneria for 42.

On the crumbling Bangalore track, Ganguly looked quite at ease but was dismissed 3 balls later by Mohammad Sami for 91.

Sami struck again after that, dismissing birthday boy Yuvraj Singh for 2, but not before he completed 1000 Test runs.

There was a shocker for India though - VVS Laxman being hit by a Shoaib Akhtar delivery, that stayed very low.

Laxman was hit on the elbow and was clearly in a lot of pain. He retired hurt for 14 and was sent to the hospital for a precautionary scan. Laxman and Karthik put on a 41 run stand.

India may have lost the chance to force a result after managing a first innings lead of just 89 runs thanks to a Misbah-ul-Haq's century. But they finished Day 4 with an overall lead of 220 runs and with eight wickets still in hand.

Blast in Assam Rajdhani, five killed

A bomb blast on the Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express has killed five people and injured four.

The blast happened around one o'clock in the morning near Golaghat in Assam.
A low intensity bomb was apparently placed on the track. A luggage-cum-passenger coach was partially damaged.
Five people died on the spot while the four injured were rushed to Golaghat Civil hospital. The luggage van was damaged as well as small portion of track.
The train resumed its journey at around 6am after passengers in the affected van were shifted to a 3 tier AC boggie. Top railway officials have rushed to the site.
This is the first bomb blast on the Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani, although the train had been targeted twice before, once in January this year and earlier in June last year. (With PTI inputs)

Modi hopes to ride on women power / National News

AHMEDABAD: The high turnout of women voters in the first phase of the Gujarat elections on Tuesday is causing a lot of excitement in the Narendra Modi camp.

Have all his grooming sessions before public appearances and photography sessions, fashion statements with half-kurtas, speeches at mahila sammelans and women-targeting schemes around the Stree-Shakti theme really worked like magic with the fairer sex?

If that has really happened, it is not just the educated, urban woman who is gushing about the He-Man image which Modi has successfully portrayed, but the village belles have added numbers to the female following of the flamboyant CM. The figures show that while the percentage of male voters has fallen by nearly 3% to 61.84, the percentage of women has gone down marginally to 57.19. The gap between male and female voters, which was 6.74% in 2002, has shrunk to 4.65% in 2007.

That Modi left the column ‘Marital Status’ blank in his election nomination form may have only helped, just like it does for image-conscious film-stars who stay single. A close Modi confidant claimed his strategy of directly reaching out to lakhs of women across Gujarat through 28 largely-attended mahila sammelans covering all the districts has probably helped in offsetting the Sonia factor as well as Patel power.

BJP’s spokesman Yamal Vyas said: “There is no doubt that Modi is popular among women and they came out to vote for him.” Political scientist Tridip Suhrud has doubts that the women may have voted for BJP, even if the male members of the family thou-ght differently. “I do not think that women have voted autonomously. They may not influence the poll outcome in a significant way,” Suhrud said