15 March, 2011 (English) - Bharatiya Janata Party

Varma’s cousin Shri Arjun Varma. As a matter ofstrategy the BJP had put a new face Shri RajendraVarma, whose father and former MP PhoolchandVarma had lost the 2008 Assembly elections by anarrow margin.In both the cases, the sympathy factor failedto work wonders for the Congress party.This win in Madhya Pradesh is a stamp ofapproval to the development work done by BJPgovernment led by Chief Minister Shri ShivrajSingh Chouhan and organizational programmesinitiated under State BJP President Shri PrabhatJha to reach out to every section of the societyincluding tribals, backwards and other marginalMarch 1-15, 2011 8groups.ChhattisgarhBJP in Chhattisgarh won the Sanjari Balodbye-election with its candidate, Smt. Kumari BaiSahu, retaining the seat for the party by a marginof 9,965 votes.The election to the seat was necessitatedfollowing the death of sitting BJP legislator ShriMadan Sahu. The BJP fielded his widow. The byelectionhas once again indicates the popularity ofthe Raman Singh government in Chhattisgarhwhich is working tirelessly for the development ofthe State through the implementation of pro-poorschemes and programmes which fighting theNaxal_Maoist menace at the same time.GujaratShri Bhushan Bhatt retained the KhadiaAssembly seat for BJP in Gujarat by a margin of2,419 votes. The seat had fallen vacant due to thedeath of Speaker Shri Ashok Bhatt, father ofBhushan Bhatt, in September, 2010. Shri BhushanBhatt is the sitting municipal councillor fromKhadia ward. Shri Ashok Bhatt had won the seatfor a record eight consecutive times.BJP got nearly 17 per cent votes in MuslimdominatedRaikhad for the first time. It showsthe increasing popularity of BJP government in theState led by Shri Narendra Bhai Modi among theminority community. •Verdict gives a degree of assurance that law andjustice has prevailed : Ravi Shankar PrasadThirty-one people were on February 22 convicted and 63 others,including the main accused Maulvi Umarji, were acquitted by aspecial court in the 2002 Godhra train burning incident that left59 people dead and triggered violence in Gujarat. The trialconducted inside the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad beganin June 2009 with the framing of charges against 94 accused in thecarnageThe BJP welcomed the Gujarat special court verdict. BJPspokesperson Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad said it had “exposed thenefarious designs” of the UPA government which “tried to cover up” the entire episode. “Certainly, there hasbeen a degree of assurance that law and justice has prevailed. There were elements who were trying to belittleit. There have been politicians who tried to abuse it,” BJP Chief Spokesman Shri Ravishankar Prasad saidinteracting with media persons. He slammed the Justice Shri U.C. Banerjee Committee report, which found thatthe fire was lit from inside the coach. The Banerjee Committee, appointed by then Railway Minister Lalu PrasadYadav to probe the causes of fire in the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, had found that the fire was “accidental.”“You remember the Banerjee committee report. A retired judge of Supreme Court gave a collusive report thatthe fire was lit from inside,” Shri Prasad told reporters outside Parliament. “It was a sham report at the timeof 2005 elections,” he added.•