NEW DELHI: After BJP’s disappointing show in Gujarat during the Lok Sabha polls and its subsequent loss in the Junagarh municipal elections, the
upcoming Assembly by-elections in seven constituencies pose the next big test for chief minister Narendra Modi. The elections are also crucial for Congress which will seek to retain seats held by it and keep up the momentum of its Lok Sabha performance.
Both Congress and BJP have announced names of candidates for the by-polls — Congress declaring the names of four and BJP that of five contestants for the September 10 polls in Jasdan, Dhoraji, Kodinar, Sami, Dehgam, Chotila and Danta seats.
The Congress’ names, declared late on Saturday night, were for Jasdan, Dhoraji, Kodinar and Sami. The party has fielded Bhavna Bavalia from the Jasdan Assembly segment. The seat fell vacant after her father, Kuvanrji Bavalia, wrested the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat from BJP, breaking the saffron party’s long winning streak in the key Saurashtra seat. The other shock defeat for BJP was Porbandar which was won by Congress’ Vitthal Radadiya.
BJP, which also announced its candidates on Saturday, has fielded Kalyansinh Chauhan from Dhegam. The leader has been defeated twice from the seat by Congress’ Jagdish Thakor, who became the MP from Patan in the 2009 general elections. In Sami, BJP’s Bhavsinh Rathod will take on Mr Thakore from Congress. Mr Rathod had quit Congress to join BJP and contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Patan unsuccessfully. Though Mr Rathod was the MLA from Sami, he had to resign when he joined BJP.
The elections, which will see four contests in Saurashtra — Jasdan, Dhoraji, Kodinar and Chotila — will be watched keenly to gauge BJP’s performance. In the 2009 general election, BJP bagged 15 out of the 26 seats, but failed to repeat its 2007 assembly performance, when Mr Modi had registered a handsome win. Congress which lost one seat from its 2004 tally to net 11, however, managed to stop the onward march of BJP and even defeated the party in its strongholds of Rajkot and Pordander.
With the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, L K Advani, contesting from the state and its PM-in-waiting, Mr Modi, emerging as the party’s star campaigner in the elections, the results were seen as a big let down. The party also lost the Junagarh municipal elections to Congress. The state government’s reputation also took a beating due to the hooch tragedy which claimed over 130 lives.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Kerala police detain 12 in Muthoot murder case
The police have detained 12 suspects in the Paul Muthoot George murder case and say they are close to a breakthrough.
Paul, 30, who was heading the Muthoot M George Group’s hospitality business, was killed on Friday night on the Alappuzha-Changanassery road. A friend with him was injured and is in hospital; both were stabbed.
The Muthoot Group is a major player in the financial services business in Kerala and has been slowly expanding its reach to other parts of the country. Paul is the chairman’s second son.
The police is yet to ascertain the motive behind the murder, though media reports had suggested business rivalry could be a reason. Involvement of persons related to the narcotics trade was also not being ruled out. A team led by the IGP, Ernakulam Range, Vinson Paul, is interrogating the suspects.
The dead man and his friend were found by the roadside on Friday night. The vehicle they were travelling in was missing. The vehicle, a Ford Endeavour, was found abandoned this morning at Kollam, 40 km away.
The unlisted 122-year-old group, which has diversified into information technology, media, plantations and metals, is managed by a board comprising four family members – George Jacob Muthoot, George Thomas Muthoot, George Alexander Muthoot (Managing Director) and M G George Muthoot (Chairman).
Paul, who was based in Delhi, had recently returned to Kerala to take charge of the leisure and hospitality arm.
Muthoot Leisure and Hospitality, one of the 18 group companies of the Rs 20,000-crore group, has two properties located at Thekkady in Idukki district (south Kerala) and Alappuzha and also runs 10 luxurious house boats in the backwaters of Kuttanad in Alappuzha district. The company, with a turnover of around Rs 10 crore, is in the process of setting up several hotels and resorts and has zeroed in on Kochi, Chennai and Hyderabad for new projects.
The hospitality arm had acquired land in Kochi for a proposed Rs 200 crore five-star hote expected to be commissioned in 18 months. A beach resort in Mararikulam and a resort in the backwaters were the other elements of the group’s plans in Kerala.
Paul was returning from an under-construction resort at Mararikulam when he was stabbed to death.
Police sources said two notorious criminals based out of Thiruvananthapuram, Rajesh and Omprakash, are suspected to have been involved. The police say Paul and his friend had driven in the Ford Endeavour and Paul’s driver, Shibu, was asked to follow in another vehicle. The driver is said to have found the two on the roadside, the vehicle missing.
With 1,200 branches, Muthoot Finance, a non-banking finance company, is the group’s flagship company. While the latest financial numbers were unavailable, the group reported a net profit of Rs 63.6 crore for the year ended March 2008. Thanks to its focus on extending loans against gold, 97.2 per cent of Muthoot Finance’s assets are secured loans. The average ticket size of the loans is Rs 15,000.
As its loans are emergency funding, Muthoot Finance has been able to pass on higher funding costs to its customers and has maintained credit gross non-performing assets at less that 0.5 per cent of gross loans. At the end of September 2008, the company’s loan book was close to Rs 20,000 crore. The NBFC’s net interest margin stayed around the 10 per cent level tillthen; data for subsequent months was unavailable.
Paul was Chairman M G George Muthoot’s second son, while his two brothers, George Muthoot George and Alexander George Muthoot, are also associated with the group as executive director and as a director, respectively. In addition, four of Paul’s cousins are part of the fourth generation of Muthoot directors, who had been inducted into the group.
In February, Group Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot had talked about a 10 per cent equity dilution during the current financial year, which was to be followed by the sale of another 25 per cent stake in 2011-12. KPMG had been given the mandate for the sale of 10 per cent stake to private equity players, Muthoot had told a television channel.
Paul, 30, who was heading the Muthoot M George Group’s hospitality business, was killed on Friday night on the Alappuzha-Changanassery road. A friend with him was injured and is in hospital; both were stabbed.
The Muthoot Group is a major player in the financial services business in Kerala and has been slowly expanding its reach to other parts of the country. Paul is the chairman’s second son.
The police is yet to ascertain the motive behind the murder, though media reports had suggested business rivalry could be a reason. Involvement of persons related to the narcotics trade was also not being ruled out. A team led by the IGP, Ernakulam Range, Vinson Paul, is interrogating the suspects.
The dead man and his friend were found by the roadside on Friday night. The vehicle they were travelling in was missing. The vehicle, a Ford Endeavour, was found abandoned this morning at Kollam, 40 km away.
The unlisted 122-year-old group, which has diversified into information technology, media, plantations and metals, is managed by a board comprising four family members – George Jacob Muthoot, George Thomas Muthoot, George Alexander Muthoot (Managing Director) and M G George Muthoot (Chairman).
Paul, who was based in Delhi, had recently returned to Kerala to take charge of the leisure and hospitality arm.
Muthoot Leisure and Hospitality, one of the 18 group companies of the Rs 20,000-crore group, has two properties located at Thekkady in Idukki district (south Kerala) and Alappuzha and also runs 10 luxurious house boats in the backwaters of Kuttanad in Alappuzha district. The company, with a turnover of around Rs 10 crore, is in the process of setting up several hotels and resorts and has zeroed in on Kochi, Chennai and Hyderabad for new projects.
The hospitality arm had acquired land in Kochi for a proposed Rs 200 crore five-star hote expected to be commissioned in 18 months. A beach resort in Mararikulam and a resort in the backwaters were the other elements of the group’s plans in Kerala.
Paul was returning from an under-construction resort at Mararikulam when he was stabbed to death.
Police sources said two notorious criminals based out of Thiruvananthapuram, Rajesh and Omprakash, are suspected to have been involved. The police say Paul and his friend had driven in the Ford Endeavour and Paul’s driver, Shibu, was asked to follow in another vehicle. The driver is said to have found the two on the roadside, the vehicle missing.
With 1,200 branches, Muthoot Finance, a non-banking finance company, is the group’s flagship company. While the latest financial numbers were unavailable, the group reported a net profit of Rs 63.6 crore for the year ended March 2008. Thanks to its focus on extending loans against gold, 97.2 per cent of Muthoot Finance’s assets are secured loans. The average ticket size of the loans is Rs 15,000.
As its loans are emergency funding, Muthoot Finance has been able to pass on higher funding costs to its customers and has maintained credit gross non-performing assets at less that 0.5 per cent of gross loans. At the end of September 2008, the company’s loan book was close to Rs 20,000 crore. The NBFC’s net interest margin stayed around the 10 per cent level tillthen; data for subsequent months was unavailable.
Paul was Chairman M G George Muthoot’s second son, while his two brothers, George Muthoot George and Alexander George Muthoot, are also associated with the group as executive director and as a director, respectively. In addition, four of Paul’s cousins are part of the fourth generation of Muthoot directors, who had been inducted into the group.
In February, Group Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot had talked about a 10 per cent equity dilution during the current financial year, which was to be followed by the sale of another 25 per cent stake in 2011-12. KPMG had been given the mandate for the sale of 10 per cent stake to private equity players, Muthoot had told a television channel.
Axed by BJP, Jaswant runs to old friend Atal Behari Vajpayee
The BJP, under unrelenting fire from several quarters ever since it expelled its top former leader Jaswant Singh (71) from the party last Wednesday, was further embarrassed when former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee met him on Sunday morning.
A former key backroom boy for both Vajpayee and BJP parliamentary party leader L.K. Advani, Sudheendra Kulkarni (52), also quit the party on Saturday, saying he felt he could no longer make any “meaningful contribution” to it.
Critics of the BJP’s decision to sack Singh termed Vajpayee’s willingness to meet him — he is the first top BJP leader to do so publicly, since Singh was thrown out for praising Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali
Jinnah in his book — as a signal that he disapproved of the harsh step.
But others in the BJP claimed the meeting meant nothing, since Vajpayee was in such poor health he no longer took his own decisions. His aides and family decided whom he met.
“I came here to wish Vajpayeeji on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi,” Singh told reporters.
Kulkarni — who worked in the prime minister’s office during the NDA’s term from 1998 to 2004, and was later Advani’s chief speech writer and campaign in charge — said he quit because he had “ideological differences with the BJP as it stands today”. He’d been having differences with the party for some time, the latest over Singh’s removal, which he called ‘graceless and baseless’.
“His departure will have no effect,” said BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
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