The Indian Express

Thursday, December 25 1997

The takes you to the story

Mamata keeps BJP leaders guessing
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is willing but Mamata Banerjee is not committing herself. In Delhi, for the first time after she quit the Congress, Banerjee did not meet any of the BJP's top brass during her day-long visit. She however said that she was keeping all her options open, including talks with the BJP, for forging an alliance in West Bengal.

BJP jolted as SC Morcha chief P G Gavai quits
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a jolt when national vice-president of the party's Scheduled Caste Morcha, P G Gavai, announced that he would "no longer like to languish in the coldness" in the BJP. Gavai conveyed his decision to quit the BJP in a letter to BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee.

"J&K Speaker supported Harkat"
Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Ali Mohammad Naik was a sympathiser of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA) militant outfit in Kashmir, according to Ghulam Nabi Baba alias Parvez Baba, deputy supreme commander of the HUA. Baba also revealed that the four Western tourists held hostage by Al-Faran in 1995 were dead during interrogations by the security forces.

Panel on defence pay

Fatwa tells Muslims to seek permission to contest polls