Tainted candidates make it to UP Assembly

LUCKNOW, May 12 (Agencies): At a time when several ministers and prominent leaders bit the dust in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, some 'mafia dons' and murder accused have managed to win their respective seats.

The main accused in the poetess Madhumita Shukla murder case and former minister Amarmani Tripathi, the main accused in the BJP legislator Krishnanand Rai murder case Mukhtar Ansari, and controversial independent MLA from Kunda Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya were among them.

Besides these three, Dhananjay Singh, Madan bhaiya , Angad Yadav and Akhilesh Pratap Singh have also made it to the new assembly.

In western Uttar Pradesh, alleged mafia don D P Yadav and his wife Umlesh won their respective seats and would be perhaps the only couple in the new Vidhan Sabha.

While Yadav won from Sahaswan, his wife got the Bisauli seat in Badaun.

Both had contested as Rashtriya Parivartan Dal candidates.

Sushil Singh of Varanasi, Badshah Singh, Brijesh Misra Saurabh, Dawood Ahmed and Daddan Misra are the other winners who have criminal cases against them.

Mukhtar Ansari, Amarmani Tripathi and Sushil Singh contested the elections from jail.

MS University dean suspended, students go on strike to protest VADODARA, May 12 (Agencies): The Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) today suspended its Fine Arts faculty dean for refusing to obey its orders for closing a controversial art exhibition, as the students and teachers struck work in support of their department in-charge.

Dean of Fine Arts department Shivaji Panikkar was suspended after he refused to close an exhibition which had drawn ire of the Sangh Parivar following alleged negative portrayal of Hindu deities.

The issue of vandalisation of art works in the fine arts faculty of the MSU seemed to be snowballing into a major controversy, with the faculty members and students striking work today to protest Panikkar's suspension.

A meeting of students and teachers has been convened on April 14 to discuss further strategy in which art lovers have been asked to lend support, a teacher said.

Describing the suspension of Panikkar as "illegal", the faculty members of the department went on a mass casual leave, while the students staged a day-long long sit-in on the campus.

The students criticised the university vice-chancellor and other senior officials for playing into the hands of the saffron brigade.

The students and faculty members from applied arts, art history and aesthetic graphic arts, museology, painting and sculpture departments were unanimous in condemning the university's move to close down the exhibition and suspend the in-charge dean.

The agitating students displayed placards on the campus which read: "The BJP and VHP are not the torch-bearers of morality."