2. Uttar Pradesh used to send 85 MPs to the Lok Sabha till Uttaranchal came into being in 1999. Five of those 85 seats went to the new hill state. Garhwal, Nainital and Tehri Garhwal are three of those five seats. Name the other two.
a. Kairana, Sahranpur.
b. Amroha, Bijnor.
c. Almora, Hardwar.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong!
The correct answer is C.
The BJP won four out of those five Lok Sabha seats in 1999. Narain Dutt Tiwari (Nainital) was the only Congress winner. He later resigned the Nainital seat after the Congress won the assembly election to become chief minister. Among the BJP winners: retired Major General Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri AVSM, surface transport minister in the Vajpayee government and supervisor of the Golden Quadrilateral Highway Network, showpiece of the India Shining programme, who won from Garhwal, defeating the Congress' Satpal Maharaj for the second time. Manabendra Shah, a member of the former royal family of Tehri Garhwal, who won the 1957, 1962 and 1967 elections from Tehri Garhwal as a Congress candidate, lost the 1971 election as an Independent, and returned to the electoral fray in 1991, as a BJP nominee, winning Tehri Garhwal four times since. The losers were interesting too: Satpal Maharaj was a former minister in the V P Singh government; former Bombay high court judge Vijay Bahuguna, who lost Tehri Garhwal, was the legendary Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna's son; Nainital had former Miss India Naina Balsavar Ahmed and Umrao Jaan director Muzaffar Ali representing the BSP and Samajwadi Party respectively.
Correct!
The BJP won four out of the five Lok Sabha seats in 1999. Narain Dutt Tiwari was the only Congress winner. He later resigned the Nainital seat after the Congress won the assembly election to become chief minister. Among the BJP winners: retired Major General Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri AVSM, surface transport minister in the Vajpayee government and supervisor of the Golden Quadrilateral Highway Network, showpiece of the India Shining programme, who won from Garhwal, defeating the Congress' Satpal Maharaj for the second time. And Manabendra Shah, a member of the former royal family of Tehri Garhwal, who won the 1957, 1962 and 1967 elections from Tehri Garhwal as a Congress candidate, lost the 1971 election as an Independent, and returned to the electoral fray in 1991, as a BJP nominee, winning Tehri Garhwal four times since. The losers were interesting too: Satpal Maharaj was a former minister in the V P Singh government; former Bombay high court judge Vijay Bahuguna, who lost Tehri Garhwal, was the legendary Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna's son; Nainital had former Miss India Naina Balsavar Ahmed and Umrao Jaan director Muzaffar Ali representing the BSP and Samajwadi Party respectively.
3. Which legendary Socialist contested the 1962 election in Phulpur against Jawarharlal Nehru?
a. Ram Manohar Lohia.
b. Madhu Limaye.
c. Nath Pai.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is A.
Ram Manohar Lohia may be recalled these days as the name of a New Delhi hospital, but for much of the 1960s the fiery Socialist leader and thinker symbolised opposition to Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress Party. The Socialists -- first as the Socialist Party, later in its avatars, the Praja Socialist Party and Samyukta Socialist Party -- were the only Opposition force in the early years of the Republic, and Lohia was both its Lenin and Trotsky. An inspirational figure, he probably would rank among the top three influences on many of India's older leaders (George Fernandes, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, to name a few) after Nehru (for Congresspeople) and Guru Golwalkar (for the Sangh Parivar). When he died in October 1967, aged just 57, Lohia left no money or property. He died, as he lived, in absolute austerity.
Correct!Ram Manohar Lohia may be recalled these days as the name of a New Delhi hospital, but for much of the 1960s the fiery Socialist leader and thinker symbolised opposition to Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress Party. The Socialists -- first as the Socialist Party, later in its avatars, the Praja Socialist Party and Samyukta Socialist Party -- were the only Opposition force in the early years of the Republic, and Lohia was both its Lenin and Trotsky. An inspirational figure, he probably would rank among the top three influences on many of India's older leaders (George Fernandes, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, to name a few) after Nehru (for Congresspeople) and Guru Golwalkar (for the Sangh Parivar). When he died in October 1967, aged just 57, Lohia left no money or property. He died, as he lived, in absolute austerity.
4. What links Amroha in Uttar Pradesh with Darbhanga in Bihar?
a. The Congress won all but the 1977 election.
b. Represented by Test cricketers.
c. The BJP won these seats four times, with over 200,000 votes.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is B.
Chetan Chauhan played 40 Tests and 7 One Day Internationals for India. Kirti Azad played 7 Tests and 25 ODIs for India, and was a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team. Both of them played domestic cricket for Delhi (Chauhan began his career for Maharashtra), but when it came to a parliamentary career, chose different states. Chauhan, 12 years older than Azad, chose Amroha in UP, winning the 1991 seat as a BJP candidate, losing in 1996, winning in 1998 and losing to Rashid Alvi (then with the BSP and now with the Congress) in 1999. Azad made his debut in local politics, winning Delhi's Gole Market constituency in 1993, but losing it five years later to Shiela Dixit (his wife Poonam also lost to Dixit in the 2003 election). In 1999, he chose Darbhanga in Bihar, rather than Bhagalpur -- which his father, former chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad had won five times -- to make his Lok Sabha debut. He also chose a different party, the BJP, rather than his father's Congress. He defeated the sitting RJD MP Mohammad Ali Ashraf Fatmi by 55,548 votes.
Correct!
Chetan Chauhan played 40 Tests and 7 One Day Internationals for India. Kirti Azad played 7 Tests and 25 ODIs for India, and was a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team. Both of them played domestic cricket for Delhi (Chauhan began his career for Maharashtra), but when it came to a parliamentary career, chose different states. Chauhan, 12 years older than Azad, chose Amroha in UP, winning the 1991 seat as a BJP candidate, losing in 1996, winning in 1998 and losing to Rashid Alvi (then with the BSP and now with the Congress) in 1999. Azad made his debut in local politics, winning Delhi's Gole Market constituency in 1993, but losing it five years later to Shiela Dixit (his wife Poonam also lost to Dixit in the 2003 election). In 1999, he chose Darbhanga in Bihar, rather than Bhagalpur -- which his father, former chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad had won five times -- to make his Lok Sabha debut. He also chose a different party, the BJP, rather than his father's Congress. He defeated the sitting RJD MP Mohammad Ali Ashraf Fatmi by 55,548 votes.
5. Sukhbans Kaur had perhaps the best record among contemporary candidates in Punjab, winning the Gurdaspur seat five times from 1980 to 1996. Who spoilt her record in 1998 and 1999?
a. Sukhbir Singh Badal.
b. Surjeet Singh Barnala.
c. Vinod Khanna.
Wrong! Try again..
Wrong! The correct answer is C.
Sukhbans Kaur, tourism minister in the Narasimha Rao government, got the nod to contest in 1980 perhaps because of her husband Pritam Singh Bhinder's links with Sanjay Gandhi. Bhinder, then and later a distinguished Indian Police Service officer, was part of the team (Jagmohan, culture minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet was another), which ran Delhi during the Emergency. Sukhbans Kaur's first scalp was Pran Nath Lekhi, the legal eagle who contested on a Janata Party ticket. She routed BJP and Akali Dal candidates in 1985, 1992 and 1996 before coming up against Vinod Khanna's star power. The actor, who renounced Bollywood for the spiritual life and served as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later, Osho)'s gardener at the latter's US commune, handed out a 106,833 margin defeat to Sukhbans Kaur in 1998. The 1999 contest was a cliffhanger -- Khanna finally made the cut with the lowest margin in Punjab -- defeating Sukhbans Kaur by a mere 1,399 votes. Will Sukhbans win this time?
Correct!
Sukhbans Kaur, tourism minister in the Narasimha Rao government, got the nod to contest in 1980 perhaps because of her husband Pritam Singh Bhinder's links with Sanjay Gandhi. Bhinder, then and later a distinguished Indian Police Service officer, was part of the team (Jagmohan, culture minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet was another), which ran Delhi during the Emergency. Sukhbans Kaur's first scalp was Pran Nath Lekhi, the legal eagle who contested on a Janata Party ticket. She routed BJP and Akali Dal candidates in 1985, 1992 and 1996 before coming up against Vinod Khanna's star power. The actor, who renounced Bollywood for the spiritual life and served as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later, Osho)'s gardener at the latter's US commune, handed out a 106,833 margin defeat to Sukhbans Kaur in 1998. The 1999 contest was a cliffhanger -- Khanna finally made the cut with the lowest margin in Punjab -- defeating Sukhbans Kaur by a mere 1,399 votes. Will Sukhbans win this time?