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BJP-Trinamul team is a winner: Atal

CALCUTTA: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee on Friday expressed satisfaction with the long-awaited seat adjustment with Trinamul Congress in West Bengal, which, he said, would be quot;sufficient to defeat Marxists and prevent anti-Left votesquot;. Trinamul Congress chairman Pankaj Banerjee admitted for the first time on Thursday the party8217;s seat adjustment with BJP in West Bengal for the Lok Sabha elections in the presence of its leader Mamata Banerjee.

Deposit hike

HYDERABAD: The ten-fold hike in deposit money has drastically reduced the number of nominations in Andhra Pradesh for the coming Lok Sabha elections. With the steep hike in security deposit from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 and from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 for SCs and STs, the number of nominations filed in Andhra Pradesh fell to 594 against a record 1,943 in the 1996 elections.