The election process in Punjab entered the campaigning phase as the deadline for withdrawal of candidates expired, leaving 74 aspirants for the 13 Lok Sabha seats and 848 candidates for the 117 assembly seats for the September 25 polls in the state. According to information received at the state election office in Chandigarh, there was a massive rush for withdrawals during the day before the deadline expired at 3 pm.
The body of Congress-I Metropolitan Councillor Arjun Dass was cremated at Safdarjung ghat. The leader was shot dead by suspected terrorists in his office in Laxmibai Nagar. The Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, who did not attend the funeral of Lalit Maken and his wife, murdered five weeks ago, was present at the cremation grounds along with his wife, Sonia Gandhi, for almost an hour.
Teachers’ Day was observed as a protest day by university and college teachers all over the country. In Delhi, the All India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisations could not hold the proposed protest rally outside the office of the University Grants Commission due to the prohibitory orders in the city. The main demands of the teachers are revision of pay scales, protection of their democratic rights and payment of interim relief.
At least 20 Tamil civilians were killed in Trincomalee in the past two days, and the culprits were the so-called home guards, armed Sinhalese civilians, and armed forces personnel. Information reaching the Tamil United Liberation Front revealed that a number of houses and shops were burnt to ashes in the arson. The TULF secretary-general, A Amirthalingam, said the situation continued to be very bad in the area, though things seemed to be getting under control.
