This is an archive article published on April 18, 2020

Opinion Forty Years Ago, April 18, 1980: Assembly Polls

While Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh will have polling on both May 27 and 30, Orissa, Punjab and Bihar will have polling on either of these dates.

Indira Gandhi Zia ul Haq meeting, Indira Gandhi Zia meeting, Zia ul Haq Indira Gandhi meeting, India Pakistan relations, Zimbabwe, Forty years ago, Indian Express

April 18, 2020 04:44 AM IST First published on: Apr 18, 2020 at 04:44 AM IST

The notification, calling upon roughly 342 million voters in the nine States to elect 2,237 candidates will be issued by the governors in the nine states on April 25.

Elections in the nine states where the assemblies were dissolved through a presidential notification last February will be held on May 27 and 30, the chief election commissioner, S L Shakdher, announced. While Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh will have polling on both May 27 and 30, Orissa, Punjab and Bihar will have polling on either of these dates. A final decision on the exact date will be taken in a day or two, Shakdher told newsmen. The notification, calling upon roughly 342 million voters in the nine States to elect 2,237 candidates will be issued by the governors in the nine states on April 25.

Zia-Indira Meeting

Pakistan president, Gen Zia-ul-Haq, announced that he would meet Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, for the first time ever, to discuss the “outright naked aggression” of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. General Zia told a news conference that he planned to meet Mrs Gandhi the next morning. Both the leaders are in Salisbury for the independence of Zimbabwe. Pakistani and Indian diplomats said the meeting would probably take place at 10 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m 1ST) in the hotel housing heads of delegations. He said he wanted Pakistan readmitted to the Commonwealth but was leaving the matter up to individual member countries to decide. Pakistan quit the Commonwealth, the club of former British colonies, in 1972 over recognition of Bangladesh.

Birth Of Zimbabwe

On the eve of the birth of the new, independent republic of Zimbabwe, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe paid rare tribute to the British governor from whom he will take the reins of power at the stroke of midnight. And, after a bitter seven-year war between his all-black guerrillas and the white-led army, the 56-year-old leader urged an end to past hostilities between the races of Britain’s last African colony and Africa’s newest black-ruled state.