The north-south divide
REGIONAL ROUNDUP
| What occupied the Hindi press' mindspace during the week was the Punjab assembly polls. The day after the vote, almost all dailies covered the news on their front pages. Rajasthan Patrika reported that the state witnessed 67 per cent polling. Stray incidents of violence were also reported from some parts of the state. This report was accompanied by a picture of Patiala's Congress candidate Rishma (who also happens to be Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's daughter-in-law) emerging from the polling booth after casting her vote. |
| Dainik Bhaskar reported that 72 per cent of the populace had voted in the election, drawing attention to the Punjab residents' indomitable spirit that got them to vote without bothering about the heavy downpour that lashed the state on polling day. The paper also carried a table that brought out the exit poll predictions made by television channels, which seemed to indicate that the Akali-BJP combine was headed for victory, albeit by a narrow margin. |
| Punjab Kesari took this news as the lead in its February 14 edition with pictures of Akali Dal chief Prakash Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh placed next to one another. Given the split nature of the exit poll verdict, the paper reported that both leaders had claimed victory in the election. The report also carried a picture of elderly voters inching their way to the polling booths in the rain. |
| The Hutch-Vodafone deal and Hindalco's acquisition of Novelis received extensive coverage in the Kannada press. Vodafone's acquisition of Hutch's stake was carried as the second lead on the front page in all the leading dailies. Vijaya Karnataka carried a special story on India Inc's buying spree in its commerce section. The subsequent developments in the Hutch-Vodafone deal were also covered routinely in the business sections of the newspapers. The Kannada version of The Times of India had a special story on Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin's childhood days in Bangalore. Sarin studied at a military school in the city and the newspaper spoke to his teachers and friends. |
| In Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu print media gave prominent coverage to Vodafone's acquisition of Hutch-Essar and Aditya Birla Group's Hindalco Industries acquiring Novelis on Monday. All the three newspapers splashed these stories on their business pages as leads. The Telugu dailies also carried stories on Vodafone eyeing Ruias' shares in Hutch-Essar, and Lanco Infratech and Jindal Steel and Power retaining the Sasan ultra-mega power project in Uttar Pradesh, following the acquisition of Globeleq Singapore, as lead stories on their business pages. |