New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday reiterated its demand for the removal of Union Telecom Minister A Raja, amid allegations of irregularities in the allocation of spectrum in 2007 for mobile telephony.

Addressing a press conference, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said Raja should be sacked in view of the monumental spectrum allocation scam that has come to light. He even described the scandal as the largest-ever scam in India.

Jaitley lashed out at the Telecom Minister for falsely claiming the spectrum were allocated at a price fixed by the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). Jaitley further stated even the TRAI had said in a statement that the price for 2007 (the year when spectrum were allocated to nine companies) needed to be fixed based on the market mechanism.

It is to be noted that the 2007 spectrum allocation was made based on the price fixed by TRAI in 2001. Jaitley said the telecom industry had undergone a revolution between 2001 and 2007 and that the valuations needed to be made afresh.

According to the BJP leader, most of the companies that paid Rs 1,650 crore each for spectrum in 2007 were real estate firms. These firms within days of the spectrum allocation used the FDI route and sold stakes as much as over 70% to foreign players for sums ranging over USD 2 billion (over Rs 9,000 crore), Jaitley alleged. He added that the government lost nearly Rs 7,000 crore per allocation, which amounts to Rs 64,000 crore in total.

New Delhi, June 8 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday distanced itself from the comments of Sudheendra Kulkarni, a key aide of L.K. Advani, that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was responsible for the BJP's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.

"The BJP distances itself from the remarks of Sudheendra Kulkarni. It is his personal analysis as an independent journalist," the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters here.

"Neither the party nor Advaniji agree with his analysis or his views on the RSS," she said.

Writing in the Tehelka newsmagazine, Kulkarni, who was a key poll strategist of the party, blamed the BJP leadership and the RSS for the debacle in the elections and said they made Advani "look weak, helpless and not fully in command".

While he urged the party to introspect, he said the "the RSS needs it no less. Its leaders must ask themselves, and answer the question honestly and earnestly. Why is the acceptability of the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad limited in Hindu society itself?"

He said the party "did nothing" while its allies started moving away because of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Sushma Swaraj said there were several reasons for the party's defeat not just one and "these would all be looked into at a meeting of the national executive (of the BJP)." It meets June 20 and 21.

GUWAHATI, Jun 4 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Assam Pradesh on Sunday slammed the State Government for recommending action against the elected North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) and alleged that the ruling Congress has always been plotting to overthrow non-Congress governments. Addressing mediapersons here, the functionaries of the party made it clear that the BJP had no objection to law taking its own course in the case of certain members of the council, but the entire autonomous council should not be held responsible and suspended in total disregard to democratic aspirations of the people.

“If there are allegations of corruption or involvement in diversion of funds to the coffers of the extremist groups against anybody in the executive committee of the NCHAC, then action should be taken as per the law of the land,” said the BJP.

Terming the recommendation as undemocratic, anti-tribal and against the mandate of the people of NC Hills, the BJP said that it was an attempt by the Congress government to cover up its miserable failure in tackling the present volatile law-and-order situation. “At a time when the NC Hills is passing through a very critical period in terms of social and political dynamics, suspension of the NCHAC will only further alienate the people of NC Hills,” said the BJP.

On the other hand, referring to the breakdown of the BJP-ASDC alliance, the BJP said that the Congress had succeeded in its machinations and the ASDC in its attempt to cling to power had played to the tunes of the Congress. “But now the ASDC has paid a heavy price by dancing to the tune of the Congress which sees no use of the ASDC after the Lok Sabha elections,” the BJP said.

The BJP also said that the Congress wanted to keep the NC Hills district a perennial conflict zone for its own advantage.

NEW DELHI, May 13 : As the voting for the 543-member parliament concluded Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expressed confidence that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by it will sweep the elections and form the next government at the centre.

"I'm fully confident that the BJP-led government will be formed at the centre. BJP will emerge as the single largest party and NDA as the largest alliance. We will get new partners (after the polls)," BJP president Rajnath Singh told NDTV.

He said his party was holding discussions with other parties outside the NDA to expand the coalition.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar separately said the Congress was living in its own created fantasy of getting new partners into the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

"(The) Congress was happy Tuesday over Janata Dal-Secular leader H.D. Kumaraswamy's meeting with Sonia Gandhi. I want to tell them those who are losing are coming to the UPA and those winning are coming to the NDA," Javdekar said.

"Peoples' verdict is with the BJP and the NDA. The BJP will come out as the single largest party and the NDA as largest alliance in this elections," Javdekar said.

He said the Congress-led UPA will lose 50 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

U.P. Government to move Supreme Court now

Varun Gandhi

LUCKNOW: The State Advisory Board of the Allahabad High Court on Friday recommended the revocation of the National Security Act (NSA) slapped on Bharatiya Janata Party’s Pilibhit candidate Varun Gandhi. It cited lack of sufficient grounds to press forward the case under the law against him.

The Uttar Pradesh government, soon after, decided to challenge the recommendation in the Supreme Court.
Home Secretary Javeed Ahmed said the Board was unsatisfied with the evidence provided by the Pilibhit District Magistrate for booking Mr. Gandhi under the NSA. The Board set aside the NSA and said it was invalid.

Information Secretary Diwakar Tripathi told The Hindu that the legal formalities were over and a government plea is likely to be filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday.

The Board came out with the recommendation after conducting in camera proceedings with Mr. Gandhi on April 28. Headed by Justice Pradeep Kant of the Lucknow Bench of the High Court, it had Justice (retd.) P.K. Sareen and Justice (retd.) S.N. Sahay as its members.

Mr. Gandhi is now on parole till May 14 that was granted to him by the Supreme Court.

The NSA was slapped on Mr. Gandhi on March 29 following large-scale violence by his supporters on March 28 in Pilibhit after his arrest on charge of delivering hate and inflammatory speeches in a couple of elections meetings in the parliamentary constituency. Pilibhit goes to the polls on May 13.

Hails recommendation

Mr. Gandhi welcomed the Board’s recommendation, but maintained that the Mayawati dispensation and the Centre have to answer for his “wrongful detention for 20 days.”
He always had faith in the judiciary and democracy, he added.

By Sanjay Sharma

Bhopal, May 4 - It was not even an election issue in a state that ruling Bharatiya Janata Party - leader L.K. Advani touts as a model of governance. Madhya Pradesh's large tribal community is severely hit by child mortality with malnutrition haunting a majority of children, but it's barely a blip on the nation's radar.

For every 1,000 live births among tribals, as many as 140 do not live to see their fifth birthday, says an official report painting a grim picture of the health of the state, which went to the polls on April 23 and 30.

Of the 140 deaths, 95 occur at infancy - before the child reaches the first birthday, and of this 56 die before even a month is out, says the National Family Health Survey --3 report.

Child mortality among tribals is much higher than the state average of Under Five Mortality of 94.2 per 1,000 live births, says the report.

For the non-tribal children, the mortality is 44.9 child deaths within 28 days of birth and 69.5 before celebrating their first birthday, the report states.

Malnutrition in tribal children is found to be higher. It is 71.4 percent against 60 percent for the children of non-tribals.

'The state of Madhya Pradesh is one of the biggest contributors to the total neo-natal and child mortality in the country. The data on caste-based classification of child fatality in Madhya Pradesh by the latest state report of NFHS-3 paints a dismal state of affairs of efforts made to protect the right of survival of every child,' Rolly Shivhare, of Vikas Samvad, a rights-based advocacy organisation, told IANS.

'The Scheduled Caste - and Scheduled Tribe - together form 34.44 percent of the total population in Madhya Pradesh, but it is unfortunate that this section of society is not assured whether their child will survive or not till the next day,' she said.

'In comparison to the 94.2 per 1,000 live births under 5 mortality among non-tribals, the chance of survival among SC & ST child population respectively is 110 and 140 per thousand live births,' Shivhare lamented.

Ajay Khar, co-coordinator of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, said: 'The situation of children belonging to SC, ST and OBC - in terms of all basic indicators of health is defenceless. Merely 11.7 percent tribal children born in the last five year preceding the survey are breastfed within an hour of birth in comparison to 15.9 percent total children given breastfeeding, and merely 22.3 percent children of ST get all basic vaccination.'

'Children belonging to Other Backward Classes have little advantage over the Scheduled Caste kids in terms of anaemia among children, breastfeeding practices and status of malnourishment. As high as 57.4 percent of the OBC community is malnourished, while 62.6 percent of ST children are malnourished - compared to the state average of 60.3 percent. But on the whole - all three SC, ST and OBC children are at risk,' he said.

Sachin Jain of Vikas Samvad said the state lacks a 'holistic approach' to solve the problem.

'There is no holistic approach to the problem, a piecemeal approach will not work. The tribal communities are in a very bad position. People in rural and forest areas are not getting proper health facilities,' Jain told IANS.

Guwahati, May 4 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has informed the Election Commission that terrorists in collaboration with some political rivals might bomb the strong room at Silchar in Assam where electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been kept, a party leader said Monday.

“We already sent a letter to the Election Commission May 1 based on some authentic information from a source that militants or terrorists backed by some political parties could try and blow up the strong room where EVMs are kept,” BJP leader Anil Dey told IANS.

Dey is also the chief election agent of Kabindra Purkayastha, the BJP candidate for the Silchar parliamentary seat.

Elections to the Silchar seat were held April 16 with the BJP’s main political rivals being sitting MP and central minister Santosh Mohan Dev and perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal of the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF).

“After we sent the letter to the Election Commission, police officials visited us and enquired about our apprehension and wanted to know our source. We said we cannot divulge our source and that the authorities should take appropriate security measures to ensure that nothing untoward happens,” Dey said.

Authorities in the Silchar district administration confirmed receiving a copy of the BJP’s letter and said fool-proof security arrangements were in place at the strong room.

“There is no need for any fear as adequate security personnel have been deployed as per the Election Commission guidelines,” a senior official said.

The ruling Congress dismissed the BJP’s fears as “a figment of their imagination”.

“It is absolutely baseless and their fears are unfounded. The BJP is staring at defeat in the Silchar seat and is hence trying to cook up stories of sabotage,” said Congress leader Sarifujzaman Laskar.

The votes will be counted May 16.

Lucknow, May 2 : Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of keeping him in the “dark” about the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 and hatching a “conspiracy” against him.

“It was a conspiracy against me by the BJP leaders. It was a conspiracy to oust me. I was kept in the dark (about the demolition),” said the rebel BJP leader Kalyan Singh, who is contesting as an independent from Etah district.

Kalyan Singh said the BJP leaders assured him that nothing will happen. “Senior BJP leaders said no demolition will take place. I believed them,” he added - in an apparent attempt to woo the Muslim voters.

Raking up the caste factor, he said: “I was not acceptable to the BJP. I was targetted because I come from the backward classes.”

The 16th century Babri Masjid was razed by Hindu activists on Dec 6, 1992, when Kalyan Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. It triggered large scale communal riots in northern India.

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh says the party was not consulted before its leaders like Arun Shourie declared that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could be a prime ministerial candidate in the next elections.

Rajnath Singh, whose constituency Ghaziabad on the outskirts of Delhi goes to polls May 7, said categorically that there was no question of such a decision having been taken.

"Sawal hi nahin hota. Yeh kya bacchon ka khel hai? Aise hi keh rahen hain (There is no question. Is this child's play? These people are talking just like that)," Rajnath Singh told IANS.

Shourie has spoken of Modi as the next prime ministerial candidate after L.K. Advani. His view was subsequently endorsed by other senior leaders like Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad and M. Venkaiah Naidu .

But Rajnath Singh, who was speaking to this correspondent at his campaign headquarters in Ghaziabad, asserted: "Advaniji hain. Aur aagey bhi rahenge(Advaniji remains the party's prime ministerial choice and will continue to be so in the future)."

He said this was not the way to make decisions. "BJP desh ki bari party hai (The BJP is a big party)."

Ironically, it is the acolytes of Advani who have projected Modi as a "future" prime minister bang in the middle of an election campaign when Advani is the party's present candidate. And it is Rajnath Singh, considered Advani's bete noire, who is standing up for him.

Experts say the idea of the Shourie salvo was to further consolidate Gujarat behind Modi. They say the idea of projecting Modi as Advani's successor was to play on Gujarati pride and convert the electoral battle into a Modi versus Congress one.

An increase of MPs in the BJP kitty, they argue, would after all help Advani.

This time Modi has resorted to "social engineering" in Gujarat and fielded OBC candidates, but in many places the powerful and dominant Patel community which had been with the BJP has started to move away, partly in a show of unhappiness with the marginalisation of former chief minister Kesubhai Patel.

The old timer versus new entrant dilemma has also made the situation uncertain for the BJP in some seats. Even Advani, who is being opposed by a Patel candidate, had to spend the last three days in his constituency Gandhinagar doing road shows.

That the projection of Modi as the BJP's future prime ministerial candidate could lead to weakening of Advani's authority and may have also been aimed at preventing Rajnath Singh from positioning himself as the number two after the elections is a side story.

VARANASI, India - As the helicopter swooped down a cloudless sky, a tide of "untouchables" surged forward for a glimpse of their new champion -- a stout 53-year-old woman billed as India's potential prime minister.

The woman smiled and offered a windshield-wiper wave, sending the crowd into raptures. They sang songs in her praise and raised their hands in the air, as if in deference to a goddess who has descended from the sky.

This is Mayawati, a daughter of "Dalits" or people formerly known as "untouchables," whose inventive caste-based politics in this general election is the hope of change for millions born into the poverty and wretchedness of the lowest rungs of the Hindu social hierarchy.

"No one feels for you the way our party does," Mayawati told a weekend rally in this northern holy town of Hindu gurus.

Hop scotching India by helicopter ahead of a staggered general election beginning Thursday, Mayawati is seeking to replicate across the country her stunning landslide victory in local polls in the northern Uttar Pradesh state in 2007.

A key swing state, Uttar Pradesh is the single largest source of seats in parliament and Mayawati is positioning herself as a vital ally to whichever party may need her to govern. She could even bargain to be India's first Dalit prime minister.

"Mayawati should be doubling her seats this time in the state which will allow her to leverage better as a coalition leader," political commentator Anil Verma said. Her party won 19 parliamentary seats from Uttar Pradesh in 2004.

Analysts say such a government was unlikely to be stable or be able to bridge a yawning fiscal deficit and push financial reforms, including slashing subsidies and privatization.

Critics say Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are siphoning off state funds to pay for her personal whims, from expensive houses, jeweler to bronze statues of herself.


AUTHORITARIAN
At the rally in Varanasi in support of her candidate -- a Muslim now in jail on murder charges -- her stage was cooled by four air-conditioners. Her supporters braved a baking sky.

One of nine children, Mayawati managed to study law and become a teacher through a government quota scheme for Dalits before being mentored by the BSP's founder.

Since her election win in 2007, she has inaugurated one of India's biggest highway projects, spent millions on parks and statues, and wielded what critics say is an authoritarian stick.

She has already faced probes over her personal wealth.

But Mayawati, affectionately called "Behenji," or respected sister, is an icon for most of India's 170 million lower-caste people she is trying to mobilize.

Yet Dalits alone are not enough to win Mayawati power.


Mayawati won the state election with an unlikely alliance of Dalits and the priestly Brahmins, the cream of the caste system. She is now trying to replicate that alliance in other states.

But corruption is the most serious criticism of Mayawati and her two years in power have spawned disillusionment among a section of the youth complaining of no jobs or opportunities.

The national parties -- the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party -- have little presence in the state. Many Dalits think Mayawati is simply unstoppable now.

"There is little to come in the way of Behenji," said Mangat Ram, a Dalit farm hand.

New Delhi, Apr 29 : Two days ahead of the third round of polling in the parliamentary elections, political knives were once again sharpened as the Supreme Court asked for a probe into Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 riots in the state, an event that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime minister-in-waiting has found it hard to live down.

As the Gujarat riots, in which 1,180 people, mostly Muslims, were killed, came to occupy political centrestage once again, the Congress got the leverage it was looking for.

"It is a slap on the face of a constitutional functionary, we are not at all surprised. Modi will not be apologetic, he will not resign and nor will he start feeling that anything went wrong in his state," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.

And then, giving voice to the speculation about Mr. Modi's ascendancy in the BJP, the Congress launched a sharp attack against the 81-year-old Advani saying he was a "mukhota" (mask) for the Gujarat chief minister.

"The question arises, has Advani been indirectly shown the door? Is Advani no more or less than a mukhota, a convenient front, a face and a mask for Modi."

Referring to the recent projection of Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate by Arun Shourie and Arun Jaitley, Mr. Singhvi went on to say: "This 'majboor' neta is a scared neta because has to rely on a supporting stick or crutch of Modi... He (Modi) has shown Advani the door."

The BJP appeared to be on the back foot.

While a grim-faced Mr. Modi refused to reply to persistent questions by a TV reporter on whether he had anything to say or would apologise, Mr. Jaitley said: "On the eve of every election, there is a court case filed against Narendra Modi. It has become a convention for the last 10 years."

The apex court has particularly sought probe into allegations of his involvement in the killing of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri in Ahmedabad's Gulberg area where 64 people were killed.

As her lieutenants handled the crisis in New Delhi, party chief Sonia Gandhi shared a platform with Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee for the first time since 2001 and launched a blistering attack on the Left Front at Lalgola in West Bengal.

Expressing happiness that "Mamata is again with us", she accused the Left Front government of "running a dictatorship" and lambasted its failure to "improve the lot of the minorities" and the poor.

Addressing the meeting for External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is contesting from the district's Jangipur constituency, Ms. Sonia Gandhi charged the Left Front with running a dictatorship in the name of democracy.

Referring to the Left's withdrawal of support to the UPA government over the India-US civilian nuclear deal, Ms. Sonia Gandhi said: "We had signed the deal only to bring electricity to your homes."

The Left also hit back.

Left Front chairperson Biman Bose criticised Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's comparison of Purulia district in the state with Orissa's Kalahandi region, once notorious for starvation deaths.

"Purulia is better than Kalahandi, it is even better than Amethi (Rahul Gandhi's constituency)," Mr. Bose said at a press meet in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) headquarters in Kolkata in the presence of all other Left Front allies.

Up north, Rahul Gandhi told a rally in Anantnag town of Jammu and Kashmir that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) practises "politics of division and anger" while the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) stands for "love, friendship and future".

"I have not come here today as a politician, but as a young man who extends his hand of friendship to the youth of Kashmir. Your vote this time is not for the National Conference or the People's Democratic Party. It is for the (Congress-led) UPA or the NDA," Mr. Rahul said.

Taking up the Advani vs Manmohan Singh theme, he said: "You have to choose whether you want Manmohan Singh to be the next prime minister of the country or (L.K.) Advani. The choice is clear."

He later flew to Uttar Pradesh, a Congress bastion a long time ago, and shared the dais for the first time with his sister Priyanka during a party meeting held at Barabanki, on Lucknow's outskirts.

There, he hit out at the opposition for criticising his visits to the homes of poor villagers and tribals and specifically targeted the BJP for its "India Shining" campaign in 2004.

And in south, the issue of the Tamil refugees in Sri Lanka found its own resonance in Tamil Nadu with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi beginning a hunger strike and ending it soon after when Colombo said it was ending "combat operations" against the Tamil Tigers.

His rival, AIADMK chief and former chief minister Jayalalitha reiterated her demand for a Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka.

Barwala, Apr 28: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party for ''exploiting'' the name of Lord Ram to gain power saying ''the chair of power is the only Ram for this party.''

While addressing an election meeting here in support of Congress candidate Jai Prakash, Mr Hooda charged the BJP with ''Bringing up the issue of Ram Mandir when out of power and forgetting it soon after gaining power.''

Mr Hooda claimed that all big projects of power, irrigation and education had been undertaken during his regime and problems of electricity was handed down to him by his predecessors.

He said,'' I have honestly worked like a servant of the people and even if there have been some drawbacks, those will be removed in the times to come.''

''We have taken care of all the sections of the society equally,'' he added while seeking votes for the party candidate.

Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), April 28 : Poll officials here are awaiting the Election Commission’s response to a complaint against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate from Mandi parliamentary constituency Maheshwar Singh for using the term “raja” (king) as a prefix to his name in his nomination papers.

Maheshwar Singh, scion of the erstwhile Kullu royal family, has written his name in the nomination papers as Raja Maheshwar Singh, aged 61 years, son of the late Raja Mohinder Singh, a resident of Rupi Palace, Raghunathpur, Kullu.

Titles like “maharaja” or “raja” have long been withdrawn by the government and are not supposed to be used in any government document.

“We received a complaint Saturday but nothing could be done in this regard at our level so we forwarded it to the Election Commission. We are awaiting a reply,” Himachal Chief Electoral Officer Anil Khachi told IANS Tuesday.

Complainant Lawan Thakur said that Maheshwar Singh had used the title “raja” this time alone.

“Maheshwar Singh has used the title of ‘raja’ only this time. His previous nomination papers (filed during the 1989, 1998, 1999, 1991 and 2004 elections), do not have the word ‘raja’ as a prefix to his name,” Thakur said.

“By using the title, Maheshwar has violated the constitution of India. The use of titles was banned following the abolition of the privy purses in 1971,” he added.

However, Maheshwar Singh said that he had added the world “raja” to his name as the voters’ list too mentioned his name as Raja Maheshwar Singh.

“As per law, I have to mention my name in the nomination papers as per the electoral rolls. So it is not my fault,” he said.

The Mandi constituency has mostly been a safe bet for the descendants of royal families, who have won it 10 times in 14 Lok Sabha elections.

This time also the battle is between two candidates from erstwhile princely families.

Maheshwar Singh’s arch-rival, Congress leader and five-time former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, belongs to the former royal family of Bushehr.

Sitting MP Pratibha Singh, the wife of Virbhadra Singh, is also from a royal family.

Surat: Claiming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was frightened by the Congress wave in the country, Union Minister of External Affairs and Information & Broadcasting Anand Sharma today said the party was attacking Prime Minister to drive people's attention.

Mr Sharma, who was here on a flying visit to assess party's ongoing election campaign in South Gujarat for the LS polls, slammed BJP for diverting common man on baseless issues.

He claimed the Congress-led UPA had provided maximum benefit to the common man, adding that India had seen growth in every sector under its regime. And this would lead UPA to regain power at the Center, he added.

Talking to mediapersons, the Minister said, ''BJP and NDA are frightened to such an extent that they are creating issues, which have nothing to do with the common man.'' He further said, ''Actually, NDA is not in a situation to form government and it's the frustration, which is coming out in this form.'' ''Interestingly, in Gujarat, where Modi is a star campaigner, top BJP leaders are visiting state to attend election rallies. The level to which they are attacking Congress is a shameful act,'' he added.

The Minister said he supported the Supreme Court's move to direct SIT to inquire Narendra Modi and other leaders over 2002 riots.

Mr Sharma denied any chances of replacing Dr Singh from Prime Ministerial post after elections and said since the Congress was the largest party in the UPA, it was the right of the party to have its candidate as Prime Minister if it won the election.

He denied that post-poll scenario would change Congress' stand over the issue.

GUWAHATI, April 25 – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Assam Pradesh on Friday thanked the electorate of the State for participating in the biggest democratic exercise and predicted the AGP-BJP alliance candidates would emerge victorious in nine Lok Sabha seats. The BJP also observed that AUDF was not much of a factor in this parliamentary election and predicted two seats for Ajmol’s party.

Addressing mediapersons here, State BJP president Ramen Deka regretted that the Congress party and government had acted as one since the start of the democratic process and alleged that the administration had created multiple hurdles for the Opposition during the campaigning period.

“It is very unfortunate that the administration had become a tool of the Congress,” alleged Deka.

Deka mentioned that the government had violated the model code of conduct on several instances. Referring to Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s meeting with businessmen at Millennium Hotel, Athgaon, Guwahati on April 22 at 8.30 pm, Deka said that it was a very serious offence and was in violation of the election norms.

“We view this as a clear violation of code of conduct. We had reported the matter in advance to Narendra Upadhaya, in-charge of election code of conduct for Gauhati parliamentary constituency over phone,” said Deka.

Deka informed that the party has submitted a written complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) demanding an investigation into the matter and necessary action.

It may be mentioned here that the BJP has also submitted a written complaint to the CEO over the incident of alleged snatching of relevant papers by Congress candidate for Gauhati Lok Sabha seat Robin Bordoloi at polling stations 151 and 152 at Chandmari around 2.30 pm from the presiding officers.

The party has alleged large-scale rigging at polling stations 49, 54, 73 and 78 at Paneri under Mangaldoi parliamentary constituency and has demanded re-polling in all these stations.

The party has demanded re-polling at polling station 13 of Mahmora LAC under Jorhat parliamentary constituency and at polling station 91 under Mangaldoi parliamentary constituency as the EVMs were out of order and many voters had returned home without casting their votes.

Kanpur, April 24 : The Congress-led government was determined to combat terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Friday and charged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of promoting divisive politics.

'We have taken steps to strengthen our intelligence agencies with a special emphasis on their modernisation and training,' Manmohan Singh told an election rally.

Replying to the BJP's repeated charge that his government's response to the recent terrorist strikes was weak, the prime minister recalled the Kandahar plane hijack and the attacks on the Red Fort and the parliament complex and said: 'All these attacks took place in the BJP regime.'

He also said the BJP was indulging in the politics of 'divisiveness'.

On BJP and the Third Front, he said, 'Neither do they have any common programme nor they have farsightedness. Now you decide whom you should vote for.'

Mumbai: In a glaring slip of tongue, Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani Friday uttered the name "Obama bin Laden" instead of the infamous Osama bin Laden but quickly corrected himself.

Advani, while addressing a press conference here, was referring to an initiative of US President Barack Obama's administration to target tax havens from where Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden may have been getting funds. But instead of Osama, Advani said "Obama bin Laden"!

April 18, 2009, Godhra

AFP image

In 1996, he had beaten the dust as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Godhra, but more than a decade later, Shankersinh Vagehla is back on the Godhra battleground, well aware that Narendra Modi could ambush him yet again. Shankersinh Vaghela is on the campaign trail in Godhra, fighting not against the BJP candidate Pratabsingh Chauhan, but against Narendra Modi himself. "This time it is a clear face-off. I am ready for it. My party is standing behind me solidly as against the BJP," said Vaghela. The face-off that goes beyond politics. Thirteen years, when Vaghela was in the BJP, he lost the Godhra seat after Narendra Modi mobilised the Sadhu samaj against him. Again in 2009, Modi is taking a special interest in the Vaghela contest. "The mood here changes when Narendra Modi campaigns here," said BJP Prabatsinh Chauhan. Shankersinh Vaghela won from the adjoining Kapdwanj constituency last elections, but post delimitations, that seat has been wiped out. Several assembly segments from that constituency have now gone to the Godhra constituency, a reason why Vagehla chose Godhra as the political battleground, knowing very well that Narendra Modi would try to ambush him yet again. Vaghela's relying on the work done by the UPA for the poor and the tribals in this region. Modi in turn will draw on the caste factor. The battle lines are drawn and the Vaghela-Modi war is sure to produce fireworks.

Bhopal, April 17 : Condemning what he terms as pseudo-secularism, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani here Thursday said that its pledge to build a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya was real secularism.

“We have taken everything on (our) agenda. The Somnath Yatra and Swarna Jayanti Yatra were part of our agenda and the Ram temple too has never been off our agenda,” Advani told a rally.

“I have been saying since 1997 that if given a chance, we will show what Surajya (good governance) is and we have shown it when we were in power for six years under the stewardship of Atal Behari Vajpayee. We have also shown it in states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and in other states as well.”

Underlining that welfare of farmers and soldiers besides improving security of the nation would be on the party’s priority, he said: “There would be no shortage of money for these matters as we will bring back the country’s ‘black money’ stacked in Swiss and other banks abroad and make the 21st century the century of India if voted to power.”

The BJP leader, however, warned the workers not to be overconfident about the party’s victory. Advani said no power in the country could have stopped the party and its alliance from forming the central government in 2004 but “we faced reverses only because we were overconfident”.

He said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had put the country on the path of progress, but the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government halted every public-welfare scheme NDA had launched.

“During its five-year tenure, the BJP-led NDA did good work for the common man’s welfare. And that was the reason behind our overconfidence.”

Referring to the water crisis in several regions of the country, he added: “Steps will be initiated to implement the erstwhile NDA government’s ambitious river-linking Scheme.