Month: September 2013

Yoga guru Ramdev on Sunday said that the BJP led by Narendra Modi would return to power in the 2014 general elections.

“It is 100 % certain that Narendra Modi will win,” Ramdev told reporters here after taking part in a rally marking September 28 as Swami Vivekananda Day in Illinois.

“I see that India is ready for a revolution and change. In the election Congress will get 100 seats, BJP and its alliance will get 250-300 seats.

“I think a new history will be created in Indian politics in 2014,” he said.

In an apparent attempt at assuaging his feelings in the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s denunciation of the government, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying schemes launched under his leadership have helped millions of people from the marginalised sections.

“They (marginalised sections) faced discrimination at every level. The UPA government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has lifted million of them through its flagship schemes,” she said at a function at Neyar Dam about 30 km from here.

A CBI court in Ranchi will pronounce its judgement tomorrow in the multi-crore fodder scam, in which RJD chief Lalu Prasad, if convicted, will face immediate disqualification as a Lok Sabha member.

Prasad and 44 others have been charged with fraudulent withdrawal to the tune of Rs 37.7 crore on fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s in a case lodged by CBI. Chaibasa was then part of undivided Bihar.

NCP leader and Union Minister of State for Agriculture Tariq Anwar, on Sunday, said that Rahul Gandhi’s disapproval of the UPA government’s Ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers has dented the image of the government and Congress. “The image of both the UPA government and the Congress has been eroded by Rahul’s strong disapproval of the ordinance approved by the Prime Minister,” he said.

The development also indicated that there was a lack of coordination between the party (Congress) and the UPA government headed by it, Anwar said.

The Congress Party demanded Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to apologise to the country for using Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir’s claims about Nawaz Sharif’s alleged utterances about Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh as a political tool to show the country’s leader in poor light before the people, while he is abroad. “Today, we ask Narendra Modi, who makes tall claims about being a nationalist for turning anti-national by believing a Pakistani journalist and showing the Prime Minister in poor light,” Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said.

Speaking after unveiling a statute of former Kerala Chief Minister R. Shankar in Kerala , UPA Chairperson and Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday her party is guided by his legacy of equal society and social justice to lead them to a path of progress change. “Raj Shankar vision of an equal society inspires the Congress Party and the Government everyday, which will create an inclusive, just and responsible society—one which empowers every citizen as member of society,” Gandhi said.

After Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi alleged that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi insulted the Prime Minister in his recent remarks on the ordinance for convicted lawmakers, Congress leader Rashid Alvi backed the ruling party’s number two leader and asserted that he did not disrespect Dr. Manmohan Singh in any way, but merely publicly put forth his personal point of view.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s “complete nonsense” remark against a cabinet-approved ordinance was tantamount to national insult, his cousin and BJP leader Varun Gandhi said Sunday and demanded an apology from the party.

“Rahul Gandhi’s comments were against the prime minister and made at a time when he was representing the nation on foreign soil,” Varun gandhi, who is BJP general secretary, said.