Congress core group meets to discuss government formation

New Delhi: The Congress core group met on Sunday to discuss the political situation and issues related to government formation following the impressive performance of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the Lok Sabha elections.

The strategic meeting, held at Seven Race Course Road, was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and Defence Minister A K Antony amongst others, party sources said.

It was the first high-level meeting in which the top Congress leadership discussed whether to take on board independents or parties of the Fourth Front like Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal to form the government.

The UPA is short of a dozen seats to reach the majority mark of 272 in Parliament.

Another meeting of the Congress Working Committee(CWC) is scheduled to take stock of the situation following the poll results.

The sources said that after the CWC meeting, Congress leadership would hold discussions with the allies to finalise the details of government formation.

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Clear mandate spares President of legal hassles

May 16, 2009, (New Delhi): Her job having become easy with Congress-led UPA close to securing majority in Lok Sabha, President Pratibha Patil on Saturday limited her exercise of consulting legal experts.

Though she was initially planning to hold larger consultations with legal experts in the course of the next couple of days to decide which party or alliance to invite, Patil restricted her consultations and spoke only to former Attorney General Ashok Desai.

The meeting lasted for nearly an hour during which the President and Desai discussed the poll outcome, a Rashtrapati Bhavan official said.

The day began for the President with some internal meetings after which she was glued to the television, watching the trends and results as they unfolded.

Since the UPA has left its principal opposition NDA way behind, an invitation to the Congress-led alliance to form the government is inevitable.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said that Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister now and he is all set to become the first person after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after a full five-year term.

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UPA set for decisive mandate in Lok Sabha elections

Congress supporters celebrate in front of Sonia Gandhi's residence in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Riding on a strong performance in game-changing states, the Congress today powered the UPA for another term in office with the Congress supporters


The party has won 76 seats and was leading in 129 others in a House of 543, its best performance after 1991 when it secured 244 seats. And with allies DMK and Trinamool Congress, who have done exceedingly well, the Congress-led UPA is poised to get 257 seats.

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The NDA led by BJP was far behind at 166 seats with the saffron party alone winning 50 seats and was ahead in 67 others.

BJP ally Shiv Sena has won 3 seats and was ahead in 8 while other allies Akali Dal was ahead in 4. Its another ally RLD has one one seat and was ahead in four.

The Third Front, including the Left parties, was ahead in 76 constituencies while the Fourth Front comprising RJD and SP was leading in 26 seats.
Manmohan Singh will be the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after a full five-year term with the Congress having nominated him as its candidate for the top post, first time it had done in its history.

The Congress performance was spectacular in Kerala where it routed the Left Front and dealt a severe blow to the Marxists in West Bengal with help from ally Trinamool Congress.

It also swept Delhi, did exceedingly well in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and more than doubled its tally in UP leading in 20 of the 80 seats there.

The BJP has conceded defeat and said the party had performed below expectation and the mandate of the people was in favour of the Congress-led UPA alliance. "It has become clear that Congress and the alliance led by it has emerged as the largest coalition...though there was no clear majority," BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley told reporters here.

Putting up a brave face, Jaitley said the BJP honoured the mandate of the people with "due respect".
Commenting on performance of the party, he said "we performed well in some places but we performed below expectation in some other states.

"It is a collective failure," he said but made it clear that there would be no change in party's ideology.
Jaitley said the BJP had run a positive campaign during the electioneering.

The BJP has put up a good showing in Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The party was leading in 18 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 19 out of the 29 seats in MP and 15 out of 26 in Gujarat.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), her son Rahul Gandhi (Amethi), External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee(Jangipur), Industry Minister Kamal Nath (Chhindwara), Veerappa Moily (Chikaballapur), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna) were among the prominent party candidates leading. Sachin Pilot (Ajmer) has won.

BJP leader L K Advani (Gandhinagar), party president Rajnath Singh (Ghaziabad), Yashwant Sinha (Hazaribagh), Jaswant Singh (Darjeeling), Sushma Swaraj (Vidisha) and Varun Gandhi (Pilibhit) were leading while his mother Maneka Gandhi has lost from Aonla.

Other prominent leaders who were ahead were Sharad Pawar (Madha), Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri, Lalu Yadav (Pataliputra and Saran), Kalyan Singh (Etah), Ajit Singh (Baghpat), Sharad Yadav (Madhepura) and Mamata Bannerjee (Kolkata South). LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan has lost from Hajipur.

Praja Rajyam Party chief Chiranjeevi has won from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

Surprisingly, the Congress ally DMK put up a good showing leading in 18 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu while AIADMK, which had no member in the outgoing House, was ahead in nine seats.

The Congress was leading in eight seats but its stalwart P Chidambaram lost from Sivaganga. Mani Shankar Aiyar was trailing in Mayiladuthurai.

DMK candidates M K Azhagiri, son of chief minister M Karunanidhi has won from Madurai and Dayanidhi Maran was leadinf Chennai South while Union Minister T R Baalu was trailing in Sriperumbudur. MDMK leader Vaiko was trailing in Sivakasi.

Congress reaffirmed Manmohan Singh will be the Prime Minister now and Rahul Gandhi its future prime minister.

This election Manmohan Singh is our prime ministerial candidate, AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters here.

The prime minister's chair is Rahul Gandhi's future as he is the future leader of the party, Dwivedi said.

He said there were three decisive factors for party's good performance - leadership of the government by the Prime Minister, leadership of UPA by Sonia Gandhi and leadership of campaign by Rahul.

Dwivedi's remarks come at a time when UPA appeared all set to return to power.

On the issue of alliances, Dwivedi said Left parties also have very little options and will also introspect in the post election scenario. "We had not broken the relationship, they had withdrawn support," he said.

The Left parties had withdrawn support to the Congress-led UPA government following differences over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

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Exit polls project Congress ahead of NDA

The results of the surveys, in a common trend, show Congress gaining the upper hand.

New Delhi: The Congress-led UPA has been projected to have an edge over NDA and others in the Lok Sabha elections which are expected to produce a highly-fractured verdict, exit polls on television news channels show. The results of the surveys, shown by the channels at the end of the fifth and final phase of polling in the month-long exercise, have placed the BJP-led NDA not very far behind the UPA and the Third Front at a little over 100 seats.
'Headlines Today' channel gave Congress and its allies 191 seats against 180 to BJP and its allies. The Left parties, which played a crucial role in the outgoing Lok Sabha with 60 seats, has been projected to get 38 while 'Others' including the BSP are set to get 134 in a House of 543.
In its projections, 'India TV' channel said UPA would get between 195 seats and it could go up to 227 if 32 seats of RJD, LJP and SP are added. The channel has given NDA 189 and the Third Front 113. 'Others' are projected to get 14 seats.

Exit polls had been way off the mark in 2004 Lok Sabha polls, with most of them projecting BJP-led NDA as the winner which did not turn out to be correct. Ultimately, in 2004 elections the Congress and its pre-poll allies got 216 seats against a projection ranging from 170 to 205 seats. The BJP-led NDA had secured 187 seats against the projections of over 240 to 250 seats.
In the predictions by 'NewsX' channel, the UPA has been projected to get 199 seats against 191 of NDA while the 'Third Front' gets 104 and 'Others' 48. Congress alone is expected to get 155 and BJP two less.
'UTVi' channel gives UPA 195 and along with SP, LJP and RJD, it gets 227. The NDA has been given 189 seats and 'Others' 14.
Yet another channel 'News 24' gave projections made by the political parties. In the Congress projections, gets 218 as against 194 of NDA, 101 for 'Third Front' and 30 for the 'Fourth Front'.
The channel quoted BJP exit polls giving UPA 170 as against NDA's 215. The 'Third Front' has been given 125 and the 'Fourth Front' 33.

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Law Minister denies attempt to save Quattrocchi

New Delhi, April 28 : Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj on Tuesday dismissed BJP leader L K Advani's allegation that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was working at the behest of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and clarified that no attempt has been made to save Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, the lone surviving suspect in the Bofors payoff case.

Addressing a news conference here, Bhardwaj said the decision to drop Quattrocchi's name from Interpol's list of most wanted persons was taken entirely by foreign agencies and there was no government involvement in the matter.

Clarifying that the Interpol is a foreign police organisation, he said, "I have made it clear that he was arrested without warrant. He was arrested outside and the third country court has decided this. Interpol is not our police and it is their decision. Interpol is a foreign agency. There is no attempt to save him. Law works in accordance to its rules and procedures and not on the directions of an individual or a political party."

Earlier, Advani had attacked the Congress party for being the leading force behind the Central Bureau of Investigation's decision to give a clean chit to Quattrocchi.

He had also held both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi "guilty" for the removal of Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) against the Italian businessman.

Meanwhile, Harsh Bahl, a spokesperson of the CBI, said the CBI has taken its decision on the legal advice of the highest order.

"The case has been under trial in the courts since 1999. CBI has taken action on the basis of the legal advice of the highest order. We will inform the competent court on the next date of hearing that is 30th April 2009," said Bahl.

Quattrocchi is accused of receiving seven million dollars as bribe as a middleman in the 1.2 billion dollar purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB in 1986 for the Indian Army. He has denied any wrongdoing.

He left India in the early 1990s and lived in Malaysia and Europe. He was sought for questioning by the CBI under a Interpol red-corner arrest notice.

The Bofors arms scandal dented the reputation of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and contributed to the fall of his government in the 1989 general elections.

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Congress hopes to ride on success of NREGA, forest land right

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and granting of forest land right to tribals, two flagship programmes of the UPA govt may help congress electorally in Gujarat where tribal population is around 15 per cent and can influence eight seats.

Tribals, which are spread in North-Eastern and South belt of Gujarat, are the main beneficiaries of these two schemes introduced by the Congress-led UPA government.

In the state, out of 26 Lok Sabha seats, four are tribal reserved seats-Bardoli and Valsad in South Gujarat and Dahod and Chhota Udeipur in Central Gujarat.

However, apart from reserved seats, tribals have considerable presence in Panchmahal, Bharuch, Sabarkantha and Banaskantha parliamentary constituencies.

“Our main campaign centres of NREGA, which has given work to the people in tribal areas and has had a positive impact on rural economy,” said Nasvadi Congress MLA Dhirubhai Bhil.

“We also tell people that ask BJP leaders to make their stand clear regarding the employment guarantee scheme. It is important to know whether the BJP if voted to power, will continue the scheme or scrap it,” he said.

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UPA government has fulfilled all its promises: Rahul Gandhi

While addressing an election rally in Lakhimpur (Assam) Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said “UPA government has fulfilled all promises made to the people five years ago. The government had promised to work for poor people, Dalits and for the backward classes.”

Congress General Secretary said that the biggest promise made by the UPA government was that of Employment Guarantee Scheme. Through this millions of people have been given employment.

He added “the UPA government carried out loan waiver programme for poor farmers and loans worth Rs 70,000 crores were waived. Mid-day meal programmes for school going children of this country is another big achievement of the UPA government.”

He said that Assam has a sizeable population of tribal people and the government has enacted a law to ensure their rights on the forestland.

Congress General Secretary said “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has a special relationship with Assam and the country is moving at a fast pace under his leadership.” He said “compared to the NDA regime, India’s GDP has registered faster growth during UPA’s rule. And this has happened because Congress Party has focused on poor people.”

He criticized BJP for being anti-poor and said that this is the fundamental difference between the Congress and the BJP. He said “five years ago, NDA had said that India was shining but India was shining only for some people, not for all. That is why people rejected that idea and showed them the door.”

Rahul Gandhi said that India could not move forward without the progress of the poor people. “Till there is single poor person in this country, India cannot shine,” he said.

He criticized BJP for their charge that Manmhohan Singh was a weak Prime Minister. Rahul Gandhi said that during NDA’s rule, terrorist attacked our Parliament and killed people.

He asked opposition leader L K Advani why he did not know anything about Kandhar. He said that either Advani was not telling truth or he did not have the trust of his Prime Minister.

Rahul Gandhi concluded by saying that the UPA government is focusing on road connectivity in North- East India and more funds would be allocated to stop floods in the region.

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UPA fulfilled its promises: Rahul Gandhi

Sharing stage with Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi said that UPA government has done a lot for the benefit of the poor. He said that listening to Omar Abdullah was a nice experience for him and listed the achievements of the UPA government...

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi have promised to make J&K one of the developed states of India. He said that many schemes have been implemented and many are in pipeline.

Congress General Secretary said that UPA government launched the Employment Guarantee Scheme and millions of poor people got benefitted from it. Loan waiver for the farmers and mid-day meal for school going children were other achievements of the UPA government.

He said that the Congress Party has fulfilled its promise of working for the Poor, Dalits and Backwards of this country. He appealed voters to support Congress on the basis of its work. He accused BJP for not taking care of the Poor and downtrodden.

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Congress to contest in 37 seats in Bihar

New Delhi, Mar 21 : With the UPA alliance in Bihar virtually collapsing, Congress on Saturday announced that it will contest 37 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats and leave only three for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP).

"We have decided to contest on 37 seats in Bihar. We want to leave three seats, two on which Lalu Prasad would contest and one on which Ram Vilas Paswan would contest," senior Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters here.

RJD and LJP had left only three seats for the Congress under the seat sharing agreement announced by them unilaterally.

Mr. Shinde, who is the chairman of the screening committee on Bihar said he would be "sendinga list of names (seats) to the Central Election Committee for approval".

The Congress leader claimed that the party workers were "very agitated and their dissatisfaction was at such a level that it is becoming difficult to convince them."

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Country looking forward to continued service of Manmohan Singh: Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi, Mar 9 : United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday said that the country looked forward to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s continued service.

She also said that many leaders in the Congress party were favouring Rahul Gandhi as PM in the near future.

According to the latest issue of ‘Congress Sandesh’, Rahul has brought a new hope among the youth by his hard work in the past few years. This is the reason that the Congresspersons across the country are looking forward to see him as India’s Prime Minister in the near future.

Sonia in her ‘letter to Congresspersons’ hailed Dr. Manmohan Singh for providing wise, sagacious and dignified leadership to the Congress-led UPA government.

"He has listened to all points of view and then taken decisions in the supreme national interest. He commands the greatest of respect and credibility both in India and abroad. We will look forward to his continued services to the party and the country," she said.

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