INDIA’S
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Gujarat model a big lie, BJP should clarify
ELECTIONS SPECIAL 2014 w w w . l e m a t i n a l . c o m
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav alleged that BJP's Gujarat model was a "big lie", and that the party should clarify about it."There is nothing like Gujarat model being propagated by the BJP.They should tell what it is.No one knows about it. It's just a big lie", Yadav said.Coming down heavily on candidate Modi, Yadav alleged that he (Modi) was not the BJP nominee for the top post but was a representative of VHP, RSS and Bajrang.
LE MATINAL, PORT-LOUIS, THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2014
DIGVIJAYA
'Modi has given more than 300 false statements' T aking a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary, Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday said, "In Modi's council of ministers, there is Babubhai Bokharia, who despite having serious and heinous crime cases registered against him are still enjoying the ministership. Then there is another minister, whose name figured in a scam worth Rs 400 crore, and even the Supreme Court had directed the Gujarat government to register a FIR against the minister concerned. But, the FIR is yet to be lodged." He further added that according to Modi, Taxila is located in Bihar, Alexander the great came to banks of Ganga and Jawaharlal Nehru did not attend the funeral of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. "In fact, in the last six months, Narendra Modi has given more than 300 false statements," the former MP CM added. On the issue of Modi's marital status left blank in all the elections barring this one, Digvijaya claimed that it was because of the pressure mounted by the Congress and media, that Modi was forced to accept Jasodaben as his wife. Even in the Who's who book of the Gujarat assembly, Modi's marital status is not
clear, Singh added. Pointing to the hidden communal agenda in Modi's campaign, Digvijaya, said, "During the initial days of campaigning, Modi banks on the development plank, while during the last two days of the campaign, his focus gathers communal overtones and the sole aim is to polarise." The senior Congress leader also made his anger clear over the slogans 'Ghar Ghar Modi' and 'Namo Namo', and said that at least the VHP should seek a apology for this. He also
pointed to the tacit poll pact between the Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party, and said, "The Muzaffarnagar riots could have been easily prevented, but complete freedom was given to the rioters by the administration. "If the chief minister of a state has his way, then no riots can take place. Yes there can be instances of communal tensions, but no riots, which span for more than couple of days," the former MP CM added. On the Gujarat model of development, the Congress general secretary said that in 1995 all the outstanding dues of Gujarat were cleared. "And this does not give license to Modi to flaunt his 56-inch chest and say that after making Gujarat, a debtfree state, I will make
India debt-free." He further added that Gujarat's debt figures stand at Rs 1,42,000 crore. Gujarat ranks number 3 in India after West Bengal and UP, and the tops the tally of per capita debt. "Gujarat is no where in the vicinity of number 1 on any of the economic and social indicators be its foreign investment, growth of manufacturing sector, employment, healthcare, education, infrastructure or nutrition," he added. The Congress general secretary also reiterated that Congress always has and will stand by the poor, farmers and tribal population of the country, while the RSS has always been against them. "Whenever the Congress initiated any pro-people move - be it the abolition of zamindari, nationalisation of banks or withdrawal of privy purses, the RSS and its subsidiary organisation had opposed the move," Digvjay said and added that it was the Congress, which gave information technology, economic liberalisation, panchayati raj reforms, RTI, RTE, Right to Food and Forest rights to the people of this country. The senior Congress leader also added that the corporates are backing Modi, since the UPA had not given the kind of importance, which they had wanted. On the question of failure to control prices of petrol and diesel, Singh said that deregulation of petrol prices was first done in 2002.
LS polls: 180 million vote for 117 seats in phase six T
he second biggest phase of the staggered electoral fight to govern India will play out on this Thursday, giving more than 180 million voters the right to have their say across 117 Lok Sabha seats. A week after the largest round of polling for 121 seats, voters across 11 states and Union Territory Puducherry will decide the political fortunes of 2,076 candidates in round six. What’s more, this round will also have a bearing on the prime ministerial ambitions of AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is in the fray from bastion Mainpuri. Polling in key state Maharashtra will also be completed. The Congress had won 36 of these 117 seats in 2009, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 26, the DMK 18, the AIADMK 9 and the Samajwadi Party 5. Voting for 349 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats will be completed with this phase, leaving the last three stages. Tamil Nadu will see voting for all its 39 seats in one go. Jayalalithaa is in power and aiming for a clean sweep, including the Puducherry seat. The BJP drew a blank in the state in 2009, but has engineered a
coalition with parties that cumulatively won more than 16% votes in the 2011 assembly polls. BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi has addressed at least seven meetings in Tamil Nadu in this campaign. The saffron party’s best showing in Tamil Nadu was four seats in 1999, as junior partner to the DMK. The electoral debut of Congress candidate Karti Chidambaram, son of Union finance minister P Chidambaram, is grabbing eyeballs. Maharashtra’s final chunk of 19 seats, including six in Mumbai, is on the line. Debutants such as actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar, activist Medha Patkar and former banker Meera Sanyal are in the fray along with many of the old guard and secondgeneration leaders such as Priya Dutt and Milind Deora. The ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) coalition is up against anti-incumbency, having been in power since 1999, and a belligerent BJP-Shiv Sena combine. It is a showcase of heavyweights in Uttar Pradesh, where voting will take place across 12 seats. Mulayam, daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, Amar Singh and Hema Malini are in the fray. Most pollsters have viewed UP
as a three-cornered contest between the BJP, SP and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The Congress will be hoping to prove pollsters wrong. It had won 21 seats from the state in 2009. The voting process in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh will end with the final tranche of 10 seats. Sushma Swaraj, one of the saffron party’s top leaders, is in the fray. The voting process will also end in Chhattisgarh (7 seats), Assam (6 seats), Rajasthan (5 seats) and Jharkhand (4 seats). Cricketer-turned-politician Mohammad Azharuddin is in the fray in Rajasthan. In Bihar, polling will be held for 7 seats. The political dynamics of Bihar have changed since the BJPJanata Dal (United) split. The BJP has managed to seal a pact with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). The big interest, however, is in what kind of impact Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad makes. In West Bengal, President Pranab Mukherjee’s son, Abhijit Mukherjee, and Deepa Dasmunshi are among the central figures in the poll ring. Voting will be held for 6 seats. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti is the big name in the Anantnag contest in Jammu and Kashmir.-TOI
ELECTION HIGHLIGHTS ...
Young supporters of BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi at Nivedita Sadan School in Tulsipur, Varanasi.
AAP cheif Arvind Kejariwal during his campaign for lok sabha candidate Kumar Vishwas in Amethi.