16 May 2009, PTI
NEW DELHI: Congress on Saturday made it clear that Manmohan Singh will lead a government led by the party as promised during the campaign, scotching speculation on its prime ministerial candidate.
Addressing the press at 10, Janpath in New Delhi, party president Sonia Gandhi said that Manmohan Singh remains the party’s choice for heading the next government. She said the verdict reflects the wisdom of the Indian voter, who “always make the right choice.”
PM Manmohan Singh said he would try to persuade Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Gandhi family, to join the cabinet after the ruling Congress-led coalition's win in a general election.
"It is my wish that he should be in the cabinet. But I will have to persuade him," Singh told reporters.
Earlier, AICC media department incharge Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters here when asked who will lead a Congress-led government at the Centre: "Manmohan Singh is our PM candidate and he will become Prime Minister.
On projection of Rahul Gandhi as a candidate for the prime minister's post, Dwivedi said. "the PM's chair is Rahul's future and he is the future leader of the party.
"It depends on Rahul when he will desire and when such a situation will arise. But as of now, Rahul has other priorities," he said.
He also gave full credit to the 39-year-old scion of Nehru-Gandhi family for the party's unexpectedly good performance in Uttar Pradesh.
"It is just the beginning", he said and predicted the end of communal and castist parties in the future.
With the Left parties suffering a setback in their bastion West Bengal, the Congress hoped that they "will introspect whom they will remain with" and play a "different" role.
Rahul has all 'qualities and capabilities' to be PM: Scindia
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia today said Rahul Gandhi should be the Prime Minister as he has all the "qualities and capabilities".
"I am not undermining anyone but I am saying that Rahul Gandhiji should be Prime minister. He has all the qualities and capabilities...he has actually shown that in this election...," he said.
When asked whether Manmohan Singh should resign and Rahul become PM, he said: "I never said that. I said that it is not the aspirations of the Congress party alone, aspirations not only of the youth of the country but all people of the country that he should get to the helm."
He said his maturity, his farsightedness and his political astuteness that he has shown in the last five years was exemplary. "That is the kind of leadership that this country was searching for."
Making it clear that it was his personal opinion, Scindia said: "Manmohan Singhji is the prime ministerial candidate of the Congress party and absolutely once again will be the prime minster of the country. You asked for my personal opinion and I gave you my personal opinion."
Saturday, May 16, 2009
UPA leads in 250 seats, NDA in 157
16 May 2009, PTI
NEW DELHI: The Congress-led UPA is all set to retain power at the Centre putting up an impressive performance in states like Andhra Pradesh and Congress supporters celebrate in front of Sonia Gandhi's residence in New Delhi. (AFP Photo)
The UPA alliance was ahead in 250 constituencies with Congress alone leading in 198 seats. The ruling Front is just short of a little over 20 seats for the magic figure of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The NDA was leading in 157 seats with BJP ahead in 119 seats.
The Congress exulted over its victory saying it was a vindication of its policies.
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.
NEW DELHI: The Congress-led UPA is all set to retain power at the Centre putting up an impressive performance in states like Andhra Pradesh and Congress supporters celebrate in front of Sonia Gandhi's residence in New Delhi. (AFP Photo)
The UPA alliance was ahead in 250 constituencies with Congress alone leading in 198 seats. The ruling Front is just short of a little over 20 seats for the magic figure of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The NDA was leading in 157 seats with BJP ahead in 119 seats.
The Congress exulted over its victory saying it was a vindication of its policies.
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.
Mistake not going with Congress: Lalu
16 May 2009,
NEW DELHI: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday admitted it was a mistake not going with the Congress party.
"It’s the mandate for the people,” Lalu said, adding that he has no grudges against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
"It was the biggest mistake. And there is no doubt that breaking away from Congress has resulted in our heavy defeat," Lalu Prasad told reporters in Patna on his party’s loss in Bihar.
The RJD supremo has lost from Pataliputra parliamentary constituency against his nearest JD(U) rival Ranjan Prasad Yadav, while he won a cliffhanger at Saran against BJP rival Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
"People have rejected our alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan (of Lok Janshakti Party). We were not expecting this result. We will now assess why we lost in Bihar and what went wrong. The Congress party has won the mandate and we congratulate them."
"We are also happy that the (Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance) NDA could not win the elections," he said.
The RJD chief has not ruled out joining the Congress.
With the NDA registering major electoral gains in Bihar, Nitish Kumar said it was a positive vote for his government. ''The lantern (RJD's election symbol) has broken and the oil that was spilt set on fire the bungalow (LJP's symbol) as the arrow (symbol of JD-U) was right on target,'' he told reporters.
Stating that the Lok Sabha results should be seen as being in continuity of the mandate that the NDA got in the last assembly polls, Kumar said ''The people of Bihar have the rejected negative politics pursued by RJD president Lalu Prasad and LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan and have given a positive vote to my government which has been successful in bringing about peace, communal harmony and development.''
According to latest trends, the JD(U) was leading in 32 of 40 seats.
Paswan happy that secular parties have emerged victorious
Taking his defeat in polls in stride, Lok Janashakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan today said he is happy that secular parties have emerged victorious ending the prospects of communal forces to come into power.
"It is pleasant that secular parties under the banner of UPA have won all across the country and the prospects of NDA which has been trying to come into power have ended," Paswan told reporters here.
Reacting to his defeat in Hajipur to JD(U)'s Ram Sunder Das, the Union minister said that winning and losing are parts of the game and he would continue to serve the people of Hajipur.
"As far as Bihar is concerned, you have your wins and misses. I have served people. Nobody can say that Paswan has not worked for Hajipur. I had done for the development of the constituency whatever I could have done. Despite all these works you lose, it is just the wish of the people. I will continue to serve them," he said.
NEW DELHI: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday admitted it was a mistake not going with the Congress party.
"It’s the mandate for the people,” Lalu said, adding that he has no grudges against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
"It was the biggest mistake. And there is no doubt that breaking away from Congress has resulted in our heavy defeat," Lalu Prasad told reporters in Patna on his party’s loss in Bihar.
The RJD supremo has lost from Pataliputra parliamentary constituency against his nearest JD(U) rival Ranjan Prasad Yadav, while he won a cliffhanger at Saran against BJP rival Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
"People have rejected our alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan (of Lok Janshakti Party). We were not expecting this result. We will now assess why we lost in Bihar and what went wrong. The Congress party has won the mandate and we congratulate them."
"We are also happy that the (Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance) NDA could not win the elections," he said.
The RJD chief has not ruled out joining the Congress.
With the NDA registering major electoral gains in Bihar, Nitish Kumar said it was a positive vote for his government. ''The lantern (RJD's election symbol) has broken and the oil that was spilt set on fire the bungalow (LJP's symbol) as the arrow (symbol of JD-U) was right on target,'' he told reporters.
Stating that the Lok Sabha results should be seen as being in continuity of the mandate that the NDA got in the last assembly polls, Kumar said ''The people of Bihar have the rejected negative politics pursued by RJD president Lalu Prasad and LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan and have given a positive vote to my government which has been successful in bringing about peace, communal harmony and development.''
According to latest trends, the JD(U) was leading in 32 of 40 seats.
Paswan happy that secular parties have emerged victorious
Taking his defeat in polls in stride, Lok Janashakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan today said he is happy that secular parties have emerged victorious ending the prospects of communal forces to come into power.
"It is pleasant that secular parties under the banner of UPA have won all across the country and the prospects of NDA which has been trying to come into power have ended," Paswan told reporters here.
Reacting to his defeat in Hajipur to JD(U)'s Ram Sunder Das, the Union minister said that winning and losing are parts of the game and he would continue to serve the people of Hajipur.
"As far as Bihar is concerned, you have your wins and misses. I have served people. Nobody can say that Paswan has not worked for Hajipur. I had done for the development of the constituency whatever I could have done. Despite all these works you lose, it is just the wish of the people. I will continue to serve them," he said.
KEY WINNERS -2009 Election
BJP's Rajnath Singh wins from Ghaziabad | Maneka Gandhi (BJP) wins by 6400 votes in Aonla | BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi wins from Varanasi | RJD's Lalu Prasad wins from Saran | BJP's Varun Gandhi wins from Pilibhit | Navin Jindal (Congress) wins from Kurukshetra | Deepinder Singh Hooda (Congress) wins from Rohtak | Cong's Ajay Maken wins from New Delhi seat | Advani (BJP) wins from Gandhinagar | Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress) wins seat | BJP concedes defeat | Jaswant Singh (BJP) wins in Darjeeling | Jaya Prada (SP) defeats Begum Noor Bano (Congress) in Rampur | Priya Dutt (Congress) wins in Mumbai North-Central | Akhilesh Yadav (SP) wins by 1.11 lakh votes in Kannauj | Sachin Pilot (Congress) wins in Ajmer | Navjot Singh Sidhu (BJP) wins in Amritsar | Kamal Nath (Congress) wins in Chhindwara | Sushma Swaraj (BJP) wins in Vidisha | Farooq Abdullah (NC) wins by over 30,000 votes in Srinagar | Shatrughan Sinha defeats Shekhar Suman in Patna Sahib | Chiranjeevi (Praja Rajyam) wins in Tirupati | Former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda (Ind) wins from Singhbhum | Deve Gowda (JDS) retains Hassan Lok Sabha seat | Mehboob Beigh (NC) wins in Anantnag | Francisco Sardinha (Congress) wins in South Goa | Shashi Tharoor (Congress) wins by 95,000 votes in Thiruvanathapuram | Lalubhai Patel (BJP) wins in Daman | P M Hamdulla (Congress) wins in Lakshadweep, K Sudhakaran (Congress) wins in Kannur | JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav wins in Madhepura | Congress sweeps Delhi | KEY LOSERS: Renuka Chowdhury loses in Khammam | Manvendra Singh (BJP) loses in Barmer | Chidambaram (Cong) loses in Sivaganga, asks for re-tally | Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP) loses in Hajipur | RJD's Lalu Prasad loses from Pataliputra
Congress set to sweep Delhi
16 May 2009, PTI
NEW DELHI: Congress is all set to make a clean sweep in Delhi and win all seven seats. Congress Party candidate from New Delhi parliamentary seat Ajay Makan (C) poses at a counting station in New Delhi. (AFP Photo)
Congress candidates Kapil Sibal and Mahabal Mishra won in the Chandni Chowk and West Delhi constituencies respectively. Union minister Ajay Maken has also won from New Delhi seat.
Ramesh Kumar of Congress has won from South Delhi defeating BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri by a margin of 93,219 votes. Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit won from East Delhi with a margin of over 2.4 lakh votes against his rival BJP's Chetan Chouhan.
Sitting MP Krishna Tirath defeated BJP's Meera Kanwaria by a margin of 1,84,433 votes.
In the last elections, Congress won six seats. An elated DPCC chief Aggarwal told PTI that the performance of Congress in Delhi and other metros clearly showed that "be it urban India or the rural, Congress is the peoples choice".
"The victory is a result of hardwork of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The BJP indulged in a negative campaigning. We were positive in our campaign from the word go," Agarwal said.
NEW DELHI: Congress is all set to make a clean sweep in Delhi and win all seven seats. Congress Party candidate from New Delhi parliamentary seat Ajay Makan (C) poses at a counting station in New Delhi. (AFP Photo)
Congress candidates Kapil Sibal and Mahabal Mishra won in the Chandni Chowk and West Delhi constituencies respectively. Union minister Ajay Maken has also won from New Delhi seat.
Ramesh Kumar of Congress has won from South Delhi defeating BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri by a margin of 93,219 votes. Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit won from East Delhi with a margin of over 2.4 lakh votes against his rival BJP's Chetan Chouhan.
Sitting MP Krishna Tirath defeated BJP's Meera Kanwaria by a margin of 1,84,433 votes.
In the last elections, Congress won six seats. An elated DPCC chief Aggarwal told PTI that the performance of Congress in Delhi and other metros clearly showed that "be it urban India or the rural, Congress is the peoples choice".
"The victory is a result of hardwork of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The BJP indulged in a negative campaigning. We were positive in our campaign from the word go," Agarwal said.
Indian people have made 'the right choice': Sonia Gandhi
16 May 2009, AFP
NEW DELHI: The leader of India's Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, said on Saturday that the Indian people have made "the right choice" after her party
and its allies swept to a commanding election victory.
"First of all I would like to thank the people for reposing faith in the Congress party once again," Gandhi said in a joint news conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"The people of India know what is good for them and they always make the right choice," she said.
Results still coming in from the Election Commission show the Congress-led alliance has crushed its Hindu nationalist rivals, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
NEW DELHI: The leader of India's Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, said on Saturday that the Indian people have made "the right choice" after her party
and its allies swept to a commanding election victory.
"First of all I would like to thank the people for reposing faith in the Congress party once again," Gandhi said in a joint news conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"The people of India know what is good for them and they always make the right choice," she said.
Results still coming in from the Election Commission show the Congress-led alliance has crushed its Hindu nationalist rivals, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Friday, May 15, 2009
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