2009-02-22 05:39:20 - Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi being chief target of fifteenth Lok Sabha campaign by the saffron Parties.Electrol battle begins from the state of Gujarat which is emerging the most progressive state with its CM proving points that recession will have least affect with his plan outlay to give employment of 2.5 million youths.

Citizen's Groups seek ban criminal contest 15 LS:
Delhi intellectuals in their smaller group looks to hold meet to sanitized infuse fresh air in the electrol process by introduction of righteous people in fray of coming elections a lurking thought amongst wide cross section of people of India.A seminar likely to be held in early March 09 to request all political outfits not to allow the criminals to contest the paensuing parliamentary lection due in April 09.On going effort initiated in New Delhi on 20th jan 2009,concerned & bewildered Youth, Women & Citizen's groups, members of the Press came together at the Press Club New Delhi on 20th Jan 2009 to address the menace & growing criminalisation of Indian Parliament

and legislatures.Youth & 780 million Indians less than 35 years of age are particularly unhappy at
the callous attitude of India's top Leadership & Political Parties.

'The 14th Lok Sabha has 120 criminals as members. 6 of these are in jail yet they are allowed to cast their vote in Parliament. By allowing criminals to continue as law makers to serve political expedience, our elected leaders are making a mockery of the intended provisions of Section 8 of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951',said Roshan Seth, Trustee NNFI. 'More so it is a direct affront to the citizens who reposed faith in the elected leadership to honour their
oath to the Constitution and to preserve our democracy', he added

'People who have accumulated wealth through corruption, loot, drug money and a variety of serious crimes are today on the verge of controlling our Parliament. At stake is the very existence of our democracy. Citizens who care for India should no longer accept this grave situation and pledge a ban on tickets to those with criminal antecedents at the forth coming Lok Sabha elections by April 2009'
said Sri Ram Bahadur Rai, respected senior journalist.

'Todays' divisive polity by denying fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution results in untold suffering to almost 80% of the population who have to daily struggle for their existence. Also minimal trickle down development due open corruption increases hardship', said Jiten Jain of YFE.

Stalwarts from Akhilbhartia Jan Chetna Manch, Youth For Equality, Yuva Shakti Manch and prominent groups assembled, pledged to work pooling resourses & others concerned through the length and breadth of the country to block the infusion of criminals into the legislatures and to make the ‘business of politics' not lucrative to be in, for those inside.

'The growth of small regional parties, many led by those with dubious antecedents, does not bode well for India and threatens the very existence of the National Parties such as Congress and BJP as well as our parliamentary democracy' said Gen Vinod Saighal of MRGG.

Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat:

AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Saturday visited Gujarat and wooed the diamond workers said the Central Government is committed to work for poor.He said Congress believes in the common man and the poor of this country and over the last five years, we have done more than any government to help the common man.Gandhi met diamond workers in Surat, which has been hit by global recession in recent times.He also blamed the States Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for ignoring poor diamond cutters.The State Government in Gujarat continues to ignore the poor of this country. There are thousands and thousands of diamond cutters who are poor and who are completely ignored by the BJP government. It is the same under a lot of BJP governments. So our focus is the poor people and the common man of this country and we will continue to work for them, he said.

Modi takes on Gandhis:
BJP Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani asked party workers in his Gandhinagar constituency to "ignore" him and his visits to the state. when agitated BJP young functionary asked, "why is this boy coming to Gujarat every week when he knows nothing about the state", during an interaction with district level leaders in Gandhinagar on Friday, Advani laughed and suggested, "It is better if we ignore him." He added that taking cognizance of him would only add value to him.report TOI.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today demanded an explanation from UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi as to why the CrPC was amended "making it possible" for rapists to escape arrest."No mother or sister of this country will pardon you for this," he warned Sonia.
"You may be a westerner but you are a woman. You should understand the sensibilities of Indians and their culture. Why did you allow such a law to be passed?" Modi questioned in a fierce attack on Sonia.The Gujarat Chief Minister was addressing the 'Telangana Sankalp Sabha' organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party at Karimnagar today to kick start the party's election campaign in the region.As per the new amendments made to the CrPC, police could not arrest a person guilty of a heinous crime like rape. Even those who committed atrocities on SCs and STs could go scot free, Modi said."Has anyone seen such a law made in India?" he asked.
Launching a scathing attack on the UPA government at the Centre, the Gujarat Chief Minister has decried the "soft-approach" towards terrorism and said the UPA was clearly playing vote bank politics, thereby jeopardizing the lives of common people.

UPA Congress:
In the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, key UPA ally RJD has said the aim of all the allies of the government is to fight the forthcoming elections together.Though there were differences of opinions during the N-deal, "they (Left) are our natural allies," party chief Lalu Prasad said on the sidelines of the All India Management Association (AIMA) award presentation function at New Delhi on Saturday.
"They are our permanent friends and they will remain our friends. We may even contest together.... what is there in it," he said when asked about a possible alliance with the Left."There may be differences between the allies over one or two seats but our aim is to fight the elections together," he said.When asked about the progress on the issue of seat-sharing with LJP, he said talks are going on.

The Railway Minister visited Paswan's residence on Friday night to attend a function, leading to speculation of finalisation of ties between RJD and LJP.When asked if Supreme Court ruling of not allowing the U C Banerjee report to be tabled in Parliament is a setback to the government, Lalu said, "There is no setback. We all know who created problems (Godhra incident).Lalu said reports of two commission on the incident have already been submitted. "It is upto the court to decide and we will abide by the court decisions.RJD leader Lalu Prasad has ruled out giving a ticket to party MP Pappu Yadav in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, saying convicted persons will not be given a chance to fight elections ."Unless the court stays the conviction how can he (Pappu) contest the election," Prasad said when asked whether the Madhepura MP will be given a ticket for contesting the coming elections.Yadav, who is lodged in Tihar jail at New Delhi, is currently out on bail.NDA had boycotted Lalu, against whom charges were framed in the multi-crore fodder scam, for sometime after he was inducted in the UPA government.

Third front Left:
Left parties would work for the defeat of both Congress and BJP in the Lok Sabha elections and were trying to forge a non-Congress and non-BJP Third alternative at the Centre, WBengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said.Spelling out the CPI(M)'s stance in the run up to the general elections at a closed-door party meeting at Howrah, Bhattacharjee said the party would look to political forces which would "fight communalism and pursue an independent foreign policy".
Countering the propaganda that Leftists were running after Mayawati and Jayalalitha to cobble up an alternative, Bhattacherjee said, "We are not running after any individual."The Left had withdrawn support from the UPA government, he said, adding "we will fully oppose the Congress in the coming election."On the possibility of a Congress and Trinamool Congress alliance in the state for the elections, he said "the Left Front is not bothered. Regardless of an alliance taking shape or not, the Left Front will win."Bhattacherjee pointed out that the Congress and Trinamool Congress had differences of opinion over an alliance.

CPI top brass began deliberations on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections planning to contest between 40-50 seats outside the three Left-dominated states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.Sticking to the overall approach of forging a non-BJP and non-Congress front in the upcoming polls, the party's National Council at New Delhi has started discussions on the political situation in each state, the number of seats to contest, identify the constituencies and review the poll preparations.While it would strive not to clash with CPI(M) and other Left parties in all states, CPI sources said an overall approach would be finalised in the two-day meeting and state- specific details regarding talks with regional parties in these states.However, the specific details regarding number of seats and the poll preparations would be worked out by the respective state units of the party, they said.
The Left party is confident about a non-Congress and non-BJP combination at the Centre after the elections saying it is an "emerging possibility", with the sources saying that Congress was "already showing its weakness" by asking all secular parties to align with it.The CPI and the CPI(M) are understood to have worked out their seat-sharing understanding with the TDP and TRS in Andhra Pradesh, where assembly polls would be held along with the general elections.
In Tamil Nadu, the CPI is yet to begin talks with AIADMK on seat-sharing. Though CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa have arrived at an electoral understanding, details regarding seats are to be finalised.
The PMK is yet to decide on whether to join this combine, which also has MDMK as its part.In Bihar, the CPI has aligned with the CPI(M) and CPI-ML (Liberation) and the combine is likely to contest in about 25 Lok Sabha constituencies. Talks were also on between CPI and JD(S) for seat sharing in Karnataka, CPI sources said.
The CPI is also planning a "major concentration" in states like Assam, Manipur, Bihar and Jharkhand, they said, adding that the party had identified seats which it would like to contest in Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,Orissa,Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.In Maharashtra it planned to put up candidates in two constituencies, while in Punjab it has identified four seats, in Rajasthan two, Gujarat and Orissa one each.In Uttarakhand, the CPI would contest in Pauri Garhwal and CPI(M) in Tehri.Final decisions in respect of most of the states would be made by the respective state committees in consultation with the central leadership.

NDA BJP:
BJP president Rajnath Singh has said the saffron party was "confident" of forging an alliance with the RLD.
"We are confident and an alliance would be announced soon. There is no reason for it (RLD-BJP alliance) not to happen," Rajnath Singh told reporters at New Delhi on Saturday.The alliance is crucial to Rajnath Singh personally since a lot would depend on the help rendered by the RLD for him to win the Gaziabad seat in western Uttar Pradesh.Posters and banners have already come up across Gaziabad with Rajnath praising RLD patron and former prime minister Charan Singh as the "messiah of farmers."The BJP, which is in talks with the RLD since August last year, has not yet been able to finalise a seat-sharing formula amid rumours of its leader Ajit Singh cozying up to Congress to "explore possibilities" of his party in UPA.The saffron party has set a deadline of February-end to finalise all its seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.BJP expresses concern about Tamil civilians in Lanka. BJP expressed concern over the plight of Tamils in the war-torn northern Sri Lanka and accused the UPA Government of being "insensitive" while dealing with the issue."The Congress-led ruling coalition at the Centre had been extremely insensitive over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters at Vijayawada on Saturday."We have no sympathy with the LTTE but are concerned about the plight of civilian Tamils in the island nation," he said.
Describing the interim rail budget as "disappointing" Naidu said the Railway Ministry has shown a surplus of Rs 90,000 crore which only indicates that it had not spent enough money on new projects and passenger amenities.
He said the BJP's Central Election Committee will meet on 26th February for finalising the list of candidates."BJP would it alone in Andhra Pradesh in the upcoming elections though Nava Telangana Party has approached us for an alliance, Naidu said."We will take a final decision on alliance with the Telangana party after March 8," the BJP leader said.BJP's vote-share and number of seats in Andhra Pradesh would certainly increase in the coming elections, he said.Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh are due along with Lok Sabha polls scheduled in April-May.