Never See Dreams of Being PM; have to Serve Gujarat till 2017: Narendra Modi

Downplaying his Prime Ministerial aspirations, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said he never dreams of holding the top post as he is bound to respect the mandate given to him by the people of his state till 2017.

"Those who dream of becoming something end up destroying themselves. One should not dream of becoming something, but one should dream of doing something," Modi said when a student asked him whether he will come and interact with them in 2014 after 'he will become the Prime Minister'. "I never see such dreams (of becoming PM), nor am I going to see such dreams. People of Gujarat have given me a mandate to serve them till 2017 and I have to do this with my full strength," Modi said.

The BJP strongman, who is in the race for the party's PM candidate, was replying to questions asked by students who had gathered at a function for felicitating best teachers of the state on the occasion of Teacher's Day.

Modi shared the dais with State Governor Kamla Beniwal at the function for the first time after fresh confrontation between them. Beniwal has returned the controversial Gujarat Lokayukta Aayog bill for reconsideration to the government with stinging remarks.

Modi's comments come at a time when Opposition Congress is gunning for his resignation and has given a call for Gujarat bandh tomorrow after the explosive resignation letter of suspended IPS officer D G Vanzara and emergence of a sting operation CD involving two BJP MPs allegedly trying to derail the investigation in the Tusli Prajapati encounter case.

Source: DNA

Narendra Modi to Hold Mega Rallies across the Country Eyeing 2014 Lok Sabha Polls

His eyes trained firmly on Delhi, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is scaling up his campaign as the general election inches closer. Pulling out all stops to make the BJP's Mission 272-plus a reality - which is vital to his prime ministerial dream - Modi will hold mega rallies across the country in the next two months.

Coming up first is his rally in Jaipur on September 10, where he will address a gathering at the conclusion of the 'Suraaj Sankalp Yatra' undertaken by former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. This will be followed by a rally at Rewari in Haryana on September 15 and the Hunkar rally at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna on October 27.

Buoyed by the success of Modi's rally in Hyderabad on August 11, the BJP has planned more rallies and public campaigns in south India. The Gujarat CM is likely to address a youth conference in Tamil Nadu on September 26. The placer and other arrangements for the conference are yet to be finalised, though.

Campaign Spree: The BJP clearly feels it has found a trump card in Modi and that he is the party's best bet for a shot at power at the Centre. Explaining the rally overdrive of the BJP's election campaign committee chairman, party president Rajnath Singh told Mail Today that Modi "is the most popular leader and will benefit party's poll prospects". In what was clearly a counter to the Congress's constant refrain that Modi's communal past makes him unfit for the country's top job, Rajnath said: "If the country can have a prime minister who hasn't administered even a district, then why not Modi?

At least he has the longest experience as a chief minister." In Uttar Pradesh, which has the biggest number of Lok Sabha seats, Modi will begin his campaign in big way after October 31.

His confidante Amit Shah is already in the state, having been assigned the task to win maximum seats for the party.

Bihar, too, is of special interest, not only because it has 40 seats but also in view of the BJP's bitter fight with former ally, the Janata Dal-United.

Rajnath said "the party will leave no stone unturned to improve its seats tally in Bihar and UP", underlining how important the two heartland states were for the party.

While Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar managed to keep Modi out of the state even when his party was in alliance with the BJP, the Gujarat CM's presence at the Hunkar rally will be a direct challenge to him. The BJP's state unit is banking on Modi's charisma to cut into Nitish's mass appeal - and vote bank.

Modi is also reaching out to farmers through his Vibrant Gujarat Global Agriculture Summit. The event, scheduled to take place in Gandhinagar between September 9 and 11, is expected to be attended by more than 3,000 farmers from all over the country.

Apart from the Lok Sabha elections, states where assembly polls are scheduled later this year will also receive the Gujarat CM's special attention.

A schedule is being drawn up for a rally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. "No date for has been finalised as yet, but Modi's rally is definitely happening in the state," said Kailash Vijayvargiya, senior BJP leader in MP. While the Gujarat CM is busy reaching out to the masses across the country, his party is drumming up all the support it can within the state.

The state BJP is gearing up for a mega celebration for its leader on his birthday on September 17. A largescale mass connect programme will be launched on the occasion. "At least one lakh people will directly connect with Modiji through the social media," said a member of the BJP's social media cell.

Mass Outreach:

"We are dealing with the party's programme at the state level," Gujarat BJP spokesperson I. K. Jadeja said. He added that Modi's birthday would provide the appropriate occasion to initiate his people outreach programme in his home state.

Modi has already made his wish of decimating the Congress across all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat known to his party workers. A drive will be carried out between September 17 and September 25, the birth anniversary of RSS ideologue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, wherein the party's youth wing has been mandated to enroll at least two lakh members from the unorganised sector while all the other units, including SC, ST, OBC, kisan and minority morchas, have been asked to enroll at least one lakh members each.

The party is also planning to initiate a Jan Sampark Yatra to be taken out by the BJP Yuva Morcha on September 11. The yatra will conclude on September 25 and will primarily spread awareness on thoughts of Swami Vivekananda, who, along with Sardar Patel, has been the mascot for Modi's campaign for some time.

Source: IndiaToday

Declare Narendra Modi as PM Candidate, RSS Tells BJP

NEW DELHI: The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh has asked BJP to clear the decks for formally announcing Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial nominee by sounding out members of the party parliamentary board.

The announcement is expected to be timed well ahead of the forthcoming round of assembly elections due in November so that any lingering doubt over BJP's PM candidate is stubbed out and the party campaign gains a sharper focus.

The RSS green signal came during detailed discussions between Sangh seniors — general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi, joint general secretary Suresh Soni, Dattatray Hosbole and Krishan Gopal — and BJP leaders here on Thursday.

BJP was represented at the meeting by party chief Rajnath Singh, leaders of opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley besides Modi.

The decision to move ahead with Modi's anointment as PM nominee came as Sangh leaders felt a further delay will not prove beneficial and BJP will gain by completing the formality of the parliamentary board endorsing the CM.

Now Singh is expected to sound out members of the board including party senior L K Advani - who had opposed Modi's elevation as chair of BJP's campaign committee - about RSS's point of view and complete consultations.

Speaking in Palampur in Himachal Pradesh on Friday, Singh all but said Modi will the party's PM bet. "Our choice of Prime Ministerial candidate is obvious and it is now the turn of Congress to make its choice clear," he said.

The announcement is also considered necessary to stem continued carping by some leaders and factions as seen in Patna Saheb MP Shatrughan Sinha's repeated assertion that Modi was not the best choice for PM as his candidature would polarize the election.

Sinha's advocacy in favour of Advani remaining a central figure in party matters is seen to reflect the ire of leaders who remain unreconciled to the inevitability of Modi's projection as PM.

The MP's outbursts forced former finance minister Yashwant Sinha to dissociate himself from the remarks. Shatrughan Sinha is close to the former minister who has in the past been seen to have batted for Advani.

The decision to move ahead with the Modi-for-PM formulation reflects a strong consensus in the Sangh that the saffron strongman is BJP's best bet to challenge Congress in the Lok Sabha polls despite his polarizing effect.

Modi's projection matches the sentiment of the BJP cadre that is overwhelmingly in favour of the leader with other contenders a poor second.

So far, Modi has not waited for a formal endorsement and used both party platforms and other high profile events like addressing college audiences to directly reach out to voters. He has presented himself as a modernizer adept at connecting with the youthful voter.

Elements of Modi's strategy are clear enough as he aims to take on Congress frontally on UPA-2's perceived governance failures and blending a Hindutva message by targeting the ruling party over its "secular politics".

Source:TOI

Times Now-CVoter Opinion Poll: Congress Clear Loser but BJP still Far from Victory

We could end up with a Lok Sabha in which, for the first time, the single largest party has less than one-fourth of the 543 seats and no front has even a third. That is what would happen if elections were held now, according to a Times Now-CVoter opinion poll. It projects that the NDA would win 156 seats with the BJP getting 131 of them, while the UPA would win 136 with the Congress pegged to 119.

The poll estimated that the 'Third Front' , which includes the Left, Samajwadi Party, RJD, TDP, BJD and some other regional parties, would win 129 seats and the 'Fourth Front' , including the BSP, Trinamool Congress, AIADMK and others, would win 122. In short, the elections are projected to end up as a fairly even four-way split, though some of these formations like the Third and Fourth Fronts are not really firmly established , at least as of now, and others may also morph in the coming months.

If the predictions come true, the AIADMK, SP, BSP, Left and Trinamool would each have between 22 and 33 seats. With the two big national parties put together not winning even half of the seats, the regional bosses would really be able to call the shots in such a scenario. Among the bigger states, the poll projects SP and BSP between them winning threefourths of the 80 seats in UP, with the SP picking up 33 and the BSP 27.

The Congress, which won 21 seats in the state in 2009, is projected to win just five in 2014 and the BJP is estimated to gain just a couple of seats to get 12.

Cong will win just 7 LS seats in Andhra: CVoter Poll

In Maharashtra, it's advantage NDA and bad news for Sharad Pawar's NCP, if the poll has got it right. It estimates that the Shiv Sena will win 15 of the state's 48 seats and the BJP 11, the same as the Congress. The NCP is projected to get just 6 seats, Raj Thackeray's MNS opening its account with 3.

In Andhra Pradesh, a state in which the Congress won 33 of the 42 seats in 2009, the CVoter poll projects it will win a mere 7. Jagan Reddy's YSR Congress, a party that didn't exist in 2009, is estimated to win 14 seats and the Telengana Rashtra Samiti 11, leaving just 7 for Chandrababu Naidu's TDP. Of course, the AP numbers could change dramatically once the formation of Telangana is announced, which is expected soon.

In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee will continue to fly high despite her alliance with the Congress having broken up since the last elections. The poll projects that the Trinamool Congress will win 22 of the state's 42 seats and the Left will win 17, a gain of two seats for each of them, while the Congress tally will drop from 6 to 2.

In Bihar, the break up between Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and the BJP seems to be hurting the former more. In fact, the poll projects that the BJP will emerge as the single largest party in the state winning 14 of the 40 seats, Lalu Prasad's RJD coming a close second with 12 and the JD(U) in third place with 11.

In Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa's AIADMK is projected to sweep the polls, winning 29 of the state's 39 seats. The DMK, which won 18 seats last time is expected to drop to a mere 5 and the Congress might have to settle for a lone MP from the southern state.

In Madhya Pradesh, the projections show a fairly close battle between the two national parties with the BJP winning 16 of the 29 seats and the Congress 12, leaving one for the BSP. That would be a repeat of the 2009 results.

In Karnataka, on the other hand, the prediction is for a near total reversal of the 2009 results. In those elections, the BJP had won 19 of the 28 seats, giving the party its largest chunk of seats from any state. The Congress had won a mere 6; the remaining 3 going to H D Deve Gowda's JD(S). This time round, the poll predicts, the Congress will win 17, which would make that the largest chunk of Congress MPs from any state while the BJP will get just 8 seats. The JD(S) tally will remain unchanged.

In Gujarat, not surprisingly , the BJP is predicted to sweep, winning 21 of the state's 26 seats, leaving just 5 for the Congress. This would also mean that the BJP would have more Lok Sabha MPs from Narendra Modi's home state than from any other state.

In Rajasthan, where the Congress nearly swept in 2009 winning 20 of the 25 seats, the estimates are that its tally could drop to 9 while the BJP's tally could rise from 4 to 15.

Source:Economic Times

2014 Polls Survey: Cong Stares at Poor Show in 8 Big States

Bangalore, July 27: The Congress is in a real danger of facing a humiliation in the next Lok Sabha elections. According to a joint poll survey of CNN-IBN and The Hindu, the Congress is set to face serious adverses in eight of the ten most crucial states in the country in terms of electoral results.

In West Bengal, which has 42 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress is expected to get 5-9 seats, which is much mess than the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Left Front, which are expected to get 23-27 and 7-11 seats. In 2009, the TMC and Congress alliance had won 26 seats.

In Bihar, the Congress is set to do even worse. As against the JD(U) projected seat between 15-19 seats (out of 40 seats), the Congress is expected to get 0-4 seats. The BJP and RJD will have a close fight for the second spot.

The only gain for the Congress is set to be Karnataka where it came to power in May this year. Out of 28 Lok Sabha seats, the party is expected to bag 18-22 while the BJP, which faced a massive defeat in the assembly polls this year, could win just 2-6 seats. The JD(S) is also likely to get 2-6 seats.

Andhra Pradesh perhaps present the biggest challenge to the Congress. The party had done good in this state in 2009 (it had won 33 out of 42 seats) but the poll survey says that its tally could come down drastically to just 11-15. The YSR Congress could win 11-15 seats, TDP 6-10 seats while the TRS 5-9 seats. Whether Telangana will be formed or not or whether it can change the party's fate is for time to tell.

In Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa's AIADMK is set to be the runaway winner with 16-20 seats (out of 39) while the DMK is expected to get 8-12 seats. The Congress's tally is likely to be 1-5 seats.

The Congress is set to face a landslide in Gujarat where Narendra Modi's BJP is expected to win 20-24 of the 26 seats. The party, in a big decline from what it was in 2009, is likely to get between two to six seats.

In the UP, electorally the most crucial state in India with 80 seats, the Congress will get just 11-15 seats, predicted the poll. In the 2009 elections, the party got 21 seats. The BJP is expected to get between 29-33 seats, which will be a big jump from its previous tally of 10. The ruling Samajwadi Party is likely to get between 17-21 seats while the Bahujan Samaj Party is predicted to win 14-18 seats.

The Congress is also set to face a drubbing in Madhya Pradesh, where it is expected to win just 2-6 seats out of 29. Opposition BJP is likely to finish with 21-25 seats. In Rajasthan, the poll predicts 10-14 seats for both the national parties, although the figure suggests a big decline for the Congress. In 2009, it had won 20 out of 25 seats in the state as against the BJP's four.

The results in Maharashtra are not likely to change much. The Congress and its allies are expected to win 23-27 seats (out of 48) while the BJP and its allies are likely to get 18-22 seats. The MNS could be a decisive factor in the state, the poll said.

The above mentioned states have 399 Lok Sabha seats in total. In 2009, the Congress and its allies got 164 out of those 399 seats. In the next general polls, their tally is expected to touch 123 at the most (the party is no more in alliance with the TMC and DMK) in those states.

Source: OneIndia

Hung Lok Sabha Predicted as NDA-UPA Fall far Short in 2014 Polls

The CNN IBN-The Hindu Election Tracker poll conducted by the CSDS while suggesting gains for the BJP and losses for the Congress has predicted a badly hung Parliament.

NDA may get more seats than UPA, but parties outside the two fronts will get over 200 seats. The general election, if held now, would throw up a badly hung Parliament with both the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance around a 100 seats short of a simple majority of 273.

Indeed, over 200 seats could go to political parties, currently not part of either the Congress-led UPA or the BJP-headed NDA.

The CNN-IBN-The Hindu Election Tracker poll conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), that paints this unsettling picture, says that though both the major electoral formations will get 29 per cent of the vote share each, the NDA will be ahead with anything between 172 and 180 seats and the UPA behind with 149 to 153 - in short, a gap of 22. The BJP’s score, up from 2009, would be in the range 156 to 164; the Congress’s tally, 131 to 139, down from the last general elections.

These figures for the two principal parties, however, need to be viewed with some caution. One, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, the North-east (barring Assam) and the Union territories (barring Delhi) that account for 32 Lok Sabha seats (of which the Congress currently has 16, the BJP seven) were excluded from the CSDS survey that was conducted across 18 major States.

Two, the Congress that recently tied up with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand is likely to acquire an electoral partner in Bihar — and perhaps, in West Bengal — closer to the elections. Three, the political picture will alter in Andhra Pradesh if the UPA government announces a separate state of Telengana ahead of May 2014.

Meanwhile, on the leadership question, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, not surprisingly, is the most popular choice for Prime Minister.

But it is the current incumbent, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who emerges as the "most liked" leader in the country, despite falling levels of satisfaction with his government, with price rise, corruption, terrorism - in that order - being the chief grouses of the respondents. Yet of 13 Congress, BJP and regional leaders, Mr. Modi stands at number five in the "most liked"category, behind Dr. Singh, Gandhian activist Anna Hazare, Congress activist Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

In a table of potential Prime Ministers, Mr. Modi polls highest with 19 per cent, with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi second with 12 per cent. But in a direct face-off between the two men — were they to be named as the prime ministerial candidates of their respective parties — the BJP leader would be just two percentage points ahead of his younger Congress adversary, 33 per cent to 31 per cent, with each mopping up the votes of party colleagues.

However, the respondents say that when they will cast their votes, considerations about the party and the local candidate will weigh more than the leader.

Source: TheHindu

CSDS-CNN-IBN Election Tracker Survey: For UP-Maddhya Pradesh-Rajasthan

According to the CSDS-CNN-IBN Election Tracker survey, the BJP has a lot to cheer as the party is expected to give a tough fight to the Congress in Rajasthan to consolidate its position in Madhya Pradesh. Whereas in Uttar Pradesh, the party is on a comeback trail and is likely to bag the largest number of seats.

Source: ibnlive.in.com