Lok Sabha Election 2009: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Showing posts with label Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Show all posts

Monday, May 4, 2009

PM questions BJP's stand on terrorism

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday questioned the BJP's claim of having taken a strong action against terrorism. He said that record of the BJP party on the issue of terrorism is absolutely different from the claim made by it.

Dr. Manmohan Singh while addressing an election meeting at Pheowa (about 30 kms from Kurukshetra) said, "Our opponents claim is that only they can take a decisive and strong stand against terrorism, but by looking at the record of the BJP a completely different picture emerges.

Manmohan Singh referred to the Kandahar hijack case and said that three dreaded terrorists were set free and sent to Afghanistan during the rule of BJP.

He also said that during the BJP's regime, terrorists attacked Parliament, Red Fort, Raghunath temple, Akshardham and Jammu and Kashmir assembly. Terrorists entered Kargil, but then also the BJP Government remained unfamiliar of the problems.

"This is the record of the BJP...you decide how strong and decisive are these leaders (of BJP)," he said.

Singh said that the Congress-led UPA Government took courageous decisions to face and tackle the terrorists attack in Mumbai. "We will keep facing terrorism bravely and with full commitment," he said.

"All necessary steps needed to be taken to tackle terrorism will be adopted...but we will keep in mind that a particular religion or section of society does not face problems unnecessary," Singh said.

The Prime Minister also stressed on the fact that coordination between states is very much essential to handle the problem of terrorism.

He said, "The lack of peace and stability in neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal and Sri lanka could also have affect on our country.

"In my opinion only a national party like Congress can deal with such problems," he said, adding, "His party has experience and capability to deal with such problems."

http://www.indian-elections.com/latest-news/index.html#pmquestions

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Your Choice Of The Prime Minister For Next Lok Sabha Elections 2009

We are pleased to present you, a vital and brain-storming series containing a brief portrayal of various leaders, who may be the potential Prime Ministers of India for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2009. Herewith, we are portraying the character sketch of all favourable candidates, who stand suitable for the highest legislative post. We will try to contain all their characteristics, personal and professional profiles, and their strengths and weaknesses. So, all this information will help you to vote for your favourite Prime Ministerial Candidate for the next Lok Sabha elections.

It will be your own choice to vote your favorite candidate, and we will publish your opinion, comments, and voting results in the final episode of the current series. So, let’s get ready for a significant series, which is vital for you, your family and at large, your country. Since, you as a citizen are the real king of a democracy as you have the authority to choose your representative. So, why not do that wisely?

1st Episode PM Candidate Of This Section: Dr. Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh, one of the ten siblings to Mr. Gurmukh Singh and Mrs. Gursharan Kaur, he was born in Gah, West Punjab (now in Pakistan) on September 26, 1932 His family moved to Amritsar in Punjab when Manmohan was 14 years old. The family had poor earning sources and his father owned a shop selling dry fruits. He was so keen and determined to get education that he used to study under the streetlights as there were so many people in the family house.

Dr. Singh says that he became an economist because he wanted to eradicate the pitiable poverty. He studied at Oxford and Cambridge on Scholarships and wrote his Oxford doctorial thesis on India’s export competitiveness. Later, he taught at Delhi School of Economics from where he got selected to be a civil servant and held number of high posts during his tenure.

He is a discovery of former Prime Minister Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao, who offered him the finance ministry in 1991. He proved his caliber by rescuing the sick economy when the soft-spoken minister pulled India out of financial troubles and put the economy racing fast by opening up direct foreign investment. Dr. Manmohan Singh holds an M.A. in Economics, D.Phil. (Oxford), D.Litt (Honoris Causa) and is also known as father of Indian Reforms. He has been awarded as the best parliamentarian in the year 2002. He is the first Prime Minister never to have been elected as member of the lower house. He has been a member of Rajya Sabha from Assam since 1995 and got re-elected in the years 2001 and 2007.

As per the general opinion the 14th Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh makes a good economist, but certainly not a strong leader. His government has contributed to supporting peace process with Pakistan and various visits have been made across the borders by top leaders of both sides. One of the major achievements of his government has been signing up the nuclear deal with Unites States of America. Though, he has been successful marching India’s economic growth on a faster track than ever, but he has remained a failure when it comes to the other fronts.

The issues related to national security, terrorism, naxalism, social and constitutional reforms, policing reforms, poverty eradication, agricultural reforms and corruption have remained intact in his tenure.

Dr. Singh is often criticized by the opposition parties for being the weakest Prime Minister until now as commented by Mr. Lal Krishna Advani. He is also targeted for his Muslim appeasement and for his statement, "Minorities, particularly the Muslims, have first right over the national resources". Also, his statement of losing sleep on Hanif arrest in Australia was deeply criticized by many, as he was asked whether he lost sleep when hundreds of innocent people got killed in Hyderabad, Varanasi and Ajmer blasts.

So, Dr. Singh could not do much to eliminate some of the most awful menaces in the country like corruption, poverty, social injustice, crime, terrorism, economic disparity and inflation.

His Strengths

High Education

Liberalization

Honesty

Good Image

Progressive

Party Favourite

Non-controversial

His Weaknesses

Not a mass leader

Avoids taking hard decisions

Not a good speaker

Issues under his rule such as Price hikes, farmer suicides, and terrorism

So, do write to us if you feel Dr. Manmohan Singh makes the best choice for the next Prime Minister of India. And, do read the next episode of current series exclusively focussed on some other prime ministerial candidate.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Advani challenges PM Manmohan to TV debate

NEW DELHI/SEPPA (ARUNACHAL PRADESH): Hitting back at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his sharp criticism of his record in politics, BJP leader L K Advani challenged Singh to a live TV debate on the lines of the practice in the US presidential elections.

Advani held out his "offer" after Singh said recently during a function to release the Congress manifesto that the BJP's prime ministerial hopeful had done little other than presiding over the destruction of the Babri masjid. He said Advani's record as home minister was marred by attack on Parliament and the communal killings in Gujarat.

Advani also sought to get back at the PM for not being ready to stand for a Lok Sabha election. Singh had fended off the attack by pointing out that Indira Gandhi, H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral had been Rajya Sabha members when they were PMs. He said Advani was intrepreting the Constitution in a new and untenable light.

Advani, while saying that Gowda had enjoyed more authority, said that Singh had claimed to be concerned about Assam as he was a Rajya Sabha MP from there. "What prevents Singh from contesting a popular election from Assam now that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has cleared doubts about his being the UPA nominee for PM," he said.

Advani reiterated his charge that Singh was "indeed the weakest PM India has ever had" and that it was sad that he drew his authority from 10 Janpath and could not take any significant decision on his own. The office of the PM had been denuded of its rightful authority, he added.

Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said BJP was obsessed about examples drawn from the US but she did not address the challenge thrown by Advani. The PM can be expected to do so in the next couple of days.

Source: TOI

Friday, March 13, 2009

No finalisation of candidates but jockeying for PM post begins

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New Delhi, Mar 13 (PTI) Jockeying for prime ministership has begun among rival alliances even before the finalisation of the candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

BSP supremo Mayawati has invited leaders of the newly- formed Third Front for a dinner meeting here on March 15 with her party keen to project her as the PM candidate.

In the ruling UPA, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar has caused a flutter by using the Marathi card to project his prime ministerial ambitions.

Mayawati has never shied away from projecting her prime ministerial ambitions and has given enough suggestions that she was a bigger leader than Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is also the UPA chairperson.

Her representative at the Front's launching rally yesterday at Tumkur near here and party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, has said "It is the aim of the BSP to make Mayawati prime minister.

"There is a feeling among the people of this state (Maharashtra) that number of states got opportunity like Andhra, Gujarat, Karnataka (to occupy the Prime Minister's office). So Maharashtra should get opportunity as well," he told NDTV.

At the same time, he said "one should not think of becoming Prime Minister when you are contesting from limited number of seats". PTI

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Indian General Election, 2009

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India will hold general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha in 5 phases on April 16, April 22, April 23, April 30, May 7 and May 13, 2009.Results will be announced on May 16, 2009. The elections for 499 out of 543 Parliamentary Constituencies in all the states, NCT of Delhi and Union Territory of Puducherry (except Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur and Nagaland) will be held on the basis of the newly delimited constituencies as determined by the Delimitation Commission set up under the Delimitation Act, 2002

Elections in India for the Lok Sabha (the national parliament) must be held at least every five years under normal circumstances. With the last elections held in 2004, the term of the 14th Lok Sabha expires on June 1, 2009.

During the budget presented in February 2009, Rupees 1,120 Crores (Approx. EUR 180 M) was budgeted for election expenses.

Polling Schedule

The following is the polling schedule for states announced by Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami on March 2nd, 2009:

April 16 - Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andaman and Nicobar Island, Lakshadweep.

April 23 - Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

April 30 - Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

May 7 - Bihar, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, westbengal and Delhi.

May 13 - Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Chandigargh and Puducherry

Lead up to the announcement of polling dates

India's Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopalaswami, had stated on December 28th, 2008, that the elections were likely to be held between April and May of 2009. He attributed this schedule to the examination period from February to March, making polling places unavailable.

Prime Ministerial Candidates

United Progressive Alliance Following the August 2008 confidence vote victory for the current government, a statement by Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi has caused speculation that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next elections. Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar has indicated that he is also a possible Prime Ministerial candidate post elections. On January 24th, 2009, Manmohan Singh underwent cardiac bypass surgery at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Following the surgery, speculation of alternate PM candidates arose both within the Congress and amongst coalition partners. In an attempt to quell such speculations, Sonia Gandhi on February 6th, 2009, wrote in the Congress party magazine Sandesh that Manmohan Singh is the UPA coalition's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2009 elections.

National Democratic Alliance The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance, announced on December 11, 2007 that their candidate for prime minister would be BJP party leader Lal Krishna Advani, the Leader of the Opposition. On January 23, 2008, leaders from BJP and other NDA parties convened to officially elect him their candidate. No other party or alliance has announced a prime ministerial candidate.

United National Progressive Alliance A motley group of regional parties, as well as the Communist parties, have been striving to form a third front to counter the BJP-led and Congress-led alliances. Among the possible members are the United National Progressive Alliance, India's Left parties and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Once again, the media has speculated that Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, could potentially be projected as the front's Prime Ministerial candidate, but no official move has taken place yet. If Mayawati's party can win enough seats, she has openly stated that she would be willing to take the support of the national parties to become Prime Minister. No other candidate has publicly expressed interest in becoming Prime Minister thus far.

Coalition Member

United Progressive Alliance

^*1 - Though not officially a UPA member, the Trinamool Congress announced on March 1st, 2009, that it would form an alliance with the Indian National Congress in the state of West Bengal for the 2009 general elections.

National Democratic Alliance

United National Progressive Alliance

Reference News:


‹ 2004
Indian general election, 2009 543 seats
April 16, April 22, April 23, April 30, May 7 and May 13, 2009

Leader	Manmohan Singh	Lal Krishna Advani
Party	Congress	BJP
Leader's seat	Assam (Rajya Sabha)	Gandhinagar
Last election	151 seats, 26.7%	130 seats, 22.2%

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_general_election,_2009#Prime_Ministerial_Candidates