Addressing a massive rally at Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district with a replica of the “Red Fort” in the backdrop, symbolising his focus on Delhi, the BJP’s prospective prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a broadside against Congress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi for allegedly describing poverty as a state of mind.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, in his inimitable style, narrated “the tale of two Singhs” to pull up the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his failure to arrest sliding rupee, while lauding his counterpart in Chhattisgarh Raman Singh for ensuring development in his state.

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday virtually declared Mr Rahul Gandhi as the Congress’ “ideal choice” for the Prime Minister’s post, Mr Narendra Modi has been failing to get support from the BJP and the Sangh Parivar as well for the top post.

Criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his statement that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is the right choice to lead India, the BJP on Saturday said the question is whether the country is ready to accept him as leader.

The Rajya Sabha witnessed uproar on the last day of the Monsoon Session over the Constitutional Amendments Bill forcing two adjournments and an apology from law minister Kapil Sibal before the Opposition allowed the House proceedings to continue peacefully.

The government on Saturday described as “successful” the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which saw the passage of the landmark Food Security as also the Land Acquisition Bills. However, it failed to see through its plan to scrap the collegium system of appointment of judges, as Lok Sabha did not pass the Constitutional Amendment Bill before it was adjourned sine die late Friday evening.

The Congress does not want the Telangana Rashtra Samithi to be merged with it before the Lok Sabha and the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections due in early next year after realising that a merger could help the BJP in getting space in Telangana.

With the BJP sharply divided over Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial candidature, the RSS is trying hard to evolve a consensus on the issue to make an announcement before the “pitrapaksha” (considered inauspicious period) starts from September 20.

Though he is now adept at dealing with attacks from the opposition, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav does not know how to deal with this one.

Heading home with little to take away from the summit of heads of state and government of the 20 most economically powerful countries, PM Manmohan Singh said, “The Group of 20 is, on the international plain, as essay in persuasion.” He repeated the phrase thrice in the course of his interaction with Indian media on board his special aircraft on the way back home.