Eye on polls, Modi reaches out to people

With the Assembly polls in his state later this year, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has begun reaching out to the aam janata. Blamed by many for the post-Godhra communal riots, Mr Modi’s website — www.narendramodi.in [1] — has been revamped and even Mr Modi appears to have undergone a makeover, sporting a grey coat and a trendy scarf adorning his neck in one of the photographs.
At a time when the RSS and the BJP top brass is miffed with him for not campaigning in the poll bound states, Mr Modi is trying to project himself as a “common man”, a “Practical Dreamer” and a CM “who personally replies to people’s queries.” Perhaps his current equation with the BJP top brass over his bete noire Sanjay Joshi, who has been given an important position in the party’s election committee, is the reason that the link on “BJP” has been left empty so far.
Of the many new additions, including Mr Modi’s photographs, the website has got “interactive” features which claim that the Gujarat CM “not only answers your queries but also likes to meet people personally.” It also has wallpapers, screen savers of the Gujarat chief minister and the “national and international accolades” received by Mr Modi.
While Mr Modi himself skipped campaigning for his party in poll-bound states, including UP, despite repeated requests, this revamped website seems to be part of the poll preparations by his poll managers. There is also a link “Citizen Journalism” which claims to give “normal citizens” a chance to “tell the truth amongst a wider public through the platform of this website.”

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I’m happy EC acted on Salman: Advani
AGE CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Feb. 26

After the completion of the 14-day-long Jan Sangharsh Yatra of the Delhi BJP, party bigshots appeared at a massive rally on Ramlila Maidan here on Sunday. Aiming at the upcoming civic polls in national capital, the senior BJP leaders also targeted the Congress party and its leaders for their remarks before UP Assembly polls.
Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani termed as “unprecedented” and “very serious” the remarks of Union law minister Salman Khursh-id on minority sub-quota issue and said he welcomed the strong action taken by the Election Commission on it.
“I am very happy that the Election Commission reacted very strongly to what the law minister had done and those were unprecedented things in the history of India. Never before has a law minister violated the model code of conduct and never before has the EC censured a law minister,” Mr Advani told reporters here.