Terming Congress a “sinking ship”, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Monday said even its senior leaders have decided to desert the party while some are refusing to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

“Faced with odds, even senior leaders have decided to desert the sinking ship. Some are refusing to contest. Others are feigning ill health for not contesting,” the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha wrote in his blog.

Attacking Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, he said, the Congress leader “has decided to talk up the morale of his party” in these difficult times.

“He claims that opinion polls are jokes and that the Congress would improve upon its 2009 tally. If this is sheer bravado in order to lift the sinking morale of the Congressman, it is understandable. However, if he genuinely believes this to be true then surely he is completely cut off from reality,” Jaitley, who is BJP’s candidate from Amritsar in Punjab, said.

He said several UPA partners, who had extended their support to the government in the past, are now distancing themselves from the Congress.

Noting that the UPA won a large chunk of seats from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in the last elections, he said, “In Tamil Nadu, the Congress is isolated with a single digit percentage votes.” TRS has turned its back on the Congress in Telangana, he added.

Jaitley also claimed that BJP has a positive prospect for alliances in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

“At the end of the day the Congress goes into the polls without an agenda with inadequate allies and without an effective leadership. If things can go wrong they surely will go wrong,” he said.

Two unidentified men threw acid at one of the witnesses in the rape case against the self-styled godman Asaram, police said.

This is a third attack targeting a witness in the rape cases against Asaram and his son. “A witness in the rape case against Asaram has suffered an acid attack by two men in Vesu area,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Shobha Bhutda.

“The victim has been identified as Dinesh Bhavchandani (39) who has given a statement against Asaram in the case,” said the officer.

“The incident took place when Bhavchandani was riding to his house near Vesu Royal Residency. Two men on a bike overtook him and threw acid,” she said.

He was taken to a private hospital. This is a third case of attack on a witness in cases of rape against Asaram and his son Narayan Sai.

Asked about police protection for the witnesses, the DCP said, “Most witnesses are given police protection, but these three victims had refused it.”

A Surat-based woman has accused Asaram of repeated rapes and illegal confinement between 1997 and 2006 when she was living at his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Her younger sister has lodged a similar complaint against Narayan Sai.

Asaram (72) is currently in a Jodhpur jail after being arrested in September 2013 for sexually assaulting a minor girl at his ashram there.

Putting to rest speculations, suspended DMK leader MK Alagiri on Monday ruled out floating his own outift but vowed to save his father and party chief M Karunanidhi from the “grip of betrayers”, a veiled attack on his younger brother MK Stalin.

“I am with DMK… There is no need for me to start a new party by name Kalaingar DMK, when the present DMK is itself Kalaingar DMK,” the sulking former Union minister told a large gathering of his supporters at a consultative meeting.

Karunanidhi was under the grip of “betrayers and what is more important is saving the DMK President from them, than saving the party itself…This is my first work,” he said apparently attacking Stalin, party Treasurer and considered the political heir to Karunanidhi.
The meeting was held in the backdrop of Alagiri, who is the sitting MP from here, and his supporters being denied tickets to contest the Lok Sabha polls and amid speculation that he might part ways with the DMK.

Stating that he had been “unfairly vilified” and suspended, Alagiri alleged Karunanidhi was being not allowed to discharge his functions as the party President.

He, however, regretted that the root cause of all problems, including his suspension, was controversial posters put up by his followers, who turned up in large numbers at the meeting.

“You have pasted such posters out of affection for me. Your posters caused all the problems. My supporters should stop posting such posters,” the suspended DMK South Zone organising secretary said. The posters put up in connection with his birthday in January had led to “misunderstanding”, he said.

“The party should have taken such posters in the right spirit” and tried to rectify if there was grumbling and dissatisfaction among the cadres. But they made it a big problem and complicated it due to ego, Alagiri said.

Alagiri’s speech indicated his intention to get back the influence he wielded in the party. Earlier, speakers at the meeting rued that the hardwork of cadres was not respected by the party high command who they accused of being after money.

“We should release the party from the grip of such persons. Even district secretaries of the party only respected money and not hard work,” a cadre said.

The cadres also sought Alagiri’s permission to rescue the party from the present high command.

Alagiri was highly critical of the choice of DMK candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Theni, Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram in the southern Tamil Nadu, saying “I am sure Kalaingar did not select them. Candidate selection is the work of some other person,” he said.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the toddler among big parties in Gujarat, has decided to go ahead with a low-profile political campaign for the Lok Sabha polls using unconventional ways to woo voters including street plays and youth internships, due to fund crunch.

Low donations in comparison to biggies like Congress and BJP, has desisted the fledgling outfit to approach people through traditional methods like posters, advertisements on TV, Radio or print media in a big way.

The Arvind Kejriwal led party is aspiring to emerge as the third alternative in the Narendra Modi-ruled state.

“We are Aam Aadmi having less funds. We will launch our political campaign in very low profile manner in form of street plays from next week,” said AAP’s state convener Sukhdev Patel.

“Like other big parties, we cannot afford to advertise through electronic or print media as we cannot bear the high expenses,” he said.

Apart from the traditional forms like door-to-door campaign the party will also hold Nukkad charchas, Mohalla Sabhas and an internship programme for youths,” Mr Patel said.

The party claims to have planned a low profile campaign to maintain proximity with the common man.

“In Delhi election campaign, we launched an internship programme for students which met with great success. We will follow that model here in Gujarat,” party spokesperson Harshil Nayak said.

“We have launched the same programme here and some students have responded. We will also give them a small reward in form of an appreciation certificate,” he further said.

“They help us as per their abilities in various sectors. Likewise we will rope in boys who are good in accounts so they will help the party in maintaining accounts. We have also found some young software engineers… they will help the party in maintaining website,” he explained.

“We will throng the streets soon by presenting creative dramas, for which a team of 15 young people has been working hard on,” Mr. Nayak said.

“This way, we can also reach out to youths who are in majority among the total population,” he said on the political campaign.

“Through the students’ internship programme we can also reach to their families in a cost effective manner, without spending a penny on TV or radio ads,” he said.

Political commentator Dinesh Shukla considered this move as an attempt to look different from the two national parties.

“They are known to take unconventional ways to maintain their unique identity,” Mr. Shukla said.

Bhil and Bhilala tribal groups who are settled in Western Nimar, Jhabua, Dhar, Badwani and Alirajpur areas of Madhya Pradesh welcomed their favourite occassion ‘Bhagoriya Mela’.

Bhagoriya mela starts a week before Holi. It’s also known as Vivaah Bazaar (Marriage market) as girls and boys gather at the different Bhagoriya haats to look for a life partner. When they feel they have decided who they want to get married to, they just smear gulal on them or offer them paan, which is considered as a way of proposing. If the other side is interested, they have to reciprocate back in the same way. If both sides show interest, it’s deemed as they have accepted each other. They immediately run away from the spot and get married.

Bhagoriya mela has everything that any mela would have- from food stalls to joyrides. However, the occasion is particularly famous among boys and girls who find a match here and get married. Later the society accepts them as a married couple.

There are also times when couple in love wait for this mela to run away, the report said.

Before independence, this festival was that of bloodshed. Enemies used to challenge each other openly to come and fight at Bhagoriya mela. Lot of lives were lost. However, later due to awareness and administration’s strictness the mela assumed a new meaning altogether.

Less than 24-hours after saying that Bharatiya Janata Party’s Narendra Modi is in a hurry to become the Prime Minister, Yoga guru Ramdev denied making any allegations. He in fact, blamed the media for spreading false reports. “I have not made any comment about Modi being in a hurry to become PM. This is a wrong allegation made by the media,” he clarified.

Ramdev had on Sunday, voiced his strong objection to some of the candidates being fielded by the BJP and its allies and had warmed that he would support the party only if they cleaned up their act. “BJP is overenthusiastic about winning the general elections this time,” Ramdev said adding that it needed to be patient and that there was resentment within the party due to “announcement of candidature of some persons”.

The yoga guru had also said his support to the saffron party and its prime ministerial candidate was based on specific issues. However, he said he was confident that NDA would get an absolute majority, and stated that there was no alternative to Modi now.

“The people were fed up with misrule, corruption and anarchy of the Congress-led UPA government,” he had said.