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Poll
India: 2004
Sonia
will be the fourth Gandhi to be India's PM
New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi is all
set to become the next Prime Minister of India when she
stakes claim to form the government today. At
a meeting at Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence the pre-poll
allies of the Congress' and the Left parties unanimously
asked Sonia Gandhi to form the next government at the
Centre.
According
to Congress leader Manmohan Singh, Gandhi's name for Prime
Ministership was proposed by DMK chief M Karunanidhi,
which was seconded by RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav,
NCP chief Sharad Pawar and all other leaders. Leaders
of Samajwadi Party and RLD, which were not pre-poll allies
of Congress, were also present at the meeting. Sonia Gandhi
will be the family's fourth prime minister after her slain
husband, Rajiv Gandhi, mother-in-law Indira Gandhi and
Indira's father Jawaharlal Nehru.
14th
Lok Sabha to be constituted today
The 14th Lok Sabha is expected to be constituted today
through a Presidential notification. The Chief Election
Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy along with the other election
commissioners will call on the President to give him the
list of the 539 elected members in the 545 member house.
Swadeshi
sulk continues
New Delhi: Reports suggest that the Bhartiya Janata
Party is debating whether it will attend the swearing-in
ceremony of Sonia, which is likely to be held on Wednesday,
and that a meeting of senior BJP and NDA leaders, including
L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and George Fernandes, has been
called today.
Meanwhile,
RSS and ex-BJP ideologue Govindacharya has now emerged
from quasi retirement and plans to lead a protest march
to the Rashtrapati Bhawan today, to highlight her foreign
origin. Meanwhile 'Hindutva' neophyte Sushma Swaraj has
already declared she would resign from the Rajya Sabha
in case Sonia became the Prime Minister.
CPI to announce decision today
New Delhi: The Communist Party of India will announce
today whether it is going to join the Congress led government
or not. CPI leader A B Bardhan also said they would give
their letter of support to the coalition today.
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RIL bags NTPC order to supply gas
New Delhi: Reliance Industries Ltd has bagged a
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) order to supply
3 million tonnes of natural gas per annum for the latter's
proposed 1300-MW power stations at Kawas and Gandhar in
Gujarat for seventeen years. Reliance, which will be supplying
gas from its fields in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin,
will supply gas at a delivered total cost (inclusive of
transportation, taxes and duties) of $2.97 per million
British thermal units (mmbtu).
The gas price has an 85 per cent fixed component, while
the remaining 15 per cent is indexed to inflation rate.
This translates into a first year power generation cost
of around Rs 2 per unit of electricity, with fuel comprising
Rs 1 per unit. For RIL, the NTPC deal means monetising
around 2.6 trillion cubic feet (tcf) gas from its KG basin
field that has 15 tcf of commercially extractable gas.
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