speaker refers to fallout with CPM in his farewell address

Somnath Chatterjee finished his last innings in Lok Sabha in the manner he has been in his 39-year stint in the House, save for being a tad emotional. Though seen by many as a headmaster lately, on Thursday, friends and critics together showered praise on him.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh described him a "role model," who had "truly elevated" the office of the speaker. Even LK Advani forgot years of differences to congratulate him on his stewardship of the house.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh blasted the Centre on Thursday, staying it wanted to jail him. 

Civil audit report made public; commercial audit reports of govt agencies soon

"Gujarat should set up a separate internal audit department to strengthen its internal audit process," said Niranjan Pant, principal accountant general, Gujarat. After presented in the state assembly, the civil audit report of Gujarat government by CAG was made public on Thursday. Pant emphasised the need of making government departments more responsive. He also said that commercial audit report of government's several agencies will soon be sent to state government and eventually made public after being tabled in assembly.

Praful Patel says seat-sharing talks with Congress in final stage for LS polls

Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel has said that his party, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), may enter into a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in Gujarat for the coming general elections. He was talking on the sidelines of laying a foundation stone of the new integrated terminal building at Vadodara airport on Thursday.

Patel said that his party will contest from three seats. Patel said that both the parties had an alliance in Gujarat assembly polls held in December 2007 and hoped it will continue.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s desperate bid to forge an anti-Left alliance with the Congress has come in for criticism from her own partymen.

At least four Trinamool leaders have openly asked Mamata to start poll preparations independently instead of waiting indefinitely for an alliance. Political observers too feel, that strictly going by statistics of last Lok Sabha elections, the alliance would help protect Mamata’s place in her traditional constituency rather than improving Trinamool’s poll prospects in the state.

In a major political development, Nava Telangana Party (NTP) headed by Andhra Pradesh ex-home minister T Devender Goud merged on Thursday with Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP).

NTP, founded in July 2008, is the second Telangana-specific political outfit next only to Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) headed by K Chandrasekhara Rao. “PRP has similar views on Telangana. This merger would only further our fight to achieve a separate state,” Goud said. Goud was appointed PRP vice-president after the merger.

PRP, which is still in its infancy as the elections are round the corner, has been looking for a stronghold in the Telangana region. Though it had tried for an alliance with TRS, the process did not go beyond initial talks.