The prime minister also said BJP's rivals would not be able to cobble up a coalition despite making attempts.
Stung by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks suggesting a rift between its leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Kishenchad Advani, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused him of attempts to divert public attention from governance.
The 96-year-old leader, the longest serving president of the BJP, said ever since he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as its volunteer at the age of 14 years he has sought reward in only one thing "in dedicated and selfless service of my beloved country in whatever task life assigned to me".
Vajpayee told reporters while celebrating Holi at his residence in Delhi that he was confident about the BJP's prospects in the key state of the Hindi heartland.
Vajpayee had travelled to Lahore in a bus from India in 1999 and started a peace initiative with Pakistan in 2004.
The allusion is simple: Modi is the BJP in Gujarat. This encapsulates a paradigm shift in the way the BJP's internal politics is now being run.
The Pakistani prime minister in an interview with The Nation said he had no apprehensions about visiting India or to meet his Indian counterpart anywhere in the world.
Share your thoughts on the PM's contribution to the change in India's outlook.
It is to Vajpayee's credit that he told Dilip Kumar to ignore Thackeray and to follow his own conscience. But the episode -- as indeed, the manner in which Dilip Kumar has been made to pay for being a Muslim throughout his life -- shames us all as Indians, says Vir Sanghvi.
'They are fighting it out, but they have deeply traumatised; they are alive and they are carrying on in life.'
Rehman had suggested that the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration could be the basis for normalisation of Indo-Pak ties.
Terming the prevailing situation in Uttar Pradesh as a "challenge", he said that the party must prepare itself to face it and restore the earlier position of the party in the state.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh top brass led by its general secretary Mohan Bhagwat on Monday met Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Kishenchand Advani
Modi's inability to make peace with a renewed Opposition will only embolden his coalition partners and it is just a matter of time before they begin asking probing questions besides politely disagreeing with his tactics, predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
60 per cent [people in Pakistan] think Indo-Pak relations are better under Manmohan Singh than it was under his predecessor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
As the din continued, the Speaker adjourned the House till noon. Similar scenes were witnessed in the House on Thursday leading to its adjournment for the day.
The National Democratic Alliance convener and defence minister said Advani's name does not figure in the NDA agenda.
'The longevity of the government is a doubt for me because when the going gets tough, there could a be a point in time where there might be pressure, from within the party or from the allies.'
According his new year greetings to the country from Goa, the prime minister touched upon Hindutva, saying it is liberating and brooks no ill will, hatred or violence among different communities on any ground.
The two leaders had some firm convictions in defence matters and are idolised by their respective people because they salved the scarred collective psyches of their societies.
The prime minister gave this assurance to an all-party delegation from Manipur led by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh. Singh also wanted a constitutional amendment in this regard.
'Everyone has a viewpoint on sharing of river waters. Punjab has its needs; so do Haryana and Rajasthan,' the former prime minister wrote in his letter.
'Those betting against PSUs will likely be punished in this upswing.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress comes to power, it would redistribute wealth of people to Muslims and cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.
The Congress has alleged that a CD recently presented to the Liberhan Commission 'established beyond doubt' that the former prime minister had 'full knowledge' of the Dec 6, 1992 incident.
Alleging deterioration in the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, Vajpayee had asked BJP workers to carry out a "decisive" agitation to throw out the Samajwadi Party government.
"It would not be proper for Vajpayeeji to contest and lose. Any other nominee would feel that he contested and lost," Vijay Kumar Malhotra, deputy leader of BJP said in an informal chat with this correspondent.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime, on Saturday joined Trinamool Congress days ahead of the high-octane West Bengal assembly polls.
All family members will be happy if former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee gets the Bharat Ratna, his niece Karuna Shukla has said.
Expressing serious concern over "two distinct voices" that have emerged "louder" after the Gujarat election, the prime minister said Hindutva was being projected by "some people in a narrow, rigid and extremist manner."
The prime minister will be in the state for four days.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a joint session of the US Congress on June 22 during his official state visit to the country, top congressional leaders announced on Friday.
He said even Vishwa Hindu Parishad had openly said if anyone was to be blamed for the BJP's defeat it was Vajpayee.
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