Prosecutors found that Wu took the bribes while he successively served as district head and city official in the provincial capital of Nanchang as well as vice secretary-general of the Jiangxi provincial government between 2002 and 2011.
Acknowledging “mistakes” in the just concluded Assembly elections, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday indicated that the party would work out a plan to correct them.
“This is something we will have to discuss within and decide. We have to sit down and look at the situation and results in every state and then together work out a plan to correct the mistakes that we have made,” Gandhi said.
She was talking to reporters at the AICC headquarters here after reviewing the party’s performance in her one to one meeting with Congress office bearers.
“Every election is a lesson for us. Whether we win or lose, every election has a lesson for us,” she said.
To a volley of questions on the reasons that led to the party’s defeat in UP, Punjab and Goa, Gandhi admitted that “wrong choice of candidates” is also one among the many reasons.
“Many voters from Goa were unhappy with us and they voted against us,” Gandhi said. There is a view in the party that controversies surrounding the issue of illegal mining and the allegations against its Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was one reason why the party lost there.
While admitting that wrong choice of candidates resulted in setting up rebel candidates in many constituencies that led to the defeat of official party nominees, she said, “We did have better hopes for Punjab.”
To a question on whether it was lack of leaders that damaged party in these elections, a smiling Gandhi said, “rather than lack of leadership, too many leaders is perhaps our problem.”
Agency: PTI
UPA ministers have accumulated dues of Rs 435 crore on the cash-strapped Air India which is 93 per cent of the total bills incurred by them during their visits abroad, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Responding to a question, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office V Narayanasamy said during 2009-10, Cabinet ministers incurred bills of Rs 61.10 crore on foreign travel while ministers of state spent Rs 3.78 crore.
In 2010-11, Cabinet ministers spent Rs 37.17 crore while ministers of state spent Rs 4.76 crore.
In 2011-12, foreign travel bill of Cabinet ministers was a staggering Rs 460.78 crore till December 16, 2011, while for ministers of state, the figure was Rs 3.80 crore, he said.
The minister said the figure of Rs 460.78 crore “includes pending payments to Air India for previous years amounting to Rs 435 crore“.
He said Ministry-wise expenditure information was being collected and would soon be tabled in the House, adding that the Cabinet Secretariat has issued guidelines from time to time regarding foreign visits by ministers.
