Six anti-corruption bills in parliament next month: Shinde

The UPA government will place six anti-corruption bills before parliament during the short parliamentary session next month, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Friday.

The bills likely to be pushed during the session are the Public Procurement Bill, the Prevention of Corruption Act (Amendment) Bill, the Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public International Organisations Bill, Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, The Right of Citizens for Time-bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill and the Whistleblowers Protection Bill.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has been pushing for the anti-corruption bills, said Shinde at his monthly press conference here.

The bills would be pushed when parliament meets next month to pass the vote on account, he said.

"Rahul Gandhi has been working for passage of these bills and it was only to fulfill the promises made to the people rather than scoring any political points," said the minister.

He said the decision was taken at the core group meeting of the Congress held earlier in the day.

To a question as to whom did Congress find a bigger challenge -- Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi or Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Shinde said "none", asserting that Congress had weathered many storms during its 128-year-long history.

"We were ruled out of power in 2004 as we had just faced defeat in six states. However, we came to power and continue till date," he said.

Asked whether the Congress party session on Jan 17 was to announce Rahul Gandhi as prime ministerial candidate, Shinde said the party is of the view that he is a natural choice for the post.

"We have always been saying this that we need him and so does the country," he said.