Confirmed! Gautam Gulati is the winner of Bigg Boss 8 Halla Bol!

The D-day is here, but you don’t have to wait for the last episode of the high voltage reality show to go on-air tonight as BollywoodLife can confirm that it’s Gautam, who is the last man standing

After surviving inside the Bigg Boss house for over four months, Gautam Gulati has outdone his fellow finalists – Karishma Tanna and Pritam Singh – and emerged as the winner of Bigg Boss 8 Halla Bol. Yes, the former Diya Aur Baati Hum actor is the fourth male contestant to lift the Bigg Boss trophy. While Karishma has been declared as the first runner up, Pritam on the other hand was announced the second runner up of Farah Khan’s show. Bigg Boss offered Rs 25 lakh bag to one of the contestants, if they agreed to walk out of the title race. Pritam Singh took the bag, becoming the second runner up. In final battle between Gautam and Karishma, it was Gauti who won. leaving Ms Tanna as first runner up. Honestly, I am not surprised a bit given the massive popularity that Gautam has got after his stint in nation’s most controversial reality show. See it’s simple! When a media insight firm rated Gautam as one of the top five entertainers of 2014 alongside icons like Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan, you know that the person has done something right. The TV actor showed the signs of a true winner from the very beginning. His antics always proved to be beneficial for the show, fetching it the much-needed TRPs. Whether it was his aggressive outburst where he hurled abuses at Karishma Tanna or his emotional, heartfelt confessions in front of the camera, his behaviour helped him and the show garner a lot of attention outside the house. The boy danced, sang, acted, emoted and literally charmed the pants off any woman (Read Sonali Raut, Diandra Soares, Jacqueline Fernandez, Mallika Sherawat, Farah Khan and even Gurmeet Choudhary’s wife, Debina). Each time when he took his shirt off, countless women, across the world, skipped a heartbeat. Gautam’s fan following was such that he trended on Twitter for more than 15 hours not once, twice but thrice. And if his religious fans are to go by, he has also trended for more than 60 times on Twitter ever since the show began. Although he was hated by his fellow inmates, but the fact that he has is the winner of Bigg Boss 8 Halla Bol prove how much he is loved by the audience. A winner is made by his fans, and that our boy has in plenty. In fact, it’s safe to say that Gautam doesn’t have fans but has fanatics who’ve stood by him throughout this roller coaster journey of his.

Payments to Environment Ministry led to Jayanthi Natarajan's sacking: Congress

Payments to Environment Ministry led to Jayanthi Natarajan's sacking: Congress

NEW DELHI: Former environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who launched a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi on Friday, was removed from the ministry in the UPA II government because the Congress leadership was convinced that she had a case to answer on allegations of payments to the ministry for clearing projects.

The transactions which attracted the attention of top Congress leaders are mentioned in what is widely known as the 'Birla diaries' which income-tax authorities recovered in October 2013 during a survey of the Aditya Birla Group's offices in New Delhi.

Senior Congress leaders say the call was taken to ask Natarajan to resign after they became aware of the alleged transactions, more so because the leadership had already received complaints about her conduct from a number of industrialists. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told a press conference in Delhi that the term 'Jayanthi tax' was well-known and understood in business circles.

These documents, which have been reviewed by ET, refers to payments made on 13 different occasions between January 9, 2012 and February 2, 2012.

These payments, as the diary describes them, were for the "purpose" of "Project J-Environment & Forest". The diary does not name the person to whom payments were made. "In August 2013, at a meeting organised by my ministry attended by the head honchos of corporate India, two industrialists brought to my attention how Jayanthi Natarajan was conducting the affairs in the environment ministry," senior Congress leader and former commerce minister Anand Sharma told ET.

"According to these industrialists, they were told to deal with a specific OSD only after which their files would be cleared. I had brought this matter to the prime minister's attention. Subsequent to that, I was informed about how she was mentioned in the Birla diaries, which turned out to be the last straw. That alone, and nothing else, was the reason for her removal," Sharma said. A top executive of the Aditya Birla group said he was shocked that his group was being dragged into the Jayanti episode.

"We do not understand how this matter regarding Ms Jayanthi Natarajan is being even remotely connected to us. We are unable to make any sense of this. We categorically deny any payment made to the environment ministry for any clearance. Speculation in this regard is ill-motivated and extremely vicious. We believe it is intended to cause prejudice against us in the ongoing investigations in the Hindalco coal allocation matter. In the matter of the IT, as the issue is under investigation,

it is inappropriate for us to comment," said a statement from the group.

Sharma said he didn't have more details on the reference in the diaries since he wasn't the minister in charge but says it was brought to his attention. Congress spokesperson Singhvi declined comment when asked whether allegations of payments made to the environment ministry as mentioned in the diaries was the precipitating factor for Natarajan's removal.

Despite repeated attempts, Natarajan did not respond to calls or text messages sent to her phone soliciting a comment. A senior Congress leader told ET that once the government became aware of the content of the diary, it asked Natarajan to resign as minister pending investigation. "It is now widely known in political circles how much was allegedly paid to her. This was brought to the PM's attention which is why she was sacked," says the senior leader who is close to the Gandhis.

The notings in the diaries recovered by the IT department are now being probed by it and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In a press conference earlier, Natarajan quit the Congress party and accused its vice-president Rahul Gandhi for making "specific requests" on stalling projects. She also accused his office of "planting" stories against her.

Natarajan strongly denied any allegation of wrongdoing and said she was "ready to be hung" if there was any proof against her. Responding to the allegations, top Congress leaders openly accused Natarajan of corruption. In the press conference Singhvi said she seemed to be the only person who didn't know why she was sacked and said her press conference might have been precipitated by information that corporates had on her.

The Indian Express had reported on December 6, 2013 that the CBI had turned over to the Supreme Court two diaries recovered from the Aditya Birla Group office which contained details of "payments" allegedly made to a number of politicians.

Markandey Katju tweets 'Shazia Ilmi much more beautiful than Kiran Bedi', faces criticism

    NEW DELHI: Former Press Council chairman Markandey Katju faced criticism on social media after he tweeted that Shazia Ilmi was much more beautiful than Kiran Bedi and if Shazia was made the CM candidate for Delhi assembly polls, BJP would have won the elections.

The former Press Council chief further said in his tweet that people vote for beautiful faces, adding, someone like him who does not vote would also have voted for Shazia.