'The 2024 general elections proved that UP is not Gujarat.'
A day after the Congress's second straight defeat in the national election, resignations were flying.
Priyanka Gandhi on Thursday broke away from her SPG security cordon and went ahead for campaigning in Tiloi in the district without security cover of the elite protection agency.
'The Congress's policy is it will take benefits from everybody, but when it gets an opportunity, it does not want to share it with others'
For the first time in his political career, he failed to carry his party to even a working majority -- and again, for the first time in his career, he finds himself in a situation where he cannot rule by dictatorial fiat, points out Prem Panicker.
Scindia also said that as far as talks for alliances are concerned, "like-minded parties should also think in a like-minded way".
She has been appointed general secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East), while Jyotiraditya Scindia holds charge of UP West.
The UP chief minister also attacked the Congress, saying the party furthered the interests of a family, promoted casteism, regionalism and kept the country in limbo for 50 years.
With this phase, election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats will be held on May 12 and 19.
Rahul is contesting from the seat in Kerala in addition to his traditional stronghold of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
Dinesh Pratap Singh, who was elected to the state legislative council for the second time in 2016 and left the Congress last year, is pitted against UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on a seat held by her since 2004.
The third phase of Lok Sabha elections scheduled for Tuesday will see the maximum number of seats going to the polls in a single phase -- 117 across 15 states and Union Territories. It will also be a test for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which will aim to defend the maximum number of seats at 62. This time the BJP will be tested in its bastion Gujarat -- where polling will be held for all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state -- apart from Karanataka, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had done well in 2014. Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Tuesday.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress not coming forward with the name of a candidate for the post of Delhi assembly speaker, the Aam Aadmi Party is considering the names of its legislators for the post.
A section within the RSS feels Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani should be projected as the BJP's CM candidate in UP, says Rajeev Sharma.
Ruling out the possibility of contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said that she would actively campaign for her mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi, in Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies respectively. Priyanka visited Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies on a day-long tour on Tuesday, when she met party workers and discussed the LS polls.
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
Priyanka also dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party leader and union minister Uma Bharati's controversial remarks that the country will see her the way it views a "thief's wife".
District election officer Mahendra Bahadur Singh said Aman Giri won by a margin of 34,298 votes. He received 1,24,810 votes while Tiwari got 90,512 votes.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday said that they will put up a strong candidate against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The Samajwadi Party released its list of 40 star campaigners in which there was no mention of Mulayam Singh Yadav.
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
"Rae Bareli and Amethi were the 'karma bhoomi' of Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. It is also the 'karma bhoomi' of mine and Rahul. Rae Bareli and Amethi are like my home. I want to ask, can anyone prevent me from coming to my home? No one can," she said in a brief interaction with reporters near the railway station in Lalganj, about 20 km away.
Gandhi claimed that Modi will not be able to look him in the eye if the two debate the Rafale deal.
"It is very tough to ensure that the funds I procure from Centre reaches my constitutiency. Most of it gets bungled up in Lucknow."
Rahul Gandhi, Congress member of Parliament from Amethi and scion of the Gandhi-Nehru family, today denied that there were two 'centres of power' in the Union government
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, will accompany her.
A large number of party workers welcomed her by raising slogans of "Priyanka Gandhi aayi hai, nayi roshni layi hai" (Priyanka Gandhi has come, she has brought light).
Anger cannot be an end in itself to Rahul Gandhi's politics -- it must instead catalyse a new political strategy, argues Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
He vowed to fight to get back a mega food park project to his constituency in Amethi.
Referring to her party's pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, she said it was based on "mutual respect" and "honest intentions", adding that "the SP-BSP alliance is perfect enough to defeat the BJP, especially in Uttar Pradesh.
'If these two parties come together, there could be amalgamation of OBC, Dalits and Muslim votes.'
There will be total of 51 seats going to polls spread across 7 states in the fifth phase.
He had unsuccessfully contested against Sonia Gandhi in the 1999 Lok Sabha election from Amethi.
Even Priyanka's formal entry into politics could not act as a saving grace for the Congress. She was made in-charge of the party's fortunes in eastern Uttar Pradesh, but despite her high-octane election campaign, Congress is ahead on just one seat -- her mother Sonia Gandhi from Raebareli.
The Congress is a dismal third in 17 of the 19 constituencies where the party's general secretary (east) campaigned in Uttar Pradesh.
Amid their campaign schedule, the Congress party chief and his sister shared a few light-hearted moments.
"I am not joining politics. I am looking after my mother's constituency as I did from 1999 to 2004 without being in politics," she has said in an SMS to a television channel.
Akhilesh Yadav confirmed in a television interview that the press conference is on the alliance in Uttar Pradesh, while parrying questions on the Congress.
'You are one of the drops that make that ocean, but when you leave it makes no difference to the ocean.'
