Sharat Pradhan gets mixed reactions from locals, as the Aam Aadmi Party takes a stride into Amethi, the bastion of the Congress VP.
The people of Amethi want to rectify their 'mistake' of 2019 and Congress workers as well as leaders are demanding that Rahul Gandhi contest from the constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party's Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai said.
The Aam Admi Party on Wednesday complained to the Election Commission that several booths in Amethi in UP have been captured, but the poll panel found the charge to be unfounded after verification and said voting there was progressing peacefully.
The party has tried to downplay its vice-president's sudden move, saying he is the leader and will come back soon to play a pro-active role in party affairs
He accused the BJP of starting a "factory of lies" and using huge cash to lure voters but said he was confident that the people of Amethi won't fall into this trap.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
Even when the Congress is facing the toughest challenge in its long history, it shows no sign of turning a new leaf and injecting internal democracy to revive its fortunes, argues Virendra Kapoor.
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday filed his nomination papers from Amethi constituency which he has represented in Lok Sabha twice and expressed confidence about retaining it for the third straight time.
"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 said there was no development because a different party is ruling UP.
In the event that like in the 17th Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi again gets locked out of the House, the Congress needs a second-in-command who will keep the momentum going inside Parliament, notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The notable names in the BJP's first list include Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Hema Malini from Mathura, Ajay Mishra Teni from Kheri, Smriti Irani from Amethi, Lallu Singh from Faizabad (Ayodhya) and Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli among others.
Shah said, "Rahul baba cannot see development as he sports Italian spectacles."
Gandhi said he would bring in experts from Andhra Pradesh to suggest ways and means for proper implementation of NREGS.
A number of high-profile electoral battles, starring veterans and debutants, formidable opponents and unlikely contestants, feature in Tuesday's outcome.
The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister.
Rahul Gandhi challenged the BJP to fight on secular terms instead of using the temple as a poll plank.
Police did not rule out the possibility of it being a 'political murder'.
Aiming to retain power at the Centre for the third time in a row, the Bharatiya Janata Party while banking heavily on its sitting MPs on Saturday released the first list of 51 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha elections.
Barely two months before the Lok Sabha election, Gandhi will be filing her nomination papers in Jaipur on Wednesday. Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are likely to accompany her.
Is it is necessary to play divisive politics to succeed in the next general elections? asks Dr Sudhir Bisht.
'I don't want to give any headline to the media as at present my focus is on the Bharat Jodo Yatra'
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who had accompanied local MP and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, on a day's visit to his parliamentary constituency Amethi on Tuesday, returned to New Delhi on Wednesday.
Noting that farmers are suffering due to problems in the food supply chain, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said there is a need for ensuring better compensation for the farmers against their produce.
On a tour to the US, Gandhi told reporters in Washington that the Muslim League is a completely secular party and there is nothing non-secular about it.
In the past five years, UP's Opposition remained passive and defensive against the BJP, a trend that does not augur well for the impending battle.
On balance, RG contesting from Raebareli instead of Amethi isn't the masterstroke the party's adherents are touting it to be, but neither is it the blunder the BJP and its tame media is framing it as, points out Prem Panicker.
Kharge claimed that though the BJP says the corrupt must be put in jails, when leaders facing corruption charges join the saffron party, they are "put on the lap" and sent to Rajya Sabha or assembly.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla recognised Rahul Gandhi as the leader of opposition on Wednesday, a day after the Congress communicated its decision to name him for the position to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
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Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party is number one in marketing and so are able to claim to have done more. He said the United Progressive Alliance had done more development work than the National Democratic Alliance.
Gandhi said when the Congress was in power, the Opposition would allege that all money was going to Amethi and now they say nothing has been done here.
Addressing a rally Garhmukteshwar in UP's Ghaziabad district, Singh said he regretted making adverse remarks against the Congress president and the Amethi MP when he was with the Samajwadi Party.
A delegation led by the Amethi MP, who was on a day-long visit to Bhopal, met Governor Balram Jakhar at Raj Bhavan on Saturday evening and urged him to act in accordance with the Constitution and dispatch a report to the Centre concerning the disturbances.
'At no point did Kamal Nath and Digvijaya indicate that the Opposition bloc was formed only to fight the Lok Sabha polls.'
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Wednesday stayed the Uttar Pradesh government's order suspending the licence of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Amethi over the death of a 22-year-old woman after a surgery.
The home ministry's notice to Gandhi was sent in response to a complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.
Modi said that Congress' tally in the Lok Sabha polls will be an "all-time low"
National vice-president of All India Congress Committee Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday played his master stroke and told a huge gathering of tribals to join politics as he wants that India's prime minister, chief ministers, members of Parliament and legislators come out of tribal communities.
What some of our leaders were up to on the weekend.
