Away from the distraction of its new high-profile politics, Wayanad's worries seemed very down to earth, discovers Shyam G Menon.
The combativeness reflects her insistence not to meekly acquiesce to what has been going on in Raisina Hill for years or decades, observes Kartikeya Tanna.
"The first thing is he is not fit for politics. Probably, the work he should not do, he is doing," Sarma said.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi, Gandhi said the Congress Working Committee will meet soon and decide whether he should resign as the party chief following the electoral debacle.
The BJP MP in her plea alleged that Gandhi has attributed his personal remarks to the top court and tried to create prejudice.
Booked in two cases for allegedly disturbing communal harmony and committing other electoral offences during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was on Monday granted bail by a special court for lawmakers in Sultanpur.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday pilloried Prime Minister Narendra Modi over suspension of BJP MP Kirti Azad who has been leading a campaign against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on alleged corruption in Delhi cricket body, reminding him of his "na khaoonga na khaney doonga" poll slogan.
Targetting Priyanka Gandhi, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Monday said her ignorance about the presence of party candidate Smriti Irani in Amethi showed the Congress star campaigner's "arrogance at its worst".
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.
The new party president, the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to lead the political outfit, takes charge from his mother Sonia Gandhi at a time when the party is facing one of its worst crises, with the Bharatiya Janata Party occupying the centre stage of national and state politics.
Can Gandhi handle the rough and tumble of 24X7 Indian politics with aggressive rivals such as Modi and BJP President Amit Shah to counter?
The Congress vice president also alleged that the National Democratic Alliance government was delaying the Winter Session of Parliament as Modi was not ready to discuss the Rafale and Jay Shah issues in the House before the Gujarat polls.
Gandhi accused BJP of re-inaugurating projects launched by the UPA dispensation.
The youth of the country feel they are not getting opportunity to work for the nation, Rahul said.
Rahul Gandhi said that not much help could be expected from the UP govt for developmental work in Amethi.
Besides Singh, who makes his electoral debut from Noida, Rita Bahuguna Joshi's name also featured in the list.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said on Sunday that the relationship of Rahul Gandhi with Amethi is "nominal" and it remains one of the most backward constituencies in the country.
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.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Varun Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party candidate in Amethi Kumar Vishwas and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan were among the prominent candidates who filed nominations on the fourth day for the penultimate phase of Lok Sabha election covering 64 seats in seven states.
Gandhi revealed that he reflected on issues and gave suggestions to his communication team of two or three members, which fine-tuned the content before posting it on the microblogging website.
The innovative Rajiv Gandhi Rural Twenty20 Cricket tourney, brainchild of Rahul Gandhi, will conclude later this month, with Gandhi expected to be the chief guest at the final in Amethi. The tourney comprises 1,857 teams, just from the Amethi parliamentary constituency, participating in 1,819 matches. The winning team would get a cash prize of Rs three lakhs, while the runners up will be rich by Rs 1 lakh.
The Congress president offered prayers at the Churva Hanuman Mandir on the Lucknow-Rae Bareli road hours after landing in the state capital where enthusiastic party workers greeted him with garlands.
"It is very tough to ensure that the funds I procure from Centre reaches my constitutiency. Most of it gets bungled up in Lucknow."
The new Lok Sabha will have 300 MPs who have been elected for the first time to the Lower House.
The great Indian election is over and now the wait for the results is shrinking with every passing moment. Though exit polls hint at a cakewalk for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his National Democratic Alliance, there are some battles which will be keenly observed on the result day.
'My reference there was that the people of Amethi are not getting electricity, which I said was not under my controlÂ… I cannot do anything,' he said.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the family of the Kathua rape victim should get justice.
The prime minister said he was also grateful to his opponents who fought against him. At the same time he lamented there was a sense of political untouchability, adding Bharatiya Janata Party workers were being killed for their ideology in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala.
The party is finding increasing acceptability in the 18-35 years age group with Rahul Gandhi adding a million followers in the past 2 months and Facebook and Twitter also seeing similar spikes.
When Modi's name was called out by the Secretary General for taking oath, Members from the ruling National Democratic Alliance thumped the desk greeting the Prime Minister with slogans such as 'Modi Modi' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'.
Security agencies have earlier expressed apprehensions that exposure of high-profile leaders to unscreened masses was a major security risk.
Stepping up his campaign against Rahul Gandhi in his home turf, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas on Monday visited a Dalit home where the Congress vice president had spent a night and claimed nothing has changed for the family.
Rahul said there was no development because a different party is ruling UP.
Infighting in Congress in the wake of its electoral debacle in Uttar Pradesh came out in the open on Thursday with Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi saying there was a "lot of sabotage" at the local level in the party which is in a "crisis" at this moment.
The Congress quickly hit back accusing TMC of being a 'stooge of BJP' and challenged it to prove its credentials on a 'pan India' platform.
The home ministry's notice to Gandhi was sent in response to a complaint filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra appears to have shed the maximum sweat among top leaders for over the last 45 days in the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh assembly elections campaign.
Gandhi had said, "For the first 15 years, I was an MP in the north. I had got used to a different type of politics. For me, coming to Kerala was very refreshing as suddenly I found that people are interested in issues and not just superficially but going into detail in issues."
If the Opposition has any chance at the prime minister's job, it can happen only if they all stop dropping names and work at the grassroots-level, state-wise, suggests N Sathiya Moorthy.
