The TMC and the Congress are at daggers drawn over the recent instances of 'poaching' by the Mamata Banerjee-led camp.
As many as 28 out of 41 sitting women MPs, including Sonia Gandhi, Hema Malini and Kirron Kher, retained their seats in Lok Sabha.
She began her career as an aspiring model in the late 1990s. A few decades later, she is one of India's best known politicians.
Shah's rally and other events will be attended by party workers from neighbouring constituencies, including Amethi.
Kalita, whose term in Rajya Sabha was till April 9, 2020, is the second Congress Rajya Sabha member after Sanjay Sinh, a member of the erstwhile Amethi royal family, who has joined the BJP.
However, Bajpai ruled out any possibility of an epic battle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections between Sonia Gandhi and Arun Jaitley.
Irani has said she did not complete her Bachelor of Commerce (Part-I) -- a three-year degree course -- from Delhi University's School of Open Learning in 1994.
For Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who continues the Gandhi family legacy of active politics that began several generations ago, the formal entry into politics was two decades in the making.
Before the MCC came into effect, Modi was busy laying stones, cutting ribbons, and unveiling plaques across the country.
For the Congress to be taken seriously, it has to convince those around it that it could actually double its Lok Sabha seat share from the existing 52, and vote-share by a third more from the stagnating 20 per cent in 2014 and 2019, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
With Rahul showing a significant lead over Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi in opinion polls across southern India but lagging in the north, the Congress believes his contesting from the south will help galvanise cadres.
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".
Clashes between BJP supporters and Congress workers marred the last leg of his visit.
The HRD minister claimed that Gandhi family had failed to deliver on their development promises to Amethi, which had to wait for all these years to get a rail line.
A man was shot dead in police firing in Telangana's Secunderabad, trains went up in flames, and public and private vehicles attacked, as railway stations and highways turned into battleground in many states on Friday amid burgeoning protests against Agnipath, the contentious defence recruitment scheme.
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.
The Patna civil court on Thursday deferred hearing of a case that was filed against Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday for her remarks on Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, terming his speech in Amethi as "neech rajniti" (low level politics).
Having won in 2009 nearly half of the 64 seats going to polls in the penultimate round, the Congress appears to face a difficult task as people in the whole of Seemandhra, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand lined up to cast their vote in the Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday.
Rediff Labs brings you the election affidavits of all candidates in the fray in the fifth phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections.
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.
With their high-decibel campaigns so far, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party may appear to be locked in a direct fight in Uttar Pradesh.
In the summit as well as in the inaugural '2+2' defence and foreign ministerial talks, the two sides are also expected to focus on the situation in Afghanistan and the rising threat of terrorism including from groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
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.
The Congress leader from Maharashtra said that the party of Mahatma Gandhi that once saw Maulana Azad become its president at the age of 35 years "is now the proprietorship of a Shehzada.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday visited the house of a Central Reserve Police Force jawan who was among the 76 security personnel killed in the Maoist attack in Dantewada in April and assured the family of full support from the Central government.
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.
Venturing out of twin constituencies of her mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul for the first time, Congress' star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday carried out a roadshow in Sultanpur to woo voters.
As Varun Gandhi courted controversy by "praising" estranged cousin Rahul Gandhi, his mother and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Maneka Gandhi on Thursday said her son's remark on Amethi's development was "not correct" and advised him to use his mind instead of heart while making statements.
After taking a long break from grassroots politics, Priyanka Gandhi, the charismatic daughter of Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, is back into campaigning where her brother Rahul is busy moving heaven and earth to put the Congress back on its feet at next month's assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
"I had said it earlier and reiterating it now that educational institutions should not be made 'rajiniti ka akhada' (political battlefield) as it affects the life and progress of our students," Irani told reporters when asked about the violence in the campus. "I hope students will not be used as 'rajnitik mohre' (political tools)", the Amethi MP said. "A probe has started in the matter and it is not justified for me to comment on it as I am in a constitutional post," she added.
If you want to take revenge on me, you do it. I have no problem. But the poor of Amethi have done you no harm. They should be treated well," said Rahul.
The BJP MP in her plea alleged that Gandhi has attributed his personal remarks to the top court and tried to create prejudice.
The Congress' announcement that the party chief will contest from Wayanad evoked sharp reactions from the Left and Right of the political spectrum.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be the deputy leader.
Congress leaders are confident that Priyanka would act as a catalyst for the party and boost the sagging morale of cadres to put up a spirited fight against the BJP and also the SP-BSP pre-poll alliance which had already shut its door on the Congress, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
The districts going to polls in this phase are Balrampur, Gonda, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Shravasti, Basti, Siddharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Amethi and Sultanpur.
Amethi, Guna, Rohtak.... These were believed to be easy seats to win but as they say in politics, anything's possible. This election has seen a few family bastions fall and one could attribute it to the TsuNaMo that has swept the country.
Sinh, who has been in the BJP earlier and was elected to Lok Sabha on its ticket in 90s, wields considerable influence in the Amethi region of Uttar Pradesh.
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.
Talking tough, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday warned party men against groupism and asked them to forget the past and prepare for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
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