"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.
The political row over the Rafale deal intensified on Tuesday with the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party trading barbs over it.
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.
The Congress leader also slammed the government's decision to cancel a food park in his constituency Amethi.
According to sources, Congress managers are attempting to fix a meeting between Sonia Gandhi and Mayawati. Congress is hopeful that Mayawati will support any government other than BJP, even though the BSP supremo had lashed out at Congress throughout her campaigning.
The party and its president, it seemed, were also unable to articulate their views effectively enough
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.
To a question on whether deciding against contesting in the constituency would send a wrong signal, she said, "No I don't think so... I had said from the start that I will do what my party says...my party decided this and I am happy to follow the instructions."
The allegations against her are baseless. Nothing against her or Swami Aseemanad have been proved, Shah said.
Bharti also targeted Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, saying by choosing to contest elections from Amethi and Wayanad, he has accepted defeat.
Days after Narendra Modi took on Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, the Congress vice president retaliated on Saturday by campaigning on the last day in Varanasi, where the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate is in the fray.
Is the other Nehru ashamed to flaunt his BJP colours?
Even as Priyanka is gaining traction among the electorate and the media, her counterpart for the western UP region, Jyotiraditya Scindia, has been low key and perceptibly missing from the 'heat and dust' of elections in UP, reports Virendra Singh Rawat.
"It is very tough to ensure that the funds I procure from Centre reaches my constitutiency. Most of it gets bungled up in Lucknow."
After covering several kilometres on foot along with their families, the labourers, who reached Charbagh bus station in Lucknow on Saturday and Sunday, said there was no point staying in Delhi as they have exhausted their funds and it would be better for them to return to their homes.
Narendra Modi's right-hand man and Bharatiya Janata Party's Uttar Pradesh in-charge Amit Shah speaks to IBN18 Network Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai about the Modi wave, the snoopgate and more. Excerpts from the interview
Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party chief Laxmikant Bajpai has hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his "suit-boot ki sarkar" remark against Narendra Modi government.
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.
Once considered the unlikely heir to the political legacy of the Gandhi family, Sonia has earned the distinction of being the longest serving president of India's grand old party.
Eleven deaths have been reported in Saharanpur followed by 10 in Meerut, six in Agra, four in Mainpuri, three each in Muzaffarnagar and Kasganj, two each in Amroha, Bareilly, Baghpat and Bulandshahr and one each in Kanpur Dehat, Mathura, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Rae Bareli, Jalaun, Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Banda, Firozabad, Amethi, Kanpur and Pilibhit, they said.
A number of royals have thrown their hat in the ring in the high-voltage Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Priyanka also lauded her mother, calling her the bravest woman for overcoming huge difficulties during her record 19-year tenure as the Congress chief.
Priyanka Gandhi's charge were the key seats of Lucknow, Amethi, Raebareli, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Phulpur, Allahabad, Barabanki, and Kushinagar.
'If you remove the Gandhi tag behind his name, Rahul is not fit to become even a clerk anywhere.' 'What Gujarat model? It's a model that allows you to sell chai for Rs 5 and land for Rs 1.' 'The day I think AAP becomes Arvind Kejriwal's party I will leave it.' Dr Vishwas Kumar Sharma's Web site introduces him with the grandiose line, 'Indian by blood, poet by choice and a motivator by God's grace'. He is also the Aam Aadmi Party's candidate from Amethi. In a interview with Swarupa Dutt/Rediff.com, 'India's most-read poet' manages to keep the 'I' in every answer.
Without ruling out the possibility of working with the Congress after polls, Akhilesh said he has good relations with the party and would be 'happy' if the next prime minister was from his home state.
Indian politics, held captive in one way or the other by Ayodhya, may now well seek its emancipation from this issue, and the pursuit of welfare, asserts Congress leader Salman Khurshid in this excerpt from his latest book, Sunrise over Ayodhya.
Gandhi has declared that his source of income was MP's salary, royalty income, rental income, interest from bonds, dividends and capital gain from mutual funds.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday hit out at the Election Commission for allowing Rahul Gandhi to hold a road show in a Varanasi area where Narendra Modi was refused permission for a rally, saying it was done for "political reasons".
To a question whether his party will not forge a coalition with any political party, Azad said, "If any political party is willing to accompany the Congress, and the Congress feels that it can fight the BJP, then it will be definitely accommodated."
The SP-Congress campaign will see Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi criss-cross the seats held by either party.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday arrived in the holy city for a month-long campaign and was greeted with posters that accused him of being a 'deserter', an apparent reference to his resignation as Delhi chief minister within 49 days of taking charge.
Unlike the LDF and NDA nominees who are at ground zero and campaigning hard every day, the Congress candidate's campaign is undertaken in absentia, dependent on an army of local and imported from the rest of Kerala Congresswomen and men.
'If Rahul Gandhi disappears, Modi has to talk about his own policies and why they failed'
The party said Gandhi threw himself into the campaign arena without worrying about the final poll outcome in Gujarat.
After yet another electoral drubbing at the hands of Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress sought to shield Rahul Gandhi from any blame even as it ruled out any leadership role for his sister Priyanka Gandhi.
'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 Minister Kumari Selja was named the Congress nominee for Rajya Sabha elections, putting an end to speculation that former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit could be brought to the Upper House from Haryana.
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
It's time Rahul Gandhi became attuned to the reality of the 21st century instead of recycling failed political jargon of the 20th century,' argues Virendra Kapoor.
