In the five years in politics Priyanka Gandhi has undeniably emerged as a thorn in the BJP flesh, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. It is time that this thorn is twisted a wee bit more when the elections have become far more uncertain than what it was when the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.
The Congress on Thursday downplayed a survey which projected major gains for the Aam Admi Party in big metropolises pushing Rahul Gandhi to third position as prime ministerial choice after Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal, saying it will comment on its strategy at an appropriate time.
While the Congress had won just two seats in Kanpur city during the last Assembly election, he claimed the party will sweep all 10 seats this time.
There were verbal exchanges between members of Congress and treasury benches after Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge referred to the food park scrapped by the Narendra Modi government.
Clashes between BJP supporters and Congress workers marred the last leg of his visit.
'Rahul Gandhi is going to turn 54 and in India political leaders peak when they are around 60.' 'This 'bhai-behen ki jodi' has done a wonderful job for the Congress.' 'Priyanka Gandhi was a very effective campaigner.'
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.
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's first visit to his own parliamentary constituency in Amethi after the party's devastating debacle, not only all across Uttar Pradesh but also in the family bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli, openly displayed the simmering discontent and disillusionment of his own party insiders with him. Sharat Pradhan reports.
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.
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.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the NDA won 64 seats -- 62 bagged by the BJP and two by Apna Dal.
With actor-turned-politician Smriti Irani entering the fray as a Bhartiya Janata Party candidate in Amethi, a war of words has broken out between her and Aam Aadmi Party contender Kumar Vishwas over his remark that any "Irani or Pakistani" will not make any difference in the constituency.
The ruling party said Rahul Gandhi should not worry about the PM and should rather be concerned about his and Sonia Gandhi's electoral fate in 2019.
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.
Sidhu had promised that he would quit politics if his party president lost from Amethi, where he was contesting against Bharatiya Janata Party's Smriti Irani.
The Congress on Thursday renamed the Rahul Gandhi-led Manipur-Mumbai yatra starting on January 14 as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will travel through 100 Lok Sabha segments in 15 states including Arunachal Pradesh, and asserted it will prove to be as 'transformative' as his earlier cross-country march.
As the results for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 were declared on Tuesday, here is how some of the big faces fared in the contest.
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
'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.
Unhappy over not being able to get an audience with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, local residents of two villages in Amethi raised slogans before a Munshiganj guest house where the Amethi MP has been putting up.
Rahul Gandhi said that not much help could be expected from the UP govt for developmental work in Amethi.
'Wayanad has become famous because of Rahul Gandhi.'
The announcement put an end to speculation that Sonia Gandhi may not contest in the upcoming polls due to health reasons and the party's newly appointed general secretary in-charge (East UP) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra may be fielded from her constituency.
The 43-year-old popular television actor-turned politician continued to cultivate Amethi in the past five years despite her loss in 2014 to Gandhi and this helped her reap electoral dividends.
After dethroning the Congress in its Delhi bastion, the Aam Aadmi Party has decided to throw the gauntlet at the grand old party's second-in-command Rahul Gandhi -- and that too in Amethi, the political home ground of the Gandhis for decades.
She also challenged him to a public debate 'without a handwritten script' over his criticism of the Modi government.
With the Aam Aadmi Party hinting at a contest between Kumar Vishwas and Rahul Gandhi in 2014 general elections, the AAP leader said it is up to the party and the people of Amethi to take a decision on his candidature from the constituency represented by the Congress vice-president.
Gandhi accused BJP of re-inaugurating projects launched by the UPA dispensation.
"It is very tough to ensure that the funds I procure from Centre reaches my constitutiency. Most of it gets bungled up in Lucknow."
Priyanka Gandhi's charge were the key seats of Lucknow, Amethi, Raebareli, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Phulpur, Allahabad, Barabanki, and Kushinagar.
However, she said her own wish is to work for the party's organisation.
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.
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."
As Congress president Sonia Gandhi marches towards a win in the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha bypoll, her daughter Priyanka Vadra feels that Amethi member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi, the frontline campaigner, has a long innings in politics.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday took a dig at Rahul Gandhi over his mysterious "leave", saying even eclipses can be predicted but not the "appearance" of the Congress vice president.
The Ulema Council, which recently staged protests against what it termed as "harassment" of Muslim youths in the name of terror, declared on Turesday that it would field candidates against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
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 most significant aspect of the elections to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly the results for which were announced on March 6, was not even the rout of the Congress Party, but the humiliation suffered by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in what has been described as their pocket boroughs of Rae Bareli and Amethi, says B Raman
