The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked the leaders and party workers to bury their internal differences and ensure victory of Congress candidates in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections.
Away from the distraction of its new high-profile politics, Wayanad's worries seemed very down to earth, discovers Shyam G Menon.
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.
Clashes between BJP supporters and Congress workers marred the last leg of his visit.
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.
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.
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.
'Modi 3.0 will have more balanced policies like one saw in Modi's first term.'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'Wayanad has become famous because of Rahul Gandhi.'
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."
'For the last two elections, the Congress manifesto has been thrown into the dustbin.' 'This manifesto will also be thrown into the dustbin.'
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.
Rai said that the terminology was part of the regional dialect and there was nothing obscene about it.
Commenting that running a country is not a play for those born with a golden spoon, Modi said, "They have gone from Amethi and will go even from Rae Bareli."
'Election funding needs a little more transparency.'
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
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.
Priyanka Gandhi's charge were the key seats of Lucknow, Amethi, Raebareli, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Phulpur, Allahabad, Barabanki, and Kushinagar.
'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.
However, she said her own wish is to work for the party's organisation.
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.
Rahul Gandhi said that not much help could be expected from the UP govt for developmental work in Amethi.
Gandhi accused BJP of re-inaugurating projects launched by the UPA dispensation.
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 remarks by the BJP leaders came as 17 opposition parties resolved to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly to defeat the saffron party and work with flexibility by setting aside their differences. They dubbed the planned alliance as "unholy and opportunistic".
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.
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.
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.
Oommen Chandy said the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee has requested Gandhi to contest from Wayanad but he has not commented on the proposal.
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