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.
A party leader, who is known to be close to Rahul, said he would be elevated "sooner than you think".
The Amethi MP congratulated Mayawati on her victory and said, "As far as we are concerned, our fight carries on and we are going to sort of bring the Congress back in Uttar Pradesh."
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.
Congress leader and member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi on Saturday visited the tsunami-affected Periyakalapet village in Pondicherry.
Smriti Irani took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi and his brother-in-law suggesting that Vadra has an eye on the constituency.
Will Mumbai North Central, the constituency Priya Dutt lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Poonam Mahajan in 2014, welcome her back?
Their lunch on Wednesday afternoon was a meal that patrons of Aryan, a popular fast food restaurant in Lucknow, would remember for a long time. For it is not everyday that they have Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi for company during lunchtime. The restaurant staffers, along with the guests, were initially stunned when the Gandhi scion sauntered in to have his lunch. Gandhi was on his way back to Delhi after completing his three-day visit of Amethi.
An internal democratic and competitive way of selecting candidates within the party, the primary elections had failed to work during the Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi now wants to implement it on a trial basis. Renu Mittal reports
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.
Amethi's former Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has sent five trucks each of rice and wheat besides one truck of pulses, cooking oil, spices and other material for distribution among people, said party's district unit president Anil Singh.
The Amethi MP said the situation will not continue for long.
In a rare show of bonhomie between estranged cousins, Bharatiya Janata Party's Varun Gandhi 'praised' Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for his efforts towards empowerment of women in Amethi, reacting to which the Congress vice president said he was happy to receive the appreciation.
"Definitely, the defeat in Karnataka is a setback for the party," Gandhi told reporters at Fursatganj airport before winding up his daylong visit to Amethi.The Congress Working Committee held a brain-storming session on Saturday to review the party's electoral performance in Karnataka, where the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government.
Thanks to the breach, Gandhi remained without state government security for more than an hour. Special Protection Group personnel faced some tense moments as the Congress general secretary was surrounded by students of Chandrashekhar Azad Agriculture University
Indicating his keenness to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi, Robert Vadra, businessman and husband of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said that the people of Amethi expect him to represent their constituency if he thinks of becoming a member of Parliament.
Sources said Rahul Gandhi is likely to contest from Rae Bareli, but a final call is yet to be taken by the first family of the Congress.
Rahul suffered a sprain after he had a fall at the Sanjay Gandhi hospital guesthouse in Munshiganj on Wednesday morning and is likely to leave for New Delhi.
Robert Vadra indicated that he will also join politics and said there is an atmosphere of change in the country. His entire family is working diligently on this, he added.
Prior to filing his nomination, Rahul Gandhi held a road show during which he was accompanied by Priyanka Gandhi and her husband Robert Vadra alongwith their children Raihan and Miraya.
The party said Gandhi threw himself into the campaign arena without worrying about the final poll outcome in Gujarat.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday urged people to refrain from using derogatory language and being nasty towards former Union minister Smriti Irani or any other leader.
The girl and her family are alleged to be "untraceable" ever since they called on Rahul during one of his visit to his parliamentary constituency, Amethi on December 13, 2006.
'Rahul is not even a lamp before the sun'
Several BJP voters say the Ram temple sentiment may give the ruling party a fillip but are also aware of the herculean task at hand and concede that it is a daunting electoral contest for Dinesh Singh, who lost to Sonia Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In 2019, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi won the seat by a margin 1,67,178 votes against Dinesh Pratap Singh.
'Rahul is a seasoned player of politics and chess. He makes his moves after careful consideration.
Security agencies have earlier expressed apprehensions that exposure of high-profile leaders to unscreened masses was a major security risk.
'Amethi people will not leave the Gandhi parivar even if they do not meet them.'
The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee is keen to field senior leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Varanasi and will soon send a proposal in this regard to the top leadership, said newly appointed party's state president Ajay Rai on Sunday.
The Congress chief will also be contesting from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
The suspense over whether Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest the polls from Amethi and Raebareli respectively continued.
Modi will address a rally to boost BJP candidate Smriti Irani's chances.
'I know a lot of gossip, but I will take these secrets to my grave,' Majid, who owns a paan-beedi shop across the road from the guesthouse that Rahul Gandhi stays at in Munshiganj when he visits Amethi, tells Swarupa Dutt/Rediff.com
26 candidates in Amethi fray take away 60,545 votes; the difference between the victorious Smriti Irani and Rahul Gandhi is 55,120 votes.
According to Gandhi's lawyer Kashi Prasad Shukla, the Congress MP, who appeared before special judge Shubham Verma, said he never made a statement against anyone that could lead to a case of defamation.
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners Samajwadi Party and Congress on Wednesday announced a tie-up for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with UP's main opposition party leaving 17 out of the 80 seats in the state for the ally.
She also tagged a video in which an elderly women is seen alleging that her hand was forcibly put on 'panja' (hand) election symbol of the Congress though she wanted to vote for the 'kamal' (lotus), the BJP's symbol.
An Independent candidate and three others had on Saturday raised objections over the Congress president's nomination from Amethi.
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