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.
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi over election expenditure, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that corporates were pumping money into the saffron party's campaign and asked it come clean on the source of funds.
Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
'It is mind-boggling that a party can be in rigor mortis even after numerous electoral defeats,' observes Ramesh Menon.
The Congress will begin the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from the violence-hit Manipur on Sunday, in what is being seen as the party's bid to set the narrative in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls and put the spotlight on issues such as unemployment, price rise and social justice.
The BJP accused the Congress leader of playing politics in the matter.
Ruling out the possibility of contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said that she would actively campaign for her mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi, in Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies respectively. Priyanka visited Amethi and Rae Bareli constituencies on a day-long tour on Tuesday, when she met party workers and discussed the LS polls.
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 Congress leader also slammed the government's decision to cancel a food park in his constituency Amethi.
State deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya among 692 candidates are contesting on 61 seats spread across 12 districts in the fifth phase.
The one simple fact is that a government can be remote controlled but not an opposition. It needs to be kept on its toes, all the time enthusing its ranks to believe that it would win back the government in time. Would Rahul Gandhi be up to this challenge and provide proof that he does have the stuff, asks Mahesh Vijapurkar.
A day after the Congress's second straight defeat in the national election, resignations were flying.
The duo is unlikely to visit the neighbouring parliamentary constituency of Amethi, from where Congress president Rahul Gandhi lost the Lok Sabha polls.
He now claims that his submission before the SC was that petitioners in the application used "photocopies of the original" papers, deemed secret by the government.
There will be total of 51 seats going to polls spread across 7 states in the fifth phase.
It sent shock waves in the party -- a political greenhorn had taken on Modi in his home turf of Gujarat. Smriti had clearly tried to choose sides, in this case Vajpayee's camp. Many felt that this would end Irani's career. A revealing excerpt from Nidhi Sharma's new book She, The Leader: Women in Indian Politics.
Campaigning for the fifth phase ended on Friday evening, and all necessary arrangements have been completed, state Chief Election Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said in Lucknow on Saturday.
Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Shiv Sena over the alleged force-feeding of a fasting Muslim employee at a Maharashtra government guesthouse in Delhi, dubbing it "politics of bullying" people.
Mayawati urged the Muslim voters to vote for the party, saying her party has given tickets to 99 candidates from the community.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday pilloried Prime Minister Narendra Modi over suspension of BJP MP Kirti Azad who has been leading a campaign against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on alleged corruption in Delhi cricket body, reminding him of his "na khaoonga na khaney doonga" poll slogan.
'You are one of the drops that make that ocean, but when you leave it makes no difference to the ocean.'
While the Samajwadi Party largely banks on its Muslim-Yadav support base, the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to counter it with the Modi-Yogi combo in the state assembly polls.
The Election Commission on Saturday gave a clean chit to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the allegation that he had violated secrecy of voting by entering the enclosure of the Electronic Voting Machine in one of the polling booths in Amethi on May 7.
The Congress president inaugurated a photo exhibition commemorating the birth centenary of Indira Gandhi, with more than 200 pictures depicting various events from her life at the historic Swaraj Bhavan where the former prime minister was born.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday made a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of working only for the sake of capitalists.
As many as 28 out of 41 sitting women MPs, including Sonia Gandhi, Hema Malini and Kirron Kher, retained their seats in Lok Sabha.
A large number of party workers welcomed her by raising slogans of "Priyanka Gandhi aayi hai, nayi roshni layi hai" (Priyanka Gandhi has come, she has brought light).
She, however, did not talk of the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance and sought support for only her party's candidates.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday came under attack in Lok Sabha, with the government accusing him of "playing politics of deception" and "misleading" the House over a mega food park project in his constituency Amethi, evoking strong protests from Congress members.
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.
A complaint has been lodged against Aam Aadmi Party candidate Kumar Vishwas and hundred others for staging a dharna inside a police station, police sources said in Amethi on Saturday.
"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.
Even if the BJP gets 60, 70, or even 100 per cent of the votes in the seats where it scored more than 50 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, these will still add up to only 224 seats, argues Shekhar Gupta.
After announcing Kumar Vishwas's candidature against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, there is a buzz that the party might pit Shazia Ilmi against Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the upcoming general elections.
The party is finding increasing acceptability in the 18-35 years age group with Rahul Gandhi adding a million followers in the past 2 months and Facebook and Twitter also seeing similar spikes.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, will accompany her.
Patole wrote that he was resigning as the chairman of the Kisan Congress and 'dismissing' the unit.
Confident that his party would "defeat" Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha polls, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Monday took a train to Varanasi where they are locked in tough electoral battle.
This is dil ka alliance, mil ke jeetenge (It is an alliance of heart, we will win together)... says Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi while addressing a joint press conference with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The Wayanad lawmaker, who became the Congress president in 2017, offered to step down from his post at the Congress Working Committee meeting on May 25, taking moral responsibility for the Congress' abysmal performance in the 17th Lok Sabha elections.
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