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.
The Congress leader also slammed the government's decision to cancel a food park in his constituency Amethi.
As many as 37 ministers have been dropped from the government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term and these include seven with cabinet rank -- prominent among them being Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur and Narayan Rane.
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.
'It is mind-boggling that a party can be in rigor mortis even after numerous electoral defeats,' observes Ramesh Menon.
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.
A day after the Congress's second straight defeat in the national election, resignations were flying.
Over 65 Union ministers are likely to take oath, going by the visual of the meeting Modi held with his likely council of ministers.
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
There will be total of 51 seats going to polls spread across 7 states in the fifth phase.
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.
The duo is unlikely to visit the neighbouring parliamentary constituency of Amethi, from where Congress president Rahul Gandhi lost the Lok Sabha polls.
Mayawati urged the Muslim voters to vote for the party, saying her party has given tickets to 99 candidates from the community.
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.
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.
State deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya among 692 candidates are contesting on 61 seats spread across 12 districts in the fifth phase.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
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.
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.
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 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.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
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.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday visited the village of the two Dalit sisters, who were gang-raped and murdered in Badaun, and met their family members as they pressed for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe and refused to take any compensation, demanding justice for their girls.
Hailing the role of self-help groups in advancement of marginalised section of society, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said they provide the poor with "self-confidence to overcome poverty".
