RAHUL GANDHI

RAMANATHAPURAM: Lauding the Tamil Nadu model as better than the Gujarat model, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said he was happy that Congress was fighting the elections alone in Tamil Nadu and hoped the party would capture power in the state in 2016. Addressing a public meeting to seek votes for the party candidate S Thirunavukkarasar at coastal Ramanathapuram district a day before election campaigning comes to an end in the state, Rahul hit out at BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for projecting Gujarat as an ideal state. Rahul heaped praises on Tamil Nadu's development. "Tamil Nadu has shown what Tamil people are capable of. Modi talks about Gujarat model. Maybe, he should come here and take a look at TN model" Rahul said. Rahul said that the country "does not need a government that makes Hindus fight Muslims." "You must ensure that a secular government comes to power at the Centre," he said. "We don...

NEW DELHI | MUMBAI: Toffee, Tata and Ambedkar entered 2014's campaign lexicon on Monday as Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi intensified what's already become a virtual competition of personal attacks. Adding to this were similar attacks on rivals by other leaders of both parties. Gandhi's targeting of Modi, which resulted in Tatas being named in political attacks for the first time this poll season, seemed more dramatic, as it persists in naming big companies. But so far at least, pundits in finance, marketing and academia don't see such a strategy change delivering major benefits for Congress. Gandhi, continuing his attack on Modi and India Inc, named Tatas in addition to Adani and termed Modi's policies as a 'toffee model'. "You get a toffee at Rs 1, but Modi gave away 44,000 acre at Rs 1 (per) sq m," Gandhi said. "This is not Gujarat model, this is toffee model." On Tatas, Gandhi said, "Tata can get a loan for 20 yea...

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi threw his weight behind keeping politicians out of sports bodies in the country and said sports persons themselves should be at the helm of affairs. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi interacts with sports personalities after the launch of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan (RGKA) and National Youth Policy, 2014 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Friday. (PTI)

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday held meeting with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and MPs from Northeast to discuss steps to prevent atrocities against people from that region. Rahul called the meeting on the backdrop of Nido Tania's death. The student from Arunachal Pradesh was allegedly killed after a brawl with some shopkeepers at Lajpat Nagar. Tania, son of Arunachal Pradesh Congress legislator Nido Pavitra, died Jan 30 after being attacked following a row over his appearance. A court here on Tuesday sent three people, arrested in connection with the death of Tania to judicial custody till February 18. The Congress vice president on Monday had gone to Jantar Mantar to address the candle light protest carried out by the Northeastern community against the death of the Arunachal Pradesh student. While addressing the protesters, the Gandhi scion said that there is only one India wherein all deserve equal respect. He further said that Nido deserves ju...

As a part of the exercise to include demands and aspirations of sections of people, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday met women representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions. The women pradhans provided inputs for Congress's 2014 Lok Sabha elections manifesto. Gandhi had in January, held consultations with representatives from various minority communities, including Muslims to incorporate their views and suggestions for the party manifesto. Rahul Gandhi consults women Panchayat chiefs for Congress manifesto  The women pradhans provided inputs for Congress's 2014 Lok Sabha elections manifesto. The exercise comes in line with Gandhi's call for "opening the doors and windows of politics" for common man in formulating policies and programmes of the government as the party sought to reach out to the people directly in the manifesto-making exercise by launching a website to seek direct feedback from the public. As a prelude, Gand...

For the first time, Congress Vice president and poll campaign chief Rahul Gandhi opens up to an elaborate sit down interview with TIMES NOW Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. For the first time after his political debut in 2004, Rahul Gandhi takes direct questions on wide range of subjects on Frankly Speaking with Arnab. In the biggest political interview of 2014 Arnab asks all the questions that India wanted answers from the Gandhi scion. Is he scared of a political face off against Modi? What is his view of the 1984 Sikh riots? Was he a reluctant politician? And what are his views on multiple scams that UPA 2 was affected by. The following are the transcripts of the 1 hour 20 minute long interview with Rahul Gandhi by TIMES NOW Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. For the excerpts of the interview follow us on @timesnow on twitter with #RahulSpeaksToArnab Rahul, Thank you very much. It's great to have you on Frankly Speaking show today. It's been 10 years as an MP for you,...

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met 250 women from various fields in Bhopal at Minto Hall on Monday to seek inputs for the party’s Lok Sabha election manifesto. In the two-hour interaction, Mr. Gandhi made it clear that reservation for women is the foremost priority. In an indirect jibe on the BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, Mr. Rahul said, “We talk a lot about becoming a superpower in the world but till the women of our country do not feel comfortable and secured, our country cannot become a superpower. And to tell you the truth, we don't want such a superpower status, where women are not empowered.” Several leaders, including Sampat Pal of Bundelkhand’s Gulabi Gang, TV star Kunickaa Lall, Assistant Solicitor-General of India Fouzia Mirza, legal activist Flavia Agnes, Indore’s visually impaired activist Fatima Jamali in addition to Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury, Krishna Tirath, Mamta Sharma and Shoba Oza attended. Transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Trip...

Ahead of the crucial AICC session on Friday, Union minister Oscar Fernandes said Rahul Gandhi is Congress candidate for Prime Minister even as suspense remains on whether the party will formally anoint him as PM nominee for the Lok Sabha polls. "Whether he (Rahul) accepts or not, he is our prime ministerial candidate. He will certainly accept (the responsibility), this is my opinion," the road transport minister told reporters. "Wait till tomorrow," Fernandes said when asked whether the announcement of Rahul Gandhi's candidature for the top post will be made tomorrow. He also said that there is no difference of opinion among senior party leaders on it. "No, no differences... we all are very happy." To a specific question as to how his name can be formally announced as the party's PM candidate amid different opinions in Congress on it, Fernades, who has held key positions in party organization for long, insisted, "It has t...

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday, as the party gears up for Lok Sabha polls in a few months. Details of the agenda were not disclosed. “Rahul Gandhi met the Prime Minister at his residence. It was a one-on-one meeting,” a source said. The meeting comes a week after  Mr. Manmohan announced  at a press conference that he would step down after the Lok Sabha elections and also commended Mr. Rahul on his credentials to lead the nation.

Congress will counter BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's February 8 rally here with ones with the party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in its strongholds in north Bengal. Congress will counter BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's February 8 rally here with ones with the party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in its strongholds in north Bengal. "We don't want to compete with Narendra Modi's rally. If we are given an option then we will hold rallies with Rahulji in those areas of Bengal where we can reap electoral benefits," a senior state Congress leader told PTI on condition of anonymity. Asked why the Congress did not prefer a rally by Rahul Gandhi at the same spot as Modi, the leader said, "How will it help us electorally? "Media persons will write about the rallies for a few days then everyone will forget. If we hold a rally in rural Bengal especially in Congress strongholds it would give us more benefit....

NEW DELHI:  Rahul Gandhi  as Congress's PM candidate is an idea whose time may have come. Just days after PM Manmohan Singh ruled himself out as the leader of a possible Congress-led coalition, chances of Rahul being named as replacement have dramatically brightened, raising the possibility that he may take the baton at the AICC session, set for January 17 in Delhi. The leadership has hedged its stand on whether  Congress  will be going into the Lok Sabha elections with a declared PM candidate, but well-placed sources acknowledge that momentum has been inexorably built up for the party to spell out its choice for the top job. "There is a greater recognition among us that times have changed and the party cannot go to elections without a face," said a source. A final decision is expected to be taken in a meeting ahead of the January 17 session. TOI had written about the rising possibility of Rahul's projection in its editions on December 27 and again...

Phagwara : Pressing for Congress Vice President to be made party's Prime Ministerial candidate, Union Minister Santosh Chowdhary on Monday said though a final decision was in the high command's hands, the common masses wanted to see him as the Prime Minister.  The Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare said Rahul was fully capable and had the required potential to take up the top post.  "Rahul Gandhi is young and icon of youth. He moves among people. 'Janata' (people) wants him to see as the next Prime Minister. He has the potential and capability and should take up the baton," she told reporters here.  However, she charged BJP's Prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of polarising and communalising the country's polity.  On the internal rift in Congress in Punjab over the newly constituted Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), she said it was unfortunate.  "The current developments in PPCC are unfortunate," she said, r...

Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari talks about PM Manmohan Singh’s work and his support to Rahul Gandhi with The New Indian Express Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla on Teekhi Baat on IBN7. Excerpts: What was the motive behind the press conference held by the Prime Minister? The complaint that journalists have pertaining to Manmohanji is that he does not speak to the press. Maybe the press conference was to address that complaint.  PM has decided that public does not want him. Hence he is retiring and won’t be PM in 2014… For 10 years he served the nation. Then, he decided that youth leadership should be given a chance. Let me tell you something that happened off the record. In an editorial guild meeting with the PM held three months ago, he told them he is not the claimant for PM’s post in 2014. Do you feel he was sad and had nothing to say? There was no sadness and helplessness. He gave political stability and internal security to the...

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi would be addressing more "issue-based" press conferences like he did on Saturday on the Lokpal bill, Congress sources indicated.  The Gandhi scion addressed a press conference at the Congress party headquarters at 24, Akbar Road, after more than two years. "He will be addressing more such issue-based press conferences in the future," said a party source.  Though he has been addressing the press in New Delhi, they have been more in the nature of impromptu press meets. Like his sudden appearance at the Press Club of India when he trashed the ordinance seeking to protect convicted lawmakers in September, causing embarrassment to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance. The ordinance was subsequently withdrawn.  He also spoke out briefly in support of individual choices in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict upholding a law criminalising gay sex. The 42-year-old Congress leader held his press conference flank...

A day after Parliament passed the Lokpal Bill, hundreds of Congress workers led by senior party leaders today met party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi to greet him for his role in getting the anti-corruption measure become reality. Outgoing Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, newly- appointed PCC chief Arvinder Singh Lovely and his immediate predecessor in that post, JP Agarwal, were accompanied by the newly-elected eight Congress MLAs and former Delhi ministers as they called on Rahul. Senior party leader from Delhi, Jaikishan, said that the party workers had come to congratulate Rahul for the "key role" he had played in the passage of the anti-corruption law, which had been pending for decades. Security personnel had a tough time in controlling the Congress workers as they chanted slogans hailing Rahul and jostled to meet him.

Lashing out at non-Congress governments of Uttar Pradesh for "selling Ram, caste and religion" for the past 22 years, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today asked voters to give five years to his party for development of the state. "These parties have looted your hard earned money, sold Ram, religion and caste...never talked about progress and development in the past 22 years," Gandhi said addressing an election meeting here. The Congress general secretary said that he visits other states marching ahead on the path of progress and see people of the state contributing and the lack of development is UP fills him with anger. Attacking the BJP for its India Shining slogan of 2004 and Samajwadi Party for embracing former BJP leader Kalyan Singh, he said that his party has stood alone and never embraced people like Kalyan Singh and would not do so ever. Stressing that he would not budge till the state's progress is in place, Gandhi said that there was...

SP's progressive face, Akhilesh Yadav carries an iPhone & talks development. The Samajwadi state chief assures Swati Mathur his party's aggressive image is a thing of the past & he is confident of forming the next govt Swati Mathur: How well are you prepared for the assembly elections? Akhilesh Yadav: SP was the first to declare candidates. We started campaigning early. Our message was consistent: We'd continue riding the rath and our cycle until we defeat BSP. I have toured over 170 constituencies and hope to cover at least 300. Apart from anti-incumbency , what other factors may work in your favour? SP has worked hard to expose the government's real face. We have grass-roots connect. We have raised issues that concern the common man. Electricity, corruption and lack of infrastructure , cheaper fertilizers, seeds and irrigation projects are issues we've fought for. This election is being projected as a Akhilesh vs Rahul battle. Is this hype? He may be th...