RAHUL GANDHI

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...

Mainpuri.  On his birthday that also happens to be Father’s Day, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has declared that he’d adopt a dalit girl child and become her foster father. Rahul has adopted the same eight-year-old girl, with whom he had ridden a buffalo around three years ago while on his expeditions to Uttar Pradesh to discover the other India. The girl’s name is Maya Kumari. “Our office received a fax from Switzerland, where Rahulji and Soniaji are currently holidaying, apprising us of Rahul Baba’s decision. Little Maya’s father had passed away in her childhood and her mother had tough time raising her; she even resorted to selling her to a rich man in Ambedkarnagar. Mayawati government didn’t help her at all so our party decided to step in,” local Congress leader Sapna Merchant informed. According to Sapna, Little Maya will now fly to New Delhi with Congress general secretary and live with Rahul Gandhi at his official residence. She will also get to stud...

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.

The two are poles apart. One is soft-spoken, suave and taciturn. The other is flamboyant, astute and witty. And yet the political battle lines have brought them face-to-face into the electoral arena. As the poll-bound country watches Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi pull their parties' chariots at the hustings, much depends on what these leaders speak. The 63-year-old Gujarat Chief Minister has certainly more experience than the Congress scion which the former amply demonstrates in his poll rallies. His speeches are incisive, his criticism sharp and his rhetoric a fine blend of witticisms and subtle attacks. He is careful about what he is speaking and has been avoiding references to all controversial issues. Trying to put the past back, he is walking the extra mile to reach out to the minorities. By doing this, Modi is facing his weakness and at least trying to work upon this. If and how much he s...

Onboard PM's Special Flight to New Delhi:  Gandhi family scion  Rahul Gandhi  is an ideal choice for the top job in 2014, prime minister  Manmohan Singh  said, adding that he, one of India's longest serving PMs, would be happy to work under the  Congress vicepresident's leadership. While the 80-year-old Singh has in the past said that Gandhi was suited to become PM, this is the first time he has explicitly expressed his willingness to work under the younger leader. In April, he had created a flutter when he said he did not rule out a third term for himself. "I have always maintained that Rahul Gandhiji would be an ideal choice for the prime minister's position after the 2014 election. I would be very happy to work for the Congress party under the leadership of Mr Rahul Gandhi," Singh told reporters on the way back from the  G20  Summit in St Petersburg. Singh also said that he was an open book and he had nothing to hide anything from the parliame...