Uttar Pradesh Election : Congress campaigning

Emboldened by the success of Rahul Gandhi's padyatra, the Congress will launch an aggressive campaign for the 2012 State Assembly election. This would include organising “mahapanchayat” of farmers.

This was decided at the second meeting of the election committee of the Congress here on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by Mr. Gandhi and the All-India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of the State, Digvijay Singh.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tiwari told reporters that the first list of the party candidates for the Assembly election was expected to be declared by the end of this month. Dr. Joshi said that names of 100 prospective candidates had been short-listed on the basis of reports of the district election committees and the padyatra panel members, as well as the party's performance in the last Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

She said the first list would be sent to the election committee, which has been asked to submit its approval by July 20. The list of short-listed candidates would be sent to the screening committee.

Although the city and district unit presidents have been barred from contesting the polls, they can enter the fray if permitted by Mr. Gandhi, Dr. Joshi added. While a poll pact with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party has been ruled out, Mr. Gandhi has been authorised to conclude an arrangement with smaller parties.

Mr. Gandhi attended the meeting upon his return from Kanpur, where he met the injured passengers of the Howrah-Kalka Mail that met with an accident.

Rahul Gandhi's Kisan Maha Panjayath Photos

Rahul accuses Mayawati of acquiring farmers lands

Aligarh: Winding up his four-day ‘padyatra’ in the battle against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused her government of acquiring farmers’ lands for golf courses and racing tracks and firing upon poor farmers when they protest.

Addressing a Kisan Mahapanchayat, capping his 70- km foot march through the villages of Greater Noida and Aligarh district, he rejected criticism that he was enacting a “drama”, apparently referring to Ms. Mayawati’s description of his march as “nautanki“.

Using some strong words for his rival in the campaign seen as preparations for the next year Assembly elections, Mr. Gandhi said that in Uttar Pradesh a farmer gets to know about the acquisition of his land only when the builder comes and tells him that the land belongs to him.

“In UP, we are not against development or making roads.

But this land is being taken away to make golf courses, colonies and racing track from farmers and that is why they are angry.

“The farmer says if in Lucknow a rich person’s land is taken he is given the market rate but when it comes to a poor farmer he is fired upon, beaten, and government does not talk to us,” Mr. Gandhi said.

An estimated crowd of about 10,000—15,000 farmers attended the Mahapanchayat, whose venue became soggy in early morning rains, capping the padyatra that began in the villages of Bhatta—Parsaul, the epicentre of a violent agitation against land acquisition in Greater Noida in May.

“Not a drama”

Dismissing criticism about his campaign, Mr. Gandhi said many people felt it was a drama. “A politician needs to go to people and talk to them and that is what I believe,” he said.

Referring to land acquisition law, Mr. Gandhi said some farmers are worried about it because it is old and they have problems with it.

“We will try to bring such a law that will benefit the farmer. But only changing the law won’t help because the same law exists in Haryana and UP but Haryana government takes people into confidence and talks to them.

“UP government doesn’t talk to the people. When a farmer demands his rights government orders firing on him,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi said after the agitation in Bhatta-Parsaul, Ms. Mayawati came out with a new policy on land acquisition which he said will not benefit the affected people there. “That is why I set out on this padyatra,” he added.

He said when farmers protested in Bhatta-Parsaum two months ago, police fired and some of them died. It was sad that these farmers had done nothing wrong and he came to know about this when he visited these places. They only told the government that if the government wants their land, pay adequate compensation but police in turn fired and beat them up.

Mayawati govt has failed its farmers, says Rahul Gandhi

After his much-publicised four-day walkathon or padayatra through the villages of western Uttar Pradesh, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's projected campaign for the rights of farmers culminated today at the much-anticipated kisan mahapanchayat at Aligarh. On expected lines, Mr Gandhi wasted no time in launching a scathing attack on the Mayawati government for what he called its forcible and flawed acquisition of farmers' land.






As Rahul Gandhi marches on in Uttar Pradesh, visiting villages along the under-construction Yamuna Expressway from Noida to Agra, the BSP has said "his theatrics won't revive the Congress" in the state. BJP's UP in charge Uma Bharti also did not miss the opportunity to slam his visit and said it will not bring any change. She also blamed the Centre for wrong policies.

Rahul Gandhi Political Appearance

In 2003, there was widespread media speculation on the issue of Rahul Gandhi's imminent entry into active politics, which he did not confirm.Sonia Gandhi, his mother, had joined politics in 1997 after staying away for years despite the demands by Congress party and had become the president of Indian National Congress. In 1999 General Elections, he appeared with his mother at public events and Congress meetings.He also traveled to Pakistan on a goodwill visit to watch the first cricket series between the countries in 14 years in a One Day International with his sister Priyanka Gandhi.

Speculation heightened in January 2004 about his and his sister's possible entry into politics when they visited their father's former constituency of Amethi, which their mother held at the time. He refused to give a definitive response, stating "I am not averse to politics. I have not decided when I will enter politics and indeed, if I ever will."
New Delhi, India, 2010: Rahul Gandhi with Prime Minister of Greece George Papandreou at a meeting.

In March 2004, he announced his entry into politics by announcing that he would contest the May 2004 elections, standing for his father's former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament. Before that, his uncle Sanjay held the seat before his death in a plane crash. The seat had been held by his mother until she transferred to the neighbouring seat of Rae Bareilly. The Congress had been doing poorly in Uttar Pradesh, holding only 10 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state at the time.At the time, this move generated surprise among political commentators, who had regarded his sister Priyanka as being the more charismatic and likely to succeed. Party officials did not have a curriculum vitae ready for the media, such was the surprise of his move. It generated speculation that the presence of a young member of India's most famous political family would reinvigorate the Congress party's political fortunes among India's youthful population In his first interview with foreign media, he portrayed himself as a uniter of the country and condemned "divisive" politics in India, saying that he would try to reduce caste and religious tensions. His candidature was greeted with excitement by locals, who had a long standing affinity with the family's presence in the area. , Politician of Indian National Congress He won with a landslide majority, retaining the family stronghold with a margin of over 100,000 as the Congress unexpectedly defeated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Until 2006 he held no other office and concentrated mainly on constituency issues and the politics of Uttar Pradesh, and it was widely speculated in the Indian and international press that Sonia Gandhi is trying to groom him for a chance to become a national-level Congress leader in the future.

In January 2006, at a convention of the Indian National Congress in Hyderabad, thousands of party members asked for Gandhi to take a more prominent leadership role in the party and demanded that he address the delegates. He said "I appreciate and I am grateful for your feelings and support. I assure you I will not let you down", but asked for patience and declined to immediately seek a higher profile role.

Gandhi and his sister (married to Robert Vadhera) managed their mother's campaign for reelection to Rae Bareilly in 2006, which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes.

He was a prominent figure in a high profile Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections; Congress, however, won only 22 seats with 8.53% of votes. The election saw the Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents low caste Indians, to become the first party to govern in its own right in Uttar Pradesh in 16 years.

Rahul Gandhi was appointed a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007 in a reshuffle of the party secretariat. In the same reshuffle, he was also given charge of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India.
In 2008, senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily mentioned “Rahul-as-PM” idea when the PM of India Manmohan Singh was still abroad. Indian Politicians drew own conclusions. Evidently, the Prime Minister also took notice of it.

Rahul Gandhi Biography -Early life and career

Rahul Gandhi was born in Delhi on 19 June 1970  as the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi, who later became the Prime Minister of India and Sonia Gandhi, and as the grandson of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He is also the great-grandson of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Priyanka Vadra is his younger sister.  His mother, Sonia Gandhi, was originally from Turin, Italy; his parents met in Cambridge, England where she was a student at Bell Educational Trust's language school and he, an engineering student at Trinity College. They married in New Delhi in 1968. Rajiv Gandhi later obtained a commercial pilot's license and was a pilot in Indian Airlines when Rahul was born.

Rahul Gandhi attended St. Columba's School, Delhi[6] before entering The Doon School in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), also his father's alma mater, from 1981-83. Meanwhile, his father had joined politics and became the Prime Minister on October 31, 1984 when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Due to the security threats faced by Indira Gandhi's family from Sikh extremists, Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka were home-schooled since then.  Rahul Gandhi joined St. Stephen's College, Delhi in 1989 for his undergraduate education but moved to Harvard University after he completed the first year examinations.[9] In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE during an election rally, he shifted to Rollins College, University of Florida due to security concerns and completed his B.A. in 1994. During this period, he assumed the pseudonym Raul Vinci and his identity was known only to the university officials and security agencies. [9] His affidavit states that he received an M.Phil. in Development Studies in 1995 from Trinity College, Cambridge, but his academic records show that he attempted to obtain the said degree in 2004-2005, and failed to secure passing grades in National Economic Planning and Policy.

After graduation, Rahul Gandhi worked at the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, in London. In 2002 he was one of the directors of Mumbai-based technology outsourcing firm Backops Services Private Ltd.

In 2004, Rahul Gandhi told the press that he has a girlfriend Veronique, a Spanish architect who lives in Venezuela