Farmers’ widows hold silent protest at Rahul rally

September 29th, 2009 NAGPUR - Farm widow Kalavati Bandurkar Tuesday withdrew her candidature from the Maharashtra assembly polls - a decision her party said she was "forced" to take by "vested interests" after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi propelled her to fame. The move came five days Kalavati travelled in an ambulance to file her nomination papers.

September 27th, 2009 NAGPUR - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shatrughan Sinha on Sunday appreciated Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, saying he has a bright future in the political arena and emphasized that he will carry forward the powerful Nehru-Gandhi lineage. "Rahul Gandhi is obviously a handsome man and has a good personality and I think the way he is going, one day his hard work would pay off because he is working from the grass root level and has good qualities and I think he is smart and his future is bright," Sinha told media persons in Nagpur.

September 19th, 2009 MUMBAI - Kalawati Bandurkar, the poor widow whose name Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had mentioned in his parliament speech last year, will be contesting the Maharashtra assembly polls as a candidate of the Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, a party official said Saturday. After the speech, for a while Kalawati had become the name and the face of the plight being faced by farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

September 9th, 2009 CHENNAI - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Wednesday exhorted young farmers in Tamil Nadu to join the party, saying it was not just for moneyed people. He was in Thanjavur as part of a three-day tour of the state to strengthen the Congress' youth wing.

July 15th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will visit his parliamentary constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh Friday to meet party workers and others injured in a baton charge during a protest over power shortage Monday night, a party spokesperson said Wednesday. "He (Rahul Gandhi) will be visiting Amethi Friday for a thanksgiving meeting with the party workers, Akhilesh Pratap Singh, spokesperson of Uttar Pradesh Congress, told IANS.

June 19th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati clarified that protest demonstrations her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had organised across Uttar Pradesh Friday were not connected with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's birthday. We selected June 19 to launch an awareness campaign about the casteist approach of opposition parties and to attack the central government for its anti-Dalit policies but that had nothing to do with Rahul Gandhis birthday, which I am told also falls today," she told a rally here.

May 11th, 2009 AMRITSAR - In a clear move to counter the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) show of strength in Ludhiana Sunday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Monday addressed an election rally here, during which they said the BJP and the Akalis ruling the state had 'done nothing for farmers'. Campaigning for Congress candidate Om Prakash Soni against Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) cricketer-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in this Sikh holy city, Manmohan Singh and Gandhi said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has made farmers' welfare its main focus for the last five years.

May 11th, 2009 AMRITSAR - The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has made farmers' welfare its main focus for the last five years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said at an election rally here Monday. Campaigning for the Congress candidate from Amritsar Om Prakash Soni, the two leaders attacked Punjab's ruling Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine, with Manmohan Singh saying: 'They have not helped farmers at all'.

May 9th, 2009 MOHALI - After having raised quite a storm in national political circles by his praise of opposition leaders like Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Saturday targeted the latter at an election rally here, though without naming him. Criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not thinking of the common man and coining slogans like 'India Shining', Gandhi made a critical reference to Naidu, though indirectly.

May 3rd, 2009 JAIPUR - Congress general secretary Sunday talked about the development projects initiated by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to woo voters at a rally in Barmer district of Rajasthan. While castigating the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'India Shining' slogan in the last polls, Rahul said: 'They had India Shining ideology, which was different from us.

May 3rd, 2009 BARMER - Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Sunday made it clear that Manmohan Singh is the primary choice of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for the post of prime minister. Addressing a rally in support of Congress candidate Harish Choudhury here, Gandhi said, "Manmohan Singh is our PM, he is UPA's PM." Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for its India Shining campaign in the last general elections, he said, "NDA has India Shining ideology, its India for stock market, privatisation and the rich and the elite." Gandhi said that he can never claim that India is shining until and unless every single citizen of the country enjoys a decent standard of living.

May 1st, 2009 SIRSA - Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that it was Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh who compelled Pakistan to confess that the terrorists involved in 26/11 Mumbai carnage belonged to its land.

April 14th, 2009 TALWANDI SABO - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Tuesday said that the benefits of several schemes launched by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government were not reaching the people of Punjab because of corruption in the state. 'The Manmohan Singh government has done a lot for the people.

April 1st, 2009 RANCHI - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, in a rally in Jharkhand, Wednesday appealed to the youth to vote to 'change the fate of the country'. 'I appeal youth to vote for Congress to change the fate of the state and the country.

March 31st, 2009 WARDHA - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who addressed a rally here Tuesday, slammed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for ignoring the poor of the country during its rule at the centre even as he asserted that his party's focus was on the common man. 'We (Congress) see India from common man's eyes.