Rahul meets PM, seeks a Bundelkhand development authority

September 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The National Commission for Women (NCW) Monday said it was sending a team to probe the awful and unbelievable reports that debt-ridden farmers in Uttar Pradesh's drought-hit Bundelkhand region were selling off their women to survive. It is awful and unbelievable that it still happens in the country and that too in Uttar Pradesh where the chief minister is a woman, NCW Chairperson Girija Vyas told IANS.

August 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The day in the Lok Sabha started Monday with slogans against the government's plan to start a development authority for drought-hit Bundelkhand and ended on the same note with noisy protests by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MPs leading to the house being adjourned for the day. In between the two adjournments on the Bundelkhand issue, the house was adjourned twice -- over the Samajwadi Party's allegations that Uttar Pradesh was not being given its due share of Reliance Industries' Krishna-Godavari gas and the Trinamool Congress raising the issue of killings in West Bengal.

August 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Both houses of parliament were adjourned Monday with noisy protests over the government's plan to set up a separate development authority for the drought-hit Bundelkhand region that spans Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The Left parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) joined hands to oppose the Congress move to set up a separate Bundelkhand Development Authority for the backward region.

August 2nd, 2009 BHOPAL - The union government's move to set up a central development authority for the Bundelkhand region has heated up politics in Madhya Pradesh, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress accusing each other of drawing political mileage from the issue. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken strong exception to the move and shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging that it was an attempt to infringe upon the rights of the state.

August 1st, 2009 LUCKNOW - The Congress party Saturday hit out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for opposing creation of an independent authority for economic development of the backward Bundelkhand region. In a statement issued here, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) media cell chief Vivek Singh flayed Mayawati for criticising the move, which he said was aimed at "ensuring integrated development of the region that covers a few districts both in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh".

August 1st, 2009 BHOPAL - Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opposing the setting up of a separate Bundelkhand Development Authority by the central government, an official said Saturday. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has demanded such an authority be set up to spur development in the backward region that straddles Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

July 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Three days after he met the prime minister to seek a special package for the Bundelkhand region, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Friday said the party would do everything for the welfare and development of the region that he says is steeped in poverty. "We have submitted a memorandum to the prime minister (on Bundelkhand).

July 30th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Thursday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to keep off "the internal affairs of the state" after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi demanded a central authority for development of Bundelkhand region. "Any move to set up a central authority for special development of an area in a state would tantamount to direct interference in the internal affairs of the state," Mayawati wrote in a letter to the prime minister, according to an official statement.

July 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi along with Uttar Pradesh party chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi and other party leaders Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to set up a separate development authority for the Bundelkhand region, which he alleged was reeling under poverty. "Legislators and leaders from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi met the prime minister.

July 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh here on Tuesday.

July 18th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Continuing the verbal sparring with the Congress, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Saturday hit out at Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi for his comments against her government, saying the Congress should "first set its own house in order before accusing others". On Rahul Gandhi's support for the Congress' state chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was arrested and sent to judicial custody for her remark against the chief minister, Mayawati said it would have been better if Rahul Gandhi had commented instead on Joshi's book criticising Congress leaders.

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.

April 25th, 2009 KOLKATA - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Saturday said he was not ready to be prime minister yet and added that the issue of post-poll alliances would be decided by 'senior leaders' of his party after the Lok Sabha elections. 'I would refuse (the prime minister's post)...for two reasons.

March 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With Varun Gandhi's alleged communal tirade fetching him unprecedented publicity, some leaders of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can't stop comparing him with his more famous cousin Rahul Gandhi. 'Let's send the hard-hitting Varun after Rahul,' quipped one at the party office, even though the BJP has officially distanced itself from Varun's alleged hate speech against Muslims in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh.

March 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The first lot of Congress posters displayed in Delhi had three prominent faces - that of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party chief Sonia Gandhi and her MP son Rahul Gandhi. But now there is a 'big' change.