Congress workers greet Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi after party's win in Karnataka

Congress workers assembled at 10 Janpath, New Delhi to greet Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi after party's massive victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls. Congress secured absolute majority in Karnataka routing the ruling BJP government winning in 121 seats.

Sonia Gandhi offers "Chadar" to Ajmer Sharif shrine

New Delhi: Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi sent a "Chadar" as an offering to the Ajmer Sharif shrine on Sunday.

The dargah of Khwaja Moin-ud-din Chishti is hosting the religious fair called Urs marking the 801st death anniversary of the Sufi saint that began on Friday. Millions of devotees from all parts of the world visit the saint's shrine during the Urs ceremony. Moin-ud-din Chishti is believed to have been born in 1142 AD. Since his ancestors belonged to a town named Chishti, people began calling him by that name.

Chishti, who preached tolerance and unity of all religions, died in Ajmer where his tomb has become a shrine for millions of people. In 1236 AD, the saint entered his cell to pray in seclusion for six days, at the end of which he died. Since then Urs has been celebrated for six days every year.  It is believed that praying at the tomb of the saint fulfils a person's wishes.

Rahul Gandhi’s gesture; asks MP Congress unit to adopt a poor child he met

Bhopal: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi ahs done it again. In a generous gesture, the young Congress leader asked the Madhya Pradesh Congress unit to adopt a poor teenager who used to sell newspapers in Bhopal. Informing the media about their charitable act, Pradesh Congress committee president Kantilal Bhuria said that Rahul Gandhi had personally advocated that the boy should get best of education.

 “As per Rahulji’s wish, PCC will donate Rs 1,000 every month so that Kaushal Shaukya can go to school. His father has also been appointed as the peon at one of the educational institutions run by a Congress leader,” Bhuria said. The MP Congress Chief also informed that the boy who had told Rahul that he wanted to become a doctor.

Kaushal reportedly met Rahul Gandhi when he was on a visit to Bhopal on April 25. Eager to meet the Congress vice-president, Kaushal had intercepted his car and offered him newspaper. Struck by his candour, Rahul enquired that why didn’t he go to school. Kaushal told him that his father couldn’t afford a decent education for him.  Kaushal, a class fifth student, sells newspapers. On April 25, when Rahul was heading for Raja Bhoj airport in a car, Kaushal approached him and requested to buy a newspaper. Rahul took the newspaper and handed him a Rs 1,000 note, but the boy returned it, saying he had no change, and he was offering the copy for free. The Congress Vice President then had a brief chat with him.

After Rahul Gandhi returned to Delhi the following day, he asked his personal staff to collect more information about the boy and after getting the information, he asked the Madhya Pradesh unit to help the boy. With this gesture, Rahul Gandhi once again proved that he is undoubtedly the leader of aam aadmi.

Raebareli: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and sister of party Vice President RahulGandhi, has found an innovative way to pick leaders. She had some specific questions to the 95 hopefuls whom she had interacted at Raebareli over the past two days, in a bid to finalise names of Congress presidents for each of the town’s 31 wards.

The exercise was part of Priyanka Gandhi’s efforts to strengthen the party organisation in her mother’s Lok Sabha constituency. “You have family and social responsibilities; how can you find time for party work? If you are made a party ward president, how will you function as a leader?” Priyanka Gandhi asked the Mukesh Kumar Singh, a candidate for Ward 21, whose father and grandfather too are Congress activists.  “I told her that my legal practice was a kind of social work and that I met many people every day. I said I would extend my social service to a greater number of people. If I am chosen a party leader, I shall follow the party’s policies and implement its agenda at the ward level.”

The three other questions that Priyanka asked candidates, besides making enquiries about their family background, were: Why do you want to be a Congress leader and since when have you developed a preference for the party and have been following its policies? How should one get a Congress voter out of his home and bring him to the poll booth? How would you counter the campaign against the Congress?

A candidate for Ward 15, trader Lalit Singh, said: “Priyankaji doesn’t give you much time to think. She insisted that I answer quickly; she said she didn’t want laboured thoughts, nor answers aimed at pleasing her.”

The Congress workers are quite impressed with this novel step of Priyanka Gandhi. Earlier, Congress district presidents used to handpick party workers depending on their verbal expressions of loyalty. There wasn’t much grassroots representation. But Priyanka set out to correct this after taking over the task of strengthening the party organisation in the constituency in October last year.

Priyanka Gandhi has been telling party workers in the district that political challenges need to be tackled at the micro-level. Last November, she launched a “Congress At Your Doorstep” campaign to select village representatives for the party’s district bodies. In the past six months, she has made 74 block and panchayat-level appointments. Congress sources said Priyanka had visited Rae Bareli six times in the past seven months in a bid to strengthen the party further  before the next general elections.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi is also expected to visit Raebareli on May 15 to launch a string of development projects.

NSUI leaders meet Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at 10 Janpath, New Delhi

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Sonia Gandhi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at 10 Janpath, New Delhi