Congress will perform better this time: Priyanka Gandhi

New Delhi, May 7 : Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Thursday asserted that the party's performance in the 14th Lok Sabha polls will be better than that in the last election.

"I think there will be improvement, at least that is what we hope," Gandhi told reporters after casting her vote at a polling booth in Lodhi Estate here.

Dressed in a casual t-shirt and jeans, Gandhi came to the polling booth along with her husband Robert Vadra.

Eight states, along with Delhi, are going to vote in the fourth and penultimate phase of the general elections Thursday.

Gandhi expressed hope that Congress will bag all the seven seats of the capital.

Asking people to come out and vote, Gandhi said: "I hope they will be voting for a party and prime minister, who are serious about development and are ready to take the country forward."

When asked about post-poll alliances, she said: "We will see after May 16."

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Priyanka Gandhi campaigns for Sonia Gandhi

Rai Bareli, April 29: Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, has urged the voters to come out in maximum numbers and cast their votes.

Priyanka was campaigning for her mother in Rae Bareli, where polling will be held on Thursday.

Talking to reporters, Priyanka said that the meeting with her brother Rahul Gandhi in Lucknow was not pre-planned and that there is no political angle to their meeting unlike the speculative angle given by certain reporters.

"I had not met my brother for the last ten days. When I heard that he is coming to Lucknow, then I thought since my programme is over, why not I go and meet him. Then in Lucknow, he asked me to come along and I sat in the helicopter and we reached Barabanki. But there is no political angle to it," she said.

Further, she said that the party's prime ministerial candidate is none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"I think the Congress Party has made it clear that Dr. Manmohan Singh will be its prime ministerial candidate, if voted back to power," she added.

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We Indians have a habit of complaining: Priyanka Gandhi

Rae Bareli, April 28 : Indians have a habit of complaining instead of striving for a better future, Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, observed Tuesday.

"Hamari aadat hai shikayat karne ki, meri bhi hai (We have a habit of complaining... it is my habit also)," she said at a public meeting while campaigning for her mother in Rae Bareli constituency.

"But we only prefer to complain and avoid taking the initiative for a better future," she added.

Priyanka also expressed concern over low turn out of voters, specially in the urban areas.

"Those living in the urban areas are considered to be more educated and aware than the rural population. But it is a bitter fact, not only in Amethi or Rae Bareli, but across the country that voting percentage is lowest in urban areas," she said.

Priyanka advised people not to enjoy the polling day as a holiday because if they did not exercise their basic right, they could never bring about change. She appealed to them to go out and vote, not necessarily for her mother or the Congress but for whoever they wanted so long as they voted.

"It is the voter who has the power to bring a change. Neither a party nor a politician has this power," she said, speaking in an urban area of the constituency.

Priyanka also divided politics and politicians into two categories.

"One believes in politics of development and equality. The other depends upon communalism, hatred and divide and rule. You have to decide the path that leads to a better future for you and your children," she said.

Priyanka asserted that Rae Bareli should send a positive signal to the entire nation that the region does not want politics based on religion and caste but has opted for development and equality.

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Priyanka takes on Jaswant, rubbishes his 'political talk'

Barara Bujurc (Rae Bareli): Priyanka Gandhi termed as "all political talks" the statement of senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh who claimed that L K Advani had opposed the decision to free terrorists during the Kandahar hijack.

In a stepped-up attack on BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, Priyanka said "what does it matter. This thing (the release of terrorist) happened when he was the Home Minister. These are all political talks," Priyanka said when asked to comment on Singh's statement.

"Now he (Advani) will not even take the responsibility for it. He is now saying he was not ready to release the terrorist under pressure. What kind of leader he is who does not want to take responsibility," she said in Rae Bareli.

Asked whether Mayawati was ignoring the development of Amethi and Rae Bareli, Priyanka said, "I have not seen development wherever I have gone."

"What is the mistake that the innocent people (residents of Rae Bareli and Amethi) have committed to be deprived of development. Is it their fault that they leave in Rae Bareli and Amethi."

Priyanka addressed election rallies in different villages of the district and campaigned for her mother.

Addressing a rally in village Barsanakuti Chauraha, Priyanka said, "You have seen how much the state Government opposed when the factory was being opened but Soniaji struggled a lot and said she was ready to go to jail."

She added the Rail Coach factory at Rae Bareli will start soon and will give employment to at least 10,000 people.

Earlier, Congress dismissed senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh's claim that L K Advani had opposed the decision to free terrorists during the Kandahar hijack crisis as "suspicious in timing and completely opportunistic."

"Jaswant Singh's statement is suspicious in timing, completely opportunistic and self-serving, intended to cover up Advani's default and promote his prime ministerial ambition," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

Noting that the statement has come 10 years too late, he said, "such self-serving statements in the middle of elections fool no one."

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We are after Rahul to get him married: Priyanka

Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh), April 13: Priyanka Gandhi says her family has been wishing her brother, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, gets married soon.

Asked about the 38-year-old Congress MP’s marriage plans, Priyanka Gandhi said: “Why don’t you ask him? We are after him (to get married) since long.”

“I would not be a matchmaker for him,” she added.

She was talking to reporters during the election campaign in her mother, Congess president Sonia Gandhi’s constituency of Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.

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