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Raichur
Raichur Location of Raichur in Karnataka and India
Coordinates	16°12′N 77°22′E / 16.2°N 77.37°E / 16.2; 77.37Coordinates: 16°12′N 77°22′E / 16.2°N 77.37°E / 16.2; 77.37
Country	India
Region	Bayaluseeme
State	Karnataka
District(s)	Raichur district
MLA	Syed Yasin
Population	205,634 (2001[update])
Time zone	IST (UTC+05:30)
Area • Elevation	• 407 metres (1,335 ft)
Codes • Pincode • 584101 • Telephone • +91 8532 • Vehicle • KA-36
Website	www.raichur.nic.in

Raichur (Kannada: ರಾಯಚೂರು, rāyachūru), is a city municipality in the district of Raichur in the Indian state of Karnataka. Raichur, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, is the headquarters of Raichur district. It was in the princely state of Mysore during the rule of Tipu Sultan^{[citation needed]}. It is located 409 km from the state capital, Bangalore.

History[link]

Raichur has a rich history, having been a part of various empires, such as the Bahmanis and Vijayanagara. The city is famous for its imposing Raichur Fort.^[1] Here, stone inscriptions have been found in Persian and Arabic which belonged to the bastion of the fort, referring to its construction in 1294.^[2] Among the ruins of the immense fort are many irrigation tanks and old temples.

Interesting details of the battle between Sri Krishnadevaraya and Adil Shah are given in The Battle of Raichur.

Raichur is very rich from the epigraphical point of view. It has already yielded hundreds of inscriptions, ranging from the Mauryan period up to the end of the Muslim period. The inscriptions are in a variety of languages such as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Kannada, Arabic, and Persian and belonging to almost all the dynasties that ruled over the Dekkan. The most important places from this point of view are Maski, Koppal, Kuknur, Mudgal and Raichur.

Climate[link]

The climate of the district is characterised by dryness for the major part of the year and a very hot summer. The low and highly variable rainfall renders the district liable to drought. The year may be divided broadly into four seasons. The hot season begins by about the middle of February and extends to the end of May The South-west monsoon is from June to end of September. October and November are the post monsoon or retreating monsoon months and the period from December to the middle of February is the cold season.

The only meteorological observatory in the district is at Raichur. The data of this observatory may be taken as representative of the conditions in the district. December is the coldest month with the mean daily maximum temperature at 29.3 Degree C. (84.8 F) and the mean daily minimum at 17.7C (63.9F) The nights are generally cool in the season, but day temperatures sometimes reach 35 to 38 Degree C.The period from about the middle of February to May is one of continuous rise in temperatures, May is the hottest month, the mean daily maximum temperature being 39.8 (103.7 F) The heat is oppressive till the onset of the south-west monsoon by about the first week of June. Thereafter the weather becomes slightly cooler and continues to be so till the end of the South-west monsoon season. Day temperatures show a slight increase in October. From November, both day and night temperatures gradually decrease till December.

The highest maximum temperature ever recorded at Raichur was 45.6 C (114.1F) on 23rd May 1928 and the lowest minimum was 10.0 C (50.0F) on 14th January 1899 and 13th December 1945.

Geography[link]

Raichur is located at 16°12′N 77°22′E / 16.2°N 77.37°E / 16.2; 77.37.^[3] It has an average elevation of 407 metres (1335 ft).

Demographics[link]

As of the 2001 India census,^[4] Raichur had a population of 205,634. Males constituted 51 % of the population and females 49 %. <--!Raichur has an average literacy rate of 63 %, higher than the national average of 62 %: male literacy is 58 %, and female literacy is 62 %.--> In Raichur, 13 % of the population was under 6 years of age.

The main language is Kannada, but Telugu, Urdu, and Hindi are also widely spoken.

Economy[link]

One of the most visited places in Raichur is the Raichur Thermal Power Station in Shakthinagar. It has 8 units, producing 210 MW each, employing ISO 14001, an internationally accepted specification for environmental management systems (EMS).

Cuisine[link]

Biryani, Puri, Vagrani with mirchi

Transport[link]

Raichur is well connected by road and rail to Bangalore, Mumbai,Hyderabad and other major cities. The airport^[5] is under construction near a village called Yermarus (Around 10kms from Raichur).

Local transport[link]

Auto rickshaws are available for getting around the city at fairly reasonable rates. NEKRTC city buses circulate within the city and also travel to the nearby towns and villages.

Long-distance bus routes[link]

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) runs a bus service to other cities and villages. There are also various private bus services. There are many private services running Volvo buses between Bangalore and Raichur, and between Hyderabad and Raichur.

Railways[link]

Raichur is served by a major rail line and is well connected by trains to all major parts of India such as Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum, Kanyakumari, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal and Agra.

Monuments[link]

Anegundi, 135 km from Raichur, has some splendid temples from the Vijayanagar era such as the Ranganatha Temple and the Huchchappayana Matha. The Pampa Sarovara, the Kamal Mahal and Nava Brindavana entomb the mortal remains of famous saints.

View of Raichur city and lake Aam Talab

Notable personalities[link]

• Abdul Samad Siddiqui: Prominent Educationist and Former Member of Parliament(Rajya Sabha).
• Syed Yasin : MLA Raichur and Son-in-Law C. K. Jaffer Sheriff

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Raichur

• Raichur City Official Website
• Weather in Raichur

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Pooja Gandhi (Kannada: ಪೂಜಾ ಗಾಂಧಿ), also known as Sanjana Gandhi, is an Indian actress predominantly working in the Kannada film industry but who also appears in Tamil and Amateur films. She went on to appear in commercially successful films like Mungaru Male, Taj Mahal, Budhivanta. She has also appeared in several music videos,short films thus establishing herself as a leading actress in both Kannada and Amateur Cinema

Early life[link]

Pooja Gandhi was born in Paurath, Punjab, on October 11 in a traditional Punjabi family. Her father Pawan Gandhi is a businessman and her mother Jyothi Gandhi is a housewife. She studied at Sophia Convent and Dewan Public School in Meerut. She has two younger sisters, Radhika Gandhi, who is also working in Kannada films, and Suhani Gandhi, a tennis player.^[1][2]

Career[link]

Pooja started her career by acting in soaps, starting with Zameen Se Asman directed by Aruna Irani.^[2] She made her debut in the Bengali film Tomake Salam, released in 2003. She moved to the South Indian film industry with the Tamil film Kokki,^[1] which did not show promising results at the box office.

She entered the Kannada film industry with Mungaru Male,^[3] a film that became a big hit in Karnataka, and she popularly came to be known as Mungaru Male Hudugi ("Mungaru Male girl").^[2]

Pooja Gandhi acted in the Kannada movie Krishna, opposite "Comedy Time" Ganesh, her co-actor in Mungaru Male. She has since acted in several Kannada films including Kodagana Koli Nungitha, Manmahta, Milana, Budhivanta, Huchchi, Taj Mahal and Honey Honey.^[2]

Pooja has signed up to make her Tulu language film debut in Beere Devupoonje, playing the role of Raja Nartaki. The film, produced and directed by R. Dhanraj, will be based on a Tulu warrior named Devapoonja who lived 400 years ago.^[4]

Politics[link]

Pooja Gandhi has joined Janata Dal (S) on 18 Jan 2012. She has become the youth face of the party, along with Madhu Bangarappa.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Pooja Gandhi at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website

Rahul Gandhi
Member of Lok Sabha from Amethi
Incumbent
Assumed office 2004
General Secretary of the Indian National Congress
Incumbent
Assumed office 2007
Chairperson of IYC and NSUI
Incumbent
Assumed office 2007
Personal details
Born	(1970-06-19) 19 June 1970 (age 42) New Delhi, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Relations	Rajiv Gandhi (father) Sonia Gandhi (mother) Priyanka Vadra (sister)
Residence	New Delhi, India
Alma mater	Rollins College Trinity College, Cambridge
Profession	Member of Parliament
As of 5 June, 2011

Rahul Gandhi ([ˈraːɦʊl ˈɡaːnd̪ʱiː]; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and member of the Parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency.^[1] Gandhi is the general-secretary of the Indian National Congress.^[2] He is the grandson of Feroze Gandhi and Indira (née Nehru) Gandhi, and fourth-generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Early life and career[link]

Rahul Gandhi was born in Delhi on 19 June 1970 ^[3] as the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi, who later became the Prime Minister of India and Sonia Gandhi, who later became President of Indian National Congress, 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.^[4]

Rahul Gandhi attended St. Columba's School, Delhi^[5] before entering The Doon School in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), also his father's alma mater,^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8] In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE^[9] during an election rally, he shifted to Rollins College due to security concerns and completed his B.A. in 1994.^[10] During this period, he assumed the pseudonym Raul Vinci and his identity was known only to the university officials and security agencies.^[8][11] He further went on to obtain a M.Phil from Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1995.^[12] After graduation, Rahul Gandhi worked at the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, in London.^[13] In 2002 he was one of the directors of Mumbai-based technology outsourcing firm Backops Services Private Ltd.^[14]

Political career[link]

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.^[15] 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.^[16] 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. 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^[17] 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.^[15]

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.^[18] Until 2006 he held no other office.^[19]

Gandhi and his sister, who is married to Robert Vadra, managed their mother's campaign for re-election to Rae Bareilly in 2006, which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes.^[20]

He was a prominent figure in the Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections; Congress, however, won only 22 seats with 8.53% of votes.^[21]

Rahul Gandhi was appointed a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007 in a reshuffle of the party secretariat.^[22] In the same reshuffle, he was also given charge of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India.^[23]

In 2008, senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily mentioned “Rahul-as-PM” idea when the PM of India Manmohan Singh was still abroad.^[24]

Youth politics[link]

In his attempt to prove himself as a youth leader in November 2008 he held interviews at his 12, Tughlak Lane residence in New Delhi to handpick at least 40 people who will make up the think-tank of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), an organisation that he has been keen to transform since he was appointed general secretary in September 2007.^[25]

Under Rahul Gandhi, IYC and NSUI has seen a dramatic increase in members from a two lakhs to twenty five lakhs.^[26]

In various reports it has been proved that Rahul Gandhi has failed in his promise to eliminate family, patronage, money from Youth Congress. It has been seen that an aspiring delegates need to pay a substantial sum as nomination fee. Hence, an aspiring office-bearer with deep pockets sponsors them thereby allowing money power to have a role in the elections.^[27][28][29]

2009 elections[link]

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he retained his Amethi constituency by defeating his nearest rival by a margin of over 333,000 votes. In these elections congress is said to have revived itself in Uttar Pradesh by winning 21 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats and the majority of the credit for this turnaround is given to Rahul Gandhi.^[30] He spoke at 125 rallies across the country in six weeks.

Lokpal bill[link]

Rahul Gandhi opines that the Lokpal should be made a constitutional body and it should be made accountable to the Parliament, just like the Election Commission. He also feels that Lokpal alone cannot root out corruption. This statement came out on 25 August 2011, on the 10th day of Anna Hazare's fast. This statement was considered as a delaying tactic by the opposition and Team Anna's members. It was consequently slammed by prominent opposition leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.^[31] The Parliamentary Standing Committee led by Abhishek Manu Singhvi tabled the Lok Bill report in the Rajya Sabha on 9 December 2011. Almost all points proposed by Team Anna were ignored while Rahul Gandhi's wish for Lokpal to be made into a constitutional body was implemented. Anna Hazare believes that Rahul Gandhi is responsible for the weak and ineffective bill proposed by the standing committee of parliament.^[32]

Land Acquisition Protests Arrest[link]

On 11 May 2011 Rahul Gandhi was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police at Bhatta Parsaul village after he turned out in support of agitating farmers demanding more compensation for their land being acquired for a highway project.^[33] He was released after being held for about three hours and later returned to New Delhi. He was to be presented before a Sub-Divisional Magistrate on 12 May 2011.^[34]

2012 Assembly elections[link]

Rahul Gandhi campaigned extensively in the 2012 Assembly elections, especially in the highly politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the hope that his popularity would help bring Congress back to power. However, the party did very poorly in the elections winning only 38 seats, a meagre increase of six seats from the 2007 elections^[35]. The Samajwadi Party and its new leader, Akhilesh Yadav swept the elections in UP, and Mr Yadav was sworn as the youngest Chief Minister of UP. The Congress party suffered humiliating defeats in other states (Goa and Punjab), and a close shave in Uttarahakhand. With only one win in the state of Manipur, the Indian press was quick to question the future of Mr Gandhi as the leader of the Congress party.^[36]

Political and legal issues[link]

Comparison of RSS and SIMI[link]

Rahul Gandhi has been critical of nationalist groups like the RSS and compared them to terrorist organizations like SIMI.^[37][38] According to a cable leaked by Wikileaks, in 2009, he allegedly shared concerns with the American ambassador to India Timothy Roemer that radicalized Hindu groups may pose a bigger threat to India than Islamic terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba.^[39][40] His comments on radical Hindu groups were criticized by the opposition party, as well as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.^[41]

Sukanya Devi[link]

It has been alleged that Rahul Gandhi had detained a girl and her parents since 2007 after the family accused the Gandhi scion of raping the girl. On 01st Mar 2011, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi,^[42] however the allegations were found to be false. Allahabad high court not only dismissed the case after the girl in question appeared in the court, but slapped a 50 lakh penalty against the petitioner ordering a CBI inquiry against her and websites publishing the story.^[43]

13th Jul 2011 Terror Attack remarks[link]

On 14th Jul 2011, a day after the serial bombing in Mumbai, Rahul Gandhi gave a statement that "it was very difficult to stop every single terror attack". The remark resulted in a number of strong criticism from a number of Shiv Sena party members.^[44]

See also[link]

• Political Families of The World

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rahul Gandhi

• Profile at BBC News
• Profile at Govt. of India website
• Rahul Gandhi collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Rahul Gandhi collected news and commentary at The Times of India