Rahul Gandhi scripted Congress' resurgence in Uttar Pradesh where Chief Minister Mayawati's penchant for raising parks and statues landed her in a spot in 2009 which also saw her ambitions to move to the centre stage of national politics take a knock with BSP faring poorly in the Lok Sabha polls.
With ambitions fuelled by new-found Marxist friends, Mayawati made a serious bid to match her party's impressive 2007 assembly poll showing in the general elections but her apple cart was upset by the steady march of Congress under the Gandhi scion, who talked of development to guide the party to its 21-seat haul in the country's most populous state.
Rahul's plans for development of Bundelkhand received the nod of the Centre which announced a special package of Rs 7,266 crore for development of the drought-hit region that spans across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Following the Centre's decision to create a separate Telangana state, Mayawati favoured carving out of Bundelkhand, Paschimanchal and Poorvanchal from Uttar Pradesh. Rashtriya Lok Dal's Ajit Singh also renewed his agitation for creation of a 'harit pradesh' in western Uttar Pradesh.
The SP General Secretary continued to be in the news when a money laundering case was registered against him.
An Uttar Pradesh lawyer accused Singh of siphoning off black money in the name of several companies in which, besides him, his wife Pankaj Kumari Singh and filmstar Amitabh Bachchan allegedly had cross-holdings.