Rahul push to see deadwood give way to young leaders in Congress reshuffle

A K Antony and Janardhan Dwivedi to look after day-to-day party affairs

About five years after he was inducted as AICC general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress and the NSUI,Rahul Gandhi appears to be bracing up for a bigger role in the organisation as he holds consultations with senior party leaders to revamp the organisation. He was learnt to have over an hour-long meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patel early last week to discuss the organisational overhaul.

Sensing a widening chink between the youth and students wings of the organisation patronised by him and the parent party organisation,the young general secretary is learnt to be working out plans to ensure that the young leaders who have come up through his democratisation process in the IYC and the NSUI work in coordination with and under the guidance of the senior party leadership,said sources.

While Rahul has been reluctant to give up the reins of the IYC and the NSUI until he completes the democratisation process through internal elections,he is said to be under pressure to take up a larger role in the party guiding it in the next round of Assembly elections in December and then spruce up the organisation for the next Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

Sources said the forthcoming organisational reshuffle will have Rahul imprint on it and many deadwood are set to be replaced by young leaders who have shown the potential to take up bigger roles.

Except for some occasional interventions in party affairs,Rahul has so far been focusing on developing a young talent pool in the party through the IYC and the NSUI and largely stayed away from other organisational matters. Last year,before Sonia left for her surgery abroad,she had set up a four-member committee including Rahul,Patel,

A K Antony and Janardhan Dwivedi to look after day-to-day party affairs. Rahul had,however,not shown much interest in running the organisation then and had not even attended the Congress Core Group meeting in place of his mother.

There was also not much coordination between his team,largely comprising non-political youngsters,functioning from his 12,Tughlaq Lane residence and the AICC set-up. Post-Uttar Pradesh elections,Rahul has obviously changed his approach as he reaches out to party veterans.

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Before the UP elections,said the sources,it had been decided that Rahul would be brought to the centrestage in the party after the elections and would be asked to revamp the entire organisation,including the Congress Working Committee CWC,to select his own team. Even though the election results were not as per the script,senior leaders want the young general secretary to play a bigger role,especially given the health issues of the Congress president. Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Saifuddin Soz suggested recently that Rahul should be appointed vice-president of the party and he should tour the entire country to rejuvenate the organisation.