Rahul Gandhi gives party posts to younger MPs

The stamp of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was evident in the Congress organizational reshuffle announced Sunday, as important posts went to relatively younger MPs.

Mumbai MP Priya Dutt, 46, will assist former union minister Ajay Maken, who has been given charge of the party's communications and publicity. Haryana MP Ashok Tanwar, 37, who had been assisting party general secretary Mohan Prakash in affairs relating to Gujarat, has been handed additional charge of poll-bound Rajasthan, besides Dadar and Nagar Haveli.

Similarly, Rajasthan MP Harish Chaudhary, 43, who had been given charge of Punjab as secretary recently, has now been given additional charge of poll-bound Delhi. Both Delhi and Rajasthan are ruled by the Congress and would have assembly polls by the end of this year.

Gandhi also gave key roles to younger MPs in finalising party candidates for some of the poll- bound states.

While his close aide and Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh has been made a member of the screening panel for Madhya Pradesh, party MP and former Youth Congress leader Manik Tagore has been made a member of the screening panel for Chhattisgarh, where senior state Congress leaders were killed in a Maoist attack May 25.

Tanwar has been made a member in the panel to screen candidates for northeastern state of Mizoram.

Soon after he became party vice president in January this year, Gandhi had said that the party would see an organisational reshuffle to mix youth and experience.

However, no such role was visible for the younger leaders in the revamped Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision-making body, said sources.