Cong workers demand Rahul be named PM candidate, disrupt AICC proceedings

Calm down only after Rahul Gandhi says he will speak to them in a few hours

It was a decision that had already been taken a day before the AICC meeting got underway - Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi would lead the Congress poll campaign for 2014 but would not be named the Prime Ministerial candidate. However, this did not satisfy thousands of young Congress delegates at the chock-a-block Talkatora stadium today.

The sloganeering by the delegates, which included the Youth Congress and the NSUI members, almost stalled the proceedings and did not stop even when Congress President Sonia Gandhi decisively intervened to say that a "final decision" had been taken and he would be poll campaign chief.

Banners with Rahul Gandhi as PM were also unfurled in the stadium as overenthusiastic youth delegates were on their feet shouting their demands.   

When the furore refused to die down even when senior leaders like Janardan Dwivedi chided the young delegates for disrupting the session, Rahul Gandhi got up and appealed for calm. He asked them to wait for him to speak in a few hours. "Mein dil se bolunoonga ( When I address you I will speak to you from my heart)." It was thereafter that the proceedings of the session were back on track.
 
Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the session, Youth Congress President Rajeev Satav said, "young delegates were expressing their sentiments."

That the voices of the youth will carry weight within the Congress henceforth was clear when a senior leader like Finance minister P Chidambaram in his speech proposed a "radical idea."

"Let half the seats - 272 tickets - be given this time to candidates under 35 years of age." His rationale, 68% of India's population is below the age of 35 and added for good measure, "62 crore people are below 25 years of age."

Without being named the Congress PM candidate, there was no doubt that Rahul Gandhi was the "only" future leader of the party but as symbolism goes, the young Congressmen it seemed wanted it to be spelt out in a designation.