Rahul Gandhi to address Youth Congress' national meet

Undeterred by questions raised on his leadership abilities during the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has been silently going ahead with organisation-building activity across the country. With Gandhi at the helm, the Indian Youth Congress’ ongoing national executive meet in Srinagar has roped in prominent chief ministers of Congress-ruled states including Sheila Dikshit, Ashok Gehlot, Prithviraj Chavan and Bhupinder Singh Hooda to address the delegates. Finance Minister P Chidamabaram could also be addressing the members of the national executive on the necessity of economic reforms undertaken by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre.

 

Gandhi will be addressing the session on October 4, which is likely to be the closing address of the three-day event. The select gathering of the executives include the 31 Pradesh Youth Congress Presidents and the 22 national office bearers i.e secretaries incharge of the states and union territories. While Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan spoke on ‘ethics and politics’ on the opening day yesterday, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will be speaking on ‘political activity and communication’ tomorrow, also stressing on the need for better communication with the people on foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail.

Even as Gandhi continues to officially hold the designation of AICC in charge of Youth Congress and NSUI, the youth wings of the party; he has according to sources gradually been easing himself out of this limited role.

Of the six public meetings and functions that Gandhi will be attending in J& K, only one pertains to the Youth Congress. On his last visit to Jharkhand as well, of the five programmes that he attended, only one concerned the Youth Congress; a clear indication of his growing stature within the party. His other programmes include meeting Pradesh Congress members, addressing public meetings at Leh and Kargil as well as inaugurating the Z- Morh tunnel linking Leh and Srinagar.

Gandhi’s recent tiff with close friend and J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah over the devolution of powers to Pachayats in the state in the backdrop of gunning down of ‘sarpanches’ in J&K, is also likely to figure in his itenary.

The Congress scion’s insistence on taking up the controversial issue and even lining up a meeting at Srinagar with elected sarpanches of panchayats, shows the enhanced clout of Rahul Gandhi, who has been quite vocal on the issue.

Not only did he speak about it at the Congress’ Working committee but he also met anxious panchayat leaders in Delhi who were demanding greater security from the National Conference – Congress coalition government in the state.