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Backed by young coterie, Rahul calls shots in Congress

Last Updated 10 December 2016, 18:48 IST

It’s just a matter of time before Rahul Gandhi takes over as the Congress president, but he is already calling the shots in devising the party’s strategy to tackle the government in Parliament.

Assisted by young leaders such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, K C Venugopal, Gaurav Gogoi and Sushmita Dev, who form his core team, Rahul’s objective has been to keep up the heat on the Narendra Modi government.

Sources in the Congress said it was on Rahul’s insistence that the party decided to concentrate its energies on pinning the government down on the demonetisation issue, which he believes has all the aspects of a grand disaster to put the prime minister in the dock.

The Congress vice president has been presiding over the strategy meetings of the party and also interacting with the members in groups, as also individually, to get direct feedback about the situation on the ground. With Congress president Sonia Gandhi convalescing, Rahul stepped into her shoes to address the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party on December 2.

In his address that lasted about 15 minutes, Rahul touched upon issues such as the terror attack on the Nagrota, Army camp, the train accident at Kanpur and the government’s Pakistan policy, but he reserved his sharpest comments for the demonetisation exercise. Since the November 7 meeting of the Congress Working Committee, where leaders urged Rahul to take over as the party president, Sonia has been seen allowing Rahul to assume the role of a decision-maker in organisational matters.

During the winter session, Sonia has stayed away from Parliament, thus making Rahul the de facto leader of the parliamentary party.

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(Published 10 December 2016, 18:48 IST)

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