Rahul's youth brigade shapes up in Parliament

First-time members of Parliament, irrespective of their political affiliations, contributed in key debates in the ongoing winter session of the Lok Sabha.

Akali Dal MP and wife of Sukhbir Singh Badal, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh's son Jayant Choudhary, grandson of former Orissa CM R N Singhdeo, Kalikesh Narain Singh Deo, and from among the women members Meenakshi Natarajan Jyoti Mirdha have had a good showing in Parliament.

But politically shrewd and cautious MPs like YS Jaganmohan Reddy, son of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Deepender Hooda, son of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Milind Deora, son of Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, and GS Vivek, son of G Venkatasamy of the Lanco group, while effective, kept their main focus on their constituencies and their business interests as they exist. Thus, Rahul's babalog have forged an alliance that is now formidable. This is a challenge to older congress MPs. Second-timers and third-timers cannot be very happy with this development.

Some Congress MPs who belong to the Jaganmohan Reddy camp are trying to oust Ken Rosaiah as Andhra CM. Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily was seen talking intimately to Reddy for more than half an hour in the central hall of Parliament in the plain view of many MPs and ministers. What could have been cooking between them, is only a matter of conjecture.

Many Congress MPs from Andhra Pradesh were not keen to venture anywhere near that particular bench where Moily and Reddy were 'seen whispering' to each other; in fact,  Moily was so engrossed in the conversation that he did not even acknowledge greetings from a minister who hailed from AP.

Some Andhra MPs have begun migrating towards the Keshav Rao and D Srinivas camps. A complete division is seen among the Andhra Congress MPs in their stances and approaches. How it will reflect on the state's politics, only time will tell.