All India Congress Committee General Secretary Rahul Gandhi seems to be taking a great deal of interest in a large number of party and government matters as he shifts to the centre-stage of Congress politics.
So much so that he is even going to try his hand at writing and becoming a journalist!
Sources disclose that the Youth Congress is planning to bring out an in-house journal along the lines of Sandesh, which the AICC brings out to keep partymen abreast of developments in the Congress.
Similarly, the Youth Congress magazine would detail the activities of the young workers and activists and would have a regular column or editorial by Rahul Gandhi along the lines that Sonia Gandhi writes in Sandesh which is seen as her direction to partymen on key and crucial issues. The much-awaited magazine is being slotted for an August 20 release, which happens to be the birth anniversary of the late Rajiv Gandhi.
More than the magazine, what congressmen are looking forward to are the views of Rahul Gandhi, which would be lapped up by partymen.
Rahul hosted a dinner for Youth Congress leaders some time back and on Monday, it was the UP Congress MPs who were called for dinner by the AICC general secretary. Here the focus was on development with the consensus emerging that if the Congress had to take on UP chief Minister Mayawati it could only be through all out and aggressive development for which the Centre would have to provide the funds.
And on Tuesday, Rahul along with the UP MPs met the prime minister asking for more development schemes in the state, including roads, highways, schools, colleges, infrastructure and after that there was a demand for a Rs 8000 crore special package for the development of Bundelkhand, a deprived and backward area where Rahul has been focusing as well as visiting.
That is not all. Sources said that Rahul had been concerned about reports of sections of the government favouring Mukesh Ambani as opposed to his brother Anil Ambani who has openly accused ministers in the government of playing favourites and going all out to benefit his brother.
It is learnt that Rahul had taken up the issue of giving a fair deal to Anil with senior ministers in the government and had impressed upon them that the government should not be seen to be playing favourites but should give both a level playing field.
At the party level, it is learnt that Rahul called up a senior and influential party leader and took him to task for trying to push through the candidature of a Muslim woman for the Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan on the pretext that it had come as a recommendation
from the state chief minister and PCC.
But when Rahul informed the leader that neither had recommended her name, the situation is said to have become more than embarrassing for the leader who is known to be a master of manipulating and ensuring that he is able to put into various places of authority the people who are close to him.
Then there was the case of a young youth congress girl who was severely ticked off by Rahul and told not to play games with him as he had in his knowledge the names of all the leaders who had recommended her name for a position!
More and more Rahul is taking a hands-on approach in his dealings with partymen and more and more the old timers are becoming wary as they are not able to handle matters as easily as they used to earlier.
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