Rahul Gandhi to lead Congress campaign in UP

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi is steadily gearing up to a position of responsibility in the Congress party. The 32-year-old MP from Amethi is gearing up for his baptism by fire in the UP assembly elections and will lead the party’s challenge, albeit without holding an official position in the organisation.

Rahul has begun playing a key role in shortlisting his party’s candidates, identifying key constituencies, finalising the party’s advertising campaign for the forthcoming elections in the state. “He is totally hands on and leading from the front” says UPCC Chief Salman Khursheed. On Tuesday, Rahul spent almost the entire day with Sonia discussing the situation in the state with the UPCC chief as well as the 8 zonal heads from the state.

In the last couple of weeks Rahul Gandhi has interviewed over 100 of the party’s prospective candidates, pored over reams of statistics that include elections results of the past four elections, demographic profiles of constituencies and performances of his party’s candidates. “He doesn’t rely only on what the prospective candidates tell. He has all the information on his fingertips and has often stumped his partymen by correcting the information being provided by them,” says an AICC General Secretary involved in the process.

According to senior leaders, Rahul is clear about what he wants and believes that reviving the party in the state will be a long and painstaking process. According to Rahul, the forthcoming elections must be used to establish the party as a major player in the state.