Knives are out in the Congress as young leaders have decided to take on seniors for their “deafening silence” whenever there is an attack of party vice president Rahul Gandhi from within the organisation or outside of it.
The young leaders, including All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretaries and former MPs, have formed a group and have held 3 to 4 meetings in the past few weeks to chalk out their future plan of action.
The idea behind forming this group, Congress sources said, came immediately after the Lok Sabha elections.
The rout in the polls brought Rahul, his key aides and team of advisers in the line of fire of party workers and leaders for their style of functioning, uninspiring poll campaign and faulty ticket distribution.
Even though both Rahul and party president Sonia Gandhi owned up the responsibility for the poor poll show, the party leaders claimed that Rahul and his “band of MBA graduates and NGO activists” had caused “irreparable damage” to the organisation.
“At that time, no seniorleader came out to defend him. In fact, there is a malicious campaign going on within the party against Rahul,” an AICC secretary told HT on the condition of anonymity.
{{/usCountry}}“At that time, no seniorleader came out to defend him. In fact, there is a malicious campaign going on within the party against Rahul,” an AICC secretary told HT on the condition of anonymity.
{{/usCountry}}There are 44 AICC secretaries and most of them have been picked by Rahul after performance management and assessment exercises.
Rahul’s intervention also brought in a profile change in the post of a secretary who till then had absolutely no say in the party affairs and were subservient to general secretaries.
In one such meeting on Thursday, the young leaders have decided to rally behind Rahul and support him in taking hard decisions.
It was also agreed that they would not hesitate in questioning the seniors for their “silence” over such attacks on Rahul in future.