Time for Rahul Gandhi to take more responsibility: Digvijay Singh

NEW DELHI - Congress party general secretary Digvijay Singh on Sunday urged Rahul Gandhi, the son of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, to assume more responsibility and create his own team of confidants and advisers to help him lead the party, and possibly the nation, in the near future.

Addressing the 83rd plenary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) here, Singh said: ” Now, the time has come. Rajiv Gandhi had made Ahmed Patel and me state congress presidents when we were 36-37 years old. Now, our expiry date is nearing. I am confident Rahul Gandhi will make his own team.”

Rahul Gandhi, 40, is being projected as the party’s future leader and a potential Prime Minister.

Singh’s comment assumes significance in the wake of Sonia Gandhi revealing that she would like to reconstitute the Congress Working Committee, the apex decision making body of the party, which has 23 members besides her and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as also the AICC.

There have been suggestions from the AICC that the new CWC will have some new faces in tune with the demographic profile of the country and taking into account the aspirations of all age groups.

Gandhi is expected to undertake a major overhaul of the AICC secretariat following her re-election as party chief for the fourth consecutive term, making her the longest-serving Congress President.

Gandhi, in her address to the Congress Plenary, also gave indications of greater representation to youth in the party.

“Grand Old Party, the Congress may be but it must be more than a party of age and experience. It must also be a party of youthful energy and vitality,” she said welcoming the entry of more and more young people in the party’s ranks.

The Congress President also spoke of holding study camp like Pachmarhi and Shimla conclaves noting “it will be an occasion to hear the voices of our colleagues, particularly younger ones, to bring new energy to our thinking.”

On Sunday, Gandhi urged senior party leaders’ to give the youth their place place in the organization. She also congratulated the National Students Union of India (NSUI) for doing well in student elections in institutes of higher learning.

She said that the party would soon organize a youth centric session very soon. (ANI)