The three-day All India Congress Plenary plenary is expected to bring Amethi parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi to the centre-stage of Congress politics, which he has sought to evade for many years now.
It is evident that there is a clamour among party cadres and leaders to induct the 34-year-old son of Congress President Sonia Gandhi into the high-powered Congress Working Committee and entrust him with organisational responsibility so as to groom him for taking over the reins of the party at a later stage.
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The mood in the party seems to be in favour of not delaying any further the launch of the high-profile first-time parliamentarian into active politics.
Though Sonia revamped the 25-member CWC, the highest policy making body of the 120-year-old party, ahead of the AICC plenary, she has left five seats vacant.
This is seen by political observers as a clear move to accommodate Rahul, and four 'Generation Next' leaders of his choice into the CWC.
Rahul Gandhi is the only person other than Sonia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and Pradesh Congress Committee President K Kesava Rao whose pictures figure in the plenary hoardings and posters put up all over the 'Pearl City'.
Sonia has reportedly received requests from several PCCs and Pradesh Youth Congress Committees, asking her to nominate Rahul to the CWC.
There were also speculations that Priyanka Vadra, the daughter of the Congress president, was keeping away from the plenary only to allow her brother to bask in the limelight.
In all likelihood, Sonia will nominate Rahul after the AICC plenary.
Prime Minister Singh has reportedly expressed a desire to induct Rahul into his ministry in the impending expansion of his Council of Ministers but the young parliamentarian is apparently unwilling to accept a ministerial responsibility at this stage.
Congress managers say he would like to first work for the party before taking up an assignment in the government. Leaders close to the Gandhi family are also in favour of Rahul first taking up an organisational responsibility, like his father Rajiv Gandhi.
The plenary may have significance in many ways but what party workers and the AICC delegates are keenly looking forward to is whether Rahul will oblige them by accepting an organisational responsibility.
