 "Rahul Gandhi to pull all stops in run-up to 2014 general elections")
Gandhi is slated to hold a series of discussions with student and youth groups, women and Panchayat representatives respectively to elicit their views, concerns and feedback on crucial issues. All these rounds of discussion are targeted to be completed by next month. This will then feed into the Congress' manifesto for 2014.
This is the first time in Congress history that the party is using an 'open access' approach to formulating the party's agenda.
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Gandhi, who is for all practical purposes calling the shots within the 129-year-old party now (although Sonia Gandhi continues to be the party president) has already had detailed interactions with the SC, ST and OBC communities as well as the minority community.
Senior Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi on Tuesday confessed as much when he was asked whether Rahul Gandhi would be declared the party's prime ministerial candidate: "Rahul Gandhi is number two in the party after the Congress President. It is true that he is the party's future leader."
For the first time, at the behest of Rahul Gandhi, the Congress manifesto will include a student manifesto - putting forward the demands of the student community, which ranges from more employment opportunities, greater interaction of academia and industry. Already, a student manifesto has been put out on the NSUI ( Congress' student wing) website to ascertain the views of students.
Rahul Gandhi has consistently been stressing on prioritising education and greater interaction between education and industry. Party insiders say that the Youth Congress wing, which will also play a vital role in this discussion, is likely to highlight the importance of the youth votebank, especially in these upcoming polls.
While accepting the mandate (Congress was routed recently in four states), Gandhi had publicly stated, "We will involve the youth in ways you can't even imagine."
The Congress Mahila wing and the newly-christened Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan will be facilitating the two other interactions with women and Panchayat representatives.
Women's security, which is of topmost concern everywhere and the Women's Reservation Bill are likely to take centrestage in the discussions. The Aam Aadmi Party had scored over the Congress in Delhi, on its poor performance regarding women's safety.
A Congress leader in the knowhow of the deliberations said that Gandhi has stressed on the fact that it is not just the usual activists who should be invited but representatives cutting across classes. Therefore, not only would students interact with Gandhi but vice chancellors and professors who would put across their demands to the party in the education field. Similarly, not just women leaders but aanganwadi workers, housewives, professionals, entrepreneurs from both the rural and urban mileu would be asked for their feedback. Since it was the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who gave shape to the Panchayati Raj institution, the Congress is making sure that enough focus is accorded to local self bodies in the manifesto. And it is Gandhi's trusted confidante, Meenakshi Natarajan, who has been handpicked by Gandhi to head the party's Panchayati Raj cell.
Gandhi hopes that with such a thorough exercise, the party would be able to recover lost ground and reach out to all sections of society and reflect their aspirations in 2014.