Team Rahul sets out to conquer Hindi heartland

By Kay Benedict Last updated at 9:06 PM on 28th January 2012

Rahul Gandhi's team, aka 'Team RG', is all geared up to micro-manage the politically-crucial assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress scion seems to be determined to leave his stamp on the Hindi heartland state. He has hand-picked office-bearers of the Indian Youth Congress, an organisation he has worked hard to democratise by holding independently-monitored elections, to be fielded from 49 select constituencies. 

Following this careful selection, he has now deputed an equal number of Hindi-speaking Congress MLAs from across the country to monitor and manage the elections in those 49 seats.  proper structure has been built to oversee the functioning of these young MLAs from states such as Assam, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Haryana. They are to submit a daily report to another team of three young Lok Sabha MPs - Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh), Hamdullah Sayeed (Lakshadweep) and Manicka Tagore (Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu) - appointed to monitor the campaign in the selected constituencies.

The three MPs will, in turn, prepare a daily report on the ground situation and submit it to AICC secretary and minister of state for home, Jitendra Singh, a source close to Rahul said. The 49 MLAs will monitor every aspect of the election - from campaigning to acting as election agents to managing the booths. The MLAs and the MPs will also interact with booth-level officers and take remedial measures if any lapses are noticed. Sources feel the constituencies, handpicked by Rahul, are 'winnable'. The legislators have been told to camp in the constituencies allotted to them from the date of filing nomination to the day of polling. Every MLA has been assigned one constituency each. Apart from focusing on these constituencies, Rahul has drawn up, according to sources, his 'mission 85' to ensure the victory of party candidates in the state's 85 reserved constituencies.

Selected party leaders including MPs have been told to vigorously campaign in these Dalit constituencies to ensure the victory of the Congress candidates. 


A party source said Rahul was unhappy with the general indifference presumably a reflection of cultural insensitivity to Scheduled Caste (SC) constituencies by the party's rank and file. Tickets were allotted to SCs in the reserved seats as a ritual. But they were not backed with men and material. The well-to-do and the upper caste do not aggressively campaign to ensure their victory. 


Rahul is trying to change this mindset by not only winning more seats but also bringing the Dalits back to the party mainstream,' a party source said. A few days ago Rahul had a strategy meeting with party leaders including two prominent Dalit faces - Lok Sabha MPs P.L. Punia (who is also the head of the national commission for SC) and Ashok Tanwar (a former Youth Congress president). 


The party has decided to appoint observers with election experience in these 85 constituencies. The observer will be either an MLA, a former minister or an ex-MLA with prior experience in poll process. Rahul resumed his UP campaign on Saturday. He trained his guns on the BSP and the SP, saying these parties were making false promises and changing colours in every election. 'You voted for the cycle and Mulayam Singh punctured your hopes. Then you voted for the elephant and it ate up all your money,' Rahul said. 


The Congress general secretary is also poised to share the dais for the first time with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh. Sources said a joint rally by Rahul, Ajit and his MP son, Jayant Chowdhry, is also being planned on February 2 in Meerut or Shamli in Muzaffarnagar. Having declared most of their candidates for the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the two parties will try and help each other to campaign. Other young MPs such as Sachin Pilot are also addressing joint rallies with Chowdhry. 


Team RG has clearly hit dirt tracks in the Hindi heartland. If they manage to score well in these semi-finals, it will signify the shape of things to come in.