Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi suggests compulsory retirement of party men aged 70 years and above

NEW DELHI: In an obvious attempt to sideline and push out senior leaders of the party, former Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, proposes to retire colleagues who are over 70 years old, in a phased manner, so as to accommodate his supporters and leaders from the younger generation. The “weed out deadwood” operation has been apparently inspired by the Marg Darshak Mandal policy of the BJP, where leaders who had attained 75 years, were marginalised, having to give up important positions. Rahul’s intention is to give the Congress a face-lift in a bid to present a youthful countenance.

Although it is improbable that Sonia Gandhi, the interim president, shall allow the unprecedented plan to carry through, yet in case it is implemented, it will, in practical terms, mean that this would be the last and final tenure in Rajya Sabha of senior leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Ahmed Patel, P. Chidambaram, Digvijaya Singh and Mallikarjun Kharge. It will also imply that Chief Ministers, including Captain Amarinder Singh, Ashok Gehlot and V. Narayanasamy may not ever occupy the august office they are presently holding and senior leaders such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Siddaramaiah and Kamal Nath may not be in the reckoning for any future positions.

Speaking to a select group of younger party functionaries on the Cisco Webex platform, a day after the marathon virtual meeting of the Congress Working Committee, Rahul made it clear that he was looking for a “transformative change and not any incremental change”. In other words, the party should reflect the aspirations of a new India and for this to happen, it was of little significance to him if the Congress, yet again, lost the next election.

The proposed blueprint assumes substantial importance since both Rahul and Sonia were targeted in a letter signed by 23 top Congress functionaries, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, as well as half a dozen former Chief Ministers and several erstwhile ministers of the UPA government.