Patel’s Decline:
Rahul Gandhi, the newly anointed vice president of the AllIndia Congress Committee, does not want to have a political secretary at thisjuncture. Insiders at the Congress headquarters are happy that the role ofAhmed Patel now on the decline.
Rahul’s War Room:
The new VP’s headquarters will be at 15 Gurudwara RakabganjRoad in New Delhi. It will also serve as the war room for the 2014 Lok Sabhaelections. Rahul will be regular to this bungalow in the days to come. He isexpected to spend at least two to three hours a day to draft strategies for thecampaign.
Tough Road Ahead:
Now that emotional speeches and standing ovations are over,the ‘young’ man will have to get down to business. Rahul will face bigchallenges in formulating policies on Telangana, Karnataka elections, Tamilsituation in Sri Lanka and Kuduankulam protests. Political assessment is thatRahul will have a tough time in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala andKarnataka.
DMK Ties:
Will Rahul as VP of AICC meet DMK leaders, especially M Karunanidhi?The answer is an emphatic no. He has not met Karunanidhi so far. This is amajor irritant for the union ministers of DMK. But insiders say that tall TamilNadu Congress leaders had advised Rahul to avoid Karunanidhi during his Chennaivisits. Sources say Rahul wants to keep away from the shadow of the 2G scam asfar as possible.
Social Media War Chest:
The Congress party would require Rs 100 crore during thenext 18 months ” till the Lok Sabha elections ” to counter the main oppositionBJP in the field of social media, telecom minister Kapil Sibal said. The BJP,he said, had a hundred people tweeting against the Congress in the morning. Byafternoon, the tweets would become news on TV channels and by the next day,they became headlines in the print media.
Pro-active Approach:
Sibal made a strong case for a pro-active approach to thesocial media. He pointed out that the BJP made extensive use of the socialmedia to reach out to the middle class. He referred to the anti-governmentblitz on social networking sites following the brutal bus rape case and earlierduring the Anna Hazare-led agitation for a Jan Lokpal Bill, which snowballedinto street protests.
Counter Strategy:
Digvijay Singh, who heads the committee on communicationsstrategy, said the party was concerned about the march the BJP had stolen interms of the social media. "Narendra Modi has a sanchar kendra nearAhmedabad for tracking the social media," he said, adding that a report ona counter-strategy would be submitted to Rahul Gandhi in the next ten days.
