Times of India

NEW DELHI, Jan 2: The extensive changes in the Central ministerial team, likely to happen in the second week of January, are part of the exercise to carve out a role for Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi. Though the party chief had earlier indicated that her son was likely to join the organisation as an AICC general secretary, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it is learnt, expressed a desire to have him in his Cabinet.

The Congress president said in a recent interview that it was for the party and Rahul himself to decide what role he would play. However, the first-term MP is largely perceived to follow his father Rajiv Gandhi’s political trajectory by joining the party at first to learn first hand a few things about political management.

Rahul’s presence in the party setup is likely to attract the younger Congress MPs to vie for positions in the organisation to be in his close proximity.

"In all probability the party restructuring will signal the arrival of the next generation of Congressmen," remarked a senior party functionary pointing to the possibility of quite a few young party MPs being accommodated in the AICC setup.