As Rahul takes charge,Cong poll panel now a rubber stamp

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is said to be playing supervisory role only.

Signalling the inevitable transfer of power and authority in the ruling Congress,Rahul Gandhi has virtually taken control of the process of allotting party tickets in the forthcoming Assembly elections. He is also learnt to have started taking independent decisions like appointment of AICC office-bearers and constitution of state election campaign committees like the last one for Rajasthan that ruled out Ashok Gehlot as the only chief ministerial candidate.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is said to be playing supervisory role only,letting Rahul run most of party affairs. For instance,the partys apex body responsible for candidate selection the Central Election Committee (CEC) headed by Sonia is learnt to have virtually become a rubber stamp,approving the candidates cleared by Rahul.

Unlike in the past when the CEC would sit through the day and late into the night discussing two or three candidates for each seat,it now gets a single name for most seats and it is cleared in a jiffy with little or no discussion.

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Rahul had handpicked the heads of the Screening Committees for different states and he has full information about the names sent by these committees to the CEC. At the CEC meeting,the questions raised,if at all,are mostly from Rahul and they are clarificatory in nature,sources said.

At a meeting to finalise candidates for Rajasthan,when Mukul Wasnik,who had been in charge of the state for over nine years,raised a few points about a candidate,Rahul was learnt to given a dressing down to general secretary in charge of Rajasthan Gurudas Kamat and Screening Committee chairman Ajay Maken,telling them,You are not prepared properly. Please,please study it deeply.

Many a time Rahul is seen checking the background of candidates with his aides on phone. Once he called an aide inside to take notes of the proceedings,said sources.

At CEC meetings,names are taken and cleared almost like a ritual as we know Rahulji and his team have done the background check through independent surveys,intelligence agencies and various other sources. Madam (Sonia) does not intervene any more and watches the proceedings silently, a CEC member told The Indian Express.

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Rajasthan Chief Minister Gehlot recently learnt about Rahuls authority the hard way when his rival C P Joshi was appointed chairman of the poll campaign committee with Sachin Pilot and Jitendra Singh made co-chairmen. Gehlot and son Vaibhav were made mere members of the committee. Sources said Rahul felt the need to send a signal in Rajasthan that Gehlot may not necessarily be the CM if the party won. It was not personal. We know Jats and Muslims have not been happy with Gehlot. We needed to send a message to them, said a party functionary.

According to sources,the recent appointments in the party like chairpersons of AICCs SC and Minority cells were Rahuls choice.

The police said the trio from Chandigarh — Rohan (21), Sumit (22), and Mohit (19) — were dhol players by profession and had procured the weapons due to an old rivalry with local residents.

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