As Rahul Gandhi strengthens his hold on the organisation, the fortune of many senior leaders has taken a dip. One of them is Union Minister Oscar Fernandes, whose grip on the Indian Youth Congress and the NSUI was unshakeable till the other day. Today Fernandes finds himself on the sidelines as Rahul’s team has taken over. The crowd of students and youngsters that was a familiar sight at Fernandes’s office at the AICC headquarters has suddenly vanished. According to Congress sources, many other senior leaders are feeling the heat as Rahul works on building a new team to inject “freshness” into party leadership. His preference to work independently of his party apparatus was also evident during his recent tour to Karnataka. No senior Congress leaders, including AICC general secretary in charge of the state Prithviraj Chavan, had an inkling of Rahul’s itinerary in the state till about 24 hours before he arrived there.

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