Varanasi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday said she had sent Rahul Gandhi to take stock of flood-affected areas in UP and Bihar in September 2008, in what amounted to the party chief dropping a clear hint that the young AICC general secretary may be handed over bigger responsibilities in the coming future.
    Sonia trained her guns on Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh when she told a gathering in Bansgaon that Rahul’s visit to flood-ravaged Gorakhpur had revealed that the state did not spend central grants for repair and relief. While Sonia did not name the state, Rahul had taken a detailed tour of Bihar’s Kosi region and UP’s Gorakhpur, where monsoon rivers had wreaked havoc on human lives and resources.
    For Congressmen, however, the statement is being seen as the closest the mother has come to link her son to recent politically sensitive decisions.
    Till now, the Amethi MP’s visits across the country were seen as his personal initiative to rejuvenate Congress’s youth wings, which are his mandate as party functionary. The “personal style”, for instance, has been the consolation for leaders who have felt slighted or insecure at being kept out of bounds from Rahul’s state visits.
    Thus Congressmen were left reading between the lines when Sonia said in Bansgaon that she had dispatched Rahul to Bihar and UP, before tearing into Mayawati (and possibly Nitish Kumar) for ignoring people.
    While Rahul as the heir-apparent of Gandhi family has a de facto say in Congress affairs, Sonia showed that the delegation of authority went beyond his on-paper mandate and right into the heart of the functioning of the parent party.
    It is seen as a hint that Rahul may be in for a bigger role after polls. Sonia, at the manifestorelease function, triggered speculation when she did not deny the possibility of leadership change in the party in favour of Rahul, while choosing to swat aside suggestions that he was Congress’s PM candidate.
    A glimpse of Rahul being pitchforked into the centrestage came during Chhattisgarh assembly polls where he was made the chief campaigner. But the implications go further to even link him to Congress’s falling out with allies SP and RJD. The two alliances collapsed because they were seen as impeding the growth of party organisation.