Rahul Gandhi turns 50 today, set to take reins of Congress again

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi turned 50 on Friday amid an image makeover bid ahead of his planned return as the Congress president. There will be no official birthday celebrations in view of the Covid-19 outbreak and the gruesome killings of the Indian soldiers by the Chinese troops, but the Congress workers have been advised to distribute food to the needy.

‘Rahul ji does not want any celebrations. However, our party functionaries and workers will distribute food to the needy on Friday given Rahul ji had taken up the cause of helping the poor, especially the migrant workers, during the lockdown,’ AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said.

As Gandhi crosses the stretchable margins of being a ‘young leader’, many in the Congress circles keep their fingers crossed to see whether he will find political luck, larger acceptability and success in his middle age. Gandhi’s leadership as the projected “youth Icon” by the Congress in the 2014 LS polls and as "anti-corruption crusader" (on Rafale issue) in 2019 ended up in big defeats at the hands of the Modi-led BJP.


Though Gandhi quit as party chief last May, following the Congress debacle in the last LS polls, paving for way for the return of his mother Sonia Gandhi as interim party chief, there are clear indications Congress leadership preparing for his return as party president soon with a conscious projection of him on a daily basis on the party and social media platforms. Incidentally, his sibling and AICC general secretary Priyanka Vadra is now two years away from turning 50.