Rise of outsiders: Ex-AAP minister Rajendra Pal Gautam gets key Congress post

Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government minister in Delhi Rajendra Pal Gautam, who joined the Congress about seven months ago, was on Wednesday appointed chairman of the Scheduled Castes department of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

It is the latest in a series of elevation of "outsiders" to key party posts, a trend that has been widely attributed by Congress members to de facto leader Rahul Gandhi's penchant to replace many "insiders", though such appointments are technically done in the name of party president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Gautam, an activist, is also one of the persons widely believed to be thriving in Gandhi's latest switch to "social justice plank" with special focus on Jai Bhim and Mandal political paths. He had resigned from the AAP after a controversy over his presence at a conversion meeting where the Hindu deities were allegedly criticised.


Just a few months ago, Anil Jaihind, an activist who used to be with Janata Dal, was appointed chairman of the OBC department of the AICC, within weeks after he joined the Congress. He is an advocate of social justice, especially for the other backward classes (OBCs). Before that, former CPI-affiliated AISF student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was made AICC in-charge of the NSUI, the Congress students' wing, which the Left students' body had been opposing in many campuses. While each of these individuals were elevated with Gandhi's blessings, within the party circles they are still being treated as outsiders.

Gandhi, who recently referred to "BJP sympathisers" within the Congress, had in the past elevated many saffronites-turned-Congress members , including Hardik Patel, Sanjay Nirupam, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Nana Patole and Udit Raj to key organisational posts, only to see some of them returning to the BJP and others being resented by the "original insiders".