Team Manmohan has pan-India appeal

NEW DELHI: It could well be yet another dimension of the Rahul Gandhi effect . In his second innings, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been more mindful of the youth quotient.

This time seven MPs below the age of 40 have found place in the council of ministers, the youngest of them being the 28-year-old Agatha Sangma of NCP. The 15th Lok Sabha has as many as 82 MPs in the age group of 25 to 40 years; Congress boasts 27 of these young faces.

Congress contingent in the council includes repeats like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada, second term MP from Rajasthan Sachin Pilot will be making his ministerial debut. Firsttimers who have found berths are Prateek Patil, RPN Singh, and Arun Yadav . The only non-Congress entrant is Ms Sangma.

The youth faces of Congress are largely defined in their political lineage as well as their proximity to the party���s youth icon Rahul Gandhi.

For Jyotiraditya Scindia, 37, it will be his second venture as a junior minister . Mr Scindia became an MP at the age of 31 from his family���s family pocket borough of Guna. He was appointed minister of state for communications and IT in April 2008.

Mr Prasada, 35, son of late Congress leader Jitendra Prasada, is also a close confidante of Rahul Gandhi. He was the junior minister for steel in the last government. Mr Prasada is tipped as an emerging leader of Congress in Uttar Pradesh.

Though a second time MP, it is the first ministerial venture for 32-year old son of the late Rajesh Pilot. Pilot junior made headlines in 2004 by becoming the youngest MP at 26. Over the past few years, Mr Pilot has emerged as one of the articulate faces of Congress.

Three first-timers have made the grade ��� RPN Singh, whose father CPN Singh served as junior minister of defence in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet, Prateek Patil, grandson of late Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil and son of late Congress MP Prakash Patil and Arun Yadav, son of former Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhash Yadav.

The youngest member of the council is the 28-year-old daughter of the NCP leader and former Lok Sabha speaker, PA Sangma. A lawyer by profession , Ms Sangma has expressed a desire for the rural development ministry.