The Opposition Leader of India Rahul Gandhi’s core team consists of men and women who are vetted for their simplicity and their Jhola image.
He wears chappals and not shoes, he carries a Jhola and not a briefcase, he is simple and wears a kurta pyjama and the quality of the clothes are down market and pretty pedestrian.
They are selected on this basis, and these are the men and women who form the core team of Rahul Gandhi and are touted as the face, eyes and ears of the new Congress which Rahul and is trying to groom. Most are neither simple nor are they Gandhian in thought or deed, but Rahul believes that to be true.
Many of them were working behind the scenes but have now been given positions of power in the AICC (All India Congress Committee) hierarchy and are calling the shots in states where the Congress is in power or states which are going to polls.
Many of them are crucial states where the electoral outcome will decide the future of the Congress, but Rahul Gandhi has decided and since he has decided there cannot be any dissenting voices.
This team is led by K C Venugopal and includes Manickam Tagore, Meenakshi Natrajan, Krishna Allavaru, Sachin Rao, Harish Chaudhary, and Bhanwar Jitender Singh. As well as Praveen Chakravarty. He replaced Shashi Tharoor as head of professional Congress and also looks after data analysis and computers. Chakravarty was a political economist scholar in a think tank, an investment banker and angel investor before entering politics. Praveen Chakravarty was appointed as a member of Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) which was constituted by Indian National Congress on 2 February 2025 to monitor the conduct of free and fair elections by the Election Commission of India.
They have been consistently promoted, used in various states and made members of the Congress screening committees but the result has been zero with the party failing to perform. But they have all been successful in ensuring that they remain in the limelight.
Most of them have failed to deliver but Rahul Gandhi continues to have complete faith in them.
What is also interesting is that in the states where the Congress has been in power or continues to be in power the PWD minister and the revenue minister are those who are close to Rahul Gandhi or the group around him.
For example, Harish Chaudhary was Revenue Minister in the Gehlot Government in Rajasthan. Vijay Single who is joint treasurer and in-charge of all Congress properties was Pwd Minister in the Punjab Government of Congress, Rajiv Byre Gowda is also close to Rahul Gandhi and is in charge of the Pwd portfolio in Karnataka and so on.
Interesting? Very interesting!!!
This has created huge speculation said a senior leader who is privy to the working style of Rahul Gandhi and the way he conducts the Congress politics. 
Interestingly the rise of these leaders is directly proportionate to the fall in the Congress fortunes.
The principle of one man one post does not apply to the men around Rahul Gandhi.
Krishna Allavaru is in charge of a crucial election going state like Bihar and is also in-charge of Youth Congress. The same with Chakraverty.
There are different rules for different categories.
A closed-door system has been created where certain people are being promoted but they have never contributed to the rise of the party.
Bhanwar Jitender Singh has been a failure in every state he handled but he continues to be promoted.
Rahul Gandhi would need to answer many of these questions and the performance of many of his core teammates. But who will bell the cat!
Renu Mittal
Renu Mittal is a veteran Journalist of India. She is reporting on the Congress Party affairs since 1983.
