Rahul’s elitist adviser

DIGVIjAY Singh, Mohan Prakash, Madhusudan Mistry and CP joshi are the top four advisers of Rahul Gandhi. They are now being blamed by party leaders and workers for the recent debacle in the assembly elections. Mistry, in particular, has been accused by Indore-based leader Raghu Parmar of taking money before finalising his ticket for the Indore-5 constituency. Parmar alleged at a press conference that money had exchanged hands in a Gujarat hotel. It is well known that though he was originally an RSS man, Madhusudan Devram Mistry today has enviably got the eyes and ears of Rahul and is in charge of all backroom strategy and planning. Mistry was an acolyte of Shankarsinh Vaghela when the latter was in the BjP and had RSS leanings. He left the BjP in 1995 along with Vaghela to form the Rashtriya janata Party (RjP). With the merger of the RjP with the Congress, Mistry became a Congressman. His corporate style of functioning, English orientation and database brand of politics have already ruffled many local leaders. An even bigger problem is accessibility. That is why he was roughed up at his residence in South Avenue by a few Congress workers from Meerut when he refused to meet them and asked them to come to Lucknow when he visited there next. Going to Lucknow to meet Mistry after taking prior appointment didn’t suit them as Delhi is hardly two hours from Meerut. Moreover, they were upset and anguished that their own party General Secretary insisting on prior appointment for a minor meeting!