Who all are in Rahul Gandhi's 'coterie that runs Congress'

As veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad marked a bitter parting of ways with the Congress with a resignation letter in which he went all out against the party leadership, especially former party chief Rahul Gandhi, he specifically referred to Rahul's coterie as being a major reason behind the problems in the party.

In an apparent reference to the often talked about 'old guard vs gen-next' tussle in the Congress since Rahul first entered into a decision-making role in the party, Azad wrote in his letter that all senior leaders and experienced leaders were sidelined and a new coterie of “inexperienced sycophants” started running the affairs of the party.

“While you (Sonia Gandhi) are just a nominal figurehead, all the important decisions were being taken by Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards and PAs,” Azad wrote.

The above line in particular is seen as a reference to Team Rahul members such as P.K. Byju, Kaushal Vidyarthee, Sachin Rao and Alankar Sawai. Byju had quit the Special Protection Group in 2010 and joined Rahul's office. He is in-charge of Rahul's security arrangements and also looks after the logistics of his tours.

Vidyarthee looks after Rahul's appointments and daily engagements and also accompanies him on most of his trips. He is an M Phil in Development Studies from Oxford and was earlier associated with Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana, the poverty reduction and women's empowerment initiative of Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.

Rao, an MBA in corporate strategy and international business from Michigan Business School, has been a key Rahul aide for many years. He is also AICC in-charge of the training department of the Congress as also the party's mouthpiece Sandesh.

Sawai, a banker, heads the research team in Rahul's office and for some time looked after Rahul's twitter account.

Civil servant-turned-politician K. Raju is also a member of Team Rahul and is learnt to provide him with inputs on inner party reform and welfare of the Scheduled Castes and other backward castes.

He is National Coordinator, AICC (SC, OBC, Minority and Adivasi Departments).

Beyond the immediate team of the former Congress President, Azad's letter appears to be a critique of leaders who are known to have the trust of Rahul and hold prominent positions in the AICC and elsewhere.

Amongst the AICC functionaries identified as being the ones chosen by Rahul are K.C. Venugopal, AICC General Secretary in-charge of Organisation, Randeep Surjewala, AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka and Ajay Maken, AICC General Secretary in-charge of Rajasthan.

In recent times, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has emerged as a trusted go-to person for the Gandhis, including Rahul. There has also been intense speculation whether Gehlot is the choice of the first family of the Congress to take over as party president.

In this context, when the election to the post of party president will soon be held and there is a buzz that the Congress could soon get a non-Gandhi party chief, Azad wrote in his resignation letter: “Unfortunately, the situation in the Congress party has reached such a point of no return that now 'proxies' are being propped up to take over the leadership of the Party. This experiment is doomed to fail because the Party has been so comprehensively destroyed that situation has become irretrievable. Moreover the 'chosen one' would be nothing more than a puppet on a string.”