News Analysis: Is Congress’s experiment of Team Rahul a total failure?

Jitin Prasada’s exit now raises the question

Has the Congress experiment of creating a generation of young leaders that came to be identified as Team Rahul completely failed? With Jitin Prasada following Jyotiraditya Scindia , such question is being to be asked in the Congress, especially among the veterans. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, while taking on the incumbent BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, the Congress fielded many youngsters to coincide with Mr. Gandhi’s debut as a Lok Sabha member from Amethi. Apart from Mr. Prasada and and Mr. Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Sandeep Dikshit, Milind Deora, Madhu Yaski Goud, Deepender Hooda, Manish Tewari and RPN Singh were all given ticket. While Mr. Tewari and Mr. Singh lost the elections, they were part of the Congress’s Young Turks even before they became Lok Sabha members in 2009. The idea was to replicate Indira Gandhi’s January 1980 Lok Sabha election strategy to build a team around Sanjay Gandhi that threw up leaders like Kamal Nath and Captain Amarinder Singh.