Churu, Rajasthan:
Rahul Gandhi has promised to clean up the political system, though he admits that for now he has been advised by his party to put the brakes on that effort because of the general elections in 2014.
The candid confession of the Congress' number 2 came at a rally in Churu in election-bound Rajasthan, where he also said, "My father abolished quotas for telephones and now everyone has a mobile phone in the pocket. I want to abolish quota in politics, so that everyone has political rights."
Mr Gandhi noted that at present " 300-500 people run the political system. I want it to be run by lakhs. I want everyone to participate."
The Congress vice-president, a fourth-generation Nehru-Gandhi leader, was alluding to powerful political families cornering a lion's share of political positions and opportunities in Indian politics, across parties. His comments came only a day after his party selected a number of son and daughters of top state Congress leaders to contest elections in Chhattisgarh next month.
In a long speech, Mr Gandhi first used emotional memories of his grandmother Indira Gandhi to connect with the crowd and then attempted to address the aspirations of the youth saying, "My job is not just to win elections. I want to tell you about the future. With the work we are doing , the youth here will benefit in the years to come."
He said a Congress government would attempt to make India a big manufacturing hub to offer the world and alternative to "Made in China", and shared that he had "told the people who want to invest in India to invest in Churu and in Rajasthan" - in desert regions where the land is not being put to agricultural use."