New Delhi: As Congress savoured the stunning win in the Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi was on Sunday the toast of its young leaders who are crediting the party's best showing in 18 years to his strategy of playing the youth and development card.
Significantly, several young Congress candidates picked by the 39-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family tasted victory with some of them making a debut in Parliament.
The success of Rahul's strategy in Congress going alone in UP even triggered calls by former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh that the party should follow this pattern in the coming Assembly elections in the western state where it is in alliance with Sharad Pawar's NCP.
Young Congress MPs took the lead in paying handsome praise to Rahul for successfully taking the battle into rival camps, especially in Uttar Pradesh, to help the party become a serious player in the crucial state where it has remained in the sidelines for two decades.
Congress bagged 21 seats in UP in a House of 80 ahead of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as against nine in the 2004 polls.
"People have appreciated Rahul Gandhi's leadership... Many youth leaders have been elected from across the country. Credit goes to Congress Party for bringing the youths to the forefront," said Congress leader Sachin Pilot.
Another young MP Jiten Prasad also gave credit to Rahul's leadership.
Former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal's grand daughter Shruti Choudhry, who humbled INLD's senior leader Ajay Chautala and Punjab's Youth Congress president Ravneet Singh Bittu who won from Anandpur Sahib, said Rahul's "dynamic leadership" in giving prominence to the youth in the elections made the "difference."
"I think my victory and that of other young Congress candidates has a lot to do with the dynamic leadership of Rahulji, which has made the difference," said 33-year-old Shruti, a first-timer who won from the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh seat in Haryana.
"People have shown great faith in the young leaders and it is now our turn to deliver," said Shruti, daughter of Haryana's Tourism Minister Kiran Choudhry.
Bittu, grandson of former Punjab chief minister late Beant Singh, who was Rahul's choice, attributed his success to the Congress general secretary's leadership qualities.
"It was his vision to have elected Youth Congress bodies, which has paid dividends. For the first time the youth which comprise a major chunk of country's population felt that they were being given their due for their hard work".
Another young candidate who was Rahul's choice and won the Lok Sabha elections this time is Indian Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar, a first-timer who won from the Sirsa (SC) parliamentary seat in Haryana.
He said the young leadership of Rahul Gandhi has been fancied by the youths, who have voted for him in large numbers.
Taking note of Rahul's major role in shaping Congress campaign in UP, a senior party leader said "Rahul Gandhi has a clear cut plan for the party in the state on which he has moved on without wasting any time on the euphoria over winning 21 seats.
Unfazed by the dismal showing by the Congress in the 2007 UP assembly elections, Rahul led the campaign from the front addressing election meetings in 14 constituencies of which Maharajganj, Kushinagar,Gonda,Pratapgarh, Jhansi, Barabanki, Dhaurara, Bareilly and Moradabad have been won by the Congress. He had campaigned extensively in UP.
In Madhya Pradesh, young Congress leaders helped the party in improving its political fortunes defeating BJP's veterans. The Congress increased its tally from four in 2004 to 12. Even before the Lok Sabha polls were announced, analysts had a doubt whether Congress will win more than four seats. But the party played smart and sensed that there was resentment among the BJP cadres over the nomination of the party's sitting MPs from a number of seats and therefore fielded relatively young candidates specially in the Malwa region.
This resulted in the defeat of BJP veterans like eight-time MP Dr Laxmi Narayan Pandey from Mandsaur by Rahul Gandhi's trusted youth leader, Meenakshi Natrajan. It was Natrajan's maiden attempt in the electoral field.