Rahul Gandhi promises to 'transform' India
Rahul Gandhi, often tagged India's "prime minister-in-waiting", said he would "transform" the country after he was promoted to second-in-command of the ruling Congress party.
Members of the Congress Working Committee earlier approved a motion making Rahul -- the son, grandson and great-grandson of Indian prime ministers -- second in the party's hierarchy after his mother, party president Sonia Gandhi.
"I have great experience," the 42-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty said in the northern Indian city of Jaipur, at a party meeting held to prepare for general elections due in 2014.
"Together we will transform the country," he said in his speech accepting the post of Congress vice president, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
"It is a great party," he said.
He yesterday delivered a powerful call for change to meet the aspirations of the nation's "young and impatient" population.
"We have to rethink and transform our system and the country," Gandhi, 42, told party members as Congress ended a three-day brainstorming session in the northwestern city of Jaipur ahead of 2014 elections.
Congress must listen to the voice of a "young and impatient" India to ensure they do not feel alienated from the political system, he said.
The move could propel the long-anticipated accession to power of Rahul Gandhi, who has long been the party's unofficial candidate to succeed Manmohan Singh, 80, as prime minister of the Congress-led national government.
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