Lucknow: When Rahul Gandhi arrived late to a training programme in Madhya Pradesh’s Panchmarhi last month, Sachin Rao, head of the Congress’s training department, asked him to do push-ups as a form of symbolic punishment. Rahul obliged.
Many party leaders were unsettled, but the gesture was significant as it revealed Rao’s direct equation with Gandhi.
Rao is a prominent member of what is known as the ‘Jai Jagat group’—an informal circle of leaders seen as close to Rahul Gandhi—that has emerged as a power centre in the Congress, with many members holding key organisational posts in various states.
Senior AICC functionaries say members of this informal group play important roles in the party’s key decisions, from the push for a caste census to the ‘Vote Chori’ campaign.
The group’s growing power has sparked resentment among some party leaders, who say it wields disproportionate influence and is responsible for the Congress’s recent reversal in political fortunes.
“More than their proximity to Rahul Gandhi, it is the kind of authority this so-called Jai Jagat group exercises that is bothering a section of senior leaders,” a Congress MP, who did not want to be identified, told ThePrint.
Besides Sachin Rao, others who are considered a part of this group are: Meenakshi Natarajan, the AICC in-charge of Telangana; Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru; K. Raju, Jharkhand in-charge; Praveen Chakravarty, chairman of the All India Professionals’ Congress; Alankar Sawai, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi; Youth Congress in-charge Manish Sharma; and Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal.
Party leaders say Jai Jagat isn’t a group but a slogan that goes back to the Sarvodaya movement.
“Jai Jagat is not a formal faction within the Congress. It’s simply a greeting these closely-knit people use among themselves,” a party leader told ThePrint.
“I first heard about it two years ago when I walked into the AICC office and saw one of our senior leaders say ‘Jai Jagat’ to Sachin Rao. I was later told that this is the slogan Rao often uses during his training camps in Wardha (Maharashtra),” the leader added.
Sapkal echoed the same view. “Jai Jagat is neither a group nor a slogan; it is a simple, inclusive greeting that traces its roots to the Sarvodaya Movement of 1948, which stood for non-violence and social justice,” he told ThePrint.
“Just as people in the Hindi belt say ‘Namaskar’, we say ‘Jai Jagat’. What is wrong with that? Jai Jagat literally means saare jagat ki jay (‘victory to the world’). It has nothing to do with caste or religion; it reflects a way of thinking that goes beyond such divisions,” he added.
Sapkal’s WhatsApp status description includes the phrase ‘Jai Jagat’.
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Training sessions & ‘Jai Jagat’
‘Jai Jagat’ is a familiar refrain at Rao’s training sessions, ‘Ahimsa ke Raste’ or ‘path of non-violence’.
At these sessions, Rao speaks about Gandhian ideology and its alignment with the Congress’s core values, urging participants to think beyond caste and religion, even as he emphasises the need for welfare measures for marginalised communities.
The sessions are organised under the banner of the party’s Sangam programme, a platform that describes itself as being committed to “developing the leadership and the politics needed to advance India towards the Constitution and humanity towards Sarvodaya”.
Sangam’s board includes senior Congress leaders such as Sam Pitroda and Meenakshi Natarajan.
Apart from ‘Ahimsa ke Raste’, which is open to anyone, Sangam also conducts specialised training for young politicians and emerging Congress leaders at Wardha.
The slogan ‘Jai Jagat’ is often invoked at the conclusion of these training sessions.
Rao, who signs off most of his posts on X with ‘Jai Jagat’, says he didn’t coin the slogan.
“The constitution of the Congress party states our goal is advancing world peace and fellowship. When I heard the slogan ‘Jai Jagat’, I felt it captured this aspiration of the Congress party. That is why I use it. I didn’t create this slogan; the Sarvodaya movement used it for long,” Rao told ThePrint.
He dismissed the suggestion about the existence of a ‘Jai Jagat group’ as pure fiction.
Rao, originally from Udupi and raised in Mumbai, holds a degree in computer science and an MBA.
He has been active in youth-focused political work for nearly 18 years. He has been working closely with Rahul Gandhi since the UPA era.
Like Rao, Allavaru, Chakravarty and Manish Sharma also come from corporate backgrounds.
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‘Influencing’ party decisions
Meanwhile, resentment is growing within the party against the so-called ‘Jai Jagat group’.
Some party leaders say members of the group have been appointed to key positions but they aren’t always connected with grassroots politics.
The unnamed Congress MP quoted earlier cited the appointments in the past year.
Allavaru, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, for instance, was given charge of Bihar. But he drew a lot of flak from party colleagues for not consulting them and for what was seen as the arbitrary allotment of tickets in the assembly election.
Before joining the Indian Youth Congress as a national executive member in 2010, Allavaru worked for five years as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in Singapore.
Before that, he had served as a senior consultant at KPMG India and co-founded Shaadis.com Pvt Ltd in Mumbai, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Another member, K. Raju, a former IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh, has been given charge of Jharkhand. Manish Sharma has been appointed Indian Youth Congress in-charge.
“How much familiarity do they have with these states? There must be a language barrier as well. Naturally, there is a feeling among leaders that the ‘Jai Jagat group’ has received disproportionate and unfair promotions,” said the MP.
Another MP told ThePrint that Rahul Gandhi appreciated people who are “humble and grounded, but these ‘Jai Jagat’ members only pretend to be so”.
“Some of them come to the AICC office by auto or cab and wear worn-out sandals, but otherwise they travel in luxury cars,” the MP said.
“Many of them are not even connected to grassroots politics, yet they hold important organisational posts. They give a corporate strategy kind of logic for ground politics. This is now causing resentment across the party,” another leader said.
A functionary in Priyanka Gandhi’s team also expressed frustration at the group emerging as a new power centre, saying it didn’t produce any tangible results.
“Earlier, we were accused of letting the Leftists run the party. But in reality, the ‘Jai Jagat group’ has become the real power centre. Look at the recent appointments: the Maharashtra PCC chief, the IYC in-charge, and earlier the Bihar, Jharkhand and Telangana in-charges. Whose recommendations were these? Obviously, people from the same lobby. Are they giving any results?” the functionary said.
Some dismiss criticism that these leaders were responsible for the party’s setback. “There are lots of talks about the ‘Jai Jagat group’, and some are even blaming them for the party’s continued setbacks, but that’s not true. They are loyal to both the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, which is why they have risen in prominence,” one of Allavaru’s key aides in Bihar told ThePrint.
“Most of Rahul Gandhi’s old loyalists are now in the BJP; so he naturally trusts only those who remain ideologically committed to him. Everyone in this group—Krishna, Sachin, Meenakshi and others—is fully dedicated to the party and to Rahul Gandhi. So it is obvious they would be promoted,” the aide further said.
“They are young as well, and RG (Rahul Gandhi) wants to invest in them. There is nothing wrong with it; it’s just that the party is not performing, so they are being unfairly targeted,” the aide added.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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