India can't be superpower without empowering women, youth: Rahul

Seeking to reinvigorate the Congress ahead of a difficult general election, party's chief campaigner Rahul Gandhi today pitched for empowering women, local bodies representatives and youth, saying India cannot become a superpower without that.

Gandhi, who has launched an initiative to elicit the views of a cross section of people for inputs to draft Congress manifesto, was interacting with party's local body representatives, pradhans, NGOs and bureaucrats at the Mahatma Gandhi's ashram here.

"50 per cent of India are women. India can only be half strong, half proud, half powerful if we don't empower this 50 per cent. It can be only a half super power.

"If we cannot offer jobs to our crores of youth in a systematic way, if we cannot empower our pradhans, MPs, MlAs and other elected representatives, our country cannot be a super power," he said during a town hall-style interaction.

Strongly advocating decentralisation of the process of selection of candidates for Assembly and lok Sabha elections by parties to include grassroots-level public representatives, Rahul said, "Today, in our party and BJP, 5-7 people decide all candidates. This lies in the root of corruption. The day we include the people in the process, 50 per cent of corruption will be gone."

"Today, the pradhans, MPs, MlAs don't have the powers that comes with their position. Our representatives in local bodies have no voice in the selection of candidates who contest Vidhan Sabha and parliamentary elections. I assure you, I will ensure their voice is heard. I promise you I will do it cent per cent," he said.

Rahul was responding to a participant who said local bodies representatives had no say in deciding the programmes and policies and in selection of candidates as "we have no identity".