After spearheading a Congress-victory through youth and rural areas, Rahul Gandhi has now apparently made a Budget wish list to the finance ministry.

Quite expectedly, the key focus for the Nehru-Gandhi scion's budget wish list is the ‘aam’ youth, and of course the farmers.

Rahul Gandhi is trying to push his agenda for empowering youth and farmers hard. According to sources, the Youth Congress headed by Rahul Gandhi has submitted a detailed wish list to the Finance Minister.

Some key highlights of the list are to kick start a programme to connect all villages via broadband and train scheduled tribes and castes for business development and give preferential treatment in government contracts.

The party also seeks additional boost for dairy farming, aquaculture, fisheries, horticulture and sericulture and a direct income support to farmers in ecologically vulnerable regions.

Besides, interest relief extension to farmers repaying loans on time and long-term collateral free education loan to needy students also form part of the wish list.

Sources say that while Rahul is quite gung-ho on the initial success and the response that the programme to connect villages via broadband has generated, he wants a public private partnership in this programme.

Rahul is also very bullish on the entrepreneurial abilities of these youth due to which he is advocating a programme to train them in entrepreneurial abilities and also seeks easier access to loans for these youth.

Manish Tiwari, MP and spokesperson of Congress, said, “The whole idea is to build on from where we left it in the previous term. There is a strong intent across sections of the government, and the key word going forward will be execution.”

Perhaps Rahul Gandhi and his team have understood that a true revival for the Congress party can only be possible by winning back the confidence of villagers, SCs and STs.

No wonder, then that major policy decisions aimed at further empowering these sections can be expected over the next few years.