Sonia Gandhi has appointed Rahul Gandhi as member of the Jawahar Bhavan Trust as she prepares to devote more time to the National Advisory Council (NAC).

With this appointment, applicable from March 15, the young MP will run the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF), housed in the Jawahar Bhavan, opposite the Shastri Bhavan and near the parliament complex.

The RGF has launched a series of social welfare programmes. Rahul Gandhi recently held a meeting of a sub-committee of the Trust to monitor progress of these programmes.

He has identified six states where the RGF will focus: Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. A team of RGF volunteers will visit these states to monitor the programmes, like making drinking water available in villages and providing school textbooks to children from the needy families.

Central minister and AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik has also been brought in as a member.

In a significant move possibly signaling the beginning of a new order in the Congress, the Jawahar Bhavan Trust has been reshuffled with Ahmed Patel leaving the post of secretary to the foundation. He, however, remains a trustee. AICC treasurer and senior congress leader Motilal Vora has replaced Patel as the secretary of the trust. Arjun Singh, M L Fotedar and Mohsina Kidwai have also retired as the trust members.