Big setback for Rahul,only four YC candidates win

About five years after he took over as AICC general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress and the NSUI and started internal elections to do away with the role of family,money and patronage

About five years after he took over as AICC general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress and the NSUI and started internal elections to do away with the role of family,money and patronage in politics and bring youth into the mainstream,Rahul Gandhis efforts have failed to bring any electoral dividends.

Only four of the 27 candidates nominated by the Indian Youth Congress won in Uttar Pradesh Pankaj Malik from Shamli,Nadeem Javed from Jaunpur,Laliteshpati Tripathi from Marihan and Mukesh Srivastava from Payagpur. Three out of these,however,were not drafted in during Rahuls democratisation process. While Javed was NSUI president long before Rahul took charge,Tripathi is the great grandson of late Congress stalwart Kamlapati Tripathi and Malik is a sitting MLA.

While parent organisation leaders were co-opted in running the election campaign in UP,it was the IYC leaders who were running the show. Young MLAs,MPs and IYC leaders drawn from across the country were deployed in UP to assist party candidates in their campaigns. Each constituency was placed under IYC leaders,mostly comprising those who have had gone through the grind in the past.

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For instance,Gorakhpur (rural) seat was being supervised by Soumitra Sen,a young MLA from West Bengal; Mamata Bhupesh,an MLA from Rajasthan,was at Pipraich constituency; former IYC office-bearer Chandan Yadav at Khajni seat; IYC leader Pradeep Jaildar from Haryana at Bansgaon; and Rakibuddin Ahmed at Mehmoodabad.

For every four-five Assembly constituencies,an MP was deployed to coordinate and supervise. The MPs included Ponnam Prabhakar from Andhra Pradesh,Manicka Tagore from Tamil Nadu,Ravneet Singh Bittu and Vijendra Singhla from Punjab. Besides,young MP from Haryana and former IYC president Ashok Tanwar along with P L Punia had been given charge of 85 reserved seats.

The IYC leaders wielded great clout. In Gorakhpur (rural),for instance,DCC chief Sanjeev Singh was said to have joined the campaign for party candidate Kajal Nishad only after prompting from Delhi. While travelling,candidates were asked to be in touch with IYC office-bearers to get their feedback. Regular feedback was sent to Rahuls office from every constituency everyday.

All these initiatives,however,came a cropper as results poured in on Tuesday. It was in 2008 that Rahul had started his democratisation process from Punjab,holding organisational elections for the state Youth Congress. Three lakh members were enrolled in the membership drive,which went up to nine lakh last year. The three-fold increase in YC figures,however,did not reflect in the partys performance in the Punjab polls.

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