A majority of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s nominees for party tickets in the Assembly elections won with huge margins, irrespective of the party’s overall performance.

Out of 32 candidates from the Indian Youth Congress, 22 managed to win. In Delhi, four out of five IYC leaders nominated by Rahul for party tickets emerged victorious. Other winners comprised six in Rajasthan, eight in Madhya Pradesh, two in Mizoram and one in Chhattisgarh.

“Remarkable thing is all of them won by huge margins, in some cases by up to 20,000 votes,” said IYC president Ashok Tanwar.

Rahul, who is AICC general secretary in charge of the IYC, has been a strong advocate of bringing youth into the political mainstream and giving them a chance to contest elections. Accordingly, he had nominated the names of several leaders from the IYC and the NSUI for party tickets.

The Congress lost no time on Monday attributing the party’s success in winning three out of five states, which went to polls, to Rahul’s election tours. “Highlight of the election was Rahul Gandhi. He was attracting youth wherever he went. It is the beginning of the decline of the BJP,” said AICC media cell chairperson M Veerappa Moily.

AICC general secretary Prithviraj Chavan went one step further, calling Rahul the third pole in the Congress. “Rahul will play a bigger role in the future. He has become the third pole in the Congress after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi,” he told reporters.

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