As a first step towards “democratisation” in the party, as advocated by AICC general secretary in charge of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the NSUI Rahul Gandhi, organisational elections will be held for the first time in the youth wings of the party in two states — for the IYC in Punjab and the NSUI in Uttarakhand.

This was decided during an interactive session between office-bearers of these organisations and all AICC General Secretaries at the party headquarters here on Monday. A recently constituted task force consisting of IYC and NSUI office-bearers made powerpoint presentations on the activities initiated by Gandhi since he took charge of these organisations last September.

But there remain big question marks over implications and ramifications of the move for the grand old party. Even at the meetings of the ‘AICC Group to Look into Future Challenges’, all talks of democracy have been limited to the PCC level with nobody raising the issue of introducing elections or democratisation at the AICC level. This is a clear indication that the so-called “nomination culture” is set to stay at the top echelons. Gandhi has already appointed over half-a-dozen state IYC and NSUI presidents before deciding to hold organisational elections in the two states.

Gandhi has set up seven teams of IYC and NSUI office-bearers to oversee membership programmes, training, performance management, organisational elections, ethics and aam admi ka sipahi (common man’s army), among others. The idea behind the aam admi ka sipahi is to have committed party workers go door to door and ensure the implementation of government schemes and to become a “bridge” between the party and the youth.

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