AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday indicated that the party would give preference to youth in the distribution of party ticket for the Lok Sabha elections.
Interacting with young professionals to gather inputs for the party’s election manifesto here, Mr. Gandhi was responding to a question from a participant on members of Parliament getting multiple chances. One participant said, “There are many leaders who became MPs for the 8th time. If this is the case, where is the scope for the younger generation as advocated by you?”
“It is past, not henceforth,” one of the participants quoted Mr. Gandhi as saying.
In fact, presspersons were not allowed to the venue at the Tennis Pavilion on Palace Grounds here.
During the interaction, Mr. Gandhi also emphasised the fact that it was the Congress that gave primacy to transparency in administration.
“He asked who introduced the Right to Information Act, which has become an important tool to gather information.” He also said it was the Congress that brought in revolutionary changes in the telecom sector,” said Sudhindra and Mallikarjun, president and vice-president of Karnataka Voice of Physically Handicapped, respectively.
While a majority of the participants, including Youth Congress functionaries and college students, refused to divulge details of the interaction, some opened up and outlined the broad details.
Jessica, a postgraduate student of Christ University, said the participants emphasised on giving importance to vocational education right from eighth standard, which was received well by Mr. Gandhi. Transparency in administration was the major issue discussed, she said and that Mr. Gandhi was in favour of political parties being brought under the purview of RTI. He was equally concerned on fighting corruption, she added.
