Youth Congress elections in Tamil Nadu culminated here on Sunday with the election of a 10-member State committee.
The organisational elections, which began in the State on March 4, were held in three phases at the panchayat, Assembly and Lok Sabha constituency levels. At Sunday's convention here, the committee and office-bearers of Lok Sabha constituencies were elected. AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who has been closely monitoring the elections, visited Tiruchi in March to inspect the election process.
Over 4,200 delegates elected from the Assembly level exercised their franchise at Sunday's convention. About 40 youths, including 10 women, contested for the State committee.
Apart from Youth Congress' election returning officers of various levels, K.J. Rao, general secretary, Foundation for Advanced Management of Elections, was at hand to supervise the elections. Earlier, the 40 contestants for the State committee were given two minutes each to introduce themselves and their symbols. Many of them expressed gratitude to Mr. Gandhi for conducting the elections without interference from the parent body and helping them contest the elections without any political backing. Some observed that the Congress remained the only alternative to the Dravidian parties and vowed to work to usher in the party's rule in the State.
Jitendra Singh, AICC secretary in charge of Youth Congress, while congratulating the young leaders, observed that they had a big responsibility of bringing back the party to power in the State. “We want to usher in Congress rule in Tamil Nadu. People want to vote for the Congress but the party has not been able take the votes because we did not have an organisation. Now we have built an organisation thanks to the vision of Rahul Gandhi,” he said.
He also disclosed that all the elected office-bearers would be provided training in leadership, implementation of development programmes and working with people.
In a brief pep talk, Rajeev Satav, president, Youth Congress, said the elections to the organisation had been held in a free, fair and transparent manner. Though there were many challenges ahead, the young elected leaders had a bright future ahead.
Speaking to The Hindu , Suraj Hegde and Usha Naidu, pradesh returning officers, Tamil Nadu, said the Youth Congress had 13,32,912 members in the State. Almost all were new members, they said, and dismissed allegations of use of money power and groupism during the elections. “The elections have generated tremendous enthusiasm among youth. It was intended to rekindle interest in politics among youth and groom good young leaders,” observed Mr. Hegde.
Prakash Joshi, election commissioner of Youth Congress in charge of Tamil Nadu, was also present.
