Leaders’ sons, daughters shine in Youth Cong polls

Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi| Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Son, daughter and close associates of influential leaders of the Jharkhand Congress have grabbed prize posts in the State Youth Congress.

Union Food Processing Industries Minister Subodh Kant Sahay removed all hurdles for Manash Sinha; newly elected president of the Youth Congress. CLP leader Rajendra Singh's son Anup Singh was elected as Vice president of the State Youth Congress.

The victory of Tanveer Alam for the post of general secretary has come at a time when his father Alamgir Alam (former Speaker of the Assembly) has still not recovered from the trauma of his defeat in the Assembly election from Pakur.

So is the case with former Women Congress president Pratibha Pandey, whose daughter Dipika Pandey got an assignment in new dispensation as the member of the committee. A very senior Congress leader, who in the past held important positions in the Youth Congress, termed it a very successful exercise of the senior leaders to manage entry of their relatives in State politics.

In a bid to inject fresh blood in the organisation, the election for the posts in Jharkhand Youth Congress was held on Monday.

Out of 16 candidates, Manash Sinha became the new president of the State Youth Congress by grabbing 216 votes, defeating his nearest rival Anup Singh by a margin of 50 votes. Anup was elected as Vice-president. Tanveer Alam netted 121 votes, Jyotish Kumar with 43 and Jyoti Singh Matharu with 30 votes will be the new general secretary of the organisation.

In an organisational set-up comprising 10 office bearers, Dipika Pandey got 20 votes, Sahida Kamar 19 votes, Balkishore Marandi 17 votes, Rahul Gupta 15 votes and Mahbubur Rahman eight votes. They have been picked as the member of the committee through electoral process.

Out of 810 voters, 786 turned up for voting. For smooth conduction of the election the central Congress had dispatched three of its senior leaders, including Rajiv Satab, national President of the Youth Congress, Sangrur MP Vijay Inder Singhla and Youth Congress incharge Kuwar Jitendra Singh.

The elected members will be imparted training in politics, programme and ideology of the party in different phases. Before the process of the voting a convection of the party leaders and delegates was held where candidates were given opportunity to put their points before the voters.

Although many of them confessed no schooling or formal training in politics to assume a challenging job ahead. But they pledged to carry on the political mission of their icon Rahul Gandhi.

Besides regular call of 'Rahul Gandhi jindabad' there was occasional slogans "Rahul Gandhi ki Jai, Sonia Gandhi ki Jai".

Burying the past practice of the nomination of the president and other office bearers of the youth Congress, the organisation opted for the election process. "It is the vision of Rahul Gandhi. We started it from Punjab…so far elections of the Youth Congress in 18 States have been completed while the elections of another five States are awaited where the membership drive have already been completed," Singhla said.

"Jharkhand is now in the league of the States where the process of democratisation of the youth wing has been successfully completed. You are the future of the State and national politics. Be ready for that,"he said.

"Till yesterday, connection in the power corridor was probably the only criteria to occupy such a post and to rise in politics. Rahulji has changed the thing for you," said Jitendra Singh in a jam-packed auditorium. "Now, a grass-roots worker can be elected and be the part of Rahul Gandhi's team." It is another matter that few grass-roots worker could be spotted on the result sheet.