Clamour for revamping Youth Congress
KOCHI: The clamour for a revamp of the Youth Congress state committee is getting louder in the Congress state unit, where the youth brigade got into rebellion mode, demanding the restructuring of the party from top to bottom.
The existing Youth Congress state committee, headed by Dean Kuriakose, has completed more than five years and many emerging leaders are eyeing key posts in the main feeder organisation of the grand old party. However, Youth Congress leaders feel the ball is in the court of the national leadership which will decide on the organisational polls. Keshav Chand Yadav, who hails from Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh, took charge as Indian Youth Congress president last month.
Dean said the national committee is the authority for conducting the elections of the state units. “We have held talks with national leaders and favoured elections,” said the Youth Congress state president. Dean, a nominee of the ‘A’ group, was elected to the post in June 2013.Several Youth Congress and KSU leaders have already expressed their anguish via social media platforms, over the delay in the revamp. The young generation, who have exceeded the age limit for KSU membership, is of the opinion that they are denied entry to the next platform in the organisation by not reconstituting the youth wing. Besides, the existing committee has drawn criticism from various corners that it had failed in conducting strong protests against the LDF government and the BJP-led NDA in the centre on various issues.
A large section of Congress leaders is also of the opinion that the paralysed organisational capacity of the youth wing has affected the growth of Congress, which lacks effective grassroots-level committees.
Shafi Parambil MLA, who is reportedly the front-runner for the YC state president post, himself criticised the weakness of the youth wing in his Facebook post demanding an entire revamp of the party, during the Rajya Sabha seat issue. Though Shafi’s name is doing rounds for the post, the ‘I’ group is also eyeing the president’s position since the KSU president post went to ‘A’ camp.