Starting young

Many of them enter the pitch,immediately after school associating themselves with students’ movements and involving in various demonstrations. Gajendra Salunkhe,a student in Law from the University of Pune,is currently the President of Student Youth and Development Cell,Congress after being a part of it for several years. “I would be participating in andolans,various camps and so on which are aimed at the youth. However these days its all about ensuring the party’s success and we conduct road shows,and convey our policy through dramas. Making youngsters vote is yet another initiative. I also accompany Kalmadi to various events who I feel is an apt leader and an inspiration for us,” says Salunkhe.

For Sachin Pawar,the MNS leader Raj Thackery has been the major source of motivation as he says,“Joining politics after my SSC,I was earlier a part of Shiv Sena and moved to MNS soon after its inception. However I have no ambitions of contesting the elections,all I want to is reach to the people of this place and engage myself in social activities. These days I have been attending rallies and campaigns of Ranjit Shirole,doing arrangements for the scheduled meetings as well as handling the networking section,sending e mails,messages and so on to as many people as possible,” adds Pawar.

Sunmeet Singh who is the vice president of Student Youth and Development Cell,Congress feels that leadership needs to be the responsibility of the youth. “I am a part of the cell to aid the students since be it,job seeking or admissions,they face a lot of problems. I was always fond of politics and also have political ambitions. However for now it is about reaching out to people to vote for Congress. I dedicate most of the time to being with the partymen,attending the sabhas,yatras and so on,” he adds.