Merit rules, rules Rahul Gandhi

A first for the party, elections to all levels of the Youth Congress will be personally supervised by Rahul. The first such elections would be held in Punjab from November 28.

This is in stark contrast to the earlier method of appointments, where senior functionaries of the party would nominate members. 8220;The committee size of the Youth Congress at every level block, district and state is 11 members. Gandhi has initiated a pilot project in Punjab which would be implemented in other states as well. Of these 11 posts, seven selections would be made by direct elections or through elections by an electoral college,8221; says Prakash Joshi, chairman of Central Election Authority of the Youth Congress. The seven posts include president, vice-president and five general secretaries. Here, too, the eventual selections would be made on the basis of votes won 8212; the person getting maximum votes would be elected president, the one getting second highest would be vice-president and so on.

The elections in Punjab would take places in several phases, with the first one slated on November 28. In the block-level elections, all the three lakh members would be voting for the seven posts mentioned above. These seven elected members of all the 210 organised blocks in Punjab would then form an electoral college and would vote for seven members for the district levels. Finally, the seven members of blocks and seven elected members of 24 organised districts would together form a new electoral college to vote for the state-level posts.

Young party workers are upbeat about the whole thing. 8220;No deserving candidate has to now depend upon some senior party official beneficence. Young leaders who have a following will come forward and it is heartening to see that the scope of favouritism has been minimised,8221; says Anuj Gaur, a member National Students8217; Union of India NSUI.

The membership rules of the Punjab Youth Congress have also been reviewed. 8220;Earlier, it was a very perfunctory exercise, where forms would be given to party workers and they would just make their neighbours and relatives fill them. So, quite often, the members themselves didn8217;t know that they were part of the Congress party,8221; says Joshi, adding that this time the membership is on the basis of forms that are freely available at local Congress offices, requests sent through postcards or even an SMS. All these requests were collated at the Delhi office and were then sent to Punjab Congress units. The response has been impressive, with as many as three lakh people registering themselves as members during the one-month membership drive in September. This is a significant jump as compared to 25,000 enrollments last year.

8220;It is an honest attempt and we are taking the whole process slowly. The initial response looks positive and, if successful, we would implement it in other states and at the national level too,8221; Rahul Gandhi had said in an interaction with the media in Amritsar earlier this week.