The election of Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress president was a one-sided affair with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s son Vikramaditya Singh winning the election by a huge margin of 5,182 votes.
The break-up of votes polled, released by the returning officer Jaydeep Sandhu of the election stated that Vikramaditya Singh got total of 5,514 votes against 332 votes polled for Shekhar Sethi, his nearest rival.
Total of 10,921 votes were polled, of which Vikramaditya Singh got 51.15 per cent of votes. Among other candidates, Goldy got 304 votes, Ajay Singh got 288 votes, Govind Sharma got 254, Intizar Ali and Sukrant Bhatia got 213 votes each.
Out of total 42 candidates for the post of president of Youth Congress, only seven candidates could cross the mark of 200 votes and the only female contestant could manage 35 votes. Around 140 votes were declared invalid.
Election for the Youth Congress was held on November 15 and 16 and result of parliamentary and Assembly segments were declared on November 17. Election Commissioner of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) Rajpal Singh Bisht said there were nearly 1.30 lakh registered member of IYC across the State, of which 11, 914 booth delegates were elected. “Of the total 7,252 booths, 4,322 booth committees have been elected in the state,” he said. It is to be noted that Vikramaditya Singh had won the Youth Congress election in 2011 also but his election was held null and void after being found guilty of violation of Model Code of Conduct and was also barred from contesting one election.
After winning the election, Vikramaditya Singh said that Youth Congress would work to strengthen the hands of Congress party and focus will be laid on Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.