Talks within the Congress for fixing retirement age bar for the old horses have bolstered hopes among the greenhorns within the State Congress to get bigger roles in the party hierarchy.
The organisational elections of the State Congress being set to be held next year, the Young Turks are now engaging themselves in homework to shoulder bigger roles in the coming days.
Notably, things have already been experimented in Uttarakhand as tickets were given to the young aspirants during the last Assembly election in 2012. However, such an experiment to rope in some youngsters in the electoral politics did not yield the expected results for the party in the 2012 Assembly polls. Unfazed, the party went for the same formula with Kishore Upadhyaya being entrusted with the responsibility of heading the State party unit a few months back.
To give more representation to the youths in the party’s decision- making process is what is touted as a brainchild of the party vice-president, Rahul Gandhi. He has been applying this formula to restructure and rejuvenate the Youth Congress for quite some time. Interestingly, he has the backing from most of the party office bearers on this matter.
But what is interesting for the party in the State is whether Rahul Gandhi is for giving bigger roles to the party leaders who have done well in the recently concluded panchayat polls in Uttarakhand. According to the UPCC president Kishore Upadhyaya, this is what is set to happen. “Rahul Gandhi is resolved to go for such a step,” he affirmed.
The State Congress is set to organise a party convention involving the elected panchayat representatives in Haldwani in November. A similar party convention will be held in Garhwal region in December for those who won the panchayat polls, he added.
The party has already appointed observers to assess the abilities of the elected panchayat representatives so that suitable roles can be given to such leaders in the party organisation.
Besides, these observers will also study the party’s position at block and district levels and identify the youth leaders who can be groomed for more responsible positions in the party in time to come, it is learnt.