The Congress is eyeing unemployed youths in a big way in the upcoming State Assembly polls. The party is planning to promise job guarantee to educated youths and a “respectable” unemployment allowance similar to that in some European countries if the job is not provided to deserving ones. The idea is to exploit growing resentment among the youth against the Narendra Modi Government for failing to tackle the unemployment issue.
AICC sources said the Youth Congress wing of the party will prepare the “employment charter” and the format required to reach out to the needy.
The party believes that in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the party can do well if it targets the young voters in the age group of 18-30 years. The voters in the age group would be registered and a proof of the same will be handed to them which can be “encashed” for job by the beneficiary if the party forms Governments.
“Ours will be a promise to be made and not the election jumla,” said the AICC source recalling how BJP chief Amit Shah termed ‘chunavi jumla’ to some of the promises made by the party and Prime Minister Modi in the run up to 2014 General Elections.
“There will also be a scheme where the administration can think upon to give unemployment allowance to those who have a certain classified degree but somehow not getting jobs.
But this idea is just in discussion round because how much assurance of an allowance could be met is being deliberated. We are studying the MNREGA pattern for this,” said the AICC leader.
With such type of new schemes to lure voters, the Congress is in fact focusing on the young voters for the 2019 lok Sabha elections.
A similar exercise to woo young voters was carried out in Karnataka during the elections campaign where the Congress for the first time reached out to youths by seeking to address their aspirations. The Congress held Townhalls with youngsters between age 17 and 27 and in some of them party chief Rahul Gandhi too conducted sessions.
Also, the grand old party has launched a fellowship public policy programme “Future of India” to reach out to students.
The programme is being executed by the party’s student body, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).
According to the NSUI, this fellowship will include public administration and management, bridge the ‘Bharat Vs India’ divide, country’s legal system, the fundamentals of democratic countries, electoral management and conflict management in a democracy.
“To improve the quality of public discourse by facilitating substantive, issue-based discussions, broad-base the NSUI platform to offer space for multiple forms of political activity and give bright young people an opportunity to engage with the Congress leaders they may otherwise not have access to,” said Ruchi Gupta, AICC secretary incharge of the NSUI.
The fellowship will allow anyone —students and professionals under the age of 30 -- to interact with Congress leaders, like Sam Pitroda, P Chidambaram, Salman Khurshid, Shashi Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh, Sachin Pilot among others.