Rigging in Youth Congress polls spoils Rahul Gandhi’s grass-roots politics dream

Elections for the post of office-bearers in the state unit of the Youth Congress have run into controversy.

A pet project of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, elections for the office-bearers of the Youth Congress were first introduced about two years ago with an objective to wipe out the culture of nominating somebody to the posts and ensure grassroots workers get elected.

However, there were allegations of rigging this time.

Three years ago, Rahul Gandhi even entrusted the job of conducting elections to FAME, an organisation of former election commissioner KJ Rao.

However, despite holding an election, Vishwajit Kadam, son of forest minister Patangrao Kadam, managed to get elected as the president of the Youth Congress state unit, while Satyajit Tambe, nephew of revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, managed to get elected as the vice president.

The stranglehold of established leaders in the state was seen in the election as none of them elected came from the grassroots.

The elections were completed on January 31 and counting for the elections was held in Nagpur on Monday. Kadam was elected as president.

“Some of the votes were not been counted at all. Therefore, I do not know what happened with my votes. They said 95 per cent voting took place, but we do not know whether ballots were changed. This was not a transparent election and it was not free and fair,” said Ramesh Dharmavat, a Pune resident, who fought the election.

Following the complaints, counting of the votes has now been deferred till an inquiry is completed by the central leadership of the Youth Congress.