Srinagar, Oct 22: After launching a youth membership drive in Jammu and Kashmir, the Youth wing of Congress party is all set to hold its elections in the State from next month.
 “We are planning to start the election process in J&K from first week of November,” Election Commissioner Youth Congress in charge J&K Sachin Naik told Greater Kashmir.
 Naik said first members aged between 18 and 35 will elect a five-member committee at booth level that will form the electoral college for the three-tier elections. He said these booth-level committees will in turn elect 10-member committees each at three levels— 87 Legislative Assembly constituencies, six Lok Sabha constituencies and at the State level.
 According to Lok Sabha returning officer Jayesh Chavda, the membership drive had received over one lakh membership forms. “At least 70, 000 members were found eligible after proper scrutiny and over 11, 000 members belong to Srinagar alone”, he said.
 With the introduction of new procedure, the young leaders, who are in the fray for the position of State president, term it as “encouraging trend”
 “Anybody with dedication to serve people can be a MP or an MLA without any godfather in the party,” said an aspiring youth leader Yasir Pandit who claimed to have brought 10,000 new local associations for the youth wing of the party.   
 During his recent Kashmir visit, the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi addressed potential Youth Congress candidates at SKICC where he laid emphasis on eradicating corruption and asked people to join his party.
 Pandit who is associated with Congress since 2001 has emerged as the potential candidate for the post of State President of Youth Congress. He has been the former State general secretary NSA and aims to go high in the party ladder in future.
 “The new scheme of things gives people like me chance to move ahead in party without falling prey to corruption and nepotism,” he said.
 Shoaib Lone, who was Party president before the Pradesh Youth Congress Committee was dissolved, is quite convinced about the response of the drive. “The hard work that we did has paid off and the huge membership is encouraging,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
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