Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is banking on an army of 12.5 lakh Youth Congress members to rally behind party candidates in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh for a repeat of the 2009 general elections show. Youth Congress president Rajiv Satav is confident that with over three lakh office bearers having been networked his members would boost the strength of the party in UP.
Mr Gandhi is learnt to have asked 10 members of the Youth Congress to man each of the polling booth in UP and rally behind the party candidates. After having tied up with Google following which over three lakh office-bearers can share their reports online, the party is set to unleash a well-coordinated election campaign with sharing of feedback on the grounds on the real time basis.
Youth Congress in-charge of UP Virendra Rathore said that the organisation has added 3.5 lakh members in western UP, 4 lakh in eastern UP, 3 lakh in central UP and 2 lakh in the Bundelkhand region in the membership drive, which was undertaken in the last two years in the state, with Mr Gandhi himself campaigning. Mr Satav, while claiming that the Youth Congress is the largest political organisation in the world for having networked after a tieup with Google, said that the members have been trained to share their ground reports, which can even be seen by Mr Gandhi, apart from other senior leaders.
Apart from a tech-savvy campaign, being spearheaded by Congress MP Deependra Hooda, the Youth Congress appears geared up to show the mark in the performance of the party. With 10 Youth Congress manning each of the polling booth, the party appears confident that they would nip in the bud any attempt to sabotage the prospect of the official candidates by their rivals. “A closely knit set-up of members of the Youth Congress from the booth level to Assembly and Lok Sabha constituency level has been put in place. Not only the existing position is being monitored, even corrective steps are being taken without loss of time,” said a senior Youth Congress leader.