The usual fervour over the Youth Congress polls was absent this time. The celebrations were muted even as there were conflicting claims over which group had won the battle in faction-ridden TNCC.
Two years ago the same event had witnessed great excitement when Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had made whirlwind tours to the state.
Within hours of the election results being announced at Satyamurthy Bhavan late on Friday evening, Mr Karti Chidambaram, son of the Union finance minister, left for Malaysia to attend a sports event while state YC president M. Yuvaraja booked his ticket to Mumbai where the winner of the post of the president of the Youth Congress would be announced on Sunday.
“What did the party do to those Parliamentary and Assembly level YC functionaries elected last time? How long does the high command expect them to just face polls?
At least they should have been accommodated in some committee,” argued a TNCC senior even as the low key polls came to an end.
“From 14 lakhs, membership has officially reduced to just 3 lakhs. It will fall further next time if high command continues to neglect cadres and runs the Youth Congress by taking advice from a handful of tech savvy people in New Delhi,” said a state YC functionary.
However, the absence of enthusiasm did not deter supporters of union shipping minister G.K. Vasan and Union finance minister P. Chidambaram. Both camps declared they have emerged stronger with PC loyalists saying Vasan’s supporters won only 15 of 39 Parliamentary level posts.
However, YC president Yuvaraja said they had secured 22 Parliament level seats. At the assembly level, a PC loyalist claimed victory in 85 seats while Yuvaraja says they had won in 150 Assembly seats.