After Rahul’s elevation, NSUI gears up for internal elections

DEHRADUN: After elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the Congress national president, the party’s students’ wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) is preparing to

DEHRADUN: After elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the Congress national president, the party’s students’ wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) is preparing to hold its internal election in Uttarakhand.

At present, there are around 10,000 NSUI ‘active members’ who will cast vote in the election due later this month. (PTI)

At present, there are around 10,000 NSUI ‘active members’ who will cast vote in the election due later this month.

It was Rahul who, as the then general secretary of the Congress and chairperson of the NSUI and the Indian Youth Congress, experimented with the idea of holding internal elections for the youth and student wings of the party. His dream project for setting up internal democracy began with the internal elections of NSUI in Uttarakhand and of the Youth Congress in Punjab in 2008.

Sangram Singh Pundir was elected as the first state president of the NSUI. He was succeeded by Sandeep Kumar, Sumittar Bhullar and incumbent president Shyam Singh Chauhan. The first internal election of the Uttarakhand Youth Congress was held in 2011. It was won by Anand Singh Rawat, followed by incumbent president Bhuwan Kapri.

Another youth leader noted how “leaders having links to senior party leaders” used to get top positions in student and youth wings earlier on. “Internal elections have changed that to quite an extent.”

Elaborating on the impending polls, Chauhan said the submission of membership forms was wrapped up last week. Elections to the posts of the state and district level presidents and the corresponding committees as well as four national delegates are due in the next 10-15 days. “We have a strength of around 60,000 members, of which 10,000 are active members (each having at least five members below him/her) who will cast votes,” he said.