The recent meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretaries has introduced some important decisions, as a follow-up from the party’s Chintan Shivir in Udaipur.
The Congress has adopted a 50-50 formula to maintain a balance between young and old leaders within the party, with term of five years for any post. This literally means that every structure of the Congress organisation will have 50% leaders under the age of 50 and other half above the age of 50. The rule will apply to Congress Working Committee (CWC) and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC).
This means that the new PCC and AICC representative, whether elected after the next AICC president or a member of the in August-September, will be made up of youth quotas. With the Congress now placing special emphasis on youth quotas, Rahul Gandhi is more committed to the youth. But the position of Congress president has been excluded from the provisions of the new rules.
Sonia Gandhi was the Congress President from 1998 to 2017. Rahul Gandhi took over as Congress president in 2017 and resigned in May 2019. The provision of youth quota will also apply to the party’s Central Election Authority (CEA). This provision will also apply to the AICC and PCC representatives constituted for organizational elections. The CEA is sensitive to the implementation of such changes. Now the PROs, DROs, BROs who are the returning officers of the Congress for organizational elections have to say that they have to ensure that as many as 50 per cent of the elected representatives are below 50 years of age, said Ajay Makan, general secretary of AICC.
