Money being spent on Youth Congress membership drive

Dharamsala, September 17

The membership drive for the Youth Congress (YC) elections being launched in Himachal these days have raised questions over the process being followed by senior leaders to get their candidates elected.

While the Virbhadra Singh camp is trying get former NSUI president Yadhupati elected as the state YC president, the rival group is backing Nigam Bhandari.

Some leaders are questioning the membership drive. They are claiming that till date, about 3.58 lakh have become the members of the YC. In the last parliamentary elections, the Congress got about 11 lakh votes. If 3 lakh members and four persons endorsing each member are added up, it means about 15 lakh youth have got associated with the party. This means that the Congress has got more youth members than the total votes it got in the last parliamentary elections, said a leader.

Amarpreet Singh Lally, general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress, who is in-charge of elections for Himachal, admitted that till date, 3.58 lakh had been registered as YC members. After scrutiny the actual membership was likely to come down. — TNS