Cong veterans resisted plan on age limit to contest polls

NEW DELHI: Amid the big push for more young faces in the Congress’s organisational hierarchy, the veterans stalled a key plan to impose an age cap for elections that could have further squeezed their political space, according to people aware of the developments.

Many of the internal reforms, including the youth quota and new panels, are likely to be implemented only after organisational elections in August-september, party leaders indicated on Tuesday. They added that some of the new proposals, including a new advisory group and youth quota in the working committee, are also likely to happen only after the organisational polls are over.

Congress general secretary Ajay Maken announced that the Congress president’s post will be exempt from all new steps, including fixing an office bearer’s tenure to five years. But the party expressed confidence in implementing the reforms. “It’s nav sankalp (new resolve) as well as dhrir sankalp (firm resolve) for us,” Maken said.

The people cited in the first instance said the committee on organisation, led by Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik, suggested an age cap of 70 years for fighting polls and in organisational posts. The Indian Youth Congress, too, pushed for it. The proposal came along with other suggestions, such as reserving half of all party posts for leaders under 50 years or age and, starting from 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 50% Lok Sabha and assembly seats for this age cohort.

Even as the youth quota in the organisation and polls was approved, senior leaders resisted the age cap, and argued that quota and cap can’t go together.

“When you already have a quota, what is the point of having an age cap? We also need seniors to guide the young leaders,” a senior party leader said, seeking anonymity. He also said that during the deliberations, many leaders felt that age cap would not maintain the balance between youth and experience in the party.

Another key suggestion — to bring a 50% caste quota for SC, ST, OBCS and minorities — was turned down. “Many leaders argued that even the current quota of 20% reservation doesn’t get filled, so what’s the point of expanding it? Also, it was felt that such quota along with women’s reservation would leave very small opportunity for leaders of general section in the organisation,” said another leader, who asked not to be named.

But the party has moved swiftly on some of the decisions of the Chintan Shivir (brainstorming workshop) held in Udaipur between May 13 and 16. Within 48 hours of the Udaipur declaration, the Congress general secretaries met at the party headquarters on Tuesday to discuss the actionable points of the conclave. “In the meeting called by general secretary, organisation, KC Venugopal, we spent an hour identifying the actionable points. We will meet again tomorrow. And after that, very soon state-wise workshops are going to be held to discuss how the Udaipur declaration would be implemented,” Maken said.

The first task will be to fill all vacant posts and it would be done along with the ongoing organisational elections, he said, and the process to identify youth leaders for party posts would also start quickly so that they get proper representation.

“The election authority is being sensitized on the changes which have to be made, like they have to ensure the PROS, DROS and BROS (pradesh, district and block returning officers, respectively) have 50% young representatives,” Maken said. “So, it (the quota) is possible only if it (election) takes place there because if suppose we want 50% of the PCC office bearers to be less than 50 years of age, we need half of PCC members to be less than 50 years old.”

SENIOR LEADERS SAID THE AGE CAP TO FIGHT POLLS AND YOUTH QUOTA CANNOT GO TOGETHER