If it were in the DMK or AIADMK, the high command would be compelled to fix a ceiling for filing applications.
For, even a post of party area secretary would sell like hotcakes. But, in the state Youth Congress (YC), there are not many takers for most party posts.
Of the 2 lakh-odd posts slated to be filled this year, the state YC has only managed to fill around 20,000 till date.
In fact, “Youth Congress elections?” is the most common reaction one gets from cadres on enquiring about an organisational rejig in the unit. Such is the enthusiasm with which the YC polls have been received by the party rank and file this year.
One half of the organisational elections are over and the new state YC president would be ready to assume charge in a fortnight, but very few are even talking about the YC elections in Satyamurthy Bhavan circles.
The healthy rivalry witnessed between the Vasan and Chidambaram camps a few years back, which even ‘surprised’ the Dravidian majors a little, is conspicuous by its absence this year. Neither Vasan nor Chidambaram lieutenants have shown great interest this time.
Senior party sources revealed to Deccan Chronicle that the state YC had filled 64,000 of the targeted 93,000 YC posts last year, but this year, as a sequel to some poll reforms, the party has only managed to fill 8 per cent of the posts.
There are 45,000 booths, with at least four posts per booth besides the Assembly, parliamentary and state-level office-bearers, sources pointed out, attributing the failure to successive poll debacles it faced in alliance with the DMK and decline in the interest shown by the high command towards non-Congress-ruled states.
However, the only silver lining was that the booth-level members would vote for the state YC president post.