Happy days are here again for the youth in the Samajwadi Party.
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is also the state Samajwadi Party president, has decided to put youth on the forefront of the party’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
The results of the youth power in the 2012 Assembly elections have apparently encouraged the party leadership to repeat the experiment.
“The youth wings of the party — Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha, Lohia Vahini, Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha, and Mulayam Singh Youth Brigade — will be energised and deployed for campaigning. The role of the elders in the party will be restricted to policy decisions and guidance and it is the youth leaders who will take charge under the leadership of the chief minister,” disclosed a senior party strategist.
The youth leaders will carry forward the achievements of the Akhilesh Yadav government and interact with the youth population — about 65 per cent of the state’s population — on issues concerning them.
The four frontal organisations will be assigned specific tasks by Mr Akhilesh Yadav in the coming days and they will report directly to him.
Interestingly, majority of the schemes initiated by the Akhilesh Yadav government are youth-centric.
Be it the laptop distribution scheme, the Kanya Vidya Dhan Yojana, unemployment allowance, scholarship for Muslim girls, restoration of student unions in colleges and universities or the woman power line, the beneficiaries in all these schemes have been the youth. The government’s commitment to release Muslim youth booked on false terror charges also concerns the youth among the minorities.
“Our young leaders will fan out in the state — both in rural and urban areas — and create awareness about these schemes among the youth. The party will focus on the fact that the Samajwadi leadership is now in young hands and the chief minister fully understands and responds to the aspirations of the youth. The other parties are saddled with ageing leaders and the youth leader in the Congress, Mr Rahul Gandhi remains completely inaccessible to the youth in general,” the party leader explained.
In the past few months, the youth leaders in the Samajwadi Party have repeatedly complained that the seniors in the party, particularly ministers, do not pay attention to them while the seniors accuse the juniors of being rowdy and disrespectful.
However, the seniors and the ministers have now been told to respond to the youth leaders and treat them with “affection” while the young leaders have been asked to behave respectfully with their seniors.