Headlines
Congress favours aged leaders for Rajya Sabha from Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram, March 28
The Congress has
chosen to support candidates who are over 70 years for the Rajya Sabha
elections from Kerala, a move which as left younger party workers
unhappy, whereas the CPI-M has supported young blood.
For next
month's polls to the upper house, the Congress has persisted with older
leaders as Vayalar Ravi. The CPI-M has gone in for youth and has chosen
44 year-old former Students Federation of India (SFI) president K.K.
Ragesh.
Kerala has nine seats in the upper house. The Congress
has three - all in the above 70 plus category. A.K. Antony will be 75 in
December, Ravi will be 78 in June and P.J. Kurien will turn 74 on
Monday.
The CPI-M has four members in the house. P. Rajeev, whose
terms ends next month is 47 years old, K.N. Balagopal and T.N. Seema
whose terms end next year are 51. The only exception is C.P. Nair who is
78.
Nair was nominated in 2012 taking into account his more than five decades of association with the think tank of the party.
"Congress
should learn from the CPI-M the way we groom youngsters for the world
of parliamentary politics. They (the Congress) ensures that even when
fielding a young leader, they are ejected after two terms.
"But
in our party, the buzz word is once you enter the upper house, they do
all sorts of things to ensure they have a very long run," said an
agitated youth leader of the Congress who did not wish to be identified.
In
retrospect, now CPI-M politburo member M.A. Baby, a legislator and a
former state minister, created history in 1986 when at the age of 32 he
became the youngest member of the upper house then and retired from the
upper house after two terms.
A. Vijayaraghavan was 42 when he had one term when in upper house in 1998.
While
the CPI-M ensures that upper house members are not given a long run,
Congress leader Antony has been in the upper house from 2005 and has had
two terms in the past from 1985.
Ravi has been in the upper
house from 2003 and had another term in 1994, while Kurien started off
in the Lok Sabha from 1980 and had six terms. Since 2005, he has been in
the upper house.
Outgoing upper house CPI-M member Rajeev told
IANS that their party has always had a strategy of promoting youth and
women leaders.
"Just look at our higher committees. The average
age of our state committee is now below 60 age group and our district
committees it is below 50," said Rajeev who in February was elected
unopposed as the new Ernakulam district secretary of the CPI-M.
"No
wonder that the Congress party has touched 44 seats in the Lok Sabha.
If the posts are for senior leaders only, it wouldn't be long that the
party would slowly disintegrate because what's there for the ordinary
Congress worker," asked another disgruntled youth Congress activist.