Months after polls, Raksha Ramaiah takes charge as Karnataka Youth Congress chief

BENGALURU: After months of confusion, dozens of meetings to ensure all leaders are on board and a compromise formula, Raksha Ramaiah officially took charge as the president of the Karnataka Youth Congress on Friday.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D K Shivakumar and Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah chose to keep aside their differences on their choice of candidates and were present at the event to congratulate Ramaiah.

The results of the Youth Congress presidential polls, which were announced in February, were marred by controversies after Mohammed Nalapad, who secured more votes, was deemed disqualified making way for Ramaiah to be named the chief. While Siddaramaiah who had backed Ramaiah was quick to congratulate him,  Shivakumar who had batted for Nalapad had refused to acknowledge the results and pushed for Nalapad’s disqualification to be challenged.

Following months of deliberations and back-to-back meetings with different factions of the party and its leaders, an agreement was reached to divide the tenure between Ramaiah and Nalapad. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Ramaiah said he will continue to hold the post until the party permits him and then hand it over to anyone the party deems fit.

“The tenure is left to the party, but I have the next five months to strengthen the organisation. My plan is to raise the existing membership of the Youth Congress in Karnataka from six lakh to 50 lakh. We will have five members with official posts at every booth to ensure we fight the hate factory of the RSS at the grassroots level and not just on social media,” he said.

Ramaiah has been tasked with the responsibility of preparing ground support for the upcoming local body elections as well as a network of young cadres to turn the tide in the party’s favour in constituencies it lost in the last Assembly elections. “We intend to reach out to youngsters who will be first-time voters in the upcoming elections. Our target is to reach out to women voters in rural areas as well,” he added.