New Delhi: The Indian Youth Congress (IYC) has suspended around 200 office-bearers and workers across states for failing to attend the INDIA bloc’s 1 November rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, with the disciplinary exercise expected to cover as many as 500 functionaries, including block presidents, district leaders and other office-bearers.
The action follows a directive from the party leadership which had asked all national, state and district-level functionaries to attend the rally and the march preceding it.
District presidents were specifically asked to bring at least 15-20 people along with them, while office-bearers were expected to mobilise leaders and workers from their respective areas.
“We have taken action against around 200 office-bearers so far, and more cases are being looked into. Some of the suspensions have also been revoked where we have received a reason for the absence,” IYC president Uday Bhanu Chib told ThePrint.
“We had set a target of mobilising 15,000 people for the rally and every office-bearer had been asked to ensure that leaders and workers from their respective areas attended. If ordinary people could make it to the rally, our IYC cadre needed to be there too, and hence we are taking strict action so a standard is set,” he added.
The disciplinary exercise initially saw more than 80 office-bearers suspended and they were asked to explain their absence. Around 60 functionaries from Madhya Pradesh, at least 13 from Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh and around 10 from Haryana were among those initially suspended, before the exercise was extended to other states.
The suspensions were announced through orders dated 3 November and made effective immediately until further notice, although sources in the IYC leadership said this wasn’t a permanent suspension in any way but a measure to ensure accountability.
“This is not to instill fear that if you can’t attend a protest you will lose position in the party, but just to ensure that IYC continues to support Rahul in his mission, the wind is changing and we can’t be seen to be slacking off at this time,” an IYC source told ThePrint.
The IYC had also deployed its mobile application to monitor attendance, requiring office-bearers to scan a QR code at Minto Road, the designated assembly point from where Rahul Gandhi led the march to Ramlila Maidan.
The organisation had set a target of getting at least 15,000 people registered through the application, but only around 3,000 leaders scanned the QR codes, sources said.
The exercise was part of a wider effort by opposition parties to keep track of participation at the rally. The Congress and other INDIA bloc parties were maintaining records of leaders and workers who travelled to Delhi, with party units monitoring attendance from their respective states. Other opposition parties, too, were keeping track of which of their functionaries had turned up.
Ahead of the rally, Congress general secretary K. C. Venugopal had projected a turnout of 10 lakh people.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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