The state unit of the Congress arty was busy expanding youth membership and Rahul Gandhi’s visit was used to trump the party fortunes among the students.
Rahul Gandhi’s visit caused a political storm of sorts in Kashmir. Though they had a 90-minute breakfast meeting but things did not seem to be alright between him and chief minister Omar Abdullah as earlier AICC general secretary defended his friend on several occasions when Omar was going through tough times handling situation in the valley. Rahul publicly said that the question of rotation of the chief ministership will be decided by the high command.
At SKICC, Rahul had an informal meeting with the Congress Panches and Sarpanches who had come from across the valley demanding “our three years” of leading the coalition. “We are being humiliated by our coalition partner and they are used to looking down at us” said one of the Panch during the interaction with Rahul.
Days before Rahul’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Youth Congress started a major membership drive among the students at Kashmir University. They lured students into joining the Youth Congress and promised them that the membership will give them an opportunity to interact with Rahul Gandhi when he visits the university.
However, taking a strong note of the violation of university rules the Registrar of Kashmir University Prof S Fayyaz Ahmad said the membership drive was been carried out without their information.
On the other hand Kashmir University Students Association appealed the students to stay away from the membership drive. The team which claimed to be part of the Rahul’s ‘advance team’ termed their membership drive as non-political and one that is solely aimed at developmental issues.
During membership drive students were told that by becoming members they will have right to talk to ‘Rahul Ji’ directly. The forms filled by the aspiring members were inscribed with ‘Youth of Jammu and Kashmir come join the revolution’.
