TMC pinning hopes on youth power to spread base in Haryana

Chandigarh: Trinamool Congress would give 60 per cent party tickets to the youth in the upcoming Haryana assembly elections. The Mamata Banerjee-led party has taken the decision so as to provide the youth a chance to fulfill their aspirations, MP and TMC`s North Zone in-charge K D Singh said.

Haryana has 90 assembly seats and TMC, a new outfit in the state, is eyeing to woo various sections, including the youth, to spread its base. Speaking at a public rally in Panipat, the industrialist-politician said Haryana had the potential to emerge as the most prosperous state, "but the irony is that the state has been deprived of a leadership with a vision." Successive state governments have not let the "common youth" gain a foothold in politics, he said. "Therefore, elections of student unions are deliberately not being conducted by the state government to keep the budding youth leaders away from (the) political system," he accused. Singh, according to a party release, also expressed concern over the alleged increasing incidents of suicides among youths and farmers. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was indulging in "propaganda" on the development of the state, he alleged. "It is a mere propaganda that Hooda keeps claiming that Haryana is No 1 in all spheres. On the contrary, Haryana has nothing to claim even to be most developed state as unemployment and corruption are rampant. Law and order machinery has broken down, with a spate of cases of crime against women, and people are facing acute water and power shortage as well." Singh also accused the Hooda government of being "anti-farmer" and said the TMC would return land "forcibly" acquired from the agrarian community, if it comes to power in Haryana. PTI