IYC president race heats up as sons of Congress veterans join the fray

New Delhi: The race to become the next Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president has taken an interesting turn with the late entry of sons of two senior leaders in the fray to replace Srinivas BV. 

So far, the contest had narrowed down to two candidates — Vikrant Bhuria and Coco Padhi. But now Tanuj Punia and Sagar Charan Das have also joined the race.

Tanuj, 39, is the son of former chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) and Dalit leader PL Punia. 

Tanuj represents the Barabanki constituency (Uttar Pradesh) in the Lok Sabha. 

An IITian, he is also a general secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC). 

On the other hand, Sagar, 33, is the son of former Union Minister Bhakta Charan Das. 

Sagar, also a Dalit, is a legislator from Bhawanipatna (Kalahandi district) in the Odisha assembly.

NewsDrum on Sunday reported that the Congress leadership had zeroed in on two tribal candidates - party legislator from Madhya Pradesh Vikrant Bhuria and IYC national general secretary Purnchandra Padhi, popularly known as Coco Padhi. 

A surgeon-turned-politician, Bhuria, 40, is the son of former union minister Kantilal Bhuria and represents the Jhabua assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh. He had led the state Youth Congress for over three years from December 2020 to April 2024.

Coco Padhi, 39, had held the post of the Chhattisgarh Youth Congress president from May 2019 to June 2022. Later, he was appointed the national general secretary of the Congress party's youth wing. He is considered close to former Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister TS Singh Deo. 

It is learned that the Congress high command had sought more names to enable it to take a call after going through the profiles of other prospective candidates. 

With the entry of two Dalit candidates Tanuj and Sagar, the IYC president's race has taken an interesting turn.   

That gives some breathing time and space to incumbent Srinivas who has been holding the post for over five years now. 

Srinivas had taken over as an interim chief of the Youth Congress in July 2019 after the incumbent Keshav Chand Yadav resigned from the post, taking responsibility for the party's drubbing at the Lok Sabha elections. 

After over a year, Srinivas was appointed a full-time IYC president in December 2020, becoming the first Kannadiga to hold the post. 

He shot into the limelight during the Covid pandemic in 2020-21 when he organised relief, food and medical help, including oxygen cylinders, to the needy.

The Congress high command has now decided to replace Srinivas, 43, and give him bigger responsibilities. 

He was recently appointed as a member of the screening committee for Haryana and is also expected to be accommodated in the All India Congress Committee (AICC).