New Delhi: Uday Bhanu Chib was appointed IYC president by Rahul Gandhi, after the latter interviewed close to 25 candidates.
The appointment of the new Indian Youth Congress chief (IYC), Uday Bhanu Chib, who was the state president of Jammu and Kashmir IYC, was finalized by leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, after interviewing close to 25 probable candidates, most of whom were being pushed by senior party leaders. However, none of those whose names were recommended by leaders and individuals who are counted as close to Rahul Gandhi got a favourable response, and it appears that relying on recommendations and lobbying might have actually worked against the candidates who were sure of their selection because of the strong support that they had from senior party leaders.
Among those who had applied for the said post and were shortlisted for it, on the basis of multiple criteria, that also included age being less than 40 years, were IYC functionaries like Purchandra Coco Padhi, Vikrant Bhuria, Vipin Wankhede, Shashi Singh Koram, Divyanshu Budhiraja, Abhimanyu Poonia, Shiv Prakash Garib Das, Mitendra Darshan Singh, Ishita Sheda, Pratima Pinki Mudgal among others. In the 15-20 minutes interaction, the short-listed leaders were asked their views on caste census, concept of social justice and how they see the Congress performing in the coming years and the challenges that it will face.
The selection of who will lead the youth wing of the Congress this time was being watched keenly as, unlike the last time, many serious contenders were trying their luck, supported by different groups of national leaders, each trying to install their own man in the said post. Individuals holding the post of state presidents and national general secretary in IYC are usually appointed the national president. With the top leadership of the IYC deciding that 40 years would be the criterion for being shortlisted for the interview, one prominent name who was being described as the strongest contender for the said post, the Nagpur-based Rushikesh Bunty Shelke, was not included in the list.
Shelke, who is presently national secretary in the organization, had contested the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls from Nagpur central seat that houses the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), but lost the polls by 4,000 votes, which his supporters attributed to the AIMIM candidate cutting away 8,000 votes from the Congress.
Another strong candidate who could not make it to the short list was Chhattisgarh based party MLA from Bhilai, Devendra Yadav who was arrested in mid-August by the state police for his alleged role in a violence that took place in Bhilai on 10 June. The list of former IYC presidents includes Sanjay Gandhi, Ambica Soni, Manish Tewari, Randeep Surjewala, Tariq Anwar, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma, ND Tiwari, among others, who went on to establish themselves in prominent positions in the Congress in the later part of their career.
When B.V. Srinivas was appointed as interim president of IYC in July 2019, after the Congress debacle in the Lok Sabha polls had forced the incumbent Keshav Chand Yadav to resign within 13 months, the morale of the party cadre was at its lowest, and secondary organizations like IYC were struggling for resources and mobilization on the ground.
However, under Srinivas, who was given a full-time president role in December 2020, as the Covid pandemic was setting in, the IYC managed to pick itself up and made a significant impact in the national and state politics across India, especially when it came to coming out on the street and protesting against the BJP. Hence, much of the interest of the public in who would be the next IYC president is being credited to the work done by Srinivas.
Senior leaders and top party functionaries were pushing for their candidates, as IYC president, among other “privileges,” has direct access to Rahul Gandhi, who is right now the sole authority when it comes to party decisions. Secondly, the IYC president can assemble a large contingent of supporters and workers at short notice for national leaders whom he wants to oblige or return favours. Party sources said that what probably worked against many strong contenders, that included Padhi, Bhuriya, and others, was the fact that each one of them was being pushed by senior party leaders like party president Mallikarjuna Kharge, former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Haryana MP Kumari Selja, Srinivas, party functionary K.B. Byju and Krishna Allavaru, who is national in charge of IYC. A section within the organization claimed that Allavaru, given his position as incharge of IYC, should have remained “neutral” but he lent his support to few applicants, albeit unsuccessfully. However, sources close to Allavrau, considered as a core member of team Rahul, refused such claims and said that he did not recommend or favoured any candidate.
Unlike other strong contenders, Uday Bhanu Chib, party sources claimed, did not ask any senior leaders to put in good words for him. Chib hails from Paloura, Jammu, and was the first elected state president of the National Students’ Union of India, the student wing of the Congress. His father, Hari Singh Chib, is the president of the District Congress Committee Jammu (Rural), while his mother, Rajni, is a corporator from ward 60.
The appointment of Chib has strengthened the political discourse within the party that no entity can guarantee an appointment in the party’s structure without the final consent from Rahul.
What likely worked for him was a clean, down to earth image. By appointing someone from Jammu, when the state is going through polls, Rahul is probably also looking at giving a political messaging to the electorate of the region. An engineering graduate from Pune University, Chib, who has an MBA degree from Arni University Himachal Pradesh, will have a demanding task on his hands as he will have to match and go beyond the precedent that has been set by his predecessor Srinivas, who was the first Kannadiga to be appointed to the said post. After Ghulam Nabi Azad, Chib is the second individual who has been appointed to the said post from Jammu and Kashmir.