By Anand Singh

Mumbai, Feb 23 (IANS): The selection of Mumbai Youth Congress President is garnering a lot of attention these days, for which elections took place in October-November last year, where a direct fight was witnessed between Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddiqui and former NSUI Mumbai chief Suraj Singh Thakur.

The elections were held for the post of the Mumbai Youth Congress President to bring forward leaders with mass support and stop the practice of dynasty politics in the party.

Zeeshan is a Congress MLA from Bandra East and the son of senior Congress leader Baba Siddiqui, who has close ties with Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, while Thakur hails from a humble background in Uttar Pradesh.

According to the party leaders, Siddiqui got over 80,000 votes while Thakur managed to get over 73,000 votes in the elections.

The name of the new Mumbai Youth Congress chief will be announced by interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the coming days. The interviews of the candidates are slated to be conducted soon in the national capital by Indian Youth Congress (IYC) chief Srinivas B.V. and IYC in-charge Krishna Allavaru.

The contest for the post is being seen as a direct fight between the son of a senior leader and a students' leader with huge support base among the youth.

Zeeshan's father Baba Siddiqui has a good hold on the party in Maharashtra as well as in his Assembly constituency. Even Zeeshan shares a good bond with Maharasdhtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackarey and his son Aditya Thackarey, who is the Environment Minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state.

On the other hand, Thakur, who is currently the Vice President of the Mumbai Youth Congress, made his reputation in the party during the Covid-19 pandemic. He had worked closely with the team of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to provide food materials and also to arrange for the transportation of the migrant workers from Maharashtra to their native states.

The Congress state unit had arranged for the travel of over 10,000-12,000 migrants from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh by trains, small vehicles, or buses and the migrant workers were also given food packets and water bottles for their jounrey.

He also led from the front with Karnataka Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar when Karnataka MLAs were in Mumbai and had protested against the then government. He was also one of the persons who filed a writ complaint against Arnab Gowasmi in the Mumbai High Court. Thakur has a good hold on the North Indian community.

There is also a third contender for the post of Mumbai Youth Congress chief, Saif Khan, who has managed to get 10,000 votes in the elections. Saif is the son-in-law of Maharashtra minister Aslam Sheikh.