Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jul 7: 

Two days after Odisha Congress youth wing President Rajat Choudhury was suspended from his post for his alleged chit fund links, All India Youth Congress today announced Loknath Maharathy as the working president of the state unit.

Indian Youth Congress Logo

Interestingly, Maharathy was the Vice President of Odisha Youth Congress until now. He is also one of the eight contestants who took on Choudhury during the latter’s presidential bid back in September 2014.

While Choudhury became the President by securing 2870 votes, Maharathy -- who then owed allegiance to then PCC President Jaydev Jena and incumbent Youth Congress President Sangram Jena— came out second with 2063 votes. He was elected Vice President of Youth Congress and the remaining contestants were made general secretaries.

Choudhury, a protégée of senior Congress leader Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra (Lulu), had fallen out of favour of his mentor after the embarrassment he caused to the latter over the resignation fiasco on April 26. Even though Lulu announced that Choudhury resigned on moral grounds over a CBI interrogation pertaining to chit fund scam, Choudhury issued a statement the same evening denying it.