Rajat Choudhury was elected as president of the Pradesh Youth Congress Committee here on Wednesday defeating his nearest contestant lokanath Maharathy by 833 votes.
Choudhury, who is close to party leader lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, secured 2,870 votes while Maharathy, who is close to PCC president Jaydev Jena, got 2,063 votes. Maharathy was elected as vice-president of the youth wing.
Party sources said eight leaders had contested the elections for the president’s post. The other six leaders were declared general secretaries automatically. Notably, 16 candidates had contested for the youth Congress president post in 2013 while only eight candidates were in the fray this year.