Mohammad Riyas elected DYFI president

Kochi: The 10th national conference of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) ended without any major departure from the tradition of leaders from Kerala and West Bengal becoming president and general secretary of the organization. Mohammad Riyas from Kerala has been selected as the president replacing M.B. Rajesh while incumbent Abhoy Mukherjee retained in the post of  general secretary.

Although the name of Preeti Shekhar from Maharashtra has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the post of president the meeting ended without disturbing the status quo. She will continue to be one of the joint secretaries of the outfit. The meeting also selected an 83-member central committee and a 25-member central secretariat. In the central committee nine are from Kerala. The induction of more women to the DYFI central committee, in tune with the decision to have at least 20 per cent women membership, is one of the major highlights of the Kochi meeting.

Out of the 25 member central secretariat five are women. The women members of the central secretariat included Preeti Shekhar, Deepa, Jerna Deb Burma, Manisha and Vintha. M Swaraj and NM Shamseer from Kerala are also in the 25- member central secretariat of the DYFI. Swaraj is also one of the five joint secretaries.  P.P. Divya, Nithin Kanichery, Biju Kandakkai, S Satheesh, A.A. Rahim, V.P. Rejeena and V.P. Sanu are the other members of the central committee from Kerala. Although the meeting has selected 83-member central committee for the outfit only 70 persons have been inducted to the committee on Sunday. The remaining will be inducted later.

Riyas braved setbacks to hog limelight in career

The DYFI’s  new national president,  Mr P.A. Mohammad Riyas, 40,  has steadily risen in the organisation through dedicated work, though he had suffered setbacks initially.     He started as DYFI unit secretary of Kottooli in Kozhikode and became  the national joint secretary.  Mr Riyas hogged the limelight when he became the LDF candidate in the Lok Sabha election from  Kozhikode in 2009.

Mr Riyas, who hails from  Kottooli in Kozhikode,   was defeated by Mr M.K. Raghavan of the Congress by a margin of  838 votes.  The candidature of Mr Riyas had allegedly caused rift in the party with the official faction choosing him bypassing bigwigs such as Mr V.V. Dakshina Moorthy and Mr P. Sreeramakrishnan.  After the debacle, Mr Riyas   involved himself more deeply in politics and represented the DYFI in prime time channel discussions. He also held various posts in the DYFI,  including as Kozhikode district president, secretary, state vie-president and state joint secretary.