Subhramitra Gogoi files his papers in Jorhat on Wednesday. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, Nov. 19: The sons of three prominent Congress leaders are in the race for the presidentship of the Assam Youth Congress, which has seen a sharp fall in its strength from over eight lakh members in 2012 to less than three lakh as on today.

While Pranjal Ghatowar is the son of former Union minister and tea community leader Paban Singh Ghatowar, Manash Bora, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha Primaries from Guwahati, is the son of cabinet minister Akon Bora. Santanu Bora is the son of sitting MP Pankaj Bora.

All are active members of the organisation with Pranjal and Manash being the general secretary and president of the Dibrugarh and Guwahati Lok Sabha constituencies of the youth Congress respectively. Santanu is the general secretary of the Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency.

The contest, however, is going to be between Pranjal, Manash, Hiranya Bhuyan, the Tezpur Lok Sabha general secretary, who is said to enjoy the backing of cabinet minister Rakibul Hussain and Subhramitra Gogoi, an alumnus of Delhi University and general secretary of the outgoing committee, from a non-political background

Filing of nominations for the post of the presidents of the Youth Congress’s Vidhan Sabha, Lok Sabha and state committee’s of the Assam state committee was held today at all the Lok Sabha headquarters in the state.

Elections will be held on December 4 and 5 and the counting on December 7.

Speaking to The Telegraph after filing his nomination, Subhramitra said, “I have earlier served as the general secretary of APYC and secretary (NSUI). At present, I am national office bearer of the IYC. I am confident of winning the election as I had been closely associated with the Youth Congress having started from scratch,” he said.

Like Gogoi, several members of the outgoing committee are in the fray for the top post such as Purabi Roy, Migam Pegu and Poly Hazarika, who filed their nominations today.

However, a major concern among youth worker was the dip in membership, which they attributed to the free flow of money in the elections and the surge of the BJP. “A lot of money is required to contest Youth Congress polls, anything between Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore. Not everyone has that kind of money,” a youth worker said.