Akhilesh, Yuvraj, MaryKom, Mamta Sharma among India TV Yuva Award winners

New Delhi, Feb 19: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was given the most popular youth icon India TV Yuva Award in the politics (male) category at a glittering event here on Monday night. Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil gave Yadav the award in the presence of politicians, industrialists, actors and eminent sportsmen.Chhavi Rajawat, a young MBA-educated girl working as a sarpanch in Rajasthan village bagged the India TV Yuva Award for best youth icon in the politics (female) category. Yoga guru Swami Ramdev gave Rajawat the award. Team India cricketer Yuvraj Singh was given the best youth icon (male) award in the sports category by BJP president Rajnath Singh.Olympic bronze winning Manipur boxer MaryKom got the best youth icon (female) award in the sports category. Her husband accepted the award in her absence from Surface Transport Minister C P Joshi. Among TV actors, Pratyusha Banerjee, better known as Anandi in the serial Balika Vadhu bagged the best TV actor (female) award. She accepted the award from Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi. Siddharth Shukla, best known as Collector Saheb in Balika Vadhu, accepted the best TV actor (male) award from Congress leader Ambika Soni. Balaji Telefilms owner Ekta Kapoor bagged the best youth icon (female) award in the Business category. She accepted the offer from Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj. Indiabulls group co-owners Sameer Gehlaut and Rajiv Rattan won the best youth icon (male) award in Business category. Rajiv Rattan accepted the award from former Team India captain Kapil Dev. In the Music category, Mamta Sharma won the best youth icon (female) award, while Sonu Nigam won the best youth icon (male) award. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde gave the awards to Mamta Sharma and Sonu Nigam respectively. Three youth icon awards were also given in the Special category. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid gave the award in special category to Bollywood actor John Abraham.Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit gave the award in special category to Manish Paul. Another special category award was given to Bollywood actor Rani Mukherjee, who sent a message, as she was shooting in Maldives. India TV Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma said the Yuva Awards given to youth icons in the fields of politicis, sports, music, television and business were an aspirational salute to young men and women, who through their grit and determination have inspired people and have shown exemplary leadersip and extraordinary excellence with achievements much bigger than their age. The winners were decided on the basis of a stringent process of nominations through a nationwide research by a well known research agency followed by audience votes.The esteemed Jury was chaired by Sarod Maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and included the Chairman & editor in chief, India TV Rajat Sharma, cricketing legend Kapil Dev, VLCC founder Padmshri Vandana Luthra and Prof. Pushpesh Pant.