Purushottam Das Tandon

Purushottam Das Tandon was a freedom fighter who became the Congress' President in 1950. Tandon had been put forward by Sardar Patel as the presidential candidate. Tandon is said to have the image of a soft Hindu Nationalist leader. He had strong opinions against religious conversion of people and opposed religious propagation. He also strongly advocated for Hindustani, a mixture of Hindi and Urdu, being adopted as the national language of India.

Tandon had differences with Nehru who thought that his election meant that the party was giving in to communal forces. Tandon eventually resigned from the post of President due to these differences, with Nehru taking the post of President.