Rahul Gandhi or a new face? Congress to elect its president on October 17

The notification for Congress president's election will be issued on September 22, while the filing of nomination will begin on September 24 and continue till September 30. The election, if required, will take place on October 17.

The election for the Congress president post will be held on October 17 and the counting will be conducted on October 19, if required. The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, met on Sunday to approve the schedule for the election of the next AICC president.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi joins CWC meeting virtually along with Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.(ANI)

The notification for the party president's election will be issued on September 22, while the filing of nomination will begin on September 24 and continue till September 30. The election, if required, will take place on October 17.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi joined the CWC meeting virtually along with Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The virtual CWC meeting began at 3:30pm.

The Congress Working Committee met on Sunday August 28th under the chairmanship of Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi.

Schedule of dates for Congress president poll:

1. Date of notification: September 22

2. Dates of filing of nomination: September 24 to September 30 between 11am and 3 pm

3. Date of scrutiny: October 1

4. Last date of withdrawal: October 8

5. Date of election (if needed): October 17 between 10am and 4pm

6. Date of counting and declaration of result (if needed): October 19 at 10am

The meeting came days after the resignations of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad and young leader Jaiveer Shergill. In his resignation letter to party president Sonia Gandhi in which Azad had lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for “demolishing the party's entire consultative mechanism”.

Among others present were Anand Sharma, who was part of the G-23 dissident group, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, K C Venugopal, former union ministers Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik and P Chidambaram and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot along with his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel.

Party sources had earlier said the process of the election of the president will be delayed by a few weeks, not more than that, and the party should have a full-time president in October.

The Congress had announced in October last year that the election of the new party president will be held between August 21 and September 20 this year.

The CWC had last year decided that elections for block committees and one member each of state Congress units will be held from April 16 to May 31, district committee chiefs will be elected between June 1 and July 20, state chiefs and AICC members between July 21 and August 20, and AICC president between August 21 and September 20.

Several party insiders say Rahul Gandhi is persisting with his stance that he will not be the AICC president.

Gehlot on Wednesday had sought to play down reports about him being the frontrunner for the Congress president's post and said efforts will be made till the last minute to persuade Rahul Gandhi to take over the reins of the party again.

Gehlot's remarks had come a day after he met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, triggering the buzz that the two may have discussed the possibility of him being the next party president.

Rahul Gandhi had resigned as Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in parliamentary elections in 2019. Sonia Gandhi who took over the reins of the party again as interim president had also offered to quit in August 2020 after an open revolt by a section of leaders, referred to as G-23, but the CWC had urged her to continue.

(With inputs from PTI)