Election for the post of Congress President will be be held on 17 October, with the counting to be done on 19 October, announced the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body on Sunday, 28 August.
The CWC held a virtual meeting to approve the exact schedule of dates for the election of the Congress president.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi joined the meeting virtually from abroad as she is travelling for medical check-ups. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too have accompanied her.
There have been several calls by leaders publicly exhorting Rahul Gandhi to become the party chief again but uncertainty and suspense continue to loom over the party's presidency conundrum.
The Central Election Authority of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has released the schedule for the election to the post of Congress President.
Nominations will be accepted from 24-30 September. The last date of withdrawal is 8 October.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “Anyone can file nomination to contest the Congress president poll; we are the only party to have such a democratic exercise.”
The CWC reiterated its resolve to hold the 'Mehangai Par Halla Bol' rally, in protest against the price rise of everyday commodities, in New Delhi on 4 September; and the launch of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' – Rahul Gandhi’s biggest mass-contact programme till date, that will be held across 12 states, covering 3,500 km in over 150 days.
Rahul Gandhi had resigned as the Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in the 2019 parliamentary elections.
Sonia Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party again as the 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.
The CWC meet comes days after the shocking resignation of former Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad who accused Rahul Gandhi of “demolishing the party’s entire consultative mechanism”.
Azad’s departure from the Congress was followed by the resignation of eight MLAs and ex legislators from the party in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.
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