The election for the Congress President post will be held on 17th October, party MP and AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal informed after the CWC meeting held . The counting will be done on 19th October. The decision was taken during the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the grand old partyThe notification for the election will be issued on September 22 and the filing of nominations will begin on September 24. The last date for the nomination is September 30. Venugopal said the CWC met under Sonia Gandhi and approved the final schedule.
Congress communication in-charge Jairam Ramesh said that anyone can file a nomination to contest the election for the top party post. “We are only party to have such democratic exercise,” he said.
Former Congress chief and MP Rahul Gandhi joined the CWC meeting virtually along with party interim President Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
After the meeting, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said along with all the Congress workers, it was his personal opinion that Rahul Gandhi should take the lead and become Congress president. “He can unify and strengthen the Congress party,” he said.
A day before the CWC meet, Kharge said that the party will persuade Rahul Gandhi to take charge as the president as there was no other alternative. He said anyone aspiring to lead the party should be known throughout the country and enjoy support from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and West Bengal to Gujarat. “He should be well-recognised, accepted man to the entire Congress party. So, nobody is there (in the party with such a stature),” he said while speaking to PTI.
The Congress, which is being led by an interim chief, on Saturday called a CWC meet to approve the schedule of the presidential election. This came just a day after veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the primary membership of the party. He wrote a very damaging resignation letter in which he called Rahul Gandhi “immature” who had destroyed the decision-making process in the party.
After Azad’s resignation, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said: “Rahul Gandhi is our leader and will remain so. We don’t have a give-and-take relationship with Rahul Gandhi. It’s our duty to do something for the party. It’s not mature that people who were associated with the party for a long time leave over such a small thing.”
