Congress president election on Oct 17, party may get new chief by Oct 8 if only one in fray

Congress will have a new president by October 19 with the Congress Working Committee (CWC) Sunday clearing a schedule for the election to the top post that overshoots its earlier deadline by 28 days, amid the party veering to put a non-Gandhi at the helm even as the chorus for Rahul Gandhi to reclaim the leadership continues.

The voting will be held on October 17 if there is more than one candidate remaining in fray, while the counting of votes will be two days later. The process will start with the party’s central election committee headed by Madhusudan Mistry issuing the notification on September 22.

The window for filing nominations will be between September 24 and 30 while the scrutiny will take place on October 1. The date of withdrawal has been set on October 8 and the Congress could get its new president on that day itself if there is only one candidate in fray.

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The schedule was finalised by the CWC at an around 20-minute digital meeting chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi, who is in London for a medical check-up, after considering the proposal put forward by Mistry. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also attended the meeting.

"Nomination papers can be filed in Delhi only. There are around 9,000 delegates who are eligible to vote. The physical presence of the candidate is required for filing nominations,” Mistry told a press conference also attended by Congress General Secretaries K C Venugopal (Organisation) and Jairam Ramesh (Communications).

The meeting came two days after senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the party after lashing out at Rahul and Sonia. All eyes were on another senior leader Anand Sharma, who along with Azad was part of the G-23 or change-seekers, but there were no fireworks in the meeting.

Sharma told the meeting to ensure the sanctity of the electoral rolls and that it should be prominently displayed at state headquarters, sources claimed while adding that Sonia is learnt to have asked Mistry to ensure it. However, Ramesh tweeted, “There is some dubious ‘source-based’ plantation going on that questions were raised in the CWC meeting today on the Congress President's election process and schedule. This is to make absolutely clear that nobody raised any question or any doubt.”

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The CWC had in October last year fixed the August 21-September 20 window for the elections but uncertainty over who would assume the hot seat pushed the schedule beyond the deadline. Rahul has refused to assume presidentship again following which Sonia is learnt to have urged Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to take up the mantle.

"We are having a lot of agitations. We have the Bharat Jodo Yatra in between. We also want to elect the state delegates in a proper manner. There is only a 28 days delay,” Venugopal said.

Sources said the list of delegates from 7-8 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, were not prepared on time and it may take some time before the election could be rolled out.