Election for Congress president takes place on Oct 17

By Our Special Correspondent

The Congress Working Committee (WCC) on Sunday decided to hold the election for the party president on October 17. The meeting had some uncomfortable moments after Ghulam Nabi Azad quit the party, leveling damaging allegations against Rahul Gandhi. G-23 leader Anand Sharma raised questions on the electoral roll.

He said there was no clarity regarding PCC representatives or the 9,000 members of the Electoral College, thereby pointing fingers at the sanctity of the process. Congress President Sonia Gandhi is understood to have agreed with him that more clarity is needed.

Significantly, soon after the CWC schedule was announced, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and another G-23 member Prithviraj Chavan said, "We will be happy if Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot contests", while Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Don't like, the party cannot survive if someone is made a "puppet president".

The CWC meeting chaired by party president Sonia, who is abroad with her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for a medical check-up, unanimously approved the schedule placed before Congress election authority chief Madhusudan Mistry.

As per the schedule announced by the party, the deadline for filing nominations is from September 24 to September 30. The last date for withdrawal is October 8 and if there is more than one candidate, the election will be held on October 17 counting of votes and declaration of results on October 19.

The last time Congress contested for the post of president was in 2001 when Jitendra Prasad contested against Sonia.

Some G-23 leaders later said that Mistry's announcement that the lists would be made available to the PCCs before the start of nomination meant that even the PCCs did not know who the representatives from a state were.

Addressing a press conference after the CWC meeting, AICC general secretary in charge of communication Jairam Ramesh announced: “No questions were raised at the CWC.