NEW DELHI, Sep 3: Over 9,000 Congress members would vote to elect the next party president, election for which would be held after a long gap 22 years on October 17.
In the last such election that was held in 2000, current interim president Sonia Gandhi had defeated Jitendra Prasada, who managed just 94 out of 7,542 votes.
Prior to that, Sitaram Kesri had defeated Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot by securing 6,224 votes. Pawar had secured 882 votes, while Pilot got 354 votes.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has, however, declined to run for the party chief’s post this time even as efforts are on to persuade him.
Senior leaders such as Mallikarjun Kharge and Salman Khurshid have said that they will try to convince Rahul Gandhi on the matter.
Ahead of the notification on the election, some Congress leaders have raised the issue of electoral rolls, saying it should be made public.
Party leaders such as Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, Karti Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor have already expressed their opinion on the issue of electoral rolls. They have urged the party’s Central Election Authority (CEA), headed by senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry, to make the electoral rolls public by making them available on the Congress website.
However, the CEA has said that these rolls would be made available only to the candidates contesting the poll.
According to party sources, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has emerged front-runner for the post of the Congress president — being seen as choice of interim chief Sonia Gandhi even as some want the return of Rahul Gandhi.
According to poll schedule, the date of issuance of notification is September 22, while nominations can be filed between 11 am and 3 pm from September 24 to 30. The scrutiny will be done on October 1. The polling would be held from 10 am to 4 pm on October 17 at all Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters. The counting of votes will be held on October 19. (IANS)
