With Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi set to take over the reins of the party by the end of October or early November, a series of events have been set in motion in the organisation, in a rather orchestrated manner which will lead up to his coronation.
A clamour for Rahul as Congress president is being made in the party, as state units of the party are in the process of finalising their list of delegates to the PCCs as well as the AICC. According to a senior leader overseeing the process, most of the states have finalised their list of delegates, who will be eligible to vote in the election for the post of Congress President. The process should be complete in a few days' time, he said.
While finalising the list of delegates, the state units, which are also supposed to elect the PCC President, have asked the Congress leadership to make a nomination to the post. They are also going to pass a resolution requesting Rahul to assume the post of party president.
Once the process gets completed at the state level, a schedule for the election of Congress President will be finalised by the Central Election Authority of the party, and will be submitted to the party chief, Sonia Gandhi. The Congress Working Committee will have to give its approval to the schedule.
The process of election of the party president will comprise, a date for filing the nominations, followed by scrutiny, a date for withdrawal, polling and then announcement of the result.
For a candidate's name to be considered for the top post, it should be jointly proposed by ten PCC delegates. In the event of only one name getting nominated, as there will not be any contest, the name of the new Congress President will be announced as soon as the nomination is scrutinised.
The estimate is that Rahul's name as the new Congress President could well be announced by the end of October. It is expected that in November, probably coinciding with the birthday of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on November 19, an AICC Session would be held, where Rahul will formally take over as Congress President.
“Organisational elections are on. And when these elections will be complete, in almost a month's time, you will not need to ask this question,” said Randeep Surjewala, AICC Communications in-charge.
