Congress to hold elections for party president post on Oct 17; nominations from Sep 24

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Sunday approved the schedule to elect the party's president. The election for the party's chief post will be held on October 17. The counting will be done on October 19.

A notification for elections will be issued on September 22. The filing of nominations for Congress president's election will be from September 24 to September 30.

"Those you want to be the Congress president can file nominations. We are the only party to have such democratic exercise," Jairam Ramesh said in a press conference.

The virtual meeting was attended by interim chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh also attended the meeting.

Last year, the grand old party announced that the election for the post of party president would take place between August 21 and September 20, 2022. However, the elections will now take place on October 17.

Rahul Gandhi resigned as Congress president following the party's second consecutive defeat in Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Sonia Gandhi then took over as interim president had also offered to quit in August 2020 after an open rebellion by G-23 leaders, but the CWC had urged her to continue.

Several Congress leaders, including Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, have publicly exhorted Rahul Gandhi to return as the party president. However, the suspense continues on the issue.

The meeting comes two days after the resignation of senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and his letter to Sonia Gandhi where he slammed Rahul Gandhi for "demolishing the party's entire consultative mechanism".

In the past few months, Congress has witnessed some high-profile exits, including that of Ashwani Kumar, Capt Amarinder Singh, RPN Singh and Kapil Sibal.