Shashi Tharoor is likely to face Ashok Gehlot in the upcoming Congress presidential poll. PTI.
New Delhi: Congress general secretary and chairman of the Central Election Authority of the party Madhusudan Mistry on Thursday issued a notification announcing the schedule for the election of the new Congress president.
The election to choose the next Congress president will be held next month on 17 October while the counting of votes will be done on 19 October. The polls will be held at all Pradesh Congress Committee offices as well as the party headquarters from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
According to the schedule, the filing of nominations will take place from 11.00 am to 3.00 pm from 24 September to 30 September. The Congress Central Election Authority will scrutinize the nominations on 1 October, after which the list of nominated candidates will be declared on the evening of the same day.
In another twist to the number of leaders eyeing the Congress chief’s post, senior leader Digvijaya Singh neither agreed to nor denied rumours when asked if he was thinking of contesting the election. The senior Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh is in the national capital for a meeting with party’s interim chief Sonia Gandhi, ahead of the organizational polls to be held on 17 October.
The last date for withdrawal of nominations is 8 October following which the final list of nominated candidates for the party chief’s post will be made public by 5.00 pm on the evening of 8 October.
Post the counting of votes, the final result will be declared at the All India Congress Committee headquarters in the national capital.”
“I, the undersigned Madhusudan Mistry, Chairman, CEA, under the power vested in me by the provision of Article XVIII of the Constitution of the Indian National Congress hereby announce that the election of the President of the Indian National Congress will be held as per the schedule released today,” the notification announcing the election schedule read.
As the clamour for Rahul Gandhi to take on the mantle of the party chief continues, the stage is perhaps now set for the Congress to get a non-Gandhi chairperson once again after decades. Some of the frontrunners who are likely to throw their hat into the ring are former diplomat and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor who met Mistry yesterday to discuss his candidature and Rajasthan chief minister and veteran party leader Ashok Gehlot, who travelled to Kochi on Wednesday night to make a last minute attempt to convince the Gandhi scion to take up the responsibility.
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