Rahul to file his nomination for post of Cong prez today

NEWDELHI: Rahul Gandhi will file his nomination for the post of Congress president on Monday, the last day of filing papers to contest the elections for the top job in the grand old party.

All top leaders, including former PM Manmohan Singh, are expected to propose his name. The 47-year-old’s election to the post unopposed is a mere formality as no one from the party is yet to file the nominations.

About 50-55 sets of nomination papers from all states are expected to be filed on his behalf.

As per the Congress constitution, it is not necessary for Rahul to personally file the nominations. Ten Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates are required to seek his consent on the nomination papers.

Rahul’s nomination papers will then be submitted before the Central Election Authority (CEA), a party panel that is overseeing the organisational polls.

While the notification for the elections was issued on Friday, nominations were to be filed till Monday, with the last date of withdrawal being December 11. Polling, if necessary, will be held on December 16 while counting of votes will be on December 19.

Though the formal results will be declared on December 11, the outcome will be known on the day of scrutiny of papers on December 5 itself if no other nomination is filed. Rahul will be handed over a certificate on December 11, the day a function has been planned at Congress headquarters here.

This will mark the end of the organisational polls in the Congress, which had to complete the entire process by December 31 as per the deadline set by the Election Commission.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, is also expected to be reconstituted soon.

According to the Congress constitution, the president enjoys a three-year term starting from his/her appointment during the session. During the interim period of election and formal appointment at the plenary, the person acts as the president-elect.

Rahul’s election will herald a new era in the 132-year-old party and bring down the curtains on the long tenure of Sonia Gandhi. He will be the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to occupy the post. Seventy-year-old Sonia holds the record of being Congress chief for more than 19 consecutive years after taking over from Sitaram Kesri in March 1998. During her tenure, she had to face contest only once. She defeated Jitendra Prasada — who served as political adviser to former PMs Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao — in a one-sided contest on November 9, 2000.