Congress internal poll process likely to finish by November

New Delhi: The Congress is in the process of completing its organisational elections. The entire process is all set to be completed by November. There is also a possibility of an AICC session being called that will be chaired by the new Congress president.

Most of the states have already finished the exercise of appointing Pradesh Congress Committee members, while most of them have left the choice of selecting the All-India Congress Committee members to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. This virtually clears the way for the election of the Congress president. Insiders say that the Central Election Authority, being headed by Lok Sabha MP Mullapally Ramachandran, will be submitting the final report of elections in all the states to the Congress president early next week.

Once the elections of the states are concluded, the Central Election Committee will send the dates of the election of the Congress president to Ms Gandhi. The schedule for the election is expected to be communicated to the Congress Working Committee for its approval. At present, two states — Rajasthan and Delhi — have already unanimously passed resolution for Rahul Gandhi to take over as the new party president.

Party leaders and cadres have unequivocally demanded that Mr Gandhi should take over. Once the election schedule is announced, nominations will be called for and in all likelihood there is going to be no other nomination apart from that of Mr Gandhi. In the eventuality of no other nominations, Mr Gandhi will be elected automatically as the president post the scrutiny of nominations.

According to the party constitution, all candidates running for the top post need to get their names jointly proposed by 10 Pradesh Congress Committee delegates and the proposal should reach the CWC.

The entire process is all set to be completed by November. There is also a possibility of an AICC session being called that will be chaired by the new Congress president.