The meeting comes in the backdrop of the shock resignation of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday
The meeting comes in the backdrop of the shock resignation of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday
The Congress Working Committee (CWC), which met virtually on August 28, decided to hold the election for the party’s full-time president on October 17.
Approve the schedule for the election of the next AICC president, the CWC said the notification for the election will be issued on September 22 while the filing of nomination will begin on September 24. The last day to file nomination will be September 30. The election for the post of president will be held on October 17. Counting of votes, if necessary, and the declaration of results would be on October 19.
The meeting comes amid a fresh upheaval in the party due to the shock resignation of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday and his letter to party president Sonia Gandhi in which he lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for “demolishing the party’s entire consultative mechanism”.
The Congress, dealing with the fallout of a series of high profile exits, including that of Kapil Sibal and Ashwani Kumar, has attempted to deflect the latest blow by alleging that Azad’s DNA had been “Modi-fied” and linking his resignation to the end of his Rajya Sabha tenure.
The online CWC meeting started at 3:30 p.m. with Sonia Gandhi, who is abroad for medical check ups, presiding over it, flanked by former party chief Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra
The election schedule was approved unanimously, the party’s General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said.
Among others present were Anand Sharma, who was part of the G-23 dissident group, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party’s central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, K C Venugopal, former Union Ministers Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik and P. Chidambaram and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot along with his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel.
(With inputs from PTI)
