Congress begins preparations to 're-elect' Sonia

September 01, 2010 00:21 IST

The Congress Party has put all preparations in place to "re-elect" Sonia Gandhi as the Congress president. A large number of nomination papers would be filed on Thursday as the festival Janmashtami which falls on that day is said to be auspicious.

In Sonia Gandhi's case, since Thursday is the last date of filing nominations for the post of party president, it is almost certain that there will be no other candidates for the post. By Thursday evening, Gandhi will effectively become party president for another term and the party will have complied with the rules and regulations regarding intra-party democracy.

The process of filing nominations began on August 27 and will end on September 2, the scrutiny of documents will take place on Friday and September 10, is the last date for withdrawal of nominations. Polling if required will take place on September 17, and the votes will be counted on September 21.

In the current scenario, since Sonia Gandhi is likely to be the only candidate for the post of party president, chief ministers, Pradesh Congress Committee presidents, Congress Legislature Party leaders, congress Working Committee members, ministers, MPs and others are likely to file various sets of nomination papers for the various party posts and this process would start from on Wednesday afternoon and on September 2, CWC members including the prime minister are expected to be present when the nomination papers are signed

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by Sonia Gandhi.

For the Congress, it is a celebration which is accompanied by much fanfare, the beating of drums, the distribution of ladoos and a congregation of the senior leaders at the party headquarters at 24 Akbar Road and at Sonia Gandhi's residence at 10 Janpath. The AICC general secretaries are expected to be in attendance and Oscar Fernandes who is the congress election authority chairman will.

Sonia Gandhi was first elected the Congress president in 1998, when the party was falling apart and a large number of people had left the party. In controvercial manner, she succeeded Sitaram Kesri and since then has been at the helm of the party, though she has not always had a unanimous elections. Jitender Prasada once contested the election against her and was defeated by a huge margin.

But after that the Congress has veered to a 'nomination culture,' to the extent that the present organizational elections have not witnessed a contest at any level with state units and the appointed pros preparing the list of delegates for both for the PCC and All India Congress Committee.

The PCC delegates are the electoral college for the president's post and 10 PCC delegates have to sign one set of nomination papers for them to be valid. In most of the states, the list of newly elected PCC delegates has already reached Oscar Fernandes and those states where the lists have been held up, will be completed in the coming days.