New Delhi: The process to elect the president of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) is going on. As part of it, the party’s central election authority (CEA) chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Tuesday handed over a list of delegates to party president Sonia Gandhi, sources said. The delegates can vote to elect party president. In a tweet, party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “@INCIndia is only party with a well-established process to elect its President, which is free & transparent. Today, chairman of our Central Election Authority, @MD_Mistry, presented to SMt. Sonia Gandhi the final list of delegates of electoral college & her QR coded voter ID card.”
After the meeting, Mistry said the Congress treasurer Pawan Kumar Bansal had taken a nomination form from the CEA. It was, however, not clear whether he would file the nomination or not, party sources said.
According to Mistry, Tharoor and Bansal have so far taken the nomination forms from the CEA. Sources said that the party might rule out Ashok Gehlot from the president’s post. Therefore, Kumari Selja could be considered for the top post, but Rahul Gandhi’s choice is KC Venugopal. Meanwhile, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath made it clear that he would not contest for the post of AICC president and would work for the party in the state.
After the political developments in Rajasthan, the Congress leadership has begun to think about the plan B. It may choose anyone among Mukul Wasnik, Mallikarjun Kharge and Kumar Selja. September 30 is the last day for nomination.
