Sonia all set to be Congress President for record fourth term

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) Indian politician Sonia Gandhi is
all set to be re-elected as the ruling Congress party
President for a record fourth term this week with the polls
for the top party post likely to be an uncontested affair.
The last date for filing nominations for the election is
September 2, a day on which several sets of nomination papers
are expected to be filed on behalf of 63-year-old Gandhi.
The filing can either take place on that day, on which
the Indian festival Janmashtami falls, or a day earlier with
top party leaders including the country's Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee and
Gandhi's son Rahul Gandhi among those submitting the
proposals.
The process for the election was set into motion two
days back with the issue of notification.
Though the last day of the withdrawal of nominations is
September 10, it will be clear whether Gandhi is going to be
elected unopposed or not on September 2 itself.
Gandhi, who is also the UPA Chairperson, has ensured
power for the Congress via the coalition route. She led a
Congress-led alliance to victory in 2004 after eight long
years of political wilderness for the party.
This was the first experiment of Congress sharing power
at the Centre and it has also entered into a second term in
power in coalition after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Gandhi has created a record of having the longest tenure
as Congress chief by steering the party since April 1998 when
she replaced the late Sitaram Kesri.
Only once she had to face a contest with senior leader
Jitendra Prasada throwing his hat in the ring a decade back
but she had defeated him in the election.
As per the schedule for the election finalised recently
at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), scrutiny
of nominations will be held on September 3, last date of
withdrawal is September 10, and date of polls, if necessary,
is September 17.
Counting of votes will be held on September 21. This is
also the schedule for the election of the PCC presidents in
various states.
PCC delegates, who constitute a total of 7946, are the
electoral collage for the Congress President's election, which
is held in Delhi as also in party headquarters in states. PTI
AMR
MYR


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