New Delhi, September 03: Sonia Gandhi was formally declared re-elected to the post of Congress president today for a record fourth time, having steered the party through turbulent and choppy seas to the numero uno slot in the country’s polity.
Ms Gandhi was the only candidate to file her nomination for the post of President of the 125-year-old party.
Her nomination papers were found valid yesterday. Ms Gandhi is the longest serving Congress President.
She had taken over the post from Sitaram Kesari after the Congress’s crushing defeat in the 1998 Lok Sabha election.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi and several other prominent party leaders proposed Ms Gandhi’s name for re-election to the post yesterday.
”A total of 56 papers were filed, out of which one from Chandigarh was found invalid after scrutiny as it carried the signature of only nine persons,” Returning officer for the election and senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes told reporters.
He said since no other papers were to be scrutinised, the process was completed yesterday itself.
”Ms Gandhi will be handed over the certificate of her election to the post tomorrow after 1630 hrs when the deadline for withdrawal of nomination ends,” said Mr Fernandes yesterday. The working Committee would also be dissolved and a steering committee formed to do its job till the plenary session of the party at which the new working committee would elected, he added.
The date for the plenary session would decided by the steering
committee.
He also said that PCC elections, which were scheduled to be held on September 17 along with polling for the Congress President’s post because their members were the voters, could now be rescheduled by state party leaderships as the election to party President’s post did not require voting Maximum four nomination papers for Ms Gandhi were filed from Uttar Pradesh.
Asked about the bar in the Opposition BJP on contesting president’s election more than twice and why the Congress also was not adopting this democratic process, AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi who also addressed the news conference along with Mr Fernandes yesterday, said the Congress was only democracy by re-proposing the name of Ms Gandhi as ”this is the decision of the party workers.”
Not only four times, the party would elect her 40 times if the workers so desired, he added.
–UNI