'Rahul Gandhi will be Congress president soon': Harish Rawat after party announces to choose new chief on Oct 17

Ending speculation, the Congress on Sunday announced that elections for its president will be held on October 17 with the winner to be declared two days later, asserting that it is the only party in the country which undertaken such a democratic exercise. 

The schedule of the election was approved unanimously at an online meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) which took place amid a fresh upheaval in the party due to the shock resignation of veteran letter Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday and his stinging letter to the party president in which he lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for "demolishing the party's entire consultative mechanism".

After the meeting, senior party leader Harish Rawat said that Rahul Gandhi will soon be the next Congress president. 

“Soon Rahul ji will be the president of Congress. All of us party workers hope and request Rahul Gandhi to accept the post of Congress president,” Rawat said.

The online CWC meeting was presided over by Sonia Gandhi, who is abroad for medical checkups. She was seen flanked by former party chief Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who are accompanying her abroad.

The notification for the election will be issued on September 22, while the filing of nomination would begin on September 24 and continue till September 30, the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry told reporters after a nearly 30-minute meeting of the CWC.

The date of scrutiny of the nomination papers would be October 1, while the last date of withdrawal of nominations would be October 8.

The election, if there is more than one candidate, will take place on October 17, while counting of votes, if necessary, and the counting of votes and the declaration of results would be on October 19, Mistry said.

The Congress had announced in October last year that the election of the new party president will be held between August 21 and September 20 this year.

Sources had said earlier said that the election of the Congress president is likely to be delayed by a few weeks with the party focused on the Kanyakumari to Kashmir 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' starting September 7 and some state units not completing formalities.

The meeting of CWC took place just two days after Azad's resignation. 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.

Among those present at the meeting were Anand Sharma, who was part of the G-23, 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.

The meeting comes amid several leaders, including Gehlot, having publicly exhorted Rahul Gandhi to return as the party chief. However, uncertainty and suspense continue on the issue. Several party insiders say Rahul Gandhi is persisting with his stance that he will not be the AICC president.

Gehlot on Wednesday had sought to play down reports about him being the frontrunner for the Congress president's post and said efforts will be made till the last minute to persuade Rahul Gandhi to take over the reins of the party again.