NewDelhi, Oct 17: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday cast her vote in the party’s polls to elect her successor.
“I have been waiting for a long time,” Sonia Gandhi said when she was asked by media persons on the poll. Sonia Gandhi cast her vote at the headquarters of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also accompanied her mother Sonia Gandhi and cast her vote for the next president of the Indian National Congress in the national capital on Monday, ANI reported.
Voting for the party’s presidential polls commenced at 10 am today and will culminate at 4 pm. Results will be declared on October 19. The fate of the Congress party will be decided by over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates who comprise the Electoral College for electing the party chief.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also cast his vote to choose the new Congress president. Congress MPs P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and other party leaders have also cast their votes at the AICC office in Delhi.
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, who is pitted against party veteran Mallikarjun Kharge for the post of the Congress president on Monday, said the revival of the grand old party has begun whatever the outcome and that the fate of the Indian National Congress lies in the hands of the party workers.
Tharoor said he was confident of winning the election but acknowledged the odds against him. “I am confident. The fate of the Congress party is in the hands of party workers. The odds have been stacked against us as the party leaders and establishment were overwhelmingly with the other candidate,” Tharoor told media persons at Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram today.
Tharoor also said he had spoken to Kharge earlier in the day. It is not the first time that a non-Gandhi leader is contesting for the party presidency post-Independence, Jitendra Prasad contested for the post of the president about 22 years ago against Sonia Gandhi in which she emerged as a winner holding the mantle of the party for 20 years.
Sonia Gandhi is the party’s longest-serving president, having held the office for over twenty years from 1998 to 2017 and since 2019.
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