New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers for the post of Congress president in New Delhi on Monday, setting off the countdown to his unopposed elevation to the party’s top post.
Mullapally Ramachandran, chairman of the Congress’ central election authority, told reporters that till Sunday no other nomination had been filed.
Several leaders as well as young turks of the party had accompanied Mr Gandhi for the filing of nomination papers.
Mr Gandhi will be the sixth leader from the Nehru-Gandhi family to occupy the Congress Party’s top post. His appointment is being seen as a generational shift that holds hope for the Congress which has been reduced to 46 seats in the 542-member Lok Sabha.
Though Mr Gandhi’s political engagement and involvement in party work increased tremendously since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, insiders indicate that there will be two advisors who will be directly reporting to the new Congress president.
On several occasions Mr Gandhi has indicated that there will be a judicious mix of young and experienced leaders in the party and nobody will be left out. Mr Gandhi, who began his political career by winning the 2004 Lok Sabha election from the family bastion of Amethi, has already seen several ups and downs.
In 2006, Mr Gandhi became the general secretary of the party in-charge of frontal organisations, including the Indian Youth Congress, and was criticised for introducing internal elections as it encouraged blatant use of money power to bag tickets. The practice has since been discontinued.
Mr Gandhi also wanted to introduce primaries, like in the USA, for contesting Lok Sabha elections, a move that was heavily contested by party leaders.
