Guwahati: Congress president Sonia Gandhi voted in the party’s elections to choose her successor on Monday.
“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 did so on Monday in the nation’s capital for the next president of the Indian National Congress in addition to voting with her mother Sonia Gandhi, according to ANI.
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 voted in favour of the next Congress president.
Congress MPs P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and other party officials from the Congress have also voted at the AICC office in Delhi.
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor who will face Mallikarjun Kharge, a seasoned member of the party, for the position of Congress president on Monday, claimed that regardless of the result, the revival of the grand old party had already begun and that the fate of the Indian National Congress rested with the party workers.
Tharoor claimed he was convinced he would win the poll although he realised the chances were 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.
Additionally, Tharoor claimed to have spoken with Kharge earlier in the day.
It is not the first time a non-Gandhi leader has run for the party presidency following independence; Jitendra Prasad challenged Sonia Gandhi for the position roughly 22 years ago, and she won, going on to lead the party for 20 years.
No Gandhi family member is running for president this time around.
Polls are being taken to choose the party’s national president for the sixth time in its roughly 137-year history. Rahul Gandhi won re-election as president in 2017 without facing any challengers.