Congress leader and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu today came in support of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and said that the latter was the ideal person to lead the party. He added that Rahul Gandhi has now matured as a leader and time has come for a person like him to take over the reigns of the party as well as the country. Speaking to reporters, the cricketer-turned-politician said that the party has full faith in the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, who is working really hard to convert defeats into victory. Earlier on Friday, the Congress had set the ball rolling for the party’s presidential election by issuing a poll notification. Rahul Gandhi who is expected to take over the reins of the party from her mother is likely to file his nomination papers on December 4. His mother Sonia Gandhi had held the position for 19 years now.
The Congress Working Committee in its meeting on November 20, decided the schedule for the party’s presidential election. According to the schedule, the filing of nominations will end on December 4. The last date to withdraw candidature on December 11. If needed the poll will be held on December 19. With the beginning of the nomination process, the chairman of the party’s Central Election Authority, Mullapally Ramachandran, was in his office on Friday at the party headquarters where some leaders met him and withdraw some nomination papers.
Every valid nomination paper has to be proposed by 10 state party unit delegates and a number of state units are expected to file nominations proposing Rahul Gandhi’s name as their candidate for the presidential election.
The Congress faced a huge setback yesterday after none of its candidates could win mayoral polls in the Uttar Pradesh civic polls. While the BJP win 14, the BSP won 2 mayor seats out of the total 16. In fact, the saffron party even went on to win from Rahul Gandhi’s constituency Amethi. In February too, the Congress had lost all four Assembly seats in the constituency – Amethi, Tiloi, Jagdishpur, Gauriganj and Salon.