Rahul set to don party crown

After years of tussle between old guards and young generation, the Congress on Monday finally placed its future in the hands of Rahul Gandhi.  The Congress number two is all set to be elected as president of the party after he emerged as the sole candidate for the post on expiry of the deadline for filing of nomination on Monday.

Rahul was appointed vice- president in January 2013.

Rahul will take over charge from his mother Sonia Gandhi, who has been in the saddle for 19 years.

Accompanied by a host of senior party leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul filed his papers before the party’s Central Election Committee. Sonia, one of the leaders who proposed Rahul’s name, was not present during the nomination process.

Before filing his nominations, Rahul sought the blessings of former President Pranab Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh besides his mother.

Chairman of the party’s Central Election Authority Mullapally Ramachandran said a total of 89 sets of proposals for Rahul were received. The last date for withdrawal of the candidature is December 11, when Rahul will be  formally elected as president of the party. 

“Rahul ji has been the darling of the Congress...Rahul will carry on the great traditions of the Congress party,” Manmohan told reporters at the AICC headquarters after Rahul filed his papers.

While there were several nomination forms filed on behalf of Rahul, the Congress vice-president personally filed two sets of papers. The first nomination form was filed by him and proposed by Sonia, Motilal Vora, Ahmed Patel, Mohsina Kidwai, Kamal Nath, Sheila Dikshit, Ashok Gehlot, Mukul Wasnik, Tarun Gogoi and V Narayanasamy.

The second nomination form was proposed by Manmohan, Siddaramaiah, Oscar Fernandes, P Chidambaram, Sushilkumar Shinde, Jyotiraditya Scindia, T Subbarami Reddy, Jaipal Reddy, Mukul Sangma and Anand Sharma. Three more forms were filed on behalf of Rahul by other senior leaders.

These included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ambika Soni, Amarinder Singh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, C P Joshi, Selja, KC Venugopal and Salman Khurshid, besides Janardan Dwivedi, Shivraj Patil, Meira Kumar, Harish Rawat, Avinash Pande and BK Hariprasad.

“We are very happy that Rahul ji has filed his nomination...I am confident that Rahul will turn out a very successful leader. And under his leadership, the Congress will regain power,” Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Azad said.

Taking a swipe at the BJP, he said several parties, including the ruling party which has no history of uniting the country, had issues with the nomination. “There cannot be a bigger joke than the current ruling party talking about democracy. Those who don’t believe in democracy, in people, those who have to trust in machines to win votes, are preaching us on democracy,” Azad said.

Former Union Minister Anand Sharma described it as a “historic moment” and said there are challenges before the country as the government had failed to deliver.