Rahul Gandhi likely to be elevated to Congress president before Gujarat Assembly election, reports say

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is likely to take over as the party president before the Gujarat elections, according to several media reports. According to The Indian Express, party sources claim that Rahul might take over the reins of the Congress before 9 December, when the first phase of Gujarat polls will be held. The report quoted another Congress leader as saying that Rahul may even take charge of the party by the end of November. The report added that the actual election process will take another 12 to 14 days to be completed. NDTV reported that the Congress’ central election authority suggested keeping 1 December as the last date for filing nominations. An election, if required, would be conducted on 8 December. [caption id=“attachment_4217497” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] “If only one nomination is filed, it will be announced on date of withdrawal of nominations that he is the president since there is no other nomination,” NDTV quoted Congress leader Janardhan Dwivedi as saying on Saturday. As Rahul is expected to be the only candidate in the fray, the Congress is expected to have a new president by 1 December, the report added. The latest development comes in the backdrop of the Congress party’s much-awaited working committee meeting on Monday. The meeting at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence will approve the schedule of electing the next party president. The meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the Congress, is scheduled to take place at 10.30 am at 10 Janpath. Party leaders say though it is not necessary to convene a formal meeting of the CWC to approve the schedule of the presidential election, Sonia Gandhi has decided to get the approval of the party’s highest decision-making body. With inputs from PTI