The Congress on Sunday delayed the election to pick a new full-time president by almost a month and announced that the poll would now be held on October 17.
The schedule of the election was approved at an online meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) that took place amid a fresh upheaval in the party due to the resignation of veteran party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad followed by his scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi for “demolishing the party’s entire consultative mechanism”.
The party had announced in October last year that the election of the new president would be held between August 21 and September 20 this year.
Sources said that the election of the Congress president seems to be delayed now to assess the mobilisation of the party during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ starting from September 7. The success of the yatra could bring Rahul back into the forefront to don the mantle of the president once again, despite his refusal to do so.
Rahul remains the "number one" and the "only" choice of the Congress rank and file for the party chief's post, senior leader Salman Khurshid said on Sunday after the meeting.
Anand Sharma, ex-PM Manmohan Singh, the party’s central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry were at the meeting.