Rahul Gandhi is unlikely to contest for Congress president post as he will not return from amidst Bharat Jodo Yatra to Delhi, party sources said. The Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra will cover a distance of 3,570 km in 150 days. It started from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7 and will conclude in Jammu and Kashmir.
Presently, the yatra is in Kerala and will enter Karnataka on September 29. The last date for nomination is September 30, news agency ANI reported. Congress had last month announced that the elections for its president will be held on October 17. The result will be declared on October 19.
The yatra, which entered Kerala on the evening of September 10, will go through the state covering 450 km, touching seven districts over a period of 19 days.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi participates in a snake boat race exhibition in Punnamada Lake of Kerala
Meanwhile, amid buzz over the Congress president polls, the party's general secretary organisation K C Venugopal met AICC chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday. Sources said organisational matters and those related to the presidential polls were on the agenda of the meeting.
Venugopal, who had been participating in the padyatra in Kerala, flew down to the national capital to meet Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence.
The meeting comes at a time when the Congress is likely to see a contest for the post of party chief with Shashi Tharoor looking set to enter the fray after his meeting with Sonia Gandhi and Ashok Gehlot being seen as the other contender. Tharoor met Sonia Gandhi on Monday and expressed his intention to contest the polls. The Congress president is learnt to have conveyed to Tharoor that she would stay "neutral" in the elections, according to sources.
Gandhi welcomed the idea of more people contesting the polls and dispelled the notion that there would be an "official candidate", sources said. Rajasthan Chief Minister Gehlot is being considered as a candidate for the top post favoured by the present dispensation, according to some sources. Gehlot, however, denies that he is a candidate and has been saying that he will try and convince Rahul Gandhi to contest.
The process for filing nominations for the election will be held from September 24 to 30.
Notably, the Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand units of Congress have passed resolutions to make Rahul Gandhi the national president of the party.
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