Congress Election: Voting will be held on Monday and counting of votes will take place on Wednesday.

Congress President Election: 

In such a situation, when the election for the

of Congress President is being prepared, for the sixth time in the history of the party's almost 137 years, there will be an electoral contest to decide who will take charge of this important post of the party.

Along with this, after 24 years if Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra do not contest for the post of party president, someone outside the Gandhi family will become the Congress

.

Voting for the party president's post will be held on Monday and the counting of votes will take place on Wednesday.

Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are pitted against each other as they are touring different states to woo over 9,000 'delegates' (members of the electoral college) of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC). .

Kharge is seen as the preferred and "unofficially official candidate" for the post and is supported by a large number of senior leaders, while Tharoor has projected himself as a change-maker.

Tharoor has raised the issue of uneven contest during his campaign, while both the candidates and the party have maintained that the Gandhi family is fair and there is no "official candidate".

Asked about the importance of the election, Congress's communication unit general secretary in-charge Jairam Ramesh told PTI, "This is actually the sixth time in the 137-year history of the Congress that there has been an internal election for the president's post. Elections are going on. "The media has mentioned 1939, 1950, 1997 and 2000 but elections were also held in 1977 when Kasu Brahmananda Reddy was elected," he said.

Ramesh said he has always believed in the Congress model of building a consensus for such posts.

He said that after the Nehru era, this stance was adopted by K.

Kamaraj had strengthened.

Without elaborating, he said, "When we have election day tomorrow, this confidence will get stronger.

The reasons for this are quite clear.

"I am not at all satisfied that organizational elections actually strengthen the organization in any way.

It may serve individual purposes, but their importance in creating a collective spirit is under doubt.

But still, having elections has its own importance, Ramesh said.

"But I consider these to be of less institutional importance than the historic Bharat Jodo Yatra, which is also a transformative initiative of the Congress for Indian politics," he said. The Congress has claimed that its internal democracy has no equal with any other party. and is the only party that has a central election authority for organizational elections.

Mahatma Gandhi's candidate P. Sitaramayya was defeated by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in the election for the post of President of the Congress in 1939.

Then in 1950, for the first time after independence, the election of the President was held in the Congress and at that time there was a contest between Purushottam Das Tandon and Acharya Kriplani.

Surprisingly, Tandon, considered close to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, won the election against the candidate of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's choice.

Then in 1977, due to the resignation of Devkant Barua, the election for the post of Congress President was held, in which K.

Brahmananda Reddy defeated Siddharth Shankar Ray and Karan Singh.

After this, the next election for the post of party president was held after 20 years in 1997.

Then there was a triangular contest between Sitaram Kesari, Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot.

Kesari was supported by all the state units of the Congress except in Maharashtra and parts of Uttar Pradesh.

He had won by a huge margin.

After this, the next election for the post of President was held in 2000 and this time Jitendra Prasad was in front of Sonia Gandhi.

Prasad had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Sonia Gandhi.

The upcoming election will certainly be historic as the new president will replace Sonia Gandhi, the longest serving president of the party.

After independence, Sitaramayya took over as AICC chief in 1948 and has led the party so far by 17 people, five of whom have been members of the Gandhi family.

Before Sitaramayya, Acharya Kriplani was the President in 1947.

Tandon became the party chief in 1950, followed by Nehru between 1951 and 1955.

After Nehru, UN Dhebar took charge of the party.

Indira Gandhi became the Congress President in 1959 and after that NS Reddy held this responsibility till 1963.

Of.

Kamaraj was the Congress President from 1964-67 while S Nijalingappa remained in this post from 1968-69.

Jagjivan Ram was the Congress President from 1970-71 and then Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma remained on it till 1972-74.

Devkant Barua was the President of the party from 1975-77.

Then in 1977-78, K.

Brahmananda Reddy was the Congress President.

Indira Gandhi again became the Congress President and from 1978-84 the command of the party remained in her hands.

From 1985 to 1991, his son Rajiv Gandhi was the Congress President.

After this, PV Narasimha Rao was the Congress President from 1992-96, after which Kesari took over and after him Sonia Gandhi became the party president.

Rahul Gandhi became the president in 2017 and then in 2019, Sonia Gandhi became the interim president of the party.

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