Sonia set to be re-elected Cong chief
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is all set to be re-elected as the party president for a fourth time consecutively when the election for this post will be held on July 25 next month.
The AICC’s central election authority (CEA), headed by Mr Oscar Fernandes, is currently undergoing the process of organisational elections. It has decided to hold the party presidential election on July 25.
Mrs Gandhi became the president of the Indian National Congress for a first time in April 1998. Later, she had won the presidential contest against the late Jitendra Prasad in 1999-2000. This was held against the backdrop of the party’s defeat in the general election. In 2004—05, she got elected unopposed.
She became the chief of the -party at a time when it lost two Lok Sabha elections held in 1996 and 1998 continuously. But the third defeat in 1999 was an eye-opener for the Congress, compelling it to think about a coalition at the Centre by consolidating the anti-BJP parties. This strategy has paid well.
The Congress Party under her leadership has gone a long way — from the Panchmarhi brain-storming session in 1998 to Vichar Manthan Shivir held in Shimla in 2003 after realising that it cannot defeat the BJP-led NDA on its own.
The Congress won over its one-time arch adversary, the DMK, in Tamil Nadu, brought the NCP closer at the national level and involved the RJD and LJP in a non-NDA front before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. It also sought help from the Left outside West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura to unseat the NDA.
Before that, Mrs Gandhi had made it clear that she was not in the race for the Prime Minister’s post at a rally in Mumbai.
After the victory in the elections the Congress Party had unanimously elected her as its Leader in Parliament and she was, therefore, expected to be sworn in as Prime Minister. However, she declined to accept the position.
Meanwhile, the AICC sources said all members of the Pradesh Congress Committees constitute the electoral college of this election.
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