Sonia Gandhi all set to be re-elected Cong chief for 4th term

NEW DELHI: With only her nomination papers being filed, Sonia Gandhi will be re-elected unopposed as the Congress President for the fourth consecutive term and the announcement is expected to be made on Friday.

Today was the last day of filing nominations. 55 five sets of nominations were filed on behalf of 63-year-old Gandhi.

"The declaration could be made tomorrow and a certificate would be handed over to the Congress president at AICC headquarters," Oscar Fernandes, chairman of the Central Election Authority of the party told reporters.

The first group which met Gandhi and proposed her name for the top post in the party was led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The other groups comprising Cabinet Ministers and Congress Working Committee members was led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi was part of another group of proposers, which was led by party treasurer Motilal Vora.

Rahul filed the nomination papers on behalf of Gandhi before Fernandes.

Fernandes said the Working committee would be dissolved after the formal announcement of Gandhi's name as party president.

He said a steering committee would be formed till the Plenary of the party, likely to be held by December this year.

Among those who proposed her name included party chief ministers, including Sheila Dikshit of Delhi, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan and Bhupinder Singh Hooda of Haryana.

The nominations were submitted to Fernandes, who is the returning officer for the poll.

Earlier, Singh, Rahul and Mukherjee met Gandhi at her 10-Janpath residence and took her consent for candidature.

Union Minister R P N Singh said that the party believes in democratic process and the election for the post of Congress president is taking that process forward.

"Gandhi has taken the reins of the party when it was in the decline. It has been a great journey for Congress since then," he told reporters.

The election process was set in motion last week with the issue of the notification.

Gandhi has created a record for the longest tenure as Congress chief by steering the party since April 1998 when she replaced the late Sitaram Kesri.

Only once she had to face a contest with senior leader Jitendra Prasada throwing his hat in the ring a decade back but she had defeated him.

The electoral college for the Congress President's election comprises 7,946 PCC delegates.