Sonia Gandhi likely to be elected Cong prez again

NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi is likely to be re-elected as Congress president during the organisational election process of the country's oldest political party starting on Friday.

The election process will start tomorrow and conclude on July 25, and District Congress Committees have published preliminary list of party members, sources said.

Gandhi is the longest serving president of Congress and has completed a dozen years after she was persuaded by partymen in 1998 to take over the reins to revitalise the organisation. She is likely to be elected again, the party sources said.

She has since been elected thrice to the top party post and there has never been any challenge to her.

Sources in the party said detailed plans have been chalked out for the five phase organisational polls and the elections at the primary unit level will be completed by April 30, at block level by May 31, at DCC level by June 27.

Elections at PCC level including election of AICC members and election of Congress President will be concluded by July 25. The election of Congress Working Committee members will take place at the time of the next plenary session, the date of which is expected after the party chief's election.

To commemorate completion of 125 years of its formation, Congress has released a calendar having photographs of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi's famous Dandi March features in the calendar. One of the pictures of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi reads with a slogan Congress dedicated to the country.