The Congress is set to get a new president on Wednesday. The counting began at 10 am and the winner will be declared the same day.
Former Union Ministers Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are in the fray and it will be for the first time in 24 years that the party will get a party chief who does not belong to the Nehru-Gandhi family. The new president will take place of Sonia Gandhi who had been serving as interim president after Rahul Gandhi stepped down from the post following the party’s debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The result is likely to be declared between 3 pm to 4 pm. The ballot boxes from the state headquarters have reached the counting place in the Congress office.
The Chairman of the Central Election Authority will announce the result after counting. More than 9,500 delegates cast their votes in the presidential election which took place at the culmination of the party’s organisational polls.
Sources said seven-eight tables will be set up for counting of votes and each table will have two persons
Congress sources said the elected president will take charge after Diwali in the presence of senior leaders in a programme at the Congress headquarters.
It has not been decided whether the certificate will be given to the winner on Wednesday or later.