Rahul Gandhi is the only candidate in the fray with a valid nomination for the Congress Presidential election, Returning Officer of the Election Commission M Ramachandran said on Monday, ANI reported. Gandhi had filed his nomination papers for the post of party president on Monday.
“A total of 89 nomination papers, all proposing the name of Rahul Gandhi, have been received,” a statement released by All India Congress Committee said. “We have scrunitised each nomination paper and found all the 89 papers valid.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mocked the Opposition party’s election process and criticised Rahul Gandhi’s impending elevation as the party’s president. Modi said Rahul Gandhi’s rule as party president would be like “Aurangzeb raj”. The rule of Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor, marked the slow decline of the empire.
Maharashtra Congress Secretary Shehzad Poonawalla had also questioned the election process and claimed it was rigged.
Gandhi’s mother Sonia Gandhi has been the longest-serving party president so far, after having taken over the party in 1998.
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