Indian National Congress president will be chosen today in polls

On Monday, October 17, 2022, elections will be held to choose the president of the Indian National Congress, the nation's venerable old party.
 

From 10 am to 4 pm today, 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committees (PCC) may use their right to vote in order to choose their new president. On October 19, local media stated that the outcome would probably be announced.

Senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are contesting  against each other for the presidential post as Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi  and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra opted out from the party's highest post.

It would be the sixth time in the party's nearly 137-year-old history that an  electoral contest would decide who would take up the mantle of the party's  president.

 Since Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are not contesting  for the party president's post, a non-Gandhi would be at the helm after over  24 years following tomorrow's polling.

 According to media reports, Kharge is considered the firm favourite and the  'unofficial official candidate' with a large number of senior leaders backing  him while Tharoor has pitched himself as the candidate of change.

During the campaign, even though Tharoor has raised issues of an uneven  playing field, both candidates and the party have maintained that the Gandhis  are neutral and that there is no "official candidate."

 Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in  the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the late 19th century, and  especially after 1920, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress  became the principal leader of the Indian independence movement.