Rahul Gandhi only valid candidate in fray for Congress President post, says Returning Officer

Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took one step forward towards the formal process of being elevated as the Congress President. 

Returning Officer M Ramachandran after scrutiny of nomination papers have declared that the Gandhi scion is the lone valid candidate left in the fray. Infact he was the only one who had filed nomination for the post on Monday. The formal ratification that the process has gone through without any glitch was confirmed by the Returning Officer. 

89 nomination papers all proposing names of #RahulGandhi have been received, have scrutinized each &found all valid. There is now only one validly nominated candidate that is Rahul Gandhi left in the fray for Congress president election: M Ramachandran, Returning officer

— ANI (@ANI) December 5, 2017

There is now only one validly nominated candidate that is #RahulGandhi left in the fray for Congress president election: M Ramachandran, Returning officer pic.twitter.com/h3TZPZ5Y7D

— ANI (@ANI) December 5, 2017

On Monday, amidst much fanfare, Rahul filed papers at the Congress’s 24 Akbar Road headquarters in New Delhi. The party sought to project the election as democratic to counter the BJP’s charges of dynastic politics.  The Congress had missed many deadlines and the Election Commission had asked it to conclude the election process by December 31.  Sonia was the first to nominate her son. She signed the papers at her next door home. As many as 89 nominations were filed, all of them in favour of Rahul, signed by 890 delegates representing 30 state Congress units. Celebrations for Rahul’s coronation have been kept for December 28 to coincide it with the party’s foundation day. 

Rahul first met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former President Pranab Mukherjee to seek their blessings and then went to the party office where he hugged senior party leaders Sheila Dikshit and Mohsina Kidwai.  The party said that two more exercises -- scrutiny of nominations on December 5 and withdrawal of nominations on December 11 – were still to be done. But Rahul’s elevation is a mere formality. 

The 47-year-old has been the Congress’s vice-president for almost five years. Sonia has been the party’s longest serving president. She has been leading the Congress for 19 years since 1998.