Rahul likely to file nominations on Dec 4 for Cong prez post

Rahul Gandhi is likely to file his nomination papers for the election to the Congress president's post on December 4, party sources here said.
Details of the Congress president's election, which starts on December 1 with the issue of the notification and start of nomination filing, were today discussed with state returning officials at the party headquarters here.
The meeting was attended by central election authority chairman Mullapally Ramachandran and its member Madhusudan Mistry, who briefed the state returning officials on the process of the Congress chief's election.
The two leaders while thanking the state returning officials for their "good work" in accomplishing the task of holding organisational polls so far, sought their support for the final phase of election of party president.

Sources said the state returning officials were asked to ensure that the nomination papers proposing Gandhi for the party president's post should be filed properly and there should be no lacunae in them.
Ten PCC delegates from each state unit will file a set of nomination papers proposing Gandhi's name. Delegates from each state are likely to file more than one nomination paper, the sources said.

"It is a foregone conclusion that each delegate will back Gandhi's nomination," another source said.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and other top party leaders are also likely to propose the candidature of Gandhi.

The notification for the election will be issued on Friday. Nominations can be filed till December 4. Following the scrutiny of nominations on December 5, the list of valid candidatures will be put out on the same day at 3:30 pm.
The last date of withdrawal of nomination for the election is December 11 and polling will take place on December 16 in case more than one candidate is in the race. Counting of votes and declaration of results will take place on December 19.
However, the sources said that no other contender is expected to challenge Gandhi.
Meanwhile, forms were distributed today to state returning officials appointed by the party for the organisational polls.