About 9000 voters to elect Cong Prez; row over electoral list deepens
New Delhi: Over 9,000 Congress members would vote to elect the next party President, election for which would be held after a long gap 22 years on October 17.

Sitaram Kesri had defeated Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot by securing 6,224 votes
In the last such election that was held in 2000, current interim President Sonia Gandhi had defeated Jitendra Prasada, who managed just 94 out of 7,542 votes.
Prior to that, Sitaram Kesri had defeated Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot by securing 6,224 votes. Pawar had secured 882 votes, while Pilot got 354 votes.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi has, however, declined to run for the party chief’s post this time even as efforts are on to persuade him.
Senior leaders such as Mallikarjun Kharge and Salman Khurshid have said that they will try to convince Rahul Gandhi on the matter.
Ahead of the notification on the election, some Congress leaders have raised the issue of electoral rolls, saying it should be made public.
Party leaders such as Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, Karti Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor have already expressed their opinion on the issue of electoral rolls.
They have urged the party’s Central Election Authority (CEA), headed by senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry, to make the electoral rolls public by making them available on the Congress website.
However, the CEA has said that these rolls would be made available only to the candidates contesting the poll.
Congress General Secretary (Organisation), KC Venugopal, said that it (the list) is an internal matter and hence, it cannot be made public.
“The schedule for the party chief’s election has already been announced, and those who want to contest for the post should file the nomination before September 30,” he said.