No celebrations allowed at Congress HQ; Rahul met Pranab Mukherjee, Manmohan Singh before submitting his nomination papers.
New Delhi: The Congress party kept Rahul Gandhi’s nomination filing process a low-key affair Monday.
There was an unusual rush at 24, Akbar Road, the party headquarters, hours before Rahul came to file his nomination for the post of Congress president in the morning.
Armed with drums and firecrackers, the crowd comprising his supporters from across the country was ready to celebrate the occasion. But party functionaries at the office told them not to do any such thing.
“It’s an organisational election and the process is still on. Let’s wait for the final declaration of the Rahulji getting elected. Today was just the nomination day,” said Congress media in-charge Randeep Surjewala, addressing Rahul’s supporters.
The Congress vice-president had left his residence at 12 Tughlaq Lane at 10.30 am and gone straight to meet former prime minister Manmohan Singh at the latter’s residence.
After spending a few minutes there, Rahul headed to meet former President Pranab Mukherjee. He welcomed Rahul with flowers and applied tilak on his forehead.
At the same time, Mukherjee spoke about past Congress presidents during his brief conversation with Rahul and said he deserved to be Congress president.
Rahul then went to meet his mother and incumbent Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, at 10, Janpath.
Senior leaders, including Ahmed Patel, Motilal Vora, Anand Sharma, Sheila Dikshit and Mohsina Kidwai were all present there to welcome Rahul.
Rahul filed his nomination papers there and came to the party office, accompanied by senior Congress leaders, to submit them to the election committee headed by M. Ramachandran.
A total of 89 sets of nominations endorsed by 890 Congress delegates were filed with the election committee. Monday was the last day for filing nominations.
“We will scrutinise the nomination tomorrow and wait till the last day of withdrawal, 11 December. Until then, you have to wait for the final announcement,” said Ramachandran.
Senior Congress functionaries from several states had come to endorse Rahul’s nomination.
But Rahul quietly left the Congress office after filing the nomination. He will be heading to Gujarat Tuesday morning where and address four public meetings in Kutch, Morni and Surendranagar.
The Congress is planning to organise a function at the party headquarters in Delhi on 12 December when Rahul will be given a certificate, showing his election as Congress president.
After the election is over, the Congress president has to get a formal approval of the members of the Congress party at a plenary session.
The party is likely to hold an AICC session after the Gujarat election to formalise Rahul’s elevation to the top post.