Elections for Congress president will be held after a gap of twelve years on October 17 and the results will be made public two days, the lead apposition party announced on Sunday after Rahul Gandhi refused to return to spearhead the organisation ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The nod to election schedule was accorded by party's highest decision making Congress Working Committee in a virtual meeting presided over by interim president Sonia Gandhi, who is abroad for medical checkups. She is accompanied by her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

After the CWC meeting got over in about half-an-hour's time on Sunday, party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said at a press conference that the notification for the polls will be issued on September 22 and nominations can be filed for six days from September 24.

The scrutiny of the nomination papers would be held on October 1, while the last date of withdrawal of nominations would be October 8. The polls for the party president post will be held on October 17 only if more than one leader joins the fray, informed Mistry.

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, who also briefed reporters, stated "all CWC members unanimously approved election schedule moved by Mistry without raising any questions or demanding an extension of dates".

Sonia Gandhi is the longest serving president of the party which saw the last election for the chief post in November of 2000. But for the two-year term of Rahul Gandhi from 2017, Sonia remained the party president since 1998. Congress is passing through bad phase and the Friday's resignation of veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has precipitated the instability in the party since more are expected to exit in due course of time. The Jammu and Kashmir leader and former union minister also made public his stinging letter to the Congress president in which he hit out at Rahul Gandhi for "demolishing the party's entire consultative mechanism".

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