NEW DELHI: The AICC president election was announced by the official electoral authority of the Congress on Thursday. As per the official notification, the filing of nominations will be held between September 24 and 30, whereas the nomination forms will be available from Thursday, September 22.

October 1, nominations will be scrutinized, and that same day, a list of eligible candidates will be revealed. After the deadline of October 8 for withdrawals, a final list will be released. While voting takes place on October 17, counting takes place on October 19.

Ashok Gehlot and Shashi Tharoor are set to run against one other in the midst of intense political lobbying, and on Wednesday, Suresh Pachauri also met with Sonia Gandhi in addition to Mukul Wasnik and Pawan Bansal.

After spending two hours with Sonia Gandhi, the interim leader of the Congress, Ashok Gehlot reached  Kerala to join Rahul Gandhi's "Bharat Jodo Yatra."

According to sources, Sonia Gandhi has declared that the election will be fair and that she will not support any one candidate. Although there is no official statement on it, it appears that the Rajasthan problem was also covered in the meeting.

The source said, Gehlot would submit his application for the presidency the following week. He is apprehensive about giving up his position as the state's Chief Minister.

Prior to the discussion, the chief minister of Rajasthan informed the media that he would not back out of any obligation. He arrived in the national capital on Wednesday morning. He had stated, "I will not shirk any responsibility and would support the party wherever and in whatever capacity I am required.

Gehlot indicated his willingness to take on all of the assigned duties and gave the impression that he could simultaneously hold the positions of party leader and chief minister. He had stated that, rather than aiming for any particular position, he wanted to strive to overthrow the BJP's "fascist" administration.

Shashi Tharoor, a Congress member, went to the AICC office on Wednesday to check the list of delegates in advance of the notification procedure.

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