New Delhi: In the national capital, 75 delegates from the Congress party will vote to elect the new party president. The 75 delegates, including interim leader Sonia Gandhi, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, and other members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and senior leaders, will vote at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in New Delhi as the party prepares to elect its new president. 280 additional delegates would also vote in the Delhi Congress office in addition to these, the sources said.

The delegates who requested permission in advance from the Central Election Authority to vote today would do so in Delhi rather than their home state.

The Congress is holding its presidential elections today in the contest to choose a new face for the party, with voting scheduled to begin at around 10 am.

After 22 years, the Congress is ready for a presidential election with senior party figures Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor competing against one another to revitalise the party and achieve the goal of beating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

It is not the first time a non-Gandhi leader has run for the party presidency following independence; Jitendra Prasad challenged Sonia Gandhi for the position roughly 22 years ago, but Sonia won and held the party's mantle for 20 years.

Sonia Gandhi has been the party's president for the most time, having served in that capacity from 1998 to 2017 and since 2019.
No Gandhi family member is running for president this time around.
Polls are being taken to elect the party's national president for the sixth time in its about 137-year history. Rahul Gandhi won re-election as president in 2017 without facing any challengers.

The conference room container in the Bharat Jodo Yatra (which is currently taking a "rest day") was transformed into a voting booth for the party members to choose their next president. About 40 delegates participating in the yatra, including Rahul Gandhi, will be casting their votes in the camp itself.

On the forty-first day of the march in Sanganakallu since it began on September 7, this voting place is situated at the Bharat Jodo Yatra camp where the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress party's 3500-kilometer journey from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir is observing a "rest day."

While the two candidates, Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor, will vote in the capital cities of their respective states, Bangaloe and Trivandrum, respectively. The ballot boxes from every state will be sent back to Delhi after voting, and on October 19 the results will be declared.

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