Mandya (Karnataka)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with 40 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates who are part of Bharat Jodo Yatra will cast their vote for the party presidential election at the campsite as a special booth will be established for them to take part in the polls.

Voting for the Congress presidential elections is scheduled to be held on October 17 and the padayatra will take a break for a day for voting. The yatra is in its Karnataka leg and marked its 31st day today.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has clearly stated that the voters only need an ID card for exercising their franchise. Arrangements have been made at the travel camp for voting in the election of Congress President. The Central Election Authority, headed by senior party leader Madhusudan Mistry, will oversee the voting, a notification of which was issued on September 22.

The last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 8. Voting will take place on October 17 and the election results will be declared on October 19. Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge are up against each other in the race for the post of Congress president.

Earlier, former Jharkhand Minister K.N.Tripathi's nomination for the Congress presidential election was rejected due to signature issues.

A total of 20 forms were submitted during the nomination process and four of them were rejected due to signature issues.Of these,14 nominations were received by Mallikarjun Kharge, five by Shashi Tharoor and one by Jharkhand Congress leader K.N. Tripathi.

Meanwhile, Kharge received support from nearly 30 Congress leaders for the party's presidential polls. These names include Deepender Hooda, Salman Khurshid, Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, and among others. Digvijaya Singh earlier pulled out from the race and extended his support to Kharge, who he said is a senior and respected leader of the party, and against whom he "cannot think of contesting".

Singh is the second Congress leader to pull out of the race after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced he would not contest the elections following the political turmoil in his state.

With Gandhis not running for the top post this time around, the grand old party is all set to get a non-Gandhi president after over 25 years.