Sonia Gandhi set retain her post as Indian Congress Party head

Nearly 9,000 party leaders spread across the country began to cast their votes on Sunday to choose between Gandhi and her rival, Jitendra Prasad, to lead them for the next three years.

All indications are that Sonia Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, will retain power with a huge majority. Both Sonia and Prasad, a senior functionary of the Congress Party, cast their votes in the central Indian city of Lucknow.

The sealed ballot boxes, from all over the country, will be brought to Delhi for counting which will be taken up on November 15. The result is expected to be declared by the chairman of the party's Central Election Authority, Ram Niwas Mirdha, on the same day.

Sonia, widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, took over from then-party president Sitaram Kesri in a dramatic manner three years ago. She got her election ratified by the party politburo in Calcutta soon afterwards.

She is being projected as the "official candidate" for the post. Prasad says he is contesting the poll to strengthen inner party democracy and against "the coterie around the Congress President". He alleges that the electoral college for the poll had been prepared in an "undemocratic manner" with many names missing from the voters' list.

Mirdha admitted late Friday to serious shortcomings in the election process. "There have been many complaints and they could well be true". Sonia maintained that the "present party election is a massive process and if there are some discrepencies left, these may be worked out even after the election."

Though the president's post has been contested on four previous occasions in the 115-year old party, this is the first time a member of India's first political dynasty has been challenged. The first contest took place in 1938-39 and the last occured in 1998. Otherwise, the choice of leadership has been by consensus.

Sonia is the fifth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family to head the party, which played a major role in India becoming a independent country from the British colonial rule in August 1947.

The other members of the clan who held the positions were: Motilal Nehru followed by his son, Jawarhal Nehru. He was followed by his daugher, Indira Gandhi. She in return by Rajiv Gandhi. The family has also thrown up three prime ministers in Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv over the years.

Sonia is the leader of the opposition in the 545-member Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. Her performance has been lacklustre as she is unable to match the cut and thrust of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, a parliamentary veteran of over four decades.

Sonia has also been unable to enthuse the rank and file of the party. The Congress has been winning, of late, some local government and village-level offices in some states.

These wins are significant as they show that the party has a good grounding at the grassroots level mainly due to work done by the local leaders. These wins came despite Sonia and other senior Congress partymen not bothering to campaign. But after the wins, they took the credit.

(la/dpa)