NEW DELHI, Sept 3 � With no other contender, Sonia Gandhi on Friday was re-elected unopposed as the Congress president for the fourth consecutive term.
Thanking party workers for their support, Gandhi described her re-election as party chief as a �great responsibility�. �I am grateful to all Congress workers across the country for supporting me. The post of Congress president is a great responsibility,� Gandhi said at a function, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior AICC functionaries by her side.
Though most of the Congressmen from Assam, who had come to file nomination papers on behalf of Gandhi, left for home, PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita and AICC member Dwijendranath Sarma were present at the function on Friday afternoon.
Among those who proposed her name included Chief Ministers Tarun Gogoi, Sheila Dikshit of Delhi, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan and Bhupinder Singh Hooda of Haryana. From Assam Congress two sets of nomination papers were filed with 10 signatories each.
Meanwhile, Oscar Fernandes said the Congress Working Committee (CWC) stands dissolved after the formal announcement of Gandhi�s name as party president. A steering committee would be formed till the plenary of the party, likely to be held by December.
Gandhi has created a record for the longest tenure as Congress chief by steering the party since April 1998 when she replaced late Sitaram Kesri.
Only once she had to face a contest with senior leader Jitendra Prasada throwing his hat in the ring a decade back but she had defeated him.
The electoral college for the Congress president�s election has 7,946 PCC delegates.
