NEW DELHI: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination for the party chief's post at the AICC headquarters here today, with over 90 sets of nomination papers likely to be filed to support his candidature.
Rahul Gandhi met with Dr Manmohan Singh and other senior party leaders after filing his nomination.
"Rahul Gandhi is a darling of the Congress and he will carry forward the great traditions of the party, said Dr Manmohan Singh.
Senior party leaders including Kamal Nath, Sheila Dikshit, Motilal Vora and Tarun Gogoi filed the first set of nominations (as proposers) for Rahul Gandhi.
"If you ask me, I think he will make a very good Prime Minister, said Punjab CM and senior leader, Capt. Amarinder Singh.
Congress state unit chiefs, senior leaders and Pradesh Congress Committee delegates are present at the party's central office to express support to Rahul Gandhi ahead of his much-awaited elevation.
Mullappally Ramachandran, the Returning Officer for the organisational election, told IANS that 90 nomination forms were taken by different states though not one has been submitted so far.
The process of nominations started on Friday. The last date for filing nominations is December 4.
On Sunday, many senior Congress leaders, its members of Parliament and PCC chiefs arrived at the party headquarters to sign the papers, including Sachin Pilot, Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Shukla, PC Chacko, Shobha Oza, Hamdulla Sayeed and others.
Apart from states and union territories, senior leaders on the Congress Working Committee (CWC), including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AK Antony, Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad are likely to submit different sets of nomination papers.
The elevation of Rahul Gandhi, who is presently spearheading the Congress campaign ahead of the December 9 and 14 Gujarat assembly polls, has been much talked about in party circles for around two years.
With Rahul Gandhi in all likelihood to be the only candidate in the fray, he could be declared the next Congress chief on December 5 after scrutiny of nominations.
He will succeed his mother Sonia Gandhi, the longest-serving Congress chief who has helmed the party since 1998.
Rahul Gandhi became the Congress Vice President in January 2013.
(With inputs from ANI and IANS)