As voting in the Congress presidential polls got underway, outgoing party chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday said she had been waiting for a long time for this day. Sonia Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra came together at the AICC headquarters and cast their vote.

When asked by reporters about the polls, Sonia Gandhi said, "I have been waiting for a long time for this day." Later, former prime minister Manmohan Singh also cast his ballot in the polls at the party headquarters where the 68th polling booth for the AICC presidential poll has been set up Veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram was the first to cast his vote at the AICC headquarters here.

Several senior leaders such as general secretary Jairam Ramesh, Ambika Soni, Ajay Maken and Vivek Tankha, among others, cast their votes at the party headquarters.

While voting will be held at all State unit headquarters, a polling booth has been set up at the party headquarters for Congress Working Committee members and special arrangements made for the delegates who are part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

For the first time in 24 years, no member of the Gandhi family is a candidate for the party’s top post.

The last contest that the party witnessed was in November 2000, when Sonia Gandhi defeated her rival Jitendra Prasada by a huge margin.

Before that, in 1997, a triangular contest took place between Sitaram Kesri, Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot in which Kesri won.
The counting of votes and declaration of results will take place in Delhi on October 19.