Raipur: The Congress will not hold elections to its highest decision-making body – the Congress Working Committee (CWC) – but will instead nominate members.
All members will be nominated by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh told the media, claiming that this was a unanimous decision.
The decision was taken in the Steering Committee meeting during the ongoing 85th plenary session in Raipur. According to sources, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal had tabled the schedule for the polls.
However, Congress sources said the decision was not unanimous with at least two members of the committee seeking polls.
“The Steering Committee decided unanimously to empower the Congress president to nominate the CWC. Keeping in mind the political challenges facing the country and the Congress party as opposition, and the far-reaching amendments that are to take place in the Congress Constitution, the committee decided that this is the time to empower the president,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh added that amendments to 16 articles and 32 rules in the Congress Constitution were introduced at the Steering Committee meeting. The most important of this was a 50% reservation in the CWC for Dalit, Adivasi, OBC, minorities and the youth, as reported by ThePrint earlier. Apart from that, former Congress presidents and former prime ministers from the party would also be made CWC members, as per the amendment proposed.
The Subjects Committee of the plenary will deliberate on these at a meeting on Friday evening.
The three Gandhis – Sonia, Rahul, and Priyanka — skipped the steering meeting.
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