New Delhi: The Congress is preparing to authorise its next president to nominate All India Congress Committee (AICC) members and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) presidents — a move that runs counter to the party’s earlier decision to hold elections for these posts.
AICC members vote to elect 12 members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which is the party’s highest executive authority.
Elections to the CWC was one of the major demands of the so-called G-23 (group of dissenting) Congress leaders, but if the electoral college would comprise nominated members, it would make the CWC election a mere formality — if at all elections are conducted.
Since Sonia Gandhi became the Congress president in 1998, CWC elections have never been held as she always nominated the working committee members.
“The PROs (Pradesh Returning Officers) will go to their respective states and call a meeting of all PCC delegates and in that meeting they may authorise the Congress president to nominate the PCC presidents and AICC members,” said Madhusudan Mistry, chairman of the Congress Election Authority (CEA).
He added that the process would have “no bearing” on the election process for the Congress president, scheduled to begin at the end of this month. Since 2019, Sonia Gandhi has been the interim president of the party.
For the election of Congress president, it’s the PCC delegates who form the electoral college. One PCC delegate is elected from each block in the country. According to the party, the present electoral roll consists of about 9,000 delegates.
According to Congress sources, the nomination of AICC members and PCC presidents would likely happen only after a new party president is elected.
Mistry clarified that if the PCC delegates in a state are not able to reach a consensus on nomination, they may opt for an election for both state president and AICC members.
Earlier, the party had said that organisational elections from the block level to the PCCs, for AICC members, the CWC and for the Congress president, would take place between 21 August and 20 September this year.
However, the Congress presidential elections were then postponed by a few weeks and are now scheduled to take place on 17 October, if more than one candidate files nomination. The results are to be announced on 19 October.
Speaking to the press Thursday, Mistry said the PCC delegates were chosen “by consensus” everywhere except for Andaman and Nicobar, where elections took place.
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Kerala Congress authorises Sonia Gandhi to nominate state chief
The Kerala Congress passed a resolution Thursday authorising Sonia Gandhi to nominate the PCC president and elect/nominate AICC members from Kerala.
The resolution, sources said, was introduced by senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, who is leader of the opposition in the Kerala Assembly.
According to the resolution, in a meeting of 254 state delegates that was called on Thursday, it was unanimously decided that Sonia Gandhi should be authorised to nominate the PCC president and AICC members.
Speaking to ThePrint, an AICC functionary in the know of developments said “the name does not matter”.
“It will be the Congress president who will be making these nominations. Whether that name is Sonia Gandhi or someone else is not the question. Basically, the election process in PCCs, which is expected to take time, will be bypassed by the Congress president nominating the PCC president and the AICC members,” the functionary said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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