Congress begins process for organisational elections

The process for organisational elections has started in the Congress party as the central election authority met and finalised the initial program of the process. The meeting was held at the AICC headquarters under the chairmanship of Madhusudan Mistry. According to sources, if everything goes as per schedule, Congress will have a newly-elected president by early 2021.

New Delhi: Congress party is all set to get it's new President as it's Central Election Authority (CEA) has kick-started the process of organizational reforms in the party.

According to sources, the party is also to finalize a roadmap for contesting elections to the post of party chief and the process is likely to be completed by January 2021.

The CEA, headed by Congress former MP Madhusudan Mistry, held a meeting on Wednesday, with its members including Krishna Byre Gowda, Arvinder Singh Lovely and S Jothimani.

"It was an introductory meeting to discuss organizational issues. It would be too early to say anything about the election for new party chief," said a member of CEA.

It has also been decided in the meeting that the roadmap for election within the party needs to be prepared by the end of November, after which it will be informed to the Congress Interim President Sonia Gandhi that the party is ready for elections.

This will be followed by a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting to give a go-ahead with the process.

Elections for the highest decision-making body- CWC, are also on cards. The last elections for CWC were held in 1997, during the tenure of Sitaram Kesari as Congress President.

The demand was made by the 23 dissenters of the party, including many senior leaders, in their letter to Sonia Gandhi, asking for organizational reforms in the grand old party.

To meet this demand, CEA was constituted on September 11, making it in-charge of holding organizational elections.

As per the rule book of All India Congress Committee, a plenary session will also be called by January.

Around 1,200 AICC members will vote for party chief after a due election process. The entire process is likely to take around 3 months for completion.

Congress members are also making ground for the return of Rahul Gandhi to the post of party president.

A large fraction of leaders wants him to again take up the post, while the recent reshuffle in the organization also witnessed the appointments of Rahul's close aides at prominent positions, hinting that he may lead the party in near future.