Congress may not get it's new President before February

Though the Congress's Central Election Authority (CEA) met on Tuesday to discuss over the presidential elections for the party, it is unlikely that the grand old party will get a president before the month of February, reports ETV Bharat's reporter Niyamika Singh.

New Delhi: Congress' Central Election Authority (CEA) met to discuss over the presidential elections within the party on Tuesday. However, it seems that the grand old party won't be able to get it's new President before the month of February.

CEA is currently working on the voter list of All India Congress Committee (AICC) members who will vote to elect party President. The list is expected to be completed within a month.

"Voter list will be ready within 20-25 days. Then it will be handed over to Congress President. After that CWC (Congress Working Committee) will take a call if and when there would be elections. We will depend on the mandate of CWC to conduct elections. Only after that, our work will start, for which we will require at least a month," said one of the members of CEA.

Last time, Rahul Gandhi was elected as Congress President in 2017 but he resigned from the post in 2019. It should be noted that his resignation is still not being accepted by the CWC. However, as per the AICC constitution, his membership will expire in 2022.

"This time elections will be held for the 'Regular President' of Congress party for the remaining term. But the sole authority of all decisions lies with the CWC," he added.

Read: Congress mulling to conduct digital voting for party president elections

Congress party is also going to have elections for its working committee. In CWC, 12 members will directly be nominated by the party President, while elections will be held for 11 posts.

For CWC elections, 4 seats are reserved for women candidates and 2 for SC/ST.

CEA has also proposed the idea of digital IDs for AICC members. The ID cards will have a bar code in which all the details of members will be included. However, no decision has been taken yet over the digital elections for Congress President.

When asked about the matter, CEA member said, "We have proposed our idea of digital ID cards. Now the final call will be taken by CWC if they want to conduct elections through that. But as of now, CEA can only say that the elections will be held like the previous procedures of ballots."

More than 1500 AICC members will be there in the voter list. CEA still needs to get a list from 2-3 states.

The meeting was held here at AICC Headquarters in Delhi, headed by Madhusudan Mistry. All the other members including Krishna Byre Gowda, Jothimani, Arvinder Singh Lovely and Rajesh Mishra also attended the meeting.