New Delhi:The Congress on Thursday clarified that the state units will soon pass resolutions authorizing the new party president to nominate PCC chiefs.
“I want to clarify that the state resolutions will have no bearing on the election for the next Congress president. The poll for the next Congress chief is an independent process. The resolutions will facilitate the new party president,” Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said.
He was reacting to media reports that claimed that the state units had been asked to pass resolutions authorizing interim party president Sonia Gandhi to nominate the candidate for the post of new party president. The CEC is supervising the internal party polls, which will include the election for the post of next Congress president, if needed, on October 17.
“We have already announced the schedule and are going as per the plan. If there is more than one candidate, polls will be held on October 17. It will be an open process,” said Mistry. Before that, the CEC has asked the Pradesh Returning Officers to convene a meeting of PCC delegates, who will vote in the election for the next party president, and pass resolutions authorizing the new party chief to nominate the PCC chiefs.
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The resolutions will be passed by the PCC delegates in the presence of the incumbent PCC chiefs as per the norms observed in the party in the past. The exercise will be completed over the next few days. The issue of internal polls for all party posts had arisen in 2020 when the G23, a group of senior dissenters, had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi urging her to conduct the democratic exercise to strengthen the party.
The process was set in motion in October last year. The party conducted an all-India membership drive and over the past months, the various state units elected over 9,000 PCC delegates who will take part in the polls for the next Congress president.
The G23 had also demanded polls for the Congress Working Committee which is the top decision-making body and hasn’t seen elections for two decades. “The polls for CWC will be held after the election for the new Congress president is over. Then the new party chief will nominate AICC members and an AICC session will take place,” said Mistry.
Out of the total 23 members in the CWC, 12 are supposed to be elected while the party president has the power to nominate the remaining 11. According to Mistry, there was great enthusiasm among the party members for the election of PCC delegates. “Though the delegates were elected by and large through consensus, we had a tough time managing things in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It was such an intense contest there that we had to call the police to regulate the crowds and ensure security,” said Mistry.
The polls for the next Congress president have generated huge interest across the country as former party chief Rahul Gandhi is a popular choice for the top party post. However, Rahul is yet to clarify whether he will file papers or not, which has given rise to the speculation that a non-Gandhi may assume the top party post.
