NEW DELHI: The Indian National Congress will get its new national president by September next year. Preparations are on to conduct party elections, said Madhusudan Mistry, president of the Congress Election Authority.
The party had announced in October that elections for the post of president would be held between August and September and a membership drive was launched in November this year.
The membership drive is scheduled till March 31 and is likely to be extended for another month. Mistry said the president election will be held by September and the entire exercise will be completed in time.
“After the election of the president, a session of All India Congress Committee will be convened in which a decision will be taken on the election of the Congress Working Committee,” he said. Mistry said it has to be seen how many people are contesting and depending on that it will be decided how the election will be held.
The party has been running without a full-time president since May, 2019, when Rahul Gandhi resigned taking responsibility of the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elelctions. Sonia Gandhi took over as interim chief in August 2019 and since then, there has been talks of having presidential elelctions to elect a new party chief.
The elelctions have been deferred several times due to Covid-19 and Assembly elelctions but the party in November this year announced a detailed schedule. There has been growing demand from several state units for Rahul Gandhi to return as party chief but sources said that party’s performance in five upcoming assembly elelctions will decide if Rahul Gandhi will take over the reins or he will continue to call shots from behind the curtains.
Meanwhile in Amethi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the Uttar Pradesh government over the thrashing of a SC girl and said her party will launch an agitation if the accused are not arrested soon. Her remarks come after a video purportedly showing a 16-year-old girl being beaten up and molested went viral on social media. The Congress general secretary tweeted, “If the criminals are not caught within 24 hours, Congress will work to wake you up by agitation.”