NEW DELHI: While the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s apex decision-making body, on Sunday decided to push the party’s presidential election to mid-October, a senior functionary questioned whether due process was followed to prepare the electoral rolls for the much-delayed exercise.
The CWC was meeting in the backdrop of the stunning resignation of veteran party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who singled out Rahul Gandhi for damaging the party’s functioning and its political prospects.
Speaking at the meeting convened virtually by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, senior party functionary and G-23 member Anand Sharma pointed out that not only had the party’s state units not received the electoral rolls, there were complaints that no meeting was held before finalising the list of voters.
About 9,000 All India Congress Committee (AICC) delegates make up the electoral college for the party’s presidential polls. Filing of nomination papers will begin on September 24. Election will be held on October 17 and the counting of votes will take place two days later. But if only one candidate is left in the fray after October 8, the deadline for withdrawal of nomination papers, the winner will be declared the same day. The election had to be put off by a month as it was clashing with the party’s nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra starting September 7.
During today’s CWC meeting, Sharma, who earlier quit as a member of the steering committee that will oversee election-bound Himachal Pradesh, demanded that the electoral rolls be made public. However, the Congress’ Central Election Authority Chairman Madhusudan Mistry said the voters’ list would be made available to contesting candidates on demand after the delegates are verified.
Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh, however, tried to airbrush Sharma’s intervention. “’The election schedule that was put forward by Mistry, all CWC members unanimously approved it without raising any questions or demanding an extension of dates,” he later told the media. Sonia, who is abroad for her health checkup, was flanked by Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the meeting, which lasted about 30 minutes.
Chavan on puppet prez
Amid buzz that Sonia has sounded out Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot as her successor, former CM Prithviraj Chavan said the party would not survive if someone is made a puppet president