NEW DELHI: In a move that shocked those demanding transparent organisational elections in the Congress, the party’s central leadership has asked its state units to pass unanimous resolutions empowering the party president to appoint state presidents and AICC members. The move will not only scuttle elections for the post of state presidents but will also help rig the Congress Working Committee elections with the central leadership appointing the AICC members who form the committee’s electoral college.
Concerns have also been raised about the manner in which the 9,300 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates have been selected. These delegates will elect the new national president. The Pradesh Returning Officers, who were in charge of supervising the election for PCC delegates, were a group of Gandhi family loyalists handpicked by the central leadership. These PROs prepared the list of PCC delegates in consultation with the central leadership. There were no elections for PCC delegates in any state, except the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
As a result, the PCC delegates who will elect the new Congress president are carefully selected loyalists, and the AICC members who will elect the new CWC will also be selected by the new party president as the state units have been asked to authorise the party president to appoint them. The whole process is clearly rigged to elect either one of the Gandhis or their proxy as the party’s national president, and pack the CWC with their nominees.
This newspaper was the first to report that the Congress organisational elections would be rigged. The leadership has now gone a step further to also capture the posts of state president and CWC members.Former Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha who has been at the forefront of the campaign for a fair election, said: “For almost two decades or more no one in the Congress expressed any interest making the organisational election transparent. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. As a result no one is ready to fight elections. Without a contest, the whole process will lack credibility.”
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Congress’ central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry said, “The Pradesh returning officers will call a meeting of PCC delegates where they will pass resolutions to authorise the incoming president to appoint PCC presidents and AICC delegates.”
He said out of the 23 CWC members, 12 are elected while 11 are nominated. “If there are over 12 contenders for the elected seats then there will be polls,” he said. If there is a consensus on the 23 members, then polls may not be required. The notification for the president’s election will be out on September 22 by when PCC delegates will be finalised. Polls for Congress chief, if required, will be held on October 17.
Jha’s plainspeak
“For almost two decades or more no one in the Congress expressed any interest in making the organizational polls transparent… As a result no one is ready to fight elections. And without a contest, the whole process will lack credibility,” former Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said