‘How can the polls be free and fair without...’: Manish Tewari questions 'fairness' of Congress president election

The former Union minister objected to senior colleague Madhusudan Mistry's statement to a newspaper that since the list of electors is not made public, any party member who wants to contest can visit PCC offices to check the list.

Congress MP Manish Tewari on Wednesday raised suspicion on the fairness of the upcoming polls to elect the party's new president, and also asked the party to publish the list of names of all those who would participate in the voting process, ‘in interests of fairness and transparency’.

Congress leader Manish Tewari (File Photo)

In a series of tweets, Tewari reacted to a statement made by senior Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry, the chief of its central election authority (CEA), to The Hindu.

“With great respect @MD_Mistry ji How can there be a fair & free election without a publicly available electoral roll ? Essence of a fair & free process is names & addresses of electors must be published on @INCIndia website in a transparent manner,” the Anandpur Sahib MP tweeted, reacting to Mistry's statement to the newspaper that 'the list is not made public but if a member of our party wants to check, they can check at the PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) office'.

The former Union minister then questioned the need for a prospective candidate to go to every PCC office in the country to find out who the electors are.

“This does not happen in a club election also with great respect. In interests of fairness & transparency I urge your gods self to publish entire list of electors on @INCIndia website. How can someone consider running if he/ she does not know who electors are If someone has to file his/her nomination & gets it proposed by 10 Congressperson’s as is requirement CEA can reject it saying they are not valid electors,” the 56-year-old politician posted, concluding his thread.

Tewari's tweets come at a time when questions have been raised over the Congress' president election, including by the now-former party veteran Ghulam Nami Azad, who left the grand old party on August 26 with a scathing letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Also, in recent days, Tewari, a member of the Congress' so-called ‘G-23’ group of dissenters (the group also included Azad, among others), has, on various issues (including the Agnipath military recruitment scheme) taken a stand that is different from that of his party.

The Congress will elect its next president on October 17, while the results will be announced two days later. Sonia Gandhi, who handed over the reins to her son, Rahul Gandhi, in December 2017, returned as party chief in July 2019 after he resigned from the post in the wake of a drubbing at the hands of the ruling BJP in that year's general elections, a second successive defeat for the party.

She previously headed the Congress between March 1998 and December 2017.