Schedule for elections to Congress chief post, CWC may be declared in Dec

The Congress party’s constitution calls for 12 of the 25 CWC members to be elected by All India Congress Committee (AICC) delegates, and the rest to be appointed by the party president.

The schedule for the elections to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and the party president’s post is likely to be announced next month, and all formalities to hold organisational polls will be completed by the end of the year, according to functionaries familiar the developments.

The Congress party’s constitution calls for 12 of the 25 CWC members to be elected by All India Congress Committee (AICC) delegates, and the rest to be appointed by the party president. The CWC, however, has not witnessed any election in over two decades now -- one of the key issues raised by several leaders who have called for urgent organisational and functional changes to check the party’s electoral decline in recent years.

The last time an election was held for the party's highest decision-making body during the Kolkata plenary in 1997.

“Hopefully, we will issue a detailed schedule of the organisational elections by December-end after the CWC clears our proposal,” said a member of the party’s central election authority (CEA) who asked not to be named.

The member added that there was no decision yet on holding a virtual AICC session, though some leaders expressed reservations over the physical presence of over 1,500-1,600 delegates at one venue in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. In any case, he said, an AICC session is unlikely to be held before next February.

While carrying out a major organisational reshuffle on September 11, Congress president Sonia Gandhi formed a five-member CEA to hold internal polls. It is headed by Madhusudan Mistry, and its members are Rajesh Mishra, Krishna Byre Gowda, S Jothimani, and Arvinder Singh Lovely.

Lovely one of the 23 signatories to a letter to Sonia Gandhi in August seeking a complete overhaul of the party functioning, internal polls, and a full-time leadership to stem the steady decline of the 135-year-old organisation.

CEA met on Tuesday to review the progress on its previous communication asking all state units to send an updated list of AICC delegates who form the electoral-college for the organisational polls.