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Focus on G23 leaders ahead of Congress organisational polls
In mid-October, the Congress party finalised the election schedule that will start on April 16 next year, kicking off with polls for the block-level committees.
With limited influence over the Congress party’s state units, the G23 leaders appear to have a slim chance of gaining power in the political party’s organisational polls next year. The focus will be on the rebel group of 23 senior Congress leaders, dubbed G23, who came together last year to openly seek a rejig of the party structure, as the Congress gears up for the 2022 organisational elections.
The elections will start at the block level, then go up to the state level, before culminating into polls for the overall party president, the Congress working committee (CWC) and the central election committee (CEC).
In mid-October, the Congress party finalised the election schedule that will start on April 16 next year, kicking off with polls for the block-level committees.
The district-level committees will be elected by July 20, while the state-level bodies, known as Pradesh Congress Committees, will be picked by August 20.
The much awaited election for overall party president will take place by September 20 next year.
The G23 leaders will need support from the party’s state units to push their luck in the elections for the CWC and the CEC.
Nearly the entire Congress working committee wanted Rahul Gandhi to take over as the next president. Rahul Gandhi, the previous Congress president, resigned after the party’s debacle in the 2019 general elections.
The party elections are significant as the G23 leaders wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi last year, demanding a major reshuffle within the organisation. They also sought more say in the decision-making process.
The party’s last organisational polls before the 2024 general elections also give the Congress scope to get battle-ready and find ways to settle issues with the G23 leaders.
“To win any election, be it assembly or the Congress party’s internal polls, one needs popular votes. And that would be the biggest impediment for the senior leaders. All state units barring one or two are firmly with the ruling dispensation,” said a senior Congress leader.
The leader said Ghulam Nabi Azad is likely to remain in the party’s apex executive body, but at least two other seniors, both Rajya Sabha members, face an uncertain future.
“The G23 could have flexed some muscles in Punjab, but with the exit of Captain Amarinder Singh from the party and the appointment of Charanjit Singh Channi as CM and Navjot Singh Sidhu as PCC chief, things are firmly in control of the Congress high command,” said another Congress leader.
