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Congress Subcommittee to discuss the process of internal polls.

Published on October 13, 2020

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the recently formed Central Electoral Authority (CEA) of Congress will meet on Wednesday to discuss the mechanism to be followed to hold organisational elections in the next few months, people informed of the issue said.

The party has already requested all state units to send an amended list of delegates from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) who constitutes the operational polling stations of the electoral college.
The CEA has also requested the data and technology department of the party to assist it in checking the AICC members’ details, a Congress functionary said on condition of anonymity.

The meeting at the party’s headquarters in Delhi on Wednesday would pave the groundwork for the presidential election as well as for the Congress Working Committee (CWC), he said.

On September 11, Congress President Sonia Gandhi formed the CEA to conduct the internal polls while carrying out a big organisational restructure. Madhusudan Mistry heads the five-member CEA, and its members are Krishna Byre Gowda, Rajesh Mishra, S Jothimani, and Arvinder Singh Lovely, one of the 23 signatories to the letter written last month to Sonia Gandhi requesting a full party overhaul.

Both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had requested the party’s highest decision-making hands to hold organisational elections within such a month at a stormy Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting which was on August 24, but some participants, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, insisted that it was not feasible due to the pandemic. Finally, for the completion of the internal elections, an upper limit of six months was fixed.

C Narasimha Rao, a political analyst based in Hyderabad, said organisational elections are fine for any political party’s internal democracy.

For many decades now, nominations have become an integral part of Congress. “It is nice to hold elections for any party position, but Congress should also aim to improve the internal debate process on all important topics,” he said.