Key points:
- All formalities for conducting organizational polls will be completed by the end of the year.
- Elections for the party’s highest decision-making body were last conducted during the 1997 Kolkata plenary session.
- Hopefully, by December-end, after the CWC clears our proposal, we may release a detailed schedule of organizational elections.
- Madhusudan Mistry heads it as well as S Jothimani, Rajesh Mishra, Krishna Byre Gowda, as well as Arvinder Singh Lovely are all the members of CEA.
The timetable for elections to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as well as the post of party president is likely to be confirmed next month. However, according to officials familiar with the developments, all formalities for conducting organizational polls will be completed by the end of the year.
Members to be elected by (AICC):
The constitution of the Congress Party calls for 12 of the 25 CWC representatives to be elected by delegates from the All India Congress Committee (AICC), and the remainder to be named by the party president.
However, in more than two decades now the CWC has not witnessed an election—one of the key concerns posed by many leaders who have called for urgent organizational and functional reforms to monitor the electoral deterioration of the party in recent years.
Elections for the party’s highest decision-making body were last conducted during the 1997 Kolkata plenary session.
CEA member Stated:
“Hopefully, by December-end, after the CWC clears our proposal, we may release a detailed schedule of organizational elections,” said a member of the Central Electoral Authority of the Party (CEA), who requested not to be called.
The member stated that there was still no decision on holding a digital AICC session. However, given the Covid-19 pandemic, some leaders expressed concerns about the physical presence of over 1,500-1,600 participants at one venue.
In any case, he added, it is unlikely that an AICC session could take place before next February.
CEA team created by Sonia Gandhi:
Congress President Sonia Gandhi created a five-member CEA to conduct internal polls while carrying out a big organizational reshuffle on September 11.
Madhusudan Mistry heads it as well as S Jothimani, Rajesh Mishra, Krishna Byre Gowda, as well as Arvinder Singh Lovely are all the members.
Lovely, one of the 23 current members to the letter in August to Sonia Gandhi requesting a complete restructuring of the party’s functioning, internal polling, as well as full-time leadership to halt the 135-year-old organization’s steady decline.
On Tuesday, the CEA met to review the progress of its previous contact, calling on all state units to submit a revised list of AICC delegates forming the electoral college for organizational polling.
