New Delhi: The Congress Central Election Authority on Wednesday rejected the demand being made by some senior leaders that electoral rolls be published before the October 17 polls for the post of new party president.
“The senior leaders are making such demands due to vested interests but we have to go by the party Constitution. There is no problem with the electoral rolls,” CEC sources told ETV Bharat.
“As per the party Constitution, a copy of the electoral rolls would be provided to all those who file their nomination between September 24 and 30. The electoral rolls would be published after the nominations close,” the sources said.
CEC chairman Madhusudan Mistry had announced the revised schedule for the election of the new Congress president on August 28, after a Congress Working Committee meeting chaired by party chief Sonia Gandhi virtually approved the dates unanimously.
According to sources, senior leader Anand Sharma had questioned the electoral rolls during the CWC meeting. Later, Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh had categorically denied that any such thing had happened during the CEC meeting.
However, on Wednesday Lok Sabha members Manish Tewari and Karti Chidambaram also raised a demand that electoral rolls be published to keep the election process for the next party president transparent.
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“With due respect to Mistry ji, how can there be a fair and free election without a publicly available electoral roll? Essence of a free and fair process is that the names and addresses of the electors must be published on the party website in a transparent manner,” Tewari said.
“You have said if a member of our party wants, he/she can check the list at the PCC office. The CEC has announced election not to 28 PCCs and 8 TCCs. Why should someone go to the PCC office to find out who the electors are? This does not happen in a club election also with due respect. In the interest of fairness and transparency, I urge your good self to publish the entire list of electors on the party website,” he said.
The Punjab MP further said: “How can someone consider running if he/she does not know who the electors are? If someone has to file his/her nomination and get it proposed by 10 Congresspersons, as is the requirement, a list of electors is needed. The CEC can reject it saying they are not valid voters,” he said.
Karti, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, said: “Every election needs a well- defined and clear electoral college. The process of forming the electoral college must also be clear, well-defined and transparent. An ad hoc electoral college is no electoral college.”
“Can anyone tell the world who all are eligible to vote and on what basis they became eligible,” he said.
The party concluded its roll revision after a membership drive a few months ago and now says there are over 9,000 delegates who would be eligible to vote in the election for the post of party president.
The polls will take place only if there are multiple candidates. The nominations are open to all those eligible for the polls and who follow the due procedure. The last date for withdrawal is October 8, when the final list of candidates would be put out by the CEC. The nominations will take place only at the AICC headquarters in Delhi between September 24-30 but the delegates can cast their votes on October 17 at the Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters across the country. The results would be out on October 19.
Sharma is a member of the G23 which had earlier raised the demand in 2020 that internal elections for the post of new Congress president be held at the earliest. The polls were planned for 2020 and 2021 but could not be held due to the Covid pandemic. The schedule was announced last year in October as per which the polls for the new party president were to be held by September 21.
However, the CWC recently approved the revised schedule citing the inauspicious period as per the Hindu calendar. Veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, who led the G23, resigned from the party and blamed Rahul Gandhi for the Congress’ decline on August 26, just two days before the CWC meeting. A day before the CWC meeting, Anand Sharma had met Azad, raising concerns within the AICC.
Incidentally, the demand from Manish Tewari and Karti Chidambaram, has come a day after former Rajya Sabha deputy leader Anand Sharma, former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, all of whom were key G23 members, had met Azad on Tuesday. This meeting too had set off a buzz within the party circles as Azad has announced plans to float a new party and it is feared that several other senior leaders may also resign to join his outfit.
Already, a large number of senior leaders have resigned from the Jammu and Kashmir Congress in support of Azad, compounding the problems for the AICC managers. Amid hints that he may contest the Congress president polls, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, a G23 member, has said that he would decide over the issue in three weeks.
