Congress Leaders Demand ‘Fair and Transparent’ Election Process for Party Chief
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 11th September. The Congress’s eroding electoral base, as well as the exiles of prominent leaders and cruel internal criticism from senior party members, appears to have finally pushed the leadership to address one of the major issues that has long agitated members. A fair and transparent election for all central and state offices has long been a demand of Congressmen across the country.
However, the party paid little attention to the demand and dismissed it by attributing motives to those who raised it.
As Election Day gets closer, Congress leadership has caved in to the demand that organizational elections be held in a transparent manner.
The Congress party is now planning to hold its next Presidential election on October 17, and the demand for electoral rolls to be made public comes just three weeks before nomination filings begin on September 24.
On September 6, five Lok Sabha members, Manish Tewari, Karti Chidambaram, Shashi Tharoor, Pradyut Bordoloi, and Abdul Khaleque, wrote to AICC central election authority Chief Madhusudan Mistry, expressing concern about the “transparency and fairness” of the party Chief’s election and demanding that the list of delegates be made available to all electors and potential candidates.
“It is unfortunate that our demand for the release of electoral rolls is being interpreted incorrectly.” “We are not suggesting that any internal party document be released in a way that allows those who wish us harm to misuse the information contained therein,” the MPs wrote in their letter.
Responding to a joint letter from five Congress MPs seeking transparency in the election process for the position of Congress Chief, Madhusudan Mistry said on Saturday that the party will share the list of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates that comprise the Electoral College with aspirant candidates before the nomination process begins.
“The first option for any delegate seeking to file a nomination for Congress President is to go to the Pradesh Congress Committee office and look for the names of the 10 supporters in their state.”
The state list contains the name and serial number. “The signatures of ten delegates will be sufficient for the nomination to be valid,” he said.
Mistry also stated that the Congress is issuing QR-code-based identity cards to all delegates from 28 states and 9 Union Territories for the first time.
“Those who wish to file a nomination should first ensure that they have a delegate identity card.” “Only people with valid identification cards will be permitted to sign nomination papers for the position of Congress President,” the letter stated.
“They can come and choose their 10 supporters (delegates) from the list and obtain their (delegates) sigature for nomination,” it read.
Madhusudan Mistry said that the contents of the letter should “resolve the anxiety” about the “process of filing their nominations without knowing the names of the delegates”.
“Once the nomination is signed and handed over to Chief Returning Officer, they will get the entire list of the delegates,” it said.
Meanwhile, the AICC election chief said that Tharoor had called him in the morning and both had an interaction over the same.
Meanwhile, the AICC Election Chief stated that Tharoor had called him in the morning and the two had a conversation about it.
Tharoor said in a letter that he was “pleased” and “satisfied” with the clarification, and that it would strengthen the party.
“I am delighted that this clarification has arrived in the form of his constructive response to our letter”. I am satisfied in light of these assurances. “Many will be relieved to move on with an election process that, in my opinion, will only strengthen the party,” he wrote in a tweet with the letter attached.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram expressed similar sentiments, saying he was “satisfied” with Mistry’s response and agreed with the Thiruvananthapuram MP.
As a signatory to the letter along with my parliamentary colleagues, I am satisfied with the reply from @MD_Mistry ji & I endorse the sentiments of my senior colleague @ShashiTharoor https://t.co/34IVH3jMft
— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) September 10, 2022
This is just the start. The Congress has a long way to go before electing a President chosen by the party’s rank and file.
Comments are closed.