New Delhi: The Congress party will have an elected president by June 2021, with the party’s working committee Friday approving holding the internal election after the assembly polls.
The committee after a three and a half hour meeting authorised incumbent party chief Sonia Gandhi to schedule the internal election after the conclusion of Assembly polls in five states.
Addressing a joint press conference, Congress leaders K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala said elections to the CWC will also be held but it remains to be seen whether they can be scheduled before or after the election to the Congress chief’s post.
Sources said the Central Election Authority has proposed the holding of polls for electing the party president and AICC session on May 29 and the working committee discussed the dates, but authorised Sonia Gandhi to schedule them after the assembly polls.
The CWC passed three resolutions demanding a repeal of the three agriculture laws, a time-bound JPC probe into the alleged violations of national security and Official Secrets Act and another to ensure that the government ensures free time-bound COVID-19 vaccination for the poor and oppressed sections.
The CWC decided that there will be an elected Congress President by June 2021 at any cost, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said the little change of schedule depending on the state elections will be decided soon.
The CWC discussed the schedule of Congress president’s elections in May-end, proposed by its election authority. All CWC members unanimously requested Congress president that the internal elections should not interfere with the assembly elections.
He said the Congress president was requested unanimously to reschedule AICC Plenary Session to the end of June 2021 and the Congress chief’s election would be concluded by June 2021.
We will conduct elections as per the Constitution of the party. We need a change of schedule due to assembly polls as counting would be underway in May, he said.
Asked about any dissenting notes on the holding of elections, Surjewala said, there was no dissent at the meeting. He added that leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma or P Chidambaram were not but senior members of the Congress party and were all unanimous in deciding to extend the election schedule a little.
There was no argument in the election schedule issue. The meeting was very fruitful. There is no dispute over conducting organisational election, Venugopal said.
Agencies