Rahul Gandhi unlikely to be challenged, the likelihood of anyone else contesting for the president post is very unlikely.
New Delhi: Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi chose the path of maintaining the status quo for the time being as the members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), who were expected to take a call on the new party president, “unanimously” agreed to ask former party president Rahul Gandhi to take over the party reigns and to hold the internal elections to elect the party president in August-September 2022.
The announcement of the election schedule comes almost 26 months after 23 senior leaders (termed as G-23) wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi asking for, among other things, a more democratic working style within the party. In her opening statement, Gandhi asked the CWC members to exercise self-control, discipline and to reach out to her directly rather than through the media.
According to two senior party leaders, who spoke to The Sunday Guardian on Saturday evening, this “outcome” of the meet was already decided before the CWC members met for the almost four-hour meet that began in Delhi on Friday at 11 am and ended at 3 pm. According to them, the “noise” that was generated by the letter sent by the G-23 leaders was now a page in the history books and many of the signatory to the letter had come “out of the rebellious phase”.
Apart from the Congress president, there are 19 members, 24 permanent invitees and 9 Special Invitees who constitute the CWC. By taking this route at CWC meet on Saturday, the Congress leadership has tried to assuage the anger of the G-23 Congress leaders by agreeing to their demand of a “democratic system” in the party, eliminated the criticism that was generated as a result of the letter and more importantly also bought time for Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to strengthen their position in the party by the time the internal elections take place in September.
The fact that the internal elections, when they are held in September next year to elect the new party president, will be predisposed towards Rahul Gandhi is also evident from the statement given by Congress media head, Randeep Surjewala, who while addressing the media said, “Bohat sarey sathio ne yeh maang bhee uthai ki Shri Rahul Gandhiji aagey badh ke Congress ka netritva samhale, laghbhag us par bhee Congress ki karya samiti sampuran sahmat thee (Many friends in the CWC asked Rahul Gandhi to come forward and take the leadership of Congress. On this issue too almost all the members of the CWC agreed to this demand). As per party leaders, the likelihood of anyone else contesting for the president post was very unlikely.
The last time Congress president election saw a contest was more than 20 years ago when Jitendra Prasad had contested against Sonia Gandhi in November 2000. The internal elections of the party will begin from enrolling members for the party, an exercise that will start from 1 November 2021 and will go on till 31 March 2022 in which members can join the Congress by paying Rs 5 as membership fee. The party will organize internal elections that will be spread across more than five months at four different levels. The elections will start from 16 April 2022 and will culminate on 20 September with the election of the party president 2022.
Apart from the deliberation on the internal elections, the CWC passed three resolutions related to the “failure” of the Narendra Modi government on inflation, farmers and the deteriorating political situation in the country, especially in the context of internal and external security.
As per party general secretary K.C. Venugopal and Surjewala, the party will launch a massive “Jan Jagran Abhiyan” (mass connect program) to reach out to people across each booth of the country. The said programme will start from 14 November and go on till 29 November. Apart from reaching out to the voters, which Congress has been blamed for not doing enough, the party will also conduct training programmes for its workers and leaders which will cover everyone from the top to the bottom. The first of such programmes will be held in Sevagram, Wardha in mid-November.
All senior party leaders, including at the state, district and block levels, will also be undertaking padyatras and reaching out to all voters across the country in a two-week long exercise that will start next month. To ensure that this exercise shows results, a control room will be set up at the PCC level. In the first step towards the internal elections, the election for Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) members and block presidents, block committee will be held between 16 April and 31 May 2022. Following this, election of district level president and executives at district level will be done between 1 June-20 July 2022. From 21 July and till 20 August, internal elections will be held to choose PCC presidents and AICC members. The much-watched election of AICC president will be held between 21 August and 20 September 2022.