With barely a week to go for the AICC’s plenary session in Raipur, Congress leaders are uncertain whether there will be an election for Congress Working Committee (CWC) membership.
If party leaders are to be believed, the list of AICC delegates who form the electoral college is not even ready yet.
The overwhelming mood in the party is not in favour of an election. Many leaders feel a contest, if it turns bitter and fierce, could sow seeds of division, trigger lobbying and unnecessary media hype around it, and divert attention from the “success” of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and issues on which the party is trying to corner the government.
With Lok Sabha elections a year away and many key states going to the polls this year, a section of the party leadership prefers the time-tested consensus route, which essentially means empowering party president Mallikarjun Kharge to constitute the new CWC ensuring that power equations in the party remain largely unchanged.
Some leaders in private continue to allege that a “cabal” is running the AICC establishment but would not come out in the open to challenge the system — either they are unsure of the support or don’t want to come out openly against the leadership.
Asked whether he is likely to contest, a senior party leader said: “Where is the electoral college? I don’t know whether I am an AICC member or not. They have called all PCC [Pradesh Congress Committee) delegates. One-eighth of them become AICC members. If you want to hold an election, everyone should know who the AICC members are…. The plenary is next week; we don’t have the list (electoral college) yet.”
Shashi Tharoor, who contested the election for Congress president, has ruled out contesting for the CWC.
The leadership expects no real challenge from the erstwhile G-23 leaders — the group has fallen apart after the exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal from the party and the leadership placating Haryana heavyweight Bhupinder Singh Hooda by virtually handing over the party’s reins in the state to him.
While party leaders believe some individual leaders can still spring a surprise, they don’t expect an organised demand for elections. Elections to CWC were last held in August 1997, under Sitaram Kesri. Forty-nine leaders were in the fray — some of them established veterans and some rising stars.
Among the winners of the fierce contest at the Calcutta plenary were Ahmed Patel, Jitendra Prasada, Madhav Rao Scindia, Tariq Anwar, Pranab Mukherjee, R K Dhawan, Arjun Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Pawar, and Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy.
Sources in the Madhusudan Mistry-headed central election authority of the party said the leadership will take a final call on holding the elections next week. The steering committee, which replaced the existing CWC, will meet on February 24 to decide whether there should be elections. “If they decide, we will start the process for nomination,” a source in the election authority said.
“We don’t even know what they (leadership) are going to do…. There is no clarity on whether there will be elections. Just a week is left for the plenary…if you decide to contest…you have to contact state leaders, enlist the support of your friends…. If they decide to allow elections after reaching Raipur, it will be a farce …because there will be no time for anyone to canvas,” another leader said when asked whether he plans to contest.
In Congress, this leader said, “you don’t need to rig elections. You manage.”
Under the Congress constitution, the CWC will consist of the party president, its leader in Parliament, and 23 other members, of whom 12 will be elected by AICC, the party’s central decision-making assembly. The rest will be appointed by the party president.