Unease continues to persist in the Congress as another senior leader and party MP, Manish Tewari, on Wednesday, raised concerns over the election process in the party.
In a series of tweets, Tewari raised issues regarding the election process in Congress days after the party announced the schedule for the election of the party president. Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader said, “My colleague in Parliament, Karti P. Chidambaram, is spot on. For any election to be kosher, the electoral college must be constitutionally constituted. I read in the papers that Anand Sharma had articulated this widely shared concern in the CWC and he even publicly confirmed that he had raised it. “
Tewari’s remarks came after Karti Chidambaram’s tweet that 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.
In a series of tweets, the Congress MP questioned how there could be a fair and free election without a publicly available electoral roll. “The essence of a fair and free process is that the names and addresses of electors must be published on the Congress website in a transparent manner,” he said.
“Why should someone have to go to every PCC office in the country to find out who the electors are? This does not happen in a club election also with great respect. In the interests of fairness and transparency, I urge your good self to publish the entire list of electors on the Congress website. How can someone consider running if he/she does not know who the electors are? If someone has to file his/her nomination and gets it proposed by 10 congresspersons, as is the requirement, CEA can reject it by saying they are not valid electors, “he added.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, who resigned from Congress last week, has also raised concerns over the election process in the party.
In a hard-hitting five-page note to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Azad wrote, “The entire organisational election process is a farce and a sham. At no place, anywhere in the country, have elections been held at any level of the organisation. Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC have been coerced to sign lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC sitting at 24 Akbar Road. “
Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi, Azad wrote, “Since the 2019 elections, the situation in the party has only worsened. After Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a “huff” and not before insulting all the senior party functionaries who have given their lives to the party in a meeting of the extended Working Committee, you took over as interim President. a position that you have continued to hold even today for the past three years. “
Congress Working Committee (CWC) had on Sunday decided that the election for the Congress president post will be held on October 17, said sources. The counting of votes will be done on October 19.
This follows the resignation of the party’s senior leader, Gulam Nabi Azad, on Friday. According to sources, the election for the post of president has now become a challenge for Congress with the reluctance of Rahul Gandhi to contest the polls.