Congress might delink CWC elections, plenary

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The Congress plans to delink the working committee elections from the party plenary perhaps for the first time. It has decided to call two all India sessions in the next two months.

While a one-day All-India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting it plans to hold before Diwali in early November will see a constitution of the highest decision-making body either through an election or nominations, the party plenary will be held before December 20.
These two issues were discussed and decided in the steering committee meeting held here on Tuesday.
Party chief Sonia Gandhi presided over the meeting.
The steering committee favoured holding of an AICC meeting before the plenary session with a view that this will complete the process of the organisational elections.
“If the election of AICC members completes before the proposed AICC meeting then there will be no problem in having a new CWC next moth,” felt party insiders.
Only a member of the AICC with full voting rights shall be entitled to contest the CWC election. An AICC member can propose as many as 12 members for the working committee membership.
The working committee shall consist of the party chief, the Leader of the CPP and 23 other members of whom 12 members will be elected by the AICC and the rest will be nominated by the party president.
The AICC meeting could be held in some northern state while the plenary could take place in Mumbai. The metropolis had hosted the centenary celebrations of the Congress in 1985.
The plenary could be a significant affair given the fact that the Congress was completing 125 years of its inception and had planned a series of regional conferences during the year which had to be cancelled due to various reasons, including heavy rains.
AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters that a decision on the venue and dates for the AICC meeting and the plenary session have not yet been taken.
The steering committee decided that the party chief should constitute a small group of party leaders to go into the party constitution for giving suggestions for possible changes in keeping with the times.
The party sources said that the new Pradesh Congress chiefs (PCCs) would be in place before the AICC meeting.
All the PCCs have authorised the party chief to nominate the new PCC chief amid pulls and pressures among rival groups in the states for the post.