Congress prepares for organisational election

These polls, however, are not to wrest or retain powers, but to elect office-bearers at different echelons of the party hierarchy.

The AICC general secretaries and secretaries will soon fan out across the country to oversee preparations for the organisational polls, which the Congress president Sonia Gandhi wants to be completed by the end of next year.

The AICC treasurer Motilal Vohra on Tuesday presided over a meeting of the Congress general secretaries at the party headquarters and reviewed the preparations for the organisational polls. The Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel and general secretaries like Digvijay Singh, Janardan Dwivedi, B K Hariprasad and Mohsina Kidwai were present. Also in the meeting were senior leaders and union ministers Mukul Wasnik and Prithviraj Chavan.

Dwivedi later told journalists that the party had decided to send observers to all states to monitor the progress of the membership drive by the local units.

 “Membership drive is the first step towards organisational polls. All those who are members of the party on December 31 this year will be able to participate in the organisational polls, which would continue all through the next year,” he said.
An individual can be a member of the Congress for three years and, after the expiry of the term, he or she has to renew the membership.

The Congress’ youth icon Rahul Gandhi has been giving special emphasis on holding organisational elections at all levels of the party. He had earlier overseen the successful organisational elections in the Youth Congress, the youth wing of the party, in Punjab and Uttarakhand.

The Congress president has asked her general secretaries to meet once in every fortnight to review the progress of the membership drive and preparations for the organisational polls and report to her once in every month.