Cong president poll: State, UT units yet to hold organisational elections

The scrutiny will be on October 1 and the last date of withdrawal is October 8

Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the only unit that conducted organisational elections in the Congress this time.

The other states and territorial units are scrambling to complete the process by passing resolutions authorising the party president to choose state chiefs and AICC delegates by September 20, two days before the notification for the presidential election is to be issued.

Party’s Central Election Committee chairperson Madhusudhan Mistry held a meeting with Pradesh (state) Returning Officers on Wednesday to review the preparations for the presidential polls, for which the nomination process would start on Sept. 24 and end on Sept. 30.

The scrutiny will be on Oct. 1 and the last date of withdrawal is Oct. 8, while if there is more than one candidate, the election will be held on Oct. 17 and the counting of votes will be on Oct. 19.

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Mistry said on Thursday that Returning Officers have been asked to call a meeting of PCC delegates, who are eligible to vote in organisational elections, in states and pass a resolution authorising the Congress president to appoint a new state chief and AICC delegates. Mistry clarified that the resolution would empower the incoming president to appoint the state chief.

‘No link’

However, he said, the resolution has no link to the Congress president election, as it is a separate and independent exercise. On Thursday, 254 PCC delegates in Kerala met and passed a resolution authorising the Congress president to nominate the state president and elect or nominate AICC members from the state.

Mistry said, by and large, state units are choosing office-bearers by consensus, except for Andaman Nicobar. There were elections to booth, block, and district, as well as state/UT level in Andaman and around 300 office-bearers at several levels, were chosen through elections.

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There have been two factions in the Andaman unit and both insisted on election as there was no consensus. Andaman Returning Officer Shanimol Usman has called a meeting of PCC delegates in Andaman on Friday and if there is no consensus on deciding the UT-level president, there will be elections in the coming days.