Process for organisational elections in Congress begins, party may find Sonia's successor by early 2021

The process for organisational elections has started in the Congress party as the central election authority met on Tuesday and finalised the initial program of the process.

The meeting was held at the AICC headquarters under the chairmanship of Madhusudan Mistry. According to sources, if everything goes as per schedule, Congress will have a newly-elected president by early 2021.

This comes after a letter was written by 23 leaders in the party demanding organisational elections from top to the bottom and visible leadership on the ground to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi in August.

In the meeting, it was decided to start the process and to wind it up by November. After that, the Committee will inform Sonia Gandhi that the party is prepared for the internal elections, following which the CWC meeting will be called for giving a go-ahead.

Interestingly, the demand of the dissenters has been accepted to hold elections for the Members of Congress Working Committee -- the supreme body of the party, but it will need to get a green signal from the CWC.

According to Congress party's Constitution, out of 24 members of CWC, 11 members must be elected and the rest 12 can be nominated by the party president. It's a challenging task for the group as it has to combine the list of AICC Members from across the country, and if everything goes as per schedule, the party will have a newly-elected president by January 2021, the source added.

Dissenters wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi to hold elections and have a visible leadership on the ground following which the CWC meeting was held on August 24. Dissenters had to face the heat from the other members of the CWC and Sonia expressed that the party should elect its president within six months.

Rahul Gandhi had stepped down as party president in 2019 accepting moral responsibility for the poor performance of the party in the 2019 General Elections after which CWC passed a resolution to appoint Sonia Gandhi as the party's interim president.

The Grand Old Party is expected to see a big turn of events in the coming months as Rahul Gandhi had said that there should be a non-Gandhi party president this time, but a large fraction of the party wants him to be back as party chief, and recent reshuffle is hinting towards the plot of Rahul's return as close members of his team are taking lead in the party decisions.

(ANI)

Also Read: Plaque with Sonia Gandhi's name missing from Atal Tunnel: Digvijaya Singh