Sonia orders party elections

NEW DELHI, OCT 14: Faced with mounting pressure to revamp the party in the wake of its worst-ever electoral debacle, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has ordered the holding of the party’s organisational elections at the earliest.

Addressing newsmen on Thursday, party spokesperson Ajit Jogi said that Sonia had directed the party’s Central Election Authority (CEA) to prepare a new schedule for the organisational polls. The elections, which were due earlier this year, had been postponed after the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls.

As per the new schedule, which the CEA is already in the process of preparing, the elections would be held at the beginning of next year. The last organisational elections were held during the tenure of former party president Sitaram Kesri.

Organisational elections would be held from the lowest block level to that of the Congress Working Committee, the highest policy-making body of the party. It would also include posts at the district committee and state committee levels,apart from the AICC secretariat at the party headquarters.