AICC plenary in Raipur from Feb 24-26; Cong says CWC election according to party constitution

Sources said an election will take place if there is a demand from the AICC delegates. “If the delegates ask..there will be election. Otherwise, the CWC would be nominated by the Congress president,” a senior leader said.

According to the Congress constitution, the CWC shall consist of the president of the party, its leader in Parliament, and 23 other members, of whom 12 will be elected by the All India Congress Committee (AICC, the party’s central decision-making assembly), and the rest shall be appointed by the party president.

But genuine elections to the CWC have been held only twice in the party’s recent history and on both occasions, a person outside the Nehru-Gandhi family was at the helm.

In 1992, at the AICC’s plenary session in Tirupati, then Congress president P V Narasimha Rao held elections to the CWC. Elections to the CWC were held again in 1997 under Sitaram Kesri at the Calcutta plenary.

After Sonia Gandhi became Congress president in 1998, the members of the CWC were always nominated, which many in the party believe promoted a culture of patronage. One of the main demands of the now defunct G23 ginger group in the party was holding of genuine elections to the CWC.

Venugopal said the plenary session will deliberate on six issues — the political and economic situation, international affairs, farmers and agriculture, social justice and empowerment and youth, education and employment — during the three-day session. The party will soon announce separate committees to deliberate and draw up the draft resolutions on the six topics.