No elections to CWC; Congress authorises Mallikarjun Kharge to nominate members

The decision of former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to skip the meeting surprised many. The trio will, however, attend the AICC plenary session on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday’s meeting, sources said, saw arguments and counter-arguments regarding the holding of CWC elections. Ramesh said the dominant and overwhelming view was to empower party chief Kharge to nominate the members. “The Steering Committee decided unanimously to empower the Congress president to nominate members to the CWC. We had a two-and-a-half-hour discussion on this issue,” he said.

Jairam Ramesh added that the decision was taken “keeping in mind the political challenges facing the country, facing the Congress party in its capacity as the main Opposition and keeping in mind the far-reaching amendments that we are going to bring about in our party’s Constitution.” The most important of the amendments, he said, was to provide for 50 per cent reservation in the CWC for SC, ST, OBC, minorities, women and youth.

On whether the Gandhis were consulted since they did not attend the meeting, Ramesh said almost 45 members of the Steering Committee were present. “There was no video conferencing. No one was on Zoom. The members present gave their views. There was discussion on the present political situation and the Congress’s role and the amendments that we are going to bring,” he said.

He parried a question on the absence of the Gandhis reiterating that those who were present spoke and the decision was unanimous.