New Congress president to pick PCC chiefs, AICC delegates

New Delhi, September 15

The Congress on Thursday paved the way for its incoming president to have a working committee of his or her choice.

The AICC Central Election Committee headed by Madhusudan Mistry has asked all Pradesh Congress Committee delegates (who are voters in the Congress president’s election) to “pass resolutions authorising the incoming party president to nominate PCC chiefs and AICC delegates.”

With this direction, the Congress bypassed the need for formal elections to the two categories of leaders (PCC chiefs and AICC delegates). It cited paucity of time and the constitutional requirement to have the two sets of leaders in place to push ahead with the resolution route.

The development is significant as AICC delegates vote to elect 12 of the Congress Working Committee’s 25 members. The CWC is the highest decision-making body of the party in which the Congress president and Leader of Opposition are permanent members; 11 are nominated by the Congress chief and 12 are elected.

With the incoming Congress chief getting to nominate AICC delegates based on the resolutions by PCC delegates this time, the working committee’s elected component will automatically owe loyalty to the incumbent chief.

It remains to be seen if G-23 members, who have been seeking elections across all levels of AICC, will object to the latest move.

Asked if the over 9,000 PCC delegates who form the electoral college for the Congress chief’s elections on October 17 could pass resolutions asking Rahul Gandhi to be the party chief, Mistry said nothing stopped state delegates from passing such a resolution but the same would not have any bearing on the ongoing process to elect the new party chief.