Congress finalizes poll schedule,to elect new chief by Sep 2022

Congress on Saturday buy almost one year time to elect a new president.The CWC, in its meeting in New Delhi, has decided to get its new president between August and September 2022. The Congress Working Committee (CWC)  meeting chaired by interim president Sonia Gandhi, announced that the process to elect the new party president would be completed by September 2022. Congress will also launch a massive membership drive from November 1 this year. Party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters. A plenary session of CWC members is likely to be held between September and October next year.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been urged by “nearly all” CWC members to take over the charge of the party from interim president Sonia Gandhi, party’s general secretary KC Venugopal told the media. Till the new president is not elected, Sonia Gandhi would continue in the post. As the first step to the election, enrollment drive for members would begin from November 1 and continue till March 22. The exercise also helps the Congress to enroll new members ahead of the 2024 general elections. The membership drive, spread over five months, is significant as the party has lost considerable electoral space to the BJP and other parties in the recent few years.Elections for functionaries of booths and block committees will be held between April 16 and May 31 next year, he added. The same for PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) president and other officeholders will be held between June and August 2022.

Venugopal announced that elections at the District Committee levels—to decide the local presidents, vice presidents and treasurers will happen from June 1 and July 20. The PCCs would face election between July 21 to August 22 next year.The schedule has been carefully chosen as the party faces key elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand in March-April next year.The CWC also passed three resolutions during the meet on Saturday. One of the resolutions concerned the political situation in the country, the other highlighted rising inflation and the third referred to the "acute agrarian crisis".