Sonia may delink CWC polls from AICC meet

Sonia may delink CWC polls from AICC meet
SANJIV SINHA

NEW DELHI, NOV 23: In a bid to consolidate her hold over the party, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is seriously toying with a proposal to delink elections to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) from the AICC's plenary session.

According to the proposal, which is yet to be finalised, CWC elections are to be held in Delhi in a day-long exercise immediately after the conclusion of the ongoing session of Parliament in the third week of December. The AICC session -- which is a prolonged affair extending to several days and at which several policy resolutions are hammered out and adopted -- will be held later, sometime early next year, in Bangalore or Pune.

Party sources say that Sonia, who was recently elected to the party president's post by an overwhelming margin, wants to reconstitute her CWC as soon as possible to ``send the right signals to the party rank and file''. Her idea is to go to the AICC session with her new CWC in tow so that the party can concentrate on resolving its stand on various national issues rather than squander away time on CWC elections.

If accepted, the proposal will be the second significant departure from the party's constitution as far as organisational polls go, since elections to the CWC are traditionally held at the AICC session. Earlier, elections of PCC chiefs of various states were also delinked from that of the party president's in an obvious attempt by Sonia loyalists to prevent dissidence and intra-party squabbles at the state-level from affecting her chances.

The CWC is a 24-member body, but only half of it is elected by an electoral college comprising around 900-odd AICC delegates, the remaining 12 being nominated by the party chief herself. The AICC delegates are elected from among themselves by the PCC delegates, although most states are still to hold these elections.

Sonia's hurry to get over with the CWC elections also stems from the fact that this time round, the elected posts are going to be hotly contested and, if delayed, may lead to unwarranted lobbying and squabbling. In fact, of the 12 elected slots, four will go to women while one each will be shared by Dalit/tribal and minority candidates, in keeping with the reservation policy spelt out by Sonia.

This leaves just six vacancies open to contest in the general category and going by the long list of party heavyweights who are likely to enter the fray, it will be a fight to the finish. Among those who are expected to throw their hats into the ring are Madhavrao Scindia, A.K. Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Motilal Vora, Bhajan Lal, Kamal Nath, Salman Khurshid, Suresh Kalmadi and Mani Shankar Aiyar. Then there is also the possibility of rebel leader Jitendra Prasada entering the fray and if not, backing one of his supporters such as party MP Noor Bano.

The reconstitution of the CWC will be the real test of Sonia's ability to manage the balancing act among the older and younger faces in the party as well as bring in adequate regional representation. Party sources say the party chief will probably make the younger lot among her loyalists contest and nominate her favourites from the old guard.