The Congress headquarters is buzzing with activity these days as twin events are being planned. One of course is the ambitious almost five-month-long Bharat Jodo Yatra to be led by Rahul Gandhi, and the other the party presidential polls on October 17. The nomination process begins on September 24 and the big questions are, who will be the president, and will Rahul Gandhi contest? The dissenters within the Congress have already made their misgivings about the exercise known, but the party election officer has dismissed their apprehensions.
THE PROCEDURE
Only PCC or Pradesh Congress delegates will vote for the president and the block presidents vote for the CWC, which is the party’s top decision-making body. There is one delegate per block in each state. The blocks are the ones that are notified by the government. The number of PCC delegates is different for each state depending on the number of blocks. For any person to file a nomination, at least 10 PCC delegates have to propose his or her name. The PCC delegates will vote for the president in the states they belong to.
THE HITCH AND OBJECTIONS
This is a point many like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, and Manish Tewari have raised. Tewari tweeted, “My Colleague in Parliament @KartiPC is spot on. For any election to be kosher the electoral college must be constitutionally constituted. I read in the papers @AnandSharmaINC had articulated this widely shared concern in the CWC & he even publicly confirmed that he had raised it.”
The objection raised by those who may want to contest is on the fact that if one has no idea who are the block level members, then whom to approach if one wants to become a PCC delegate? Secondly, what guarantee is there that the block members and hence the PCC delegates are not already those who belong to the camp that the top leadership should become the president, in this case, Rahul Gandhi? It’s a giveaway when a leader familiar with the process says, “We all want Rahul Gandhi as president and so do the PCC delegates. So we know who we will approve and second when it comes to filing nominations.”
In 2000, this was exactly the point raised when there was a contest between Sonia Gandhi and Jitendra Prasada. The Prasada camp had doubts about the electoral process and alleged that there was rigging when it came to the list of PCC delegates. In fact, after the results were out, he had said that many members were bogus and they were supporters of the Sonia camp to ensure she won by a massive margin. Manish Tewari may not be saying it in as many words, but his insinuation and that of a few others like him such as Anand Sharma is the same. That if anyone from the so-called G23 bloc of rebels in Congress wants to contest, the results may be skewed and fudged.
In fact, during the Bihar Youth Congress polls in 2013 launched by Rahul Gandhi when he first took over as general secretary incharge of youth affairs, the situation was this. The polls had to be abandoned mid-way and results withheld with massive charges of rigging.
THE DEFENCE
Madhusudan Mistry, who has been given the responsibility to oversee the poll process, has strongly rejected all these allegations. He told News18.com, “It’s an internal poll, it cannot be made public. But anyone who wants to see the names can go to the PCC office and check them out. Those who ask us, we will provide the list of names. Those who file nominations have electoral rolls. It has always been the case. These are mere excuses and baseless allegations. Those who are questioning the process, I want to ask them, what have they done in their states? And anyone who is wanting to contest usually approaches their home state and they are aware of who the delegates are. Now if they can’t get the support of even 10 PCC delegates from their home state, then how can anyone be blamed if they lose the polls?”
Manickam Tagore, PCC member himself, also countered the allegations. “I am a PCC member. Any 10 PCC members can propose a candidate for president. Why are my colleagues trying to create confusion? We must be proud of our open system instead.”
But with the deep level of distrust in the party and two camps clearly being drawn up, the long-delayed polls may be held under a cloud of scepticism.
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