The Congress has called a three-day virtual meeting from January 8-10. The top focus in the meeting will be discussing the election of the new party president.
Given rising Covid cases, the Congress has convened a three-day virtual meeting from January 8-10 to discuss public awareness campaigns, the jobs crisis and organisational elections. Party general secretaries and all state presidents will attend the meeting.
In the last two years, there have been several dates for the election of the new president of the party. The dates have been postponed due to the Covid or state elections.
But this time, according to sources, the schedule is considered final. According to the Central Election Authority (CEA) schedule, the process of electing a new party president is to be completed by September. Before that, all states have been given a deadline of March 31 to complete membership drives.
Congress Central Election Authority Chairperson Madhusudan Mistry told India Today, “The party will complete its internal election process at the scheduled time. There won’t be any delay. There is a curfew in Delhi and that is why we are meeting through video conferencing.”
Phase 1: The process of All India Congress Committee (AICC) membership is to be completed by March 31.
Phase 2: AICC delegates to be chosen in April-May.
Phase 3: Selection of state Congress committee members by August; the number will be around 9,000.
Phase 4: The new chairperson will be elected by September.
This will be followed by an AICC session to clear the election of the new president.
From January 8 to 10, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal will hold virtual meetings with each state’s Pradesh Congress Committee chief as well general secretary, according to sources.
The schedule for the same is as follows:
January 8: Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir
January 9: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Goa
January 10: Northeastern states
According to party sources, “At each state-specific virtual meeting, Congress leaders will take stock of preparations for upcoming assembly polls, Covid situation in the country, Congress party’s membership drive, Jan Jagran Abhiyan, virtual-digital campaign strategy and the issues that can be raised before the upcoming Parliament session.”
