New Delhi: The Steering Committee of the Congres party has decided to not hold the elections to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) authorising party president Mallikarjun Kharge to constitute the CWC by consensus.
Addressing the press after the meeting, party leader Jairam Ramesh said that Steering Committee unanimously decided to authorise Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge to nominate all CWC members.
Notably, the election to CWC was earlier conducted only thrice by Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesari.
Earlier it was reported that the party is likely to not hold CWC elections. According to ANI, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been a strong advocate for elections.
With no elections, 23 of the 25 CWC members will be nominated by the Congress president. Also, the Congress president and the leader of the party in Parliament get ex-officio membership of the CWC.
Sources tell ABP News that Digvijay Singh, Ajay Maken and Abhishek Manu Singhvi are three leaders who demanded CWC elections. However, senior leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that if there is any problem now, CWC elections should be held after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, most of the members were of the opinion that conducting the elections would lead to a clash between the leaders of the party and considering the coming elections, it would not be in the interest of the party, sources said.
Interestingly, Anand Sharma also voted against holding CWC elections while three years back, he along with 22 other senior leaders had written a letter to the then-party president Sonia Gandhi demanding internal elections in the party.
Earlier, while addressing the Congress steering committee members, party president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the plenary session is being held at a time when democracy, Constitution are under threat, reported PTI.
He said, "Parliamentary institutions facing a serious crisis, political activities being put under scrutiny. I urge all to speak freely, take a collective decision on the issue of CWC polls."
"Congress' plenary session being held in the backdrop of assembly polls, and general elections in 2024; this is a big challenge as well as opportunity," Kharge was quoted as saying by PTI.
The 85th plenary session of the Congress party is being held from February 24-26 in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The party in a press conference last week said that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party MP Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will also be attending the session.]
The session is being held to prepare for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party said in the presser.
Rajya Sabha MP KC Venugopal said, "Congress’ plenary session will be held in Raipur from 24th February 2023 onwards. It will be an important milestone on the journey towards the 2024 parliamentary elections." He added that around 15,000 delegates have been invited to attend this plenary session.