Did Congress president violate a poll norm by appointing new state chief for UP in the midst of organisational elections?

New Delhi: A decision by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to appoint a new party chief in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday (October 1) in the middle of the ongoing organisational elections has triggered a debate on the validity of the move.

Sonia Gandhi appointed Brijlal Khabri, a former BSP leader, as the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president, along with naming Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Ajai Rai, Virendra Chaudhary, Nakul Dubey, Anil Yadav and Yogesh Dixit as regional chiefs in the state unit.

Critics argued that the order should not have been issued at a time when campaigning for the upcoming elections to the Congress president's post was underway.

As per the information available, Madhusudan Mistry, chairman of the party’s central election authority (CEA), in a meeting on September 14, directed all the Pradesh Returning Officers (PROs), responsible for conducting organisational elections in states, to ensure resolutions from all state units authorising the Congress president to appoint new Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chiefs.

They were directed to get these resolutions passed by the respective state units between September 24 and September 30, the period specified by the CEA for filing of nomination papers for the elections to the Congress president’s post.

However, it has emerged that the Congress general secretary in charge of organisation KC Venugopal’s office started calling up PCC chiefs from September 11 onwards asking them to submit their resolutions before September 20.

Mistry initially resisted the move but eventually agreed to it. This explains the reason why the Uttarakhand Congress hurriedly called its meeting on September 16 to pass this resolution. The other state units subsequently followed suit.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) met on September 19 and passed the resolution authorising Sonia Gandhi to select the new state chief.

Generally, all new appointments are frozen the moment the election schedule is announced and the model code of conduct comes into force.

But the question is does this norm apply to a political party’s internal elections?

The critics were further of the view that the decision undermined the authority and powers of the incoming president who would be left with no option but to accept such changes.

Besides, the new president should be allowed to form his own team at all levels rather than being forced to accept the decisions of the previous establishment, they added.

Though the Congress party’s constitution is silent on the issue, this section of leaders insisted that such moves were avoidable till the completion of the election process and the declaration of results on October 19. The polling is scheduled to be held on October 17.

However, a section of Congress leaders countered that Sonia Gandhi was well within her rights to make such changes given that all state units had recently passed a resolution authorising her to appoint new chiefs.

However, Mistry had in one of his press conferences on September 16 clarified that the resolution was meant for the incoming president.

Mistry informed that delegates from states formed the electoral college for the organisational polls and the resolution passed by them authorised the incoming party chief to nominate the new PCC chiefs and All India Congress Committee (AICC) delegates.

The resolutions would make it convenient for the new president to appoint new state chiefs after taking over the reins of the party, he had said.

But it seems the Uttar Pradesh Congress was an exception.