Resentment in Congress over last-minute massive pruning of AICC delegates' lists

New Delhi: A large number of Congress leaders are up in arms against the massive pruning of lists of party delegates who will have voting rights at the 85th plenary session, beginning on Friday at Raipur in Chhattisgarh.

Many Congress leaders came in for a shock when they found their names missing in the final list of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) delegates released on Sunday by party general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal, a clear deviation from the past.
 
Usually, the lists are signed by the Central Election Authority (CEA) chairperson, the ex-officio Returning Officer, to conduct the organisational polls.

While the AICC delegates' list in 2017 was signed by the then CEA chairperson, who was the competent authority, the 2023 one is signed by the general secretary in-charge of organisation.

Congress sources said the present CEA chairperson, Madhusudan Mistry, did not sign the lists as the last-minute pruning was done by in-charges of states in consultation with Venugopal and not the designated Pradesh Returning Officers (PROs).

According to people close to Venugopal, it was done in line with the rules prescribed in the party constitution.

However, many leaders argued that the exercise should have been carried out after consulting the respective PROs of states.

It is further alleged that some of the new delegates included those who had not been elected but were directly appointed in violation of the rules and regulations and some of the senior leaders have been arbitrarily dropped from the lists.

Take for example Rajasthan where three former state presidents Girija Vyas, Dr Chandra Bhan and Narayan Singh have been dropped from the list of delegates while one, Sangeeta Sihag, who is not even an elected Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegate has been included. 

Similarly, Parag Sharma from Faridabad in Haryana has been included while the name of former state chief Phool Chand Mulana is missing from the list.

The leaders quoted above said on the one hand the party is mulling to bring amendments to the party constitution by which former AICC presidents and former Prime Ministers would be made lifetime members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), and on the other hand, former state chiefs were being dropped from the lists of AICC delegates.    

It is also alleged that all rules and norms have been broken while including influential leaders in the lists. 

A close confidante of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been made an AICC delegate from Delhi and not from his home state Karnataka, the leaders claimed.

The party has cleared the names of 1,338 elected and 487 co-opted AICC members who will attend the 85th plenary session at Raipur. There would be around 15,000 people present, including 9,915 PCC delegates with 3,000 co-opted PCC delegates.

Others will include district presidents and the 120 who walked with Rahul Gandhi during his nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra and office bearers of frontal organisations.

However, as per the Congress Constitution, only elected AICC members can vote in the elections to the CWC, the party's highest decision-making body.

As per Article 14 of the Constitution: "The co-opted members at the AICC, PCC and lower levels shall not exercise any voting right in any organisational election nor shall they contest any election in the organisation. However, no person who is a co-opted member shall be debarred for that reason from seeking election to full membership of any Committee in the normal manner."

If the voting takes place, the party will ensure proper representation from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and minorities, party leaders said, adding 704 AICC delegates are from the general category, 381 from OBCs, 228 from minority communities, 192 from SCs and 133 from STs.