The story so far: In a bid to end the Congress party’s leadership crisis prevailing since 2019, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on August 28 fixed October 17 as the date to elect a party president. While Rahul Gandhi was the presidential candidate favoured by many CWC leaders, other contenders have entered the field. The upcoming presidential polls will witness a battle between Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha member Shashi Tharoor, and the Gandhi family has indicated that it would remain ‘neutral’ in the presidential contest. Several members of the G-23, a group of Congress members seeking party reform, have batted for a fair competition for the top post.
In the CWC meeting, held days after the exit of the party’s longest-serving general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, the schedule for the election was endorsed. Throughout the meeting, both former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remained silent, and no fresh appeals were made by the CWC members to Mr. Gandhi to return as party president.
The election process began on September 24— the date earmarked for the filing of nominations by candidates. It will culminate on October 17. In case of a contest, 9000 delegates will cast their votes on October 17 to choose the next party chief. The top post has been with the Gandhi family for over two decades now.
Who can elect the Congress President?
The Congress President is elected by Indian National Congress (INC) delegates across the various state committees of the party, as per Article XVIII of the Congress Constitution.
Under Article VIII and its various sub-clauses, delegates to the Block Congress Committee shall be elected from the members of the Primary Committee (the basic Organisation unit). Such members are elected from those enrolled as party members, fulfilling all conditions mentioned under Article V(A)(b) of the Congress Constitution. Any person of the age of 18 or over can become a Congress member for five years by paying Rs 5 and signing its declaration form.
These Block Congress Committee delegates further elect a delegate to the State committee or Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) via secret ballot. Other PCC members consist of ex-PCC presidents, DCC presidents, All India Congress Committee (AICC) members in that area, Congress Legislative Party (CLP) members, and co-opted members. PCC delegates or PCC members are delegates to the INCand can elect the Congress president from among the nominated candidates.
(From left to right) K.C. Venugopal, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ajay Maken, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and other CWC members seen during Congress CWC meeting at AICC, in Delhi on August 28, 2022. | Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Who can contest for Congress presidency?
As per Article XVIII, any ten INC delegates may jointly propose the name of any delegate for election as president of the Congress. The Returning Officer will publish the names of all candidates (except those withdrawn) and circulate them to the PCC, within seven days of the filing of the candidates’ nominations.
In the recently held CWC meeting, there was a demand that the list of delegates be published and pasted at the block, district and PCC offices. Congress district and block-level offices have not held elections to choose delegates in the past five years, leading to confusion about who would be voting in the upcoming polls.
However, the party’s central election authority chief Madhusudan Mistry said, “The list is not made public but if a member of our party wants to check, they can check at the PCC office. And, of course, it will be given to the candidates once they file their nomination papers”.
How is the Congress President elected?
If only one nominated member remains after the elimination of all published candidates, he shall be declared duly elected president. In case of a contest, on the date fixed by the CWC, each delegate is entitled to vote for the president via ballot paper at the PCC office headquarters in each state. If there are two or more candidates, the delegate can vote for one. In case there are more than two candidates, the delegate can mark his preferred candidates by ranking them 1, 2 and so forth.
All ballot boxes will be forwarded by the PCC to the AICC – the party’s apex deciding committee - and any candidate who gets more than 50% of the votes as the first preference is declared elected as President.
Congress Presidents & the Gandhi family
In the initial years of the Congress, the president was elected for one year, with Wyomkesh Chandra Banerjee being the first to hold the office. Later, a fixed tenure for the chief’s post was abolished. In the post-Independence era, Jawaharlal Nehru held the post from 1951 to 1954. His daughter Indira Gandhi held the post for the first time in 1959 after incumbent president U.N. Dhebar suggested her as a suitable candidate.Lal Bahadur Shastri, too, proposed her name in the CWC.
During Ms. Gandhi’s second term as president (1967-68) the party saw a split with senior leaders exiting to form the Congress (O) faction. With K. Kamaraj and Morarji Desai functioning as its president, the Congress (O) won 16 Lok Sabha seats in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections, compared to 352 seats won by Congress (R) – the faction led by Indira Gandhi.
After Emergency and with the rise of the Janata Party [an amalgam of Bharatiya Lok Dal, Bharatiya Jan Sangh, Socialist Party of India, Swatantra Party and Congress (O)], Ms. Gandhi was elected for a third term as Congress chief in 1978 and held the post till her assassination in 1984. She was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi, who also remained the president until his assassination in 1991.
Electoral battle for party chief
The most hotly-contested poll battle for the Congress chief post was in 1997 when there was triangular contest between Sitaram Kesari, Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot. Kesari won by securing 6,224 votes, while Mr. Pawar secured 882 and Pilot got 354 votes. However, Kesari was sacked as party chief after the Congress’ electoral loss in the 1998 government.
Long time Congress man and parliamentarian Sitaram Kesari with his supporters pose for photograph on being elected president of the Indian National Congress on May 26, 1995 in New Delhi, India | Photo Credit: Sondeep Shankar
He was succeeded by Sonia Gandhi in 1998, a move denounced by Kesari himself. “This takeover by Sonia Gandhi is illegal. I’m still president. I am not going to resign,” Kesari told reporters. He did eventually step down.
Ms. Gandhi – who was Congress president from 1998 to 2017 — faced a challenger in 2000 for the top post in the form of Jitendra Prasada. She retained her post by securing 7,448 votes against Mr. Prasada who won a mere 94 votes. Her son, Rahul Gandhi won unopposed in 2017 and immediately resigned in 2019 after the Congress’ Lok Sabha drubbing, handing the baton back to his mother. Ms. Gandhi has been appointed interim president by the CWC till a new president is elected in October.
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi with party’s leaders Rahul Gandhi and K. C. Venugopal arriving to attend a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Monday. May 9, 2022. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Initial frontrunners of the current race included Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot – who was personally requested by Sonia Gandhi to take up the mantle.
On August 22, Mr. Gehlot finally formally announced his candidature for the Congress presidential election since “nobody from the Gandhi family is contesting”. Mr. Gehlot said the decision as to who will succeed him and head the Rajasthan government will be taken by Sonia Gandhi and Congress’s Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken — potentially paving the way for Sachin Pilot’s elevation. This, however, led to a rebellion in Rajasthan with over 90 MLAs loyal to Mr. Gehlot submitting their resignations to the Speaker, jeopardising yet another Congress State government.
Miffed with Mr. Gehlot and his loyalists’ rebellion, the Rajasthan CM was pulled up by the Congress High Command to explain. While Mr. Gehlot has now rescinded his decision to run for the party top post, party general secretary K.C. Venugopal said that Ms. Gandhi will soon decide if Mr. Gehlot will remain as CM .
Mr. Kharge has now emerged as the frontrunner with the backing of the Gandhi family and several G-23 leaders like Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and Prithviraj Chavan.
