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| A new recipe: Rahul Gandhi is a member of the FCG, headed by Veerappa Moily |
By Soni Mishra
The child is father of the man.
William Wordsworth
The grand old party, as it prepares to celebrate its 125th anniversary, is getting down to conducting organisational elections this year. It has before it the model presented by the youth wings of the party, which under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi have overhauled their election process.
Rahul’s endeavours in the Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India to bring about democracy and do away with nomination culture have earned praise from Congress leaders. However, change will have to wait in the senior Congress.
The elections, which are scheduled to conclude on July 25, are set to follow nomination culture, quite in contrast to the youth wings’ example. The party’s Future Challenges Group, headed by senior leader M. Veerappa Moily and which includes Rahul, has recommended major reforms.
The recommendations include structural changes, modification in membership norms and electoral changes. The group has also recommended major changes starting from the block level, such as transforming the Congress from a mass-based party into a cadre-based organisation.
It has recommended elections at all levels in the party, including the Congress Working Committee and the party presidency. However, the 124-page FCG report, which was submitted to party president Sonia Gandhi a year ago, will be discussed only after the elections.
The panel was entrusted with the task of suggesting party reforms and changes in its electoral strategy in the wake of its poor show in a string of Assembly elections in 2008. “The findings of the FCG will be discussed after the present organisational elections. There is hardly enough time to discuss them right now,” said AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh.
According to a senior leader, changes would have to be made in the party constitution. The report will be taken up by the CWC, following which the AICC will take it up for approval. The FCG recommendations will have to wait till the next party elections in 2013, said the leader. “By then, the party would also have observed how the YC and the NSUI have fared in their organisational elections,” he said.
“Rahul Gandhi is keen on in-party democracy and fair elections. The YC has engaged the services of [former Chief Election Commissioner] J.M. Lyngdoh and [former adviser to the Election Commission] K.G. Rao. The YC is going through a very fine process. A lot of young people are coming in. There was a closed-door set-up and one did not know how to become a member of the Congress. Rahul has opened up the party,” said the leader.
The polls in the youth wings were preceded by membership drives that were transparent and inclusive. The YC has now made provisions for adequate representation of Dalits, tribals and other backward classes.
“The idea behind elections in the YC is to bring in transparency and fairness in the selection process. Also, the leaders who have been elected are taken more seriously, as they have the numbers backing them up. We have also come up with a process to fix accountability on the office-bearers,” said YC leader Kuntal Krishna. “What is happening in the YC is a model for the seniors to follow.”
In-party elections weed out leaders who do not have mass support. Yet, there are those who feel polls are not necessary in a political party ,as there is a need to balance different groups and sections in the organisation. This is not possible in a set-up where all the posts are filled up through elections.
“Nomination is also a form of election. It also represents some form of an agreement over somebody’s name,” said a senior AICC leader. While large-scale changes in the election process will have to wait for some time, some reforms have already been brought about. To begin with, the party made an effort to get rid of bogus memberships. This is expected to bring down the number of members.
In the last organisational elections three years ago, the party had 3,79,15,927 primary members and 15,12,370 active members. In an effort to get rid of bogus memberships, photo ID cards will be given to the members and proof of residential address has been made mandatory. Details of members will be registered in an online database.
In the membership drive that got over on December 31, the party did away with two separate memberships—primary and active. Earlier, those workers who brought in 25 members could become active members. But that gave rise to a trend wherein fictitious names were produced to secure active membership.
The elections will take place in five phases, starting with publishing of the list of members and election of booth-level committees. Phase I is scheduled to be completed by April 30. Phase II would see election of the block-level executives by May 31 and Phase III would see election of the district committees by the end of June.
Phase IV will involve election of PCC presidents, vice-presidents, treasurer and executives, as also AICC members and the party president, by July 25. In all likelihood, Sonia will be elected unopposed. Following the election of the president, an AICC plenary will be held, where a new CWC will be elected.
In 1997, it was under the presidentship of Sitaram Kesri that elections were held in the party, including to the post of party president. Five years earlier, P.V. Narasimha Rao had attempted elections, including to the posts of the PCC chiefs in some states and also the CWC.
After the elections, he felt that the CWC did not give proper representation to all sections. He obtained the resignation of all the CWC members and reconstituted it.
The only one time when elections took place to the post of the party chief since Sonia took charge was in 2001, when she was challenged by Jitendra Prasada.
Change beckons the grand old party. But will it heed the call?
