Paving the way for anointment of Rahul Gandhi as the Congress president, the party on Thursday announced a five-month long organisational election which would culminate in the election of a new party chief by September 30.
According to the schedule released by AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, for the first time, party polls will be held in two phases. While first phase will cover 18 States and UTs, the second almost equal number of States and UTs. The schedule was finalised by the Central Election Authority of the party headed by senior leader Mullappally Ramachandran
The elections will be over by July 31 in 18 States including Gujarat, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and a host of States in North-east in the first phase. The second phase will cover Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Telangana.
The Congress chief will be elected by September 30. Sonia Gandhi has created a record of having the longest tenure at the helm of the oldest political party when she completed 17 years as Congress president on March 14.
The organisational polls are being held at a time when the Congress has faced its worst debacle in the lok Sabha polls in May 2014 after being at the top for a decade since coming to power in 2004. It could manage just 44 seats in the last lok Sabha elections.
Organisational elections are being held when the talk is growing in the party that sooner rather than later Sonia Gandhi will pass the mantle to her son Rahul Gandhi, who was made the Congress vice-president in January 2013 at the Jaipur Chintan Shivir.
Under the new schedule, enrolment of members has been extended from March 31 to May 15 after which the District Congress Committees (DCC) will publish the preliminary list of members by May 25. In the States which will have party polls in the first phase, publication of final list of members as also the final list of eligible contestents will be done by July 5 after disposing of appeals at all levels.
Election of the members of the Congress Working Committee will be made by the AICC members during the plenary session of the party, the dates for which is yet to be finalised.