Congress leaders, including Parliamentarians, have expressed their concern on the procedure of election of party president and have demanded that electoral rolls be made public to ensure transparency in the process. But the AICC categorically rejected the demand saying it was an ''in-house procedure'' and any member can get its copy from any of the Pradesh Congress Committee offices.
Party leaders and Lok Sabha MPs Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor and Karti Chidambaram on Wednesday said the names of electors for the party president’s poll must be published on the AICC website to ensure transparency. Two days ago, senior party leader Anand Sharma too questioned the process during the Congress Working Committee meeting chaired by Sonia Gandhi. Tewari and Tharoor are part of the G23, whose other members Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal resigned from the party recently.
AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, who was in Kerala to review the arrangements being made for the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra next week, said any party member can check the copy of the electoral rolls at any of the PCC offices.
Party’s Central Elections Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, who is the chairman of the Congress' central election authority, has already given a statement to the media in this regard. ''There is no such practice in the Congress. We will continue to follow the old practice,'' Venugopal said. Another leader Manickam Tagore said party leaders must be proud to have an open system. "I am a PCC member from Thiruparankun-dram Block in Madurai.
Any 10 PCC members can propose a candidate for Congress President when the nomination starts. Why my colleagues are trying to create confusion in the electoral process? Instead we must be proud to have open system," he said in a tweet.
Tewari asked why anyone seeking to contest the Congress president's election should go to the PCC office to get the electoral roll as this does not even happen in a club election.
"With great respect Madhusudan Mistry ji how can there be a fair and free election without a publicly available electoral roll? Essence of a fair and free process is names and addresses of electors must be published on the Congress website in a transparent manner," Tewari said in a series of tweets. He said Mistry is quoted as saying, “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”.
Congress MP Tharoor, who has expressed his intent to contest the party's presidential election, agreed with Tewari, and said everybody should know who can nominate and who can vote. "Certainly, I think it's important that everybody should have transparency on the electoral rolls.
If that's what Manish has asked for, then I'm sure that it's a principle that everybody would agree. Everybody should know who can nominate and who can vote. There is nothing wrong with that," Tharoor said at a function in Thiruvananthapuram, while concurring with Tewari. Another Congress leader and MP Karti Chidambaram supported his view, saying every election requires a well defined electoral college. He also said "reformists are not rebels".
"Every election needs a well defined and clear electoral college. The process of forming the electoral college must also be clear, well defined and transparent. An ad hoc electoral college is no electoral college," Karti said on Twitter.
Tewari said the CWC has announced the schedule of the Congress president's election not to 28 Pradesh Congress Committees (PCC's) and eight territorial Congress Committees (TCC's). "How can someone consider running if he/she does not know who the electors are.
If someone has to file his/her nomination and gets it proposed by 10 Congress persons, as is requirement, the CEA can reject it saying they are not valid electors," Tewari said while pointing fingers at the process of election.