Congress President Rahul Gandhi was today authorised by the All India Congress Committee to constitute the new Congress Working Committee, which is the highest decision making body of the party.
This put to an end all speculation on whether there will be an election to choose the members of the new CWC. There was anticipation on whether Rahul, who has insisted on elections and greater democracy at all levels in the party, would go in for the election route to constitute the new working committee.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad proposed a resolution at the Plenary that the Congress president be authorised to constitute the CWC, and this was passed unanimously by the AICC delegates.
In recent history of the Congress party, elections have been held to the CWC only twice, with only erstwhile presidents of the party, P.V. Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri insisting on election of the committee members. Leaders close to Rahul defended the decision to nominate the CWC members rather than elect them by saying that the elections held under Rao and Kesri had little positive outcome. Rather, the election of members only led to bad blood and differences amongst leaders intensifying.
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Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who handed over the reins of the party to son Rahul recently, opted for the consensus route rather than election while constituting the CWC in the 20 years that she headed the organisation.
The CWC has to be reconstituted at the end of organisational elections, which culminate in the election of the party chief. The CWC had converted into a steering committee for organising the Plenary Session, whose main agenda is to ratify the election of Rahul as Congress president.
According to the constitution of the party, 12 members of the 25-member committee have to be elected, and the rest are nominated. However, the party president can be authorised by the AICC to nominate members to the new CWC.