NEW DELHI, Oct 16: With the Congress set to vote to elect its new chief, it would be the sixth time in its nearly 137-year-old history that an electoral contest would decide who would take up the mantle of the party’s president.
Also, with Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra not in the running for the party president’s post, a non-Gandhi would be at the helm after over 24 years following the polling on Monday and counting on Wednesday.
Senior party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor are pitted against each other and have been crisscrossing various State capitals to woo the over 9,000 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates who comprise the electoral college for electing the party chief.
While Kharge is considered the firm favourite and the ‘unofficial official candidate’ with a large number of senior leaders backing him, Tharoor has pitched himself as the candidate of change.
During the campaign, even though Tharoor has raised issues of uneven playing field, both candidates and the party have maintained that the Gandhis are neutral and that there is no “official candidate”.
Asked about the significance of the polls, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said. “This is actually the sixth time that the Congress is having internal elections for its president in its 137-year-history.”
“The media has highlighted 1939, 1950, 1997 and 2000. In fact, there had been elections too in 1977 when Kasu Brahmananda Reddy was elected,” he pointed out.
Ramesh said he has always believed in the Congress model of evolving a consensus for such positions, noting that the most famous practitioner of this approach in the post-Nehruvian era was K Kamaraj.
“As we approach E-Day tomorrow this belief has become even more stronger. The reasons for this are pretty obvious,” he said without elaborating.
“I am not at all convinced that organisational elections actually strengthen the organisation in any way. They may serve individual purposes but their value in building a collective spirit is doubtful,” he said.
Even so, the very fact that elections are taking place are of some significance, he added.
“But I consider them of less institutional importance than the historic Bharat Jodo Yatra which is a transformational initiative for the Congress and for Indian politics as well,” Ramesh said.
The Congress has claimed that its internal democracy has no parallel in any other party and it is the only one to have a central election authority for organisational polls. (PTI)
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