Why Pradyut Bordoloi and Shashi Tharoor want to know who will elect the next Congress president

A fresh controversy has hit Congress party’s organisational poll to elect the next president, scheduled on October 17. Two Lok Sabha MPs—Pradyut Borodoloi from Assam and Shashi Tharoor from Kerala—have written to Madhusudan Mistry, chairman of Central Election Authority (CEA) of the Congress party, requesting him to make public the entire list of delegated who are supposed to vote in the election of the next president. Nearly 9,000 delegates from Pradesh Congress Committees will vote in the presidential election. The list of these delegates is made available to candidates contesting the polls.

The demand for publicising the list coming from Bordoloi has shocked many as he is known as a Gandhi family loyalist. Tharoor, a former Union minister, belongs to the G23, a group of veteran Congress leaders who had written a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in August 2020, demanding reforms in the party, including organisational poll and accountable and accessible reports. Two of the G23 leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal have quit the Congress.

According to media reports, Tharoor has been toying with the idea of filing nomination as a candidate for the post of president. No member of the Gandhi family—Sonia Gandhi, son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi—are likely to contest the presidential polls. The first family of the Congress want Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, a loyalist, to contest the polls but he has not accepted the offer yet. There is speculation that Tharoor and another G23 member Manish Tewari may contest the polls.

Bordoloi admitted that he wrote a letter to Mistry but said that he did so in the interest of addressing the criticism the party has been facing over alleged non-transparency in the process. “A question has been raised as to why this electoral roll and electoral college cant’s be very transparently quantified? If a party is conducting an election, the list of voters should be posted on the official website of the India National Congress. I have requested the CEA to make the electoral rolls public to nail all apprehensions and ensure free and fair polls and transparency in the election process,” Bordoloi told India Today NE.

Former Union Minister and AICC in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh, however, is confident that the electoral process will be free and fair and without any political process. He also has welcomed the idea of Tharoor contesting the presidential polls. “Anybody can be in the race. We will get to know about the other contestants once the nominations are filled. Now just talk is going on and it is just speculation. What’s more important to understand is that the Congress conducts regular organizational polls unlike some other parties which are controlled by just a few people,” Singh told India Today NE.

While the controversy over electoral roll continues, in an exclusive interview with India Today in April, chairman of CEA Mistry had explained how the delegates who vote in the presidential polls are selected. He also dismissed allegations made by some party leaders, particularly from the G23, that the election could be rigged to re-elect Rahul Gandhi or someone of his choice, as president. Edited excerpts from the interview:

Q. The CEA prepares a list of delegates who will vote to elect the national president. Why can’t voting rights be given to every primary member of the Congress?

That’s a decision only the Central Working Committee (CWC) can take. For that the party constitution will have to be amended. Anyone having an issue with the existing system should raise it on party platforms. As far as I understand things in my capacity as an independent observer, at least 60 million people will become voters in the election to the post of president should voting rights be given to primary members. This will make the entire exercise lengthy and humongous. And I have not even added the over 15 million members added recently through digital membership drives.

Q. Please explain the process of organisational elections.

I am, by virtue of being the CEA chairman, the ex-officio returning officer for the election of the president and members of the CWC. I appoint pradesh returning officers (PROs), who conduct all party elections in the states. The PRO sends to the CEA a list of district returning officers (DROs) and block returning officers (BROs). From these lists, the CEA deputes DROs and BROs to various districts and blocks. DROs are not deputed to their home states while BROs are not appointed in their home districts.

The election process begins with the formation of primary committees at the booth level. These committees, with at least 25 members, will elect a president, vice-president, a treasurer, and a delegate to be sent to the block committee. The BRO convenes a meeting where committee members fill these positions unanimously. In case of more than one applicant for any position, elections are held with a show of hand. The president and the delegate represent the primary committee in the block committee.

Within a block, if primary committees are formed in 50 per cent of the booths under it, the block becomes eligible to form a block committee. If there is less than 50 per cent primary committees, the block can still have an ad hoc block committee. Now the BRO and DRO will hold elections to the position of the president, vice-president, treasurer, executive committee members, one block delegate for the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) and six delegates to represent the block in the district committee. The two members sent from primary committees—the president and the delegate—can contest for these positions. The six members sent by each block will elect the president, vice-president, treasures, and the executive body of the district committee.

The PCC delegates, elected by the blocks then vote for the election of president, vice president, treasurer, and executive body of the PCC. The PCC delegates also vote for the election of the national president and delegates to be sent to the All India Congress Committee (AICC). There are more than 9,000 blocks in the country and around 1,500 AICC delegates are elected. Usually, the AICC delegates are unanimously elected but if there is more than one candidate, elections are held. So, for the election of the national president, the electoral college comprises PCC delegates.

Anyone aspiring to be the national president must be an AICC member and his or her name must be proposed by at least 10 other PCC delegates. If there are only two candidates for the post of president, a delegate must record his or her vote for one of the two candidates. If there are more than two candidates, the delegate will record at least two preferences by writing the figures 1, 2 and so on against the names of the candidates voted for. He or she may give more than two preferences but any ballot with less than two preferences will be regarded as invalid. If a candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the votes of the first preferences, he shall be declared elected as president. If no candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the first preferences, the candidate who has secured the lowest number of first preferences shall be eliminated, and the second preferences recorded by the voters who gave him the first preferences shall be considered in counting the votes of the remaining candidates. This process of elimination continues, till a candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the votes.

Once the president is elected, he can constitute the CWC, the highest decision-making body of the Congress. Of the 23 members, 12 are to be elected by the AICC delegates. Apart from the president, the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha is automatically the member of the CWC. The rest of the members are nominated by the president. Only a member of the AICC with full voting rights is entitled to contest elections to the CWC. Nominations should be proposed and seconded by members of the AICC with full voting rights. A voter can record on the ballot paper as many as 12 votes provided that not more than one vote is cast in favour of each candidate. The first 12 candidates, securing the highest number of votes, shall be declared elected.

Q. Can the election of PCC delegates be influenced by senior leaders as these delegates get a chance to elect the state and national president?

There is hardly any possibility. It depends on the credibility of the PRO, DRO and BRO. There may an attempt, but if any instance of wrongdoing is brought to our notice, strict action will be taken.