With state units lagging behind, the Congress on Thursday extended its membership drive till April 15 but the organisational election schedule will remain unchanged.
Party president Sonia Gandhi’s decision came following demands from a section of General Secretaries and party in-charges seeking more time to finish the process, which were delayed due to various reasons.
Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said the Congress president has approved the proposal of the AICC General Secretaries and in-charges for the extension of the special membership drive for 15 days. The drive was to end on Thursday.
“The drive will now close on the 15th of April 2022, without affecting the schedule of organisational elections approved by the Congress Working Committee (CWC),” Venugopal tweeted.
Sources said Sonia was very particular about not changing the schedule of elections, as she felt that it would send a wrong signal. She clearly told the leaders that there will be no change in the schedule and there should be a new president as per the timeline decided by CWC. Sonia was unhappy about the way some state units handled the drive.
The demand for extending the time for the special drive came as the drive-in several state units did not gather pace. There were demands from states like Kerala among others to extend the drive. Also, the membership drive in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur could not take off due to Assembly elections, sources said.
Sources said Telangana was the best performer among states by adding 39 lakh members while Karnataka has also performed better when it came to membership. Delhi Congress added 2.5 lakh members while they intend to have 10 lakh members at the earliest.
According to the schedule announced by the CWC on October 16 last year, the elections of the President and Executive of primary committees and block committees, and election of block presidents and executive committees and one member of the Pradesh Committees were to be held between April 16 and May 31.
District committee elections were to be held between June 1 and July 20 while the state elections were to be completed between July 21 and August 20. The party’s new president had to be elected between August 21 and September 20 while the CWC and other bodies by AICC members were to be elected by September or October.
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