HC invites 141 members for CWC polls

Pradesh Congress Committee president D Srinivas on Friday stated that 141 members have received invitations from High Command for the Congress Working Committee (CWC) elections scheduled to be held on November 2.

Talking to media persons at the Gandhi Bhavan, the PCC chief said that the members have no right to cast their vote in elections as the organizational elections were not held for state body. The members will participate as special invitees in the CWC meetings, he stated.

Mr Srinivas made it clear that the members would not be allowed to contest in the CWC elections from the state.

The last two contests for the CWC were in 1997 at the Kolkata Plenary when Sitaram Kesri was the party president and in April 1992 at the Tirupati Plenary when P V Narasimha Rao was at the helm.

There has been no contest for the CWC since Ms Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the organisation in April 1998. CWC has a total of 25 members with a provision for election of 12 of its member and nomination of 11.

Sharad Pawar and Arjun Singh were the prominent winners during these contests, as also Ahmed Patel and late Jitendra Prasada. After the Congress Working Committee elections, Mr Srinivas said the plenary session of the party would be held at Rajasthan from Dec 15-20.

The plenary session would make resolutions on implementation of economic, political and foreign policies of UPA government-II.

When the reporters asked PCC chief about the visit of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to the state on Saturday, Mr Srinivas said “I have no information over the visit.”