Election of the new Congress president will be held between August 21 and September 20 next year, the party announced on Saturday after the crucial meeting of its working committee which approved the schedule for organisational polls at various levels. After a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal announced at a press conference that the election schedule, which includes enrolment of members for organisational polls on payment of Rs 5 each, will start from November 1, 2021 and go on till March 31, 2022.
District Congress Committees shall publish a preliminary list of members together with the list of eligible contestants for participation in the election. This list will be published before April 15, 2022 i.e. between April 1 and April 15. Election of president and executive of primary committees and block Committees, and election of block presidents, executive committees and one member of the PCC by block Congress committee will be held between April 16 and May 31, 2022. The election of presidents, vice presidents, treasurers and executive committee of DCC will be held between June 1 and July 20 next year.
Venugopal also stated that election of PCC presidents, vice presidents, treasurers, PCC executives and AICC members by PCC general body will be held between July 21 and August 20, 2022.
Election of Congress president will be held between August 21-September 20, 2022, he said.
Venugopal also announced that election of CWC members and other bodies by AICC members will take place at a plenary session, dates for which will be announced later, preferably in the month of September or October next year.
The Congress leader said the party is going for a massive training programme from top to bottom for party leaders. The Party has decided to undertake regular training programmes for the leaders and workers at all levels. This will be regular and continuous training programmes.
Through these regular and continuous programmes, the workers and leaders will be trained in party ideology, policies, expectation of a Congress worker, grassroots messaging, election management, failures of present government and countering propaganda," he said.
Venugopal said it has been decided to conduct an orientation camp for state trainers and in-charges at Sevagram, Wardha from November 12-15. After that, state level, district level and block level training will be conducted regularly, he added. The CWC also discussed and decided to observe a ground mass agitation and awareness programme -- 'Jan Jagran Abhiyan -- across the country on runaway inflation and price rise between November 14 and November 29.
Through this mass awareness and contact programme, the party workers would reach out to the maximum number of people and create awareness on bad handling of the economy by the Union government.
The CWC also passed three resolutions, one on the political situation, and two others on inflation and a "diabolical attack" on India's farmers, Venugopal said at a press conference with the party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala by his side at the AICC headquarters in Delhi.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, three Congress chief ministers, among others, attended the meeting, the first such physical meet of the CWC since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.