Azad pitches for polls in CWC, key posts in states
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was among the 23 leaders who sent a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping changes in the party, on Thursday strongly pitched for elections to the Congress Working Committee and said the party chief should be elected and it is their “victory” that they will have a “full- time president” after six months. He also pitched for elections to the key organisational posts of state chiefs and district chiefs.
“Anyone who has a genuine interest in the internal working dynamics of Congress would welcome our proposal to have every state and district president as being
elected. The entire Congress Working Committee should be elected,” Azad told ANI.
Azad, who is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, defended the move to write the letter and said their effort was to make the party strong and active and those who simply got “appointment cards” continue to oppose their proposal.
“The intention is to make Congress active and strong. But those who simply got ‘ appointment cards’ continue to oppose our proposal. What’s the harm in having elected CWC members who will have fixed tenures in the party,” he said. CWC is the highest decision- making body of the party.
Azad, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said the party should have an elected president.
“I don’t have any problem. Whosoever becomes president, should be elected, Rahulji was elected for five years but he resigned and we had to elect interim president,” he said.