Congress internal poll process gets a renewed push

Digital membership drive is on.

The process to complete the organisational polls of the Congress party to elect a new party chief by September this year has received a fresh push. Sources said, at a meeting on Wednesday, it was decided that the Central Election Authority, headed by Madhusudan Mistry, would be using the electoral list that is being prepared through the digital membership drive.

The drive is being overseen up by the Data Analytics team headed by Praveen Chakravarty. And amidst the turmoil over its repeated electoral debacles and questions about leadership, the Congress has enrolled about 2.15 crore digital members until Friday.

Based on this membership drive that is on until April 15, the electoral college list is being prepared to complete the party’s internal polls, from block to State level, by the end of May.

Sources said, at a meeting on Wednesday, it was decided that the Central Election Authority would be using the data thrown up by the Data Analytics team. In all, about 3.2 crore members, spread 11 lakh polling booths across the country, are expected to be a part of the organisational proces.

While the immediate goal of the digital membership drive is to complete the internal organisational polls at all levels by July-August this year, one of the key aims is also to attract key demographic segments to the party ahead of the Lok Sabha 2024 polls.

Based on the data analysed from enrollment so far, about 59% of the newly enrolled members are below the age of 35 years and 42% of them are women.