'Not a club election': Manish Tewari questions fairness of Congress president polls
India Today
Congress MP and G-23 leader Manish Tewari on Wednesday raised objections to the party not making public the names of electors for the party president poll.
Congress MP Manish Tewari has questioned the fairness of Congress president polls set to be held on October 17 as the electoral roll is not available to the public. "Why should someone have to go to every Pradesh Congress Committee [PCC] office in the country to find out who the electors are," he asked.
In a series of tweets, Manish Tewari said, "How can there be a fair and free election without a publicly available electoral roll? Essence of a fair and free process is that names and addresses of electors must be published on the INC website in a transparent manner."
The senior leader was responding to party election authority chief Madhusudan Mistry, who had claimed that the process to elect the next Congress chief would be a fair one.
Mistry had said in an article that if a member wants to check the list of delegates, they can visit PCC office and the list will be given to candidates once they file their nominations.
In response, Tewari said, "CWC has announced scheduled of Congress president election not for 28 PCC’s and eight TCC’s. Why should someone have to go to every PCC office in the country to find out who the electors are? This does not happen in a club election also with great respect. In the interests of fairness and transparency, I urge your gods self to publish the entire list on the INC website."
"How can someone consider running if he/she does not know who the electors are? If someone has to file his/her nomination and get it proposed by 10 Congressperson’s as is a requirement, CEA can reject it by saying they are not valid electors," he added.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, who became the latest high-profile leader to exit the grand old party, had also questioned the internal polls. He had called the process a sham and had accused the Gandhis of committing fraud in the name of elections.
