Election Commission grants Congress extension for internal polls
Election Commission has allowed Congress's plea for extension of six months in holding organizational elections and has granted time till December
New Delhi: Allowing the Congress party’s plea for extending the deadline for completion of internal polls, the Election Commission (EC) has given it time till 31 December.
In January this year, the poll watchdog had said that the process should be completed by 30 June and that no more extensions would be given. Following this the Congress party had requested that it would need time till the end of the year, even as it questioned EC’s jurisdiction in the matter.
“The Election Commission has allowed our plea for extension of six months in holding organizational elections and has granted time till December this year, against its earlier deadline of 30 June," Janardan Dwivedi, the party’s general secretary, told PTI on Monday.
Interestingly, the extension of the deadline for completion of internal polls comes at a time when the party has faced a drubbing in assembly elections, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
There is growing clamour for clarity on when party vice-president Rahul Gandhi would be elevated to the top post, replacing his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
In its representation to the EC, the party said that its top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee, had allowed Sonia Gandhi to continue in the top post till 31 December. It added that the process of updating its membership list and conducting polls was time consuming.
PTI contributed to the story.
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