Congress emulates Election Commission, to hold polls in phases

NEW DELHI: Congress is taking a leaf out of the Election Commission's book: the party will hold the coming organizational elections in phases to ensure better deployment of in-house poll personnel and focused monitoring at the central level.

The party polls will be held in three phases. The first phase, to be held after the AICC session in March, is likely to be conducted in Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha and Haryana.

It will be a 'pilot project' to test the new methodology for transparent polls — open membership and fair scrutiny conducted by the best talent. Critics have dubbed the traditional poll process a sham where "forced consensus" ensures the writ of local satraps, muzzling the aspirations of common workers.

"After the pilot project, the rest of the states will be covered in two more phases to wind up the process," chief of the AICC's central election authority, Mullapally Ramachandran, told TOI. He said the idea of phased polls was inspired by EC's procedure for general elections.

The staggered process will be part of reforms to improve organizational polls. Sources said it would ensure better monitoring that is otherwise spread thin. While the poll exercise has little scope for tinkering, the focus is on the quality of personnel to man the process. "They will be people with a record for honesty and uprightness," said a senior Congress leader.

A possibility is that Congressmen who perform well as Pradesh Returning Officers and District Returning Officers could be rotated to further man the polls in later phases. According to Ramachandran, the party elections are likely to be held at booth level and block level though in case of Assam and Kerala, the organizational structures have an intermediate rung of "panchayat" too.

The Congress Working Committee met last week to discuss changes in organizational elections proposed by Ramachandran. A decision will be taken soon after AICC general secretaries hold meetings in states to elicit feedback from workers. Sources said two key changes to the membership process would be to "decontrol and open the process of membership". Contrary to the practice of launching a membership drive every five years, the party is mulling enrolment round the year. It may introduce safeguards to end the monopoly of some leaders in states in deciding the fate of an aspiring member. A possible way is by ensuring registers at multiple sources for enrolment.