Rahul Gandhi pushes for polls in Congress, process to get underway in March

NEW DELHI: Congress is expected to set the ball rolling next month for its organisational elections with its Vice President Rahul Gandhi expressing concern over the delay in the holding of the exercise which will come in the wake of a series of setbacks suffered by the party in recent polls.

At a meeting today with senior party leaders to discuss issues related to the organisational elections, which is aimed at making the party fighting fit, Gandhi was also believed to have ruled out any extension of Congress's membership drive.

The membership drive, which was earlier set to have ended on December 31 of last year, is to wrap up this month-end.

The meeting today was attended by party general secretaries and senior office bearers, besides Mullapalli Ramchandran, head of the Congress Central Election Authority, which has been given the responsibility of conducting the party polls. Significantly, it was convened just a day ahead of Assembly polls in Delhi.

The process of organisational elections is expected to culminate by the year end with the election of a new party president. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is set to complete her third term as the party chief.

Organisational weakness has been cited as one of the major reasons for the chain of electoral reverses suffered by Congress starting from the 2010 Assembly elections in Bihar and followed by Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh in 2012.

It was also one of the factors responsible for the abysmal showing by the party in last year's Lok Sabha polls, apart from price rise and perception of corruption under its UPA government.

The party's tally plummeted to 44 from 206 in the previous Lok Sabha.

The Congress Vice President is keen that the party polls are 'free, fair and transparent' and has been pressing for long for a larger say for grassroots workers in the election of Congress's office bearers.

He has said that he wanted the party polls to be utilised to "reinvigorate and rejuvenate" Congress in the changed political scenario.

There is a view in the party that since the next general elections will be held five years from now, it is time for the party to focus on its organisation in the states.