Congress to elect new president in September 2022, says head of party's poll body

New Delhi: Clearing the air on the much-awaited question many ask, Congress' Central Election Authority president Madhusudan Mistry on Wednesday said the party would get its new national president by the end of September 2022.

The grand old party is presently headed by interim president Sonia Gandhi, who took over after her son and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post in July 2019 following the party`s defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"As per schedule decided by Congress Working Committee, the election process for the post of Congress president will be completed by September," Mistry told ANI.

The membership drive is presently going on in full swing and the process will be completed by March 31, next year, he underlined.

Mistry, who met Sonia Gandhi on Monday, said a digital membership drive is also going on.

"Post March, the election process will be started at the primary level like block, district and state following which the election process for the post of party president will be completed by September," he said.

 Mistry further assured that things are going as per the schedule and by October 1, the party will have its new national president.

On asking about the election of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) members, Mistry said that it will be decided by the working committee and then conveyed to the Central Election Authority to hold the election for the CWC members or not.

Notably, Congress` groups of 23 leaders (G-23) has written a letter to Sonia Gandhi demanding a slew of organizational reforms including elections for CWC members, its president and for the party`s Parliamentary Board.

G-23 members have on several occasions raised their issues, creating a storm within the party, following which several CWC meetings have been convened and it was decided that the organisational elections should be held but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, for the first time, the chairman of the Central Election Authority of the Congress party has come up on the record and disclosed the progress in the process and the deadline to elect the new party president.