Congress session on Nov 2

NEW DELHI - A one-day session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) will be held in Delhi Nov 2, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said here Wednesday.

“The one-day session will deal mainly with the schedule for election to the party’s working committee as decided by the party’s Central Election Authority (CEA),” Dwivedi told reporters here.

After Sonia Gandhi’s re-election as the party chief Sep 3, the working committee was converted as the steering committee.

“The session will also adopt a resolution mainly dealing with the situation in the country,” Dwivedi said.

According to the schedule drawn by CEA, the filing of nominations for working committee elections will start at 12 noon and continue till 3 p.m. on Nov 2. The list of contesting candidates will be published at 4.30 p.m. the same day after scrutiny. Election, if necessary, will take place between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. and results will be declared the next day.

Party leaders said the norms provide that 12 of the 25 members in the Congress Working Committee are to be elected. However, the AlCC delegates can also pass a resolution authorising Gandhi to select all the members, they said.

Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are ex-officio members of the working committee.

Party leaders said that since AICC session will be followed by plenary, only one resolution will be passed at the meeting. They said that the resolution will mainly deal with political issues. Separate political and economic resolutions are expected to be passed at the plenary scheduled to be held before Dec 20.

Part leaders said the changes in state chiefs are also expected to be finalised before Nov 2.