AICC meeting may authorise Sonia to appoint working committee

NEW DELHI - The meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Tuesday is expected to authorize party president Sonia Gandhi to appoint members to the Congress working committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, sources said.

Congress sources said the main agenda of the meeting of the newly-elected AICC members was election to CWC. The sources said an election was unlikely and the members would express their support to authorise Gandhi to appoint all the members to the CWC.

The party constitution provides that nearly half the members of the CWC can be elected and the others can be nominated.

The meeting, scheduled to be held in Talkatora Stadium here, is also likely to adopt a statement on the political, economic and international situation.

The sources said a drafting committee was giving final touches to the statement.

Party sources said the AICC meeting will not be an elaborate affair as the party had already declared that it will hold a plenary in December.

While the venue of the plenary is still being decided, it will also include functions to mark the 125th year of the party’s formation.

The AICC session is being held a few days before the winter session of parliament and the visit of US president Barack Obama.

With the opposition likely to raise issues related to allegations of corruption surrounding the Commonwealth Games, lapses in allocation of 2G spectrum licences, rotting of foodgrains in government warehouses and the controversy surrounding Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan over some of his relatives getting flats in a society meant for families of Kargil martyrs, the political statement of the session is likely to touch some of these issues.

The political statement is also expected to talk of the achievements of the United Progressive Alliance government in its second term.

The AICC session will be the first all-India meeting of the party to be addressed by Gandhi after her re-election as party president in September this year.

Party sources said the pending appointments of state unit chiefs would be made after the Nov 2 meeting and the entire organisational election process will be completed by the plenary. Gandhi had appointed state unit chiefs of 18 states and union territories last month.