Congress leader Tewari seeks transparency in election of party president; Tharoor, Karti support him

Voices from within the Congress seeking fairness in the upcoming election of the new party president grew louder on Wednesday with its leaders Manish Tewari Shashi Tharoor and Karti Chidambaram demanding that electoral rolls be made public to ensure transparencyCongress MP Tewari who was among the G23 dissidents raised objections to the party not making public the names of electors for the party president polls and said it must be published on the AICC website for a free and fair processHe also asked why anyone seeking to contest the Congress presidents election should go to the PCC office to get the electoral roll as this does not even happen in a club electionAlso read I am not tenant but partner in Congress says Manish TewariWith great respect Madhusudan Mistry ji How can there be a fair and free election without a publicly available electoral roll Essence of a fair and free process is names and addresses of electors must be published on the Congress website in a transparent manner Tewari said in a series of tweetsHe said Mistry who is the chairman of the Congress central election authority is quoted as saying ldquoThe list is not made public but if a member of our party wants to check they can check at the PCC office And of course it will be given to the candidates once they file their nomination papersrdquoMistry however claimed that the election to the party presidents post is being held transparently and the entire poll process is free and fairHe said as per the partys constitution the electoral roll cannot be made public but it can be provided to anyone contesting the electionConcerns raised over the poll process for party presidents election have been addressed and I have talked to Anand Sharma in this regard I will also talk to Manish Tewari to address his concerns too he saidCongress MP Tharoor who has expressed his intent to contest the partys presidential election agreed with Tewari and said everybody should know who can nominate and who can voteCertainly I think its important that everybody should have transparency on the electoral rolls If thats what Manish has asked for then Im sure that its a principle that everybody would agree Everybody should know who can nominate and who can voteThere is nothing wrong with that Tharoor said at a function in Thiruvananthapuram while concurring with TewariAnother Congress leader and MP Karti Chidambaram supported the view saying every election requires a welldefined electoral collegeHe also said that reformists are not rebelsEvery election needs a welldefined and clear electoral college The process of forming the electoral college must also be clear well defined and transparent An ad hoc electoral college is no electoral college he said on TwitterHe supported the idea of having primaries saying we must have primaries in every constituency but for that we need a defined and transparent members list Today we claim we have membership numbers which no one has ever verified Tewari replied to him saying My Colleague in Parliament Karti Chidambaram is spot on For any election to be kosher the electoral college must be constitutionally constituted I read in the papers Anand Sharma had articulated this widely shared concern in the CWC and he even publicly confirmed that he had raised it Responding to a query on Twitter he asked So anybody who wants to reform the party must resign Only blind followers are allowed to be in the party Tewari asked Why should someone have to go to every PCC office in the country to find out who the electors are This does not happen in a club election also with great respect In interest of fairness and transparency I urge your good self to publish the entire list of electors on the Congress website the Punjab MP saidHow can someone consider running if heshe does not know who electors are If someone has to file hisher nomination and gets it proposed by 10 Congress persons as is requirement the CEA can reject it saying they are not valid electors Tewari said while pointing fingers at the process of electionSeeking to counter these demands Congress leader Manickam Tagore said party leaders must not create confusion and should be proud of the open systemI am a PCC member from Thiruparankundram Block in Madurai Any 10 PCC members can propose a candidate for Congress President when the nomination startsWhy my colleagues are trying to create confusion in the electoral process Instead we must be proud to have an open system he said in a tweetTewari is among the G23 leaders who had sought an organisational overhaul and elections at all levels in a letter to the Congress president in August 2020 The Congress MPs charge comes in the wake of CWC member and another G23 leader Anand Sharma raising objections to the poll process at the last meeting of the CWCHe also asked whether the sanctity of the poll process was followed as per the partys ConstitutionAnother senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned last Friday from the party alleging that the electoral rolls are made by a coterie running the AICC the election process is a sham and farce and the leadership is committing fraud on the partyThe notification for the Congress presidents election will be out on September 22 and the process for filing nominations will begin from September 24 to 30The last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 8 and the election if required will be held on October 17This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever