Congress to elect new president in September 2022: Party's poll body head

New Delhi: Clearing the air on the much-awaited question many ask, a senior member of the Congress said that the grand old party will get its full-time president by September next year.

Congress' Central Election Authority president Madhusudan Mistry on Wednesday said the election process for the post of Congress president will be completed by September according to the schedule decided by the Congress Working Committee.

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

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 Lok Sabha debacle.

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

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

He said that 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.

Mr 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, Mr 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.

The party has been facing internal rifts in multiple states, besides several senior party leaders openly calling for sweeping changes and an organisational restructuring.

Following this, several CWC meetings have been convened and it was decided that the organisational elections should be held but were postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic.

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