New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad who was of the signatories to the dissident letter, on Thursday asserted that “Congress will continue to sit in the Opposition for the next 50 years.”
Azad has been persuading the Congress to conduct elections to the Congress Working Committee and key organisational posts of state chiefs, district presidents and block presidents.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Azad said, “If my party wants to be in opposition for the next 50 years, then there is no need for elections within the party.”
“Those office-bearers or state unit presidents or block district presidents who attack our proposal know that they will be nowhere when elections happen. Whoever is genuinely invested in the Congress will welcome the letter. I have said that State, district and block president of the party should be elected by the party workers,” he said.
“An election has the benefit that when you fight elections, at least your party is 51 per cent behind you. Right now, the person who becomes president might not even have one per cent support. If CWC members are elected then they cannot be removed. So what is the problem,” Ghulam Nabi Azad told ANI.
“But those who simply got ‘appointment cards’ continue to oppose our proposal. What’s the harm in having elected CWC members who will have fixed tenures in the party.”
The CWC meeting was held on August 24 after several leaders including Azad had called for “full time” active leadership, sweeping reforms and elections of the CWC. There was also a suggestion for a mechanism for collective leadership to guide the party’s revival.
