A day after senior Congress leader Manish Tewari demanded transparency in party’s presidential election, his Lok Sabha colleague Manickam Tagore on Thursday posted the names of people who elected him as delegate on Twitter.
The debate had started on Wednesday after The Hindu quoted the Central Election Authority (CEA) chief Madhusudan Mistry saying that none should doubt the fairness of the election and if anyone wants to check the list of 9,000-strong delegates who will elect the next Congress president, “they should do so by visiting the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office”.
“In my booth no 64 we have @INCIndia membership of 29 members through the Digital membership. Among the 29 members, two were elected in consensus. Booth President Thiru. Karendurai Booth Delegate myself,” Mr. Tagore tweeted.
In another tweet, he put out the list of his colleagues who were elected as delegates from different blocks and booths. “Let’s celebrate our strength @INCTamilNadu,” he added.
Even though the Congress had made it clear that it will not make the list of delegates public, Mr. Tagore’s move to post the list of Madurai South District Congress Committee was seen as a response to his Lok Sabha colleagues, Mr. Tewari and Karti P. Chidabaram, who had said the electoral roll should be transparent and publicly available on the party’s website.
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“With great respect @MD_Mistry ji How can there be a fair & free election without a publicly available electoral roll? Essence of a fair & free process is names & addresses of electors must be published on @INCIndia website in a transparent manner,” Mr. Tewari had tweeted on Wednesday, tagging The Hindu report.
Mr. Tewari, who is a member of the ginger group called G-23 that has been pushing for internal reforms in the Congress for the past two years, questioned why should anyone visit the PCC offices to find out “who the electors are” and asserted that such things didn’t happen even in “a club election”.
“In interests of fairness & transparency I urge your gods self to publish. entire list of electors on @INCIndia website. How can someone consider running if he/she does not know who electors are. If someone has to file his/her nomination & gets it proposed by 10 Congresspersons as is requirement, CEA can reject it saying they are not valid electors,” he added.
“Every election needs a well defined & clear electoral college. The process of forming the electoral college must also be clear, well defined & transparent. An ad hoc electoral college is no electoral college,” added Lok Sabha member Karti P. Chidambaram.
Backing his colleagues, Lok Sabha member, Shashi Tharoor, one of the possible contenders in the presidential race, said, “Certainly, I think it’s important that everybody should have transparency on the electoral rolls. If that’s what Manish has asked for, then I’m sure that it’s a principle that everybody would agree.”
The issue of electoral rolls not being made public was raised by another G-23 leader, Anand Sharma, at the Congress Working Committee last Sunday when the final schedule was approved with a show of hands.
On Tuesday, key G-23 leaders like Mr. Sharma, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Prithviraj Chavan had met in Delhi to strategise about the upcoming presidential election and later called on former Congress stalwart, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the party last Friday.
“The Congress president has agreed to our demand of holding elections. Despite that Azad sahib decided to quit the party, but he had never discussed his resignation with us. We only asked him as to what happened that he had to take such a decision even after the demands were accepted,” Mr. Hooda clarified on Thursday.
