The Congress party on Saturday agreed to share the list of state unit delegates who make up the electoral college before the nomination process in the upcoming polls for its president’s post begins, The Indian Express reported.
This comes five days after Congress MPs had written to the party’s internal election body chief, Madhusudan Mistry, expressing concerns about transparency and fairness in the upcoming polls for the president’s post.
In a letter dated September 6, Congress Lok Sabha members Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Karti Chidambaram, Pradyut Bordoloi and Abdul Khaleque had demanded that the list of state unit delegates must be made available in order to verify who is entitled to nominate a candidate and who is entitled to vote.
Mistry had previously said that the rolls cannot be placed in the public domain since the presidential election is an internal matter of the party and the electoral rolls could be misused by rivals.
The Congress will hold an election to pick its next party chief on October 17 and the result will be declared two days later. The nomination process will begin from September 24 to September 30.
On Saturday, Mistry said anyone filing a nomination for the Congress President election can look for the names of the delegates of their states at the main party office in their respective states.
“The name and the serial number are available in the state list,” he wrote in a letter to Tharoor. “The nomination signed by 10 supporters [delegates] will be sufficient for the validity of the nomination.”
He further added that any candidate seeking state unit delegates from different states can see the list of all delegates – more than 9,000 – at his office in the Congress headquarters in New Delhi between September 20 and September 24.
“This should resolve the anxiety of anybody about the process of filing their nominations without knowing the names of the delegates,” Mistry said.
In response to Mistry’s letter, Tharoor said he was satisfied with the step taken by the party regarding the poll process.
“I am pleased that this clarification has come in the form of his constructive reply to our letter,” he wrote in a tweet. “In view of these assurances, I am satisfied. Many will be glad to move on with an election process that in my view will only strengthen the party.”
Chidambaram also said that he was happy with Mistry’s response.
“As a signatory to the letter along with my parliamentary colleagues, I am satisfied with the reply from Mistry ji and I endorse the sentiments of my senior colleague Shashi Tharoor,” he wrote.
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