13 December 2000

AICC SESSION ON JANUARY 5 AND 6

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday finalised holding of the AICC (All India Congress Committee) session in Delhi on January 5 and 6, a top source in the AICC disclosed. It was, however, not clear whether it will be a plenary session or that will be held subsequently.

The prime purpose of convening the AICC session is to elect the members to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest policy making body of the party, though a loyalist lobby is working hard to get the AICC's stamp on a resolution authorising Sonia Gandhi to nominate all the members of the CWC.

The Congress President is even otherwise empowered under the Congress constitution to nominate half of the CWC members, but the loyalists want her to nominate the rest of the 12 members to be elected as they are campaigning that she will be more effective if she has persons of her own choice in her team instead of detractors defusing her efforts to revitalise the party.

The Congress Constitution was amended last year providing for reservation of two CWC seats for women, two for SCs and two for STs in the elected category, leaving thus only six general seats for the AICC members to contest. The electoral collage of the CWC elections is the AICC members and hence the need for the session, the sources said. END